Hillary Clinton’s visit to India

Condemn US imperialist intrigue and meddling in India and the region!

The visit of Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, to India in early May was an occasion for the US imperialists to apply pressure on India to further their own nefarious interests, and to intrigue and meddle in our internal affairs and in the affairs of this region.

Condemn US imperialist intrigue and meddling in India and the region!

The visit of Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, to India in early May was an occasion for the US imperialists to apply pressure on India to further their own nefarious interests, and to intrigue and meddle in our internal affairs and in the affairs of this region.

Clintonmade no secret of the fact that she had come to pressurise India to stop buying oil from Iran, one of the major suppliers of oil to India.  Her visit was timed to coincide with the visit of an official Iranian trade delegation here.  The US imperialists are hell bent on stoking up the flames of confrontation with Iran.  This is because the government and people of Iran stand in the way of the US hegemonistic designs in Asia and the Persian Gulf region.  The government and people of India have no quarrel with Iran, an important country in our region, but the US imperialists are determined to put one obstacle after another in India’s relationship with Iran.  India has already reduced its oil imports from Iran from 16% a short time ago to about 7%, both because of direct US pressure and because of the difficulties of carrying on this economic relationship in the face of the sanctions that the US has imposed on countries doing business with Iran.  Curtailing our relations with Iran is against the interests of both the Indian people and the Iranian people.  Thus, the visit of Hillary Clinton with this issue explicitly on her agenda was an unfriendly act against the interests of our people.

Clinton sought to sweeten the bitter pill on Iran that she was trying to push down the throat of the UPA government by supporting its propaganda that Pakistan is ‘not doing enough’ to put a stop to terrorism and terrorist attacks against India.  Speaking from Indian soil, she demanded that the Pakistani government go after Hafiz Saeed whom the UPA government has claimed was behind the Mumbai terrorist attack, even though the Pakistan government claims that there is not the evidence for which he can be prosecuted in Pakistani courts.  The purpose of this whole exercise was to fan the flames of enmity between India and Pakistan at a time when certain moves are being made by both sides to revive the dialogue between them.  The US and other imperialists have always benefited from the hostility between the two states of India and Pakistan, and used it to strengthen their own presence and influence in both countries.  Hence this act of Clinton’s, of accusing Pakistan on Indian soil, is also against the interests of peace and good neighbourly relations in our region.

During her visit, Clinton made a point of travelling to Kolkata to meet the Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee.  While there, Clinton repeatedly praised Mamata Banerjee for having defeated communist rule in West Bengal.  What business does an official from another country have to come and take sides in the internal politics of this country?  This was no innocent praise that Clinton was bestowing on her host.  Although it is not new for foreign leaders to visit places in India other than Delhi, it is against all norms to comment on internal politics.  What the US imperialists are trying to do is to build their ties with different political leaders in India, play off some against others, and in the process deepen divisions and increase their own leverage within the Indian political establishment.  This is a dangerous game that the US imperialists are playing.

During her meeting with the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Bannerji, Hillory Clinton raised the issue of the Teesta water dispute between India and Bangladesh. It is known that this is a long standing dispute between the two countries, which is a fallout of the partition of Bengal. The West Bengal Chief Minister has expressed her differences with the Central Government over the issue in the past, by demonstratively refusing to accompany him for a meeting with the Bangladesh Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina some months back. What business has US imperialist chieftain Clinton with Mamata Bannerji over the Teesta Water dispute? Is this not a case of US deliberately attempting to fan discord within India and the region, to advance US imperialism’s interests at this time?  The Indian working class and people cannot afford to ignore that during Clinton’s last visit to India, she met precisely the Tamilnadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha and heaped enormous praise on her. This was followed with discussions with Jayalalitha over the Tamil issue of Sri Lanka. It cannot be dismissed as coincidence that soon after, during the meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva to discuss the issue of human rights violations in Sri Lanka, Indian government supported the US and European censure of Sri Lanka. In doing so, it at the same time went against its earlier position of opposing “country specific resolutions”. It is no secret that prior to this UN Human Rights Commission meeting on Sri Lanka, the Tamilnadu parties, particularly AIDMK and DMK were vying with each other in support of the US sponsored resolution, and even threatening to bring down the UPA government if it did not censure Sri Lanka.  

The US and imperialists have no business interfering in the internal affairs of India, or in its relations with other countries. It is condemnable that the UPA government as well as the principal bourgeois opposition parties have chosen to remain silent on the activities of this US imperialist Chieftain during her visit to our country. The Indian working class and people do not welcome such visits by representatives of imperialist powers who act against the sovereignty and interests of our country and people, and of other countries and peoples in our region.  Mazdoor Ekta Lehar strongly condemns the visit of Hillary Clinton and her activities while she was here.

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