War Hysteria
The dust and dirt raised by the crash of World Trade Centre building in New York spread all over the world, "War on terrorism" - shouted President Bush and almost all the ruling classes and governments of the world shouted in unison. The ruling classes and the BJP-led central government of India have added a shrill note to the chorus - "All along we have been telling you so". Yes, undoubtedly they have been! They have been trying their utmost to convince the Indian masses and the world, specially the US Government that the problem of Kashmir is essentially a problem of terrorism, created, instigated, aided and exported by the 'terrorist state' of Pakistan through its intelligence agency ISI and the Islamic fundamentalist organisations nurtured by the government of Pakistan. And not only in Kashmir, Pakistan-sponsored terrorism one sail to be active in Assam and other north-eastern states of India , in North Bengal along the Indo-Bangladesh border, and in various other places. The Indian masses and the world have been provided with regular doses of evidences of this assertion - series of arrests of ISI agents from all over India, the Indian police and military authorities stumbling over bags of RDX now and then, various proofs of Pakistani connection found in the bodies of Kashmiri 'militants' killed in the 'encounters' with the Indian military and paramilitary forces and so on and so forth! So long the rest of the world has not been paying any serious heed to Government of India's shouts of anguish!
Now that the whole world has woken up to the 'dangers of terrorism', the Indian ruling classes and the Indian central government have rolled up their sleeves to buttress their point of "All along we have been telling you so." Suddenly the Indian news media and the central government have started to notice increasing mobilisation and activities of the Pakistani military forces along the border, repeated incidents of violations of the LoC in Kashmir by the Pakistani forces. Suddenly we have the Indian bourgeois news papers reporting daily about the escalation of tension along the Indo-Pakistan border, increasing incidents of exchange of fire between the Indian and Pakistani military forces guarding the border, about spurt in the activities of ISI whose agents seem to have entered India in a rush, recovery of more and more bags of RDX which seem to pop out from various strange places. With the banner-headlines of the Indian daily papers screaming with the news of regular despatch of reinforcement of army forces to the front accompanied by film-style photographs of the soldiers bidding adieu to their near and ear ones, a frenzied anti-Pakistan, anti-Muslim atmosphere is being quickly built up throughout the country. The Indian government has suddenly called back its ambassador from Pakistan for reasons which are never explained; but there can never be any doubt that this particular act has greatly increased the tension between the two countries and given rise to rampant speculation and apprehension. The ruling BJP and the whole of the 'responsible' parliamentary opposition are all united in their resolve to "preserve Kashmir as an integral part of India and fight terrorism". And what can be a better proof of "all along we have been telling you so" than the incident of 13th December at the Parliamentary House in New Delhi ? Who were behind these incidents? Of course, Pakistan-sponsored Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups - either Lashkar-e-Toiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed or any such organisation. Is there any definite proof of this assertion? Proof? You fool! Does this require any proof! It is clear as daylight.
The ruling classes and the governments of Pakistan have never been saints either. Consequently, it is foolish to expect President Musharraf to send roses and doves to the Indian Prime Minister in this circumstance. He has his own compulsions for remaining in power. As anti-Pakistan plank has always been an integral part of the mode of existence of the India 's ruling classes and the central government, so has been the anti-India plank for the ruling classes and government of Pakistan . So President Musharraf of Pakistan is shouting back to declare his resolve to "teach India a lesson if they take any adventurous step". He is also mobilising and reinforcing Pakistani troops along the border and confronting each charge of Indian government with a suitable counter-charge. As a result the Indian sub-continent is being trapped in a cobweb of war psychosis and communal tension.
But President Musharraf has a problem. President Bush has declared a "war on terrorism" and he wants every government of the world to do the same. Moreover, to the American imperialism, Islamic fundamentalism has now become its number one enemy and so by a queer twist of logic Islamic fundamentalism has now become synonymous with terrorism to President Bush and his men. For quite sometime, there have been active a number of Islamic fundamentalist organisation in Pakistan with more or less strong mass base. The government of Pakistan has been patronising and utilising these organisations in various ways for their own benefits. Now President Bush wants President Musharraf to do the opposite. So he is in a difficult spot.
The ruling classes and the BJP-led Central Government are working overtime to utilise this situation in their favour. Advani's, Jaswant Singh's are making regular forays to Washington to plead to President Bush and his men for shifting USA's lion's share of favour from Pakistan to India as Indian rulers are "good boys" and Pakistan rulers are "bad boys" and get their endorsement of Indian government's stand on Kashmir. The "emperor of the world" is trying to keep both "his boys" in good humour and allow the "play" between the two boys to go on under his watchful "benevolent" eyes. The US Secretary of State Colin Powel is already on his second visit within four months to India and Pakistan. The avowed purpose of his visits is to "ease the tension" in the Indian sub-continent. And not only President Musharraf, but also Vajpayee, Advani & Co. have "gracefully" accepted the authority of Mr. Powel to fulfil this "noble purpose"! These people are determined to "preserve the integrity of the country"!
So it seems that since President Bush wants it, the "tension will be eased"! President Musharraf has already declared "war on terrorism" as per President Bush's wish and started taking steps against some Islamic fundamentalist organisations operating in his country. He has also declared his pledge to modernise Pakistan. This speech of President Musharraf has been hailed by President Bush and Advani has responded equally by describing the speech of Pakistan President as "path-breaking"! So in all probability there will be no war. But the stage-managed shows are still going on from both sides. Both sides are blowing hot and cold. And for these shows crores of rupees are being spent, the burden of which will have to be borne by the working-class and the peasantry along with other exploited sections of population of both these poor countries. Why?
The BJP-led central government has already promulgated and put into action the draconian POTO. A frenzied atmosphere of threat of war and terrorism is very useful to justify the promulgation of POTO and silence all the opposition against it! It is also extremely handy to divert people's attention from the "coffin scam" and all such governmental scams. A strengthening of the Hindutva-plank has become extremely necessary for BJP in view of the ensuing important UP-elections. And is there any better means for it other than an anti-Pakistan, anti-Muslim hysteria?
More generally, the ruling BJP needs this built-up in order to be able to vigorously pursue the New Economic Policy - which it is already doing. The Indian masses have been already served with the warning that they will have to shoulder the burden of war - a pre-warning about the nature of the coming central budget. So the Indian masses have to pay for the cost of a probable non-existent war. The Indian masses must be made to feel that the sheer madness of spending three crores of rupees daily for maintaining an army outpost in a snow-covered, desolate, god-forsaken place like Siachen is quite justified. So now and then the spectre of an impending attack from the other side of the border has to be created!
In the meantime two communist revolutionary organisations have been banned along with the mass organisations, which the Government of India thinks to be connected with these banned political organisations. The rampage of bloodthirsty Indian military and semi-military force continues in Kashmir. Peoples are being arrested at random as suspected terrorists. And the BJP-led central government has now found the 'Marxist' Chief Minister of West Bengal as an unexpected ally. Sri Buddhadeva Bhattacharya is also seemed to be haunted by the spectre of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and ISI agents. A number of people have already been arrested in West Bengal as ISI agents. The West Bengal Government has also arrested a number of activists of the communist revolutionary organisations banned by the central government, although the Chief Minister has categorically stated that his government is not going to implement the ban order, as the ban order has been issued under POTO which his party 'is opposing'. And he is trying to push through POCA in line with POTO.
It seems that the incidents of 11th September have come as a boon to the US imperialism and the ruling governments of all the countries of the world. The word 'terrorism' has been given a surprising spin by them. If you protest against closures and retrenchment - you are a 'terrorist'. If you protest against mounting unemployment - you are a 'terrorist'. If you protest against draconian laws - you are a 'terrorist'. If you protest against price-rise - you are a 'terrorist'. If you protest against state-terrorism - you are a 'terrorist'. Every act of protest against of the ruling classes and ruling governments is being given the label of 'terrorism' and brutally crushed.
The BJP-led central government need the spectre of "terrorism" and of "the possibility of impending attack from the other side of the border" to carry on their terrorist attack on the Indian masses and let the imperialist forces, specially US imperialism, Indian big bourgeoisie and the big landlords fleece the Indian masses at their sweet will!
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