India-Pakistan Conflict ? Post-Pahelgaon Episode
India-Pakistan Conflict ? Post-Pahelgaon Episode
A military conflict between India and Pakistan took place from 7th to 10th May. Possibly, this confrontation was the most severe after 1971 war. This conflict started in the background of the April 22nd massacre in the Pahalgaon valley. 25 tourists and a local Kashmiri pony rider were shot dead by few Muslim militants. According to eyewitness reports, religion of the tourists was first enquired by the gunmen. Some of them were also asked to recite Islamic Kalima and shot when they could not. While most of the killed were Hindus, one was Christian from Arunachal Pradesh and another was a local Kashmiri pony rider, who tried to save the tourists he had taken in the valley. Obviously, this attack is condemnable not only being an attack on innocent civilians, but also because the attack was in essence communal.
Now, who are responsible for this reprehensible act? The Governmentof India claimed that it is an attack of Pakistan-supported terroristforces. There is no direct evidence to prove that. But, it is very muchtrue that the Pakistan Government has consistently provided support tothe fundamentalist Muslim terrorist organisations, which carried outterrorist activities on Indian soil. But, did not the successive IndianGovernments have any responsibilities in the creation of such terroristorganizations?
The question may surprise many. But, if one delves deeper into thisturmoil, then it becomes obvious that this particular turmoil has itsroots in the Kashmir imbroglio. The Kashmir problem was created by theBritish Imperialism when they partitioned erstwhile India into twocountries, India and Pakistan. Even after being a Muslim majorityregion, the then Jammu and Kashmir joined India under the leadership ofSheikh Abdullah. The people of Kashmir even fought a war againstPakistan side by side with Indian Army. The Kashmiri people were thenpromised total autonomy by the Congress-led Indian Government. But,after that they were betrayed. Actual autonomy as promised were nevergiven, Sheikh Abdullah was thrown into jail, puppet governments were putin place to serve the Indian ruling classes. Decades of oppression onKashmiri people continued thereafter. Barring one or two, all electionsto the state legislature were rigged. The protest of Kashmiri peopletook shape into a movement for independence, both from India andPakistan, which was brutally crushed by Indian Army. It is said that hisregion has largest presence of Army men in the whole world. The betrayalof successive Indian governments, extreme torture by the Indian Army,scores of black acts altogether gave rise to a militant movement, whichgradually veered towards Islamic fundamentalism and also Pakistan.
Pakistan always wanted to bring whole of Kashmir under theirgovernance. They fought wars to achieve that, but could not. This newsituation gave them a new opportunity and they utilized it by supportingthe fundamentalist and terrorist organizations that operated in Kashmir.So, the problem of terrorism in Kashmir, presently mainly in the form ofIslamic fundamentalist organizations is a complex problem which has beencreated by ruling classes of both the countries. Both of the countrieswanted Kashmir under their grip, but, none of them cared for the voiceof Kashmiri people.
It should be also noted that ruling classes of India have directlyhelped even some Islamic fundamentalist forces. The BJP led Indiangovernment is keeping relations with the Taliban, one of the majorIslamic fundamentalist and terrorist organizations. Even it has beenclaimed that the Indian Government helps the Baloch forces which arefighting against Pakistan Government.
In particular, the RSS/BJP has indirectly helped Islamicfundamentalist organizations to grow. How? The Sangh Parivar is helpingthe growth of Islamic fundamentalist forces by their continuous attackon the common Muslim people of India. The common Muslim people are beingattacked, murdered; their means of living are being snatched from themby the Sangh Parivar organizations like Bajrang Dal, Vishwa HinduParishad etc almost every day under different pleas, like Goraksha, LoveJehad, etc. There have been series of anti Muslim riots like Gujaratgenocide of 2002, Majjaffarpur riots of 2013, delhi riots during CAA/NRCmovement, recent Maharastra riots. They are being made second classcitizens in their own motherland. These attacks on the Muslim people notonly helping the fundamentalist Islamic forces inside the country toattract the common Muslim people towards them, but the Islamicfundamentalist forces of Muslim majority countries in the Indiansub-continent like Pakistan and Bangladesh are also using the attack ofcommon Muslim people in India to win over common people of their countrytowards them. Actually, the fundamentalist forces of different religionshelp each by their respective religious bigotry.
Another important group of forces which have contributed in thisproblem are the imperialist forces, first British, and then westernimperialism led by US imperialism. We cannot forget that the Islamicfundamentalist organizations were actively trained, funded, and alsoprovided with arms to fight the Soviet Russia in Afghanistan. They didit to control this part of the world, to exploit this region, exploitits raw materials, especially oil. So, the imperialist forces are alsoresponsible for the present proliferation of Islamic fundamentalistforces in this region, though these forces have now become their enemy.In particular, the imperialists also want to keep alive the Kashmirproblem, so that they can intervene in the internal affairs of these twowarring countries, (which they did in the present conflict also) and usethe conflict for their own benefits. Their another interest in keepingthe enmity between these two countries that using this enmity they cansell fighter jets, missiles, anti-missile systems and other weapons tothese countries. War industry is an important component of capitalism inimperialist countries.
The pahalgaon attack is not an isolated incident, but a part of thiscomplex problem. Is it possible to end the problem of terrorism by amissile attack on some places, which are infrastructures of differentPakistan based terrorist organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba andJaish-e-mohammed, as claimed by the Government of India? Interestingly,after the first missile attack on nine targets India claimed the attackas ?non-escalatory?. In fact during the days of conflict, Indiarepeatedly claimed that they wanted a de-escalatory attack and it shouldbe considered as a ?punishment? for the April 22nd Pahalgaonattack.
Now the question is, why did the Government of India repeatedlyclaimed their actions as non-escalatory or de-escalatory? Did it feelthat one day of attack on some bases of terrorists will stop theterrorist activities of the fundamentalist terrorist organizations basedin Pakistan and supported by Pakistani Government? Before start of afight, can anybody think that it will not be escalatory, if one isserious about the fight? Furthermore, if the Government of India hadwanted to stop the terrorist activities of these organizations once andfor all, why did it accept the ceasefire? Even if we accept the claim ofthe GOI that the ceasefire did not happen due to the pressure of USimperialists, but due to the fact that Pakistani Government wanted theceasefire, why did they accept the ceasefire proposal? Did the PakistaniGovernment make any commitment that they will not support the terroristorganizations further? The obvious answer is the GOI neither had suchintention to stop the cross-border terrorist attacks once and for all,nor they have that capacity. Even if we consider that only the PakistanGovernment or Military and Pakistan-based terrorist organizations areresponsible for such attacks, which is absolutely not, to stop theseterrorist attacks once and for all requires a long war. Narendra Modi?sBJP/ NDA government did not want such a war is clear from their claimsof non-escalatory attack and the acceptance of ceasefire at the earliestopportunity.
So, it is obvious that the claim of victory by the BJP government iscompletely hollow. After the surgical strike of 2019, we had heard suchclaims that the Indian Army punished the perpetrators of terroristattacks by going inside the Pakistani territory (?ghushke mara hain?)and the terrorists supported by Pakistani army will not dare to attackin India again. But, the terrorist attacks continued and even anincident like Pahalgaon happened where some gunmen entered Pahalgaonvalley, killed 26 people after asking their faith and ultimatelyevaporated like camphor. Where did this happen? Not anywhere else, butin Kashmir valley which has largest presence of Indian Army on theground. Every few feet have at least one armed army man in the valley.So, we can say it for sure that even after the missile attacks of7th May, such terrorist attacks will happen time and againand the retaliations and claims of ?punishment?, ?decisive victory?,?ghushke mara?, ?new normal? etc from the BJP led Indian government willalso continue.
Then, why did the Government launched the missile attack when theydid not want to escalate it? There are enough reasons to believe thathad Pakistan not retaliated this time, the missile attack of7th May would have been the both beginning and end ofoperation Sindoor by Indian defense forces. It is not very difficult tounderstand the reasons behind the operation. The pahalgaon attack hasclearly shown the failure of Indian Government to give security to itscitizens. There were reports that there were some intelligence inputsthat some attacks might happen in the valley. Even after that the attacktook place and the attackers carried out their operation with impunity.There was widespread resentment against the Government. So, somethinghad to be done to assuage the feelings of people, especially affected bythe attack. Withdrawal of Indus valley treaty for water sharing andother diplomatic measures were not sufficient, some militaryinterventions were necessary to show the muscle power of the Indianstate. So, the operation Sindoor. Nor it will be able to stop terrorattacks neither was it its actual aim.
The operation Sindoor helped the BJP/RSS led Government of India infurther two ways. Firstly, any war or war-like situation, especially inthe present situation of absence of class struggle of the working classand the toiling masses, bound to create a false sense of patriotism, ofnationalism among the people and help to unite and rally the massesbehind the Government. The pliant media, aka godi media, especially theTV channels helped their utmost to create this jingoism by utterly falsepropaganda. They went to such extent that even a big bourgeois newspaperexposed and opposed their lies. This jingoism was further supported indeed by the bourgeois opposition parties, who flocked together to rallybehind the Government during the operation Sindoor. So, the militaryconflict helped the BJP government to garner support of the people andthey will definitely try to cash in that support in the comingelections.
Secondly, this incident helped BJP/RSS to further communalize thepeople, especially creating hatred against Muslim people among the Hindumasses. Obviously, they did try every dirty trick available in theirtoolkit to create hatred especially against Kashmiri Muslims and Muslimpeople in general. Kashmiri people were attacked; Kashmiri students wereforced leave the college hostels in various parts of India, especiallywhere BJP/RSS is a strong force or holds the power in the stategovernments. They even viciously trolled the wife of Lt. Vinay Narwal, anavy officer, killed in the Pahalgaon attack, who raised her voiceagainst hatred against Kashmiri Muslims, and also against Muslims,because they were the only persons who helped the tourists during thattraumatic period. May be due to that fact they could not headway intheir hate campaign much, but they could farther the communal divideamong the masses. In fact anti-Pakistan campaign also enhances thehatred against Indian Muslims, who are always derided as supporter ofPakistan.
Those were the interests BJP led Indian government for waging such anattack, which is from the very beginning limited and in their own wordde-escalatory. There is another reason for the Government of India notto extend the conflict beyond a few days. When some right wingcommentators and also a section of supporter of Sangh Parivar?s politicsof aggressive Hindutva made much noise on ceasefire, some editorials inbig-bourgeois press vehemently opposed them by saying that such longerconflicts or wars will jeopardize the economic agenda of the rulingclasses. This is definitely an important cause behind intention ofIndian ruling classes not to drag the conflict and so their call forde-escalatory attack.
So, religious fundamentalism and terrorism belonging to all religiousfaiths can only be removed from the society by uprooting the Rulingclasses of these countries along with imperialist forces acting in thisregion. That will not only pave the path to weaken the fundamentalistforces by removing all types of oppression and exploitations from thesociety which gives rise to such tendencies, but also pave the path ofremoval of feudal or all types of pre-capitalist production relationswhich is the basis of existence of religion based communities. So, it iswrong to say that the revolutionary proletariat does not want war. Therevolutionary proletariat does not support petty-bourgeois pacifism. Therevolutionary proletariat opposes the war between the countries in theinterest of ruling classes, because it is against the interest of theworking class and toiling masses as the war brings destructions, crisiswhich affects the poor people most, such wars or war jingoism overwhelmthe class aspirations of the toiling masses, they are dragged into theinterests of ruling classes in the name of nationalism, forgetting theirreal problems of exploitation, poverty, unemployment etc. Not only that,they suffer most in these wars and military conflicts. The common peopleare murdered by the military attacks, their dwellings are destroyed, andthey lose their means of livings. The costs of war or war preparationsare also thrust upon them. So, the revolutionary proletariat opposes thewar of ruling classes, but it supports the war against this oppressiveand exploitative system, that is the class war, and through that war itnot only paves the path for removal of exploitation and all types ofoppression but also removes the basis of wars between the ruling classesof different countries, which take place in the interest of the rulingclasses and imperialism.
Comments:
No Comments for View