Government Must Immediately Stop its Warmongering! The Common Working Masses Have Nothing to Gain from this Predatory War and Escalation of Tension!
Modi Government Must Immediately Stop its Warmongering!
The Common Working Masses Have Nothing to Gain from this Predatory War and Escalation of Tension!
The People Must Not Fall Prey to Jingoism!
We Must Understand the Ploy of the Ruling Classes of India and Pakistan to Distract Our Attention from the Real and Living Issues!
इस पोस्ट को हिन्दी में पढ़ने के लिए इस लिंक पर क्लिक करें
– Issued by Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (RWPI)
After beating war drums for last 15 days in the aftermath of the tragic Pahalgam terror attack, the Modi-Shah government has finally decided to go for a major escalation in India-Pakistan tensions. On the night of 6th May, India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ ostensibly to destroy the alleged terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. Indian government and media are claiming that 70 terrorists are killed and 60 are injured in these airstrikes while Pakistan is claiming that those killed and injured are civilians including women and children. Pakistan has also claimed that it has brought down 5 Indian fighter jets in retaliatory strikes. Pakistan has also carried out firing and shelling across the Line of Control leading to the death of at least 10 civilians and injury of 40 civilians in J&K’s Poonch district.
In the era of information warfare and the flood of fake news and disinformation, it is difficult to verify the claims and counter-claims of the bourgeois rulers of both India and Pakistan. However, one thing is certain that this major escalation has a potential to take a very dangerous turn especially considering the fact both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons.
For any sensitive and sane person who thinks about a better future for humanity, it is the time not to fall prey to jingoism and warmongering, but to think seriously as to who is actually responsible for bringing the two countries to such a dangerous cross road and what could be the outcome if a war breaks out between India and Pakistan. It is also a time to think as to who will benefit from war or war-like situation in the two countries. The answer is pretty clear: the ruling dispensations in both the countries representing the interests of the capitalist classes and the propertied classes in general are going to be the greatest beneficiaries of war and any war-like situation. Their profits won’t run dry; rather the capitalists and their political representatives in both India and Parkistan are milking this volatile situation for their benefit by whipping up jingoist and ultranationalist sentiments among the common masses of their respective countries. People in both the countries are facing the brunt of all kinds of problems arising out of the capitalist system, be it economic crisis, unemployment, inflation and growing economic disparity which can potentially lead to mass unrest. The problems in India for the common working masses and lower middle classes have compounded especially since the last 11 years of fascist Modi regime. It has happened many times since independence that whenever the economic and social problems deepen and people feel restless, the rulers of these two countries take resort to warmongering and whipping up jingoistic and ultranationalist sentiments to divert people’s attention from the real issues. Some incident like a terror attack just becomes an excuse for the ruling classes in both India and Pakistan to escalate tensions along the border and put the hardships of the people to the backburner. In this manner the ruling classes of the two countries try to pre-empt any mass-uprising against their rule and their exploitative and oppressive rule is prolonged. The present escalation of tension between both countries is the latest example.
The fascist Modi-Shah regime in India has gained expertise in this tactics as we witnessed in the aftermath of Pulwama attack too. Not only did they manage to divert people’s attention from the real issues, they were able to secure political dividend as well. The same appears to be the case now as well with the Bihar assembly elections approaching and hence the frenzied fascist calls for war and blood gaining ground so that the harvest of votes can be reaped yet again. This time also Modi-Shah government is not only trying to evade questions of its accountability in the Pahalgam attack and its claim for “normalcy” in Kashmir, it is using warmongering and jingoism to divert people’s attention from the real issues of livelihood. Moreover, the kind of optics that this ‘operation Sindoor’ was accompanied by, with two women officers leading the press-briefing and one of them being a Muslim, has again displayed that the Indian fascists know how to turn “every catastrophe in an opportunity” and when it comes to identity politics, the fascists can outsmart all other kinds of identitarians! The social media is splashed with the reports of identity politics-mongers of all shades being besotted by this fascist posturing, which only betrays the real class character and class content of all kinds of identity politics.
The same applies to the case of Pakistan. Amidst intensifying economic crisis and mass unrest in Pakistan, its ruling class and army has found an opportunity in the wake of increasing tensions to distract the Pakistani people’s attention from the real issues. Hence there is no doubt that it is only the ruling classes of India and Pakistan that are going to benefit from this war and the people of both the countries will only get more destruction, tragedies and hardships, as can be seen unfolding post suspension of Indus treaty, which may lead to drought or deluge-like situation for millions of common people.
It is not without reason that the capitalist ruling classes in both India and Pakistan keep and want to keep perennially the furnace of issues such as terrorism, Kashmir afire, so that the sentiments of common working masses can be exploited for their own economic and political ends. The ultranationalist sabre-rattling by the ruling classes of both the countries help them to unleash the real terror of their class rule on the working class and common working masses of their own countries. The common working masses of both India and Pakistan have nothing to gain and everything to lose from these wars or calls for war led by the ruling classes. The interests of the ruling classes of all countries are alike: to loot, plunder and exploit the common toiling masses of their own countries; and so should be the interests of the working masses of all countries: to hold aloft the banner of proletarian internationalism and fight against the class exploitation and tyranny of their own respective rulers. In fact, the religious fundamentalist politics, given fillip by the ruling classes themselves in both the neighbouring countries complement and reinforce each other and provides the breeding ground for all kinds of extremism. Moreover, what must not be forgotten is that it is the state terror that creates the fertile ground for the religious fundamentalist terror or any other kind of terrorism in the first place.
Those who believe that terrorism can be eliminated by an attack on Pakistan know nothing about the history of India-Pakistan conflicts. If that was the case, terrorism in India should have ended after Kargil war or after the so-called surgical strike and the air strikes in Balakot! If terrorism still survives after these attacks on Pakistan, what is the guarantee that it will be “defeated” after the new attacks? There is no such guarantee as terrorism is only an excuse to divide us all so as to conquer each one of us.
The Modi government is claiming that through ‘Operation Sindoor’ it has delivered justice to the victims of Pahalgam attack and their family members. The irony is not lost on anyone. The fascists have openly exhibited their patriarchal character in naming it after ‘sindoor (vermilion)’ in a typical Bollywood style! Nevertheless, the real question is what could have been the real justice to the victims of the Pahalgam tragedy. Firstly, the perpetrators of this heinous act should have been nabbed and given punishment as per law. However, even after 15 days since the attack, the government has not been able to capture the terrorists who carried out the gruesome act; rather the pet fascist model of ‘buldozer justice’ has been deployed in Kashmir against those who have been suspected of the attack. The government and security agencies have miserably failed to explain to the people of India and international community as to how such a large-scale attack was planned and executed in one of the most militarized zones in the entire world, as per the government’s own claims. What is more, ever since the Pahalgam attack, the Godi media and the entire fascist ecosystem has been working day and night to stoke communalism, jingoism and warmongering in the country. The common Muslims and Kashmiris are being targetted by the fascist mobs. However, the kind of narrative that the fascists wanted to built in the aftermath of Pahalgam could not gain much traction among the common working masses in the country which also explains the desperate calls for war and escalation against Pakistan. In the process the real question of accountability of the Modi-Shah government in the massive intelligence and security failures in Pahalgam attack is being conveniently sidelined. Those raising questions to government are hounded and even FIRs have been lodged. The fascist troll army did not even leave Himanshi Narwal whose navy officer husband was killed by the terrorists in Pahalgam. Her only crime was that she asked not to spread hatred against Muslims and Kashmiris and pleaded for peace. So much for the ’sindoor’ of the widows of Pahalgam!
Certainly, this atmosphere of warmongering and jingoism will give political dividend to the BJP in the coming Bihar assembly elections just as the Balakot strikes helped it in 2019 general elections. Is it a mere coincidence that most of these attacks have taken place during the rule of the BJP-led governments when it is either faced with massive unpopularity or there are elections round the corner? Not surprisiningly, it is the BJP that has benefitted the most from such “baying for the enemy’s blood” kind of posturing in the past too.
The common working masses of both India and Pakistan must ponder over the consequences if these attacks trigger a war between India and Pakistan. Apart from the casualties in terms of loss of lives and property, the war runs the risk of a nuclear attack that will lead to untold devastation and suffering. Moreover, the bourgeois states of both countries which are squandering millions and millions of rupees on these unproductive war drills will ultimately foist its economic burden on the common people. Besides, those fighting on the frontlines “in defence of the motherland” will be the first casualities of any such war, too, and as a matter of rule, they come from the homes of the common urban and rural working masses themselves, not from the ranks of Ambanis and Adanis of this country. They are turned into pawns in the capitalist war game of oneupmanship between the bourgeois states. Considering these factors, no sane person can support any kind of war between India and Pakistan as a solution to any kind of problem. It is evident that the real intention behind the ongoing warmongering is not to solve the problem of terrorism but to distract people’s attention from their real problems of livelihood and divert their attention towards a “false enemy”.
It is a tragic irony that the fascists in India are receiving support from all quarters. They could not have wished for a more opportune moment for enhancing their acceptability in the society. The opposition parties including the social democrats like CPI(M) are extending their full support to the fascists in their action against Pakistan. The social fascists in India are the true inheritors of the social chauvinist legacy of the past. While the Godi Media is baying for more blood and calling for an open war, the liberal, left-liberal and liberal-left “progressives” are hailing the fascists for their restrained and accurate response instead of calling out their intentions behind war mongering and jingoism! Similarly, many feminists and identitarians are going gaga over the fact that two women officers including a Muslim led the briefing of the so-called ‘Operation Sindoor’.
Revolutionary workers’ Party of India (RWPI) stands against the warmongering by the bourgeois ruling classes of India and Pakistan and calls upon the masses of both the countries to not fall prey to any ongoing calls of warmongering, jingoism and ultranationalism by their respective ruling classes. RWPI calls upon both the governments of India and Pakistan to deescalate the situation immediately and not resort to any kind of warmongering. We demand that an impartial high-level probe into the Pahalgam attack must be initiated at the earliest by the Modi government. We call upon the common working masses to reject religious fundamentalism of all hues and stand for true and genuine secularism. The bourgeois rulers of our countries are hell bent on making us fight against each other and forget about our real problems. We need to recognise the real enemies who happen to be the ruling classes of our own country. We need to understand the real intent behind their conspiracies and focus on intensifying our real fight against the capitalist system which is engendering war, poverty, hunger, inflation, unemployment and economic hardships for millions and millions of common toiling masses. The interests and problems of the masses in both the countries are same and war is only going to increase our hardships. It is only the ruling classes of the two countries that are going to benefit from war and any war-like situation.
