Mazdoor Ekta Lehar expresses its deep anger and outrage at the terrorist strike on February 13, 2010 in an eatery in Pune, in which 16 people have lost their lives and dozens injured, many critically. Mazdoor Ekta Lehar expresses its deep sympathy for the families of the victims.
Mazdoor Ekta Lehar expresses its deep anger and outrage at the terrorist strike on February 13, 2010 in an eatery in Pune, in which 16 people have lost their lives and dozens injured, many critically. Mazdoor Ekta Lehar expresses its deep sympathy for the families of the victims.
The questions are again and again posed. Why are terrorist killings taking place in India? Who stands to benefit from them and who loses? What are the forces behind these terrorist killings? Is it possible to get rid of the scourge of terrorism, and if so how?
Through leaks in the bourgeoisie media, the government gives the following answers, even though officially it claims that the investigation has just begun. We are told that terrorist strikes are being organized “to destabilize India and make foreigners scared of coming to India. They are aimed at creating a communal divide and inciting communal violence against Muslims. The terrorist strike is being organized by the Pakistan based organization LeT, with the backing of the ISI through sleeper cells created amongst Indian Muslims with the help of a shadowy organization called the Indian Mujahideen (IM) consisting of former members of the banned SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India). India, US and other powers must force Pakistan to arrest the leaders of various anti India jihadi organisations in Pakistan in order to get rid of the scourge of terrorism”. Finally, it is declared that the aim behind the present terrorist strike is (1) to derail the Indo-Pak foreign secretary level talks scheduled for 25 February, and (2) as a response to the renewed US military offensive in Afghanistan launched last week, so that “Pakistan has reason not to deploy its forces with the US in Afghanistan against the Taliban”.
Whenever we Communists give an analysis of who organized terrorist strikes, we are accused by various sections of the bourgeoisie of falling prey to “conspiracy theories”. However, it is worth noting that the same bourgeoisie, without a shadow of evidence, is itself puts forward various “theories” behind terrorist attacks, for its own self serving aims.
How should the people analyse the issue of terrorism?
The first point to be noted is that terrorism is a preferred weapon in the arsenal of state policy of all imperialist and reactionary states. This means, the US, India, Pakistan, Russia, Britain, and so on all use terrorism to advance their goals—both within their own countries and in pursuance of their imperialist aims. It is part of state policy just like open state repression is, it is part of international geo politics just like diplomacy, and its continuation, war. People must not think that terrorism is carried out by “non-state actors”, in the same manner as communal massacres, racist attacks, ethnic violence, etc are not the work of “non-state actors”, but of the state.
A very brief review of world history in the past century will suffice to show the above. Following the victory of the October Revolution, the imperialist powers of that time organised various terror attacks within the Soviet Union, as well as in the capitalist countries of Europe. The target was to destroy socialism and discredit the communist movement. During the Cold War period, the US and Soviet Union both used terrorism as weapons to attack the national liberation movements of various peoples like the Palestinians, and to attack the revolutionary communists. In India, the bourgeois state used terrorism to attack and discredit the communist revolutionaries in the 60’s and 70’s as also to attack the national liberation movements of the peoples in North East. In South Asia as a whole, terrorism was used as a favorite weapon by the states of the region, as also foreign powers, to advance their aims — as in Baluchistan, in Punjab, in Sri Lanka, etc.
Following the end of the Cold War, imperialism and the reactionary states have used terrorism to attack communists and all those fighting imperialist domination, targeting the people of Islamic faith in particular. US imperialism used the September 11 terror strike in New York and Washington to launch wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq. It can be seen that following 9/11, terror strikes of all kinds have intensified and engulfed India and Pakistan, apart from Iraq.
The growing incidence of terrorism in our region must be seen in the context of Asia, particularly South Asia, becoming a bone of contention for the imperialists. Asia is home to rich oil and mineral resources and to billions of working people. Asian economies are growing rapidly. Various imperialist powers are jockeying to advance their imperialist interests in Asia, with the US playing the biggest role. The growing terrorist attacks in the region are a prelude to inter imperialist war in the region. Terrorism is being used to discredit the revolutionary liberation struggles of the peoples, it is being used to attack the struggle of the working class for socialism. The working class of India has to wage resolute struggle against Indian imperialism and all other imperialisms, and resolutely expose and oppose the imperialist aims of India, US and other countries, as also their war preparations. We must oppose all foreign imperialist interventions in South Asia. When the working class establishes its rule in place of the present capitalist rule, the conditions will be created to put an end to the scourge of terrorism in our country.