People's Democracy

The servility displayed by the BJP and the Vajpayee government to US imperialism is not confined only to extending unsolicited support to all their moves and policies. The servility has now extended to aping the language of US imperialism. This was abundantly clear in the resolutions adopted at the BJP's National Executive recently and the speeches made by its leaders.

Echoing US President, Bush, who thunders that the world must decide either to be with the USA or with the terrorists, BJP leaders have begun thundering that Indian people and the political parties must choose between its government and the terrorists on the issue of Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO). Those who oppose this draconian ordinance, according to the BJP, are either terrorists or supporters of terrorism.

It is insane to accuse the CPI(M) of supporting terrorism because it opposes the POTO. Only the severely demented and deranged minds can do so. It needs to be recollected that over two hundred leading CPI(M) activists were martyred in the struggle against Sikh extremism in Punjab. The CPI(M)'s firm and unequivocal opposition to terrorism, apart from contributing to the restoration of normalcy in Punjab, can be seen in Tripura today. Hundreds of comrades have lost their lives protecting the unity and integrity of our country and safeguarding the harmony amongst our people. The CPI(M) needs no certificate for its patriotism from anyone, leave alone the RSS, the assassins of Mahatma Gandhi.

Elsewhere in this issue, we have detailed the manner in which such an ordinance can be subjected to gross misuse and abuse of the elementary democratic rights of the people and the reasons why it should be opposed by all patriots. The existing laws in the country are more than adequate to pursue terrorists and their activities. At the Central level, there is the NSA, the ESMA and the COFEPOSA. In many states, specific laws exist, including the Disturbed Areas Act, which is regularly utilised against terrorists. Even without the POTO, there are instances of leaders of terrorist organisations (like Madani, the prime accused in the Coimbatore blasts of 1998) having been arrested and kept in custody.

Hence, if there already exist enough laws, why then is the BJP aggressively pursuing the enactment of POTO? The answer is simple. In a situation where its appeal is sharply dwindling amongst the people, the BJP is seeking to use POTO to gain political mileage. It seeks to do this by, firstly, portraying itself as the only party concerned with curbing terrorism. Secondly, by utilising the terrorist activities in the Kashmir Valley, the BJP is seeking to sharpen communal polarisation to bolster its electoral prospects in the coming crucial elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Punjab.

In fact, according to reports in the national media, the dominant mood at the BJP's national executive meeting was to create conditions, through aggressive anti-Pakistan rhetoric, similar to the Kargil conflict which immensely bolstered the BJP's electoral prospects in the 1999 general elections.

This diabolic strategy dovetails in to the strident efforts being made by the Saffron Brigade to revive the Ayodhya issue. Clearly, the BJP and its master, the RSS, have realised that the communal platform is the only fall-back option they have. The BJP, therefore, is all set to spread communal poison with its consequent horrific strife and bloodshed to serve its partisan political interests. Communal tension and temperature is already on the rise as evidenced in Malegaon in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Can there be anything more anti-national than the spilling of innocent human blood for the sake of electoral benefit?

It is, indeed, most cynical and diabolic that the Home Minister, one of the main architects responsible for destroying the fabric of communal harmony in our country, publicly claims in his speech, at this meeting, that the BJP is the only party that has never put its interests above the nation's interests! This is Goebellisian perfidy at its vicious worst.

The Indian people have, by now, seen through such perfidy. They are not going to allow authoritarian attacks on their democratic rights and draconian laws to be enacted for the sake of BJP's electoral benefit.