People's Democracy

THE joint call of the four Left parties - CPI(M), CPI, Forward Block and RSP to protest the barbaric bombardment of Afghanistan by the United States evoked tremendous response in various parts of the country.

New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram and many other cities witnessed huge rallies against the US strikes.

"Stop This Bloody War" was the rallying cry of the protestors.

The nation's capital New Delhi witnessed a spirited anti-war protest on October 12th. People from various hues of life- students, youth, women, intelligentsia, workers assembled at Mandi House and marched to the American Centre at Connaught Place to register their protest to the inhuman bombing of Afghanistan. Led by the top leaders of the left parties the marchers , many of whom carried placards with sharp comments, shouted slogans condemning US hegemonistic manoeuvres.

While one placard made it clear that "U S killing of innocent Afghans is also Terrorism", another asked "How many children have you killed today ? Yankees". Yet another gave a call to "Oppose both Osama-Taliban and

U S". The large contingent of students and youth demanded "We want jobs Not war". The procession passed off peacefully and was stopped just short of the American Centre building by a large posse of heavily armed police, where it turned into a public meeting.

Addressing the gathering, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat warned the United States that its intention of using the anger of the world at the terrorist attacks to strengthen its hegemony on the world will be resisted.

The US warning to United Nations that the strikes may not be limited to Afghanistan and may extend to some other countries is a pointer to this, said Prakash Karat. He also warned of the other danger in the US effort to crush the peoples' movements across the world in the name of fighting terrorism and called for resisting these efforts.

He reminded the audience that it was the US which is the root cause for terrorism around the world. "In order to crush the progressive movements the US strengthened Islamic fundamentalism and now in the name of fighting this terrorism it wants to crush the peoples' movements", he warned.

Terming this rally as just a beginning, he said a nationwide struggle will be built against the War and Vajpayee government's shameful servility to US.

He condemned the Sept.11 terrorist attacks, and said the Left in India had always opposed Taliban -which was a creation of the US to crush progressive forces in Afghanistan. "We have no sympathy for Taliban.

But we do have sympathy for the millions of ordinary Afghan people, the women and children. The American bombs cannot differentiate between Taliban and common people", stated Prakash Karat.

He lambasted Vajpayee government for its shameful eagerness to act as a broker for US and charged it of being unmindful of the dangerous situation resulting from US troops entering into the sub continent for the first time ever. He asked Vajpayee to learn from former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (with whose many policies, the Left always differed) on how she never allowed imperialism into the sub continent, especially during the Bangladesh war.

While condemning the arrests made by the Delhi police of some student activists who were distributing pamphlets against the war a few days back, Prakash Karat charged the BJP for trying to trample democratic rights and fan communal tensions using the US war as a pretext. "They have charged the students with sedition. If today anyone has to be charged with sedition and being anti national, it is none other than Atal Behari Vajpayee himself", he said.

CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan in his speech wondered how the cold blooded killing of the president of Chile in a military coup engineered by US is not terrorism or how the various attempts on the life of Cuban leader Fidel Castro do not qualify as terrorist acts. This sort of state terrorism, practised widely by the US, is more cynical than group terrorism, felt Bardhan.

Recalling how thousands of Indians fell victim to terrorism in the past twenty years, he criticised the US for totally ignoring it. He lambasted Vajpayee government for trying to paint those opposing the US war as those who are not willing to fight terrorism. " Where were you all during the Punjab crisis ? It was the Left which fought against terrorists" he asked.

Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc), Asit Ganguly (RSP) and Joginder Sharma of the Delhi CPI(M) unit also spoke on this ocassion.