People's Democracy

SENDING TROOPS TO IRAQ

Can They Really Escape Ignominy?  

Harkishan Singh Surjeet

AN anonymous correspondent has sent me a letter, dated June 10, with his name and address “withheld to protect identity.” With a few newspaper clippings attached to it, the letter addresses me as “Excellency” which I am not (I am just an ordinary citizen of this country), and is on the theme of “Subjugation of Indian Pride by American Imperialism.” However, the words “Jai Mata Di” in the last but one line of the letter indicate that this correspondent is indeed a religious person. The letter is full of anguish this “ordinary citizen of India” feels over the fact, among other things, that the government of India is hell bent on sending our troops to Iraq --- for mercenary duties on behalf of Americans.

The correspondent says, “Do not trust the Americans. They are notorious for doublespeak and treachery,” and promises to shortly send me details of how the US embassy staff in New Delhi are “involved in a visa racket” and are “looting and duping Indian citizens.” But the most important part of this correspondent’s letter comes in the end. It says: “With this backdrop, I request you to strongly oppose sending Indian troops to Iraq, as they are desperately trying to gain legitimacy for the invasion by involving our great nation, as they are already unpopular in the world, and do not commit the blunder of risking India becoming unpopular by getting our soldiers killed to solve their problems and be part of the evil Occupation Forces.” 

RIDING ROUGHSHOD OVER MASSES’ CONCERN

On my part, I wish to assure this anonymous correspondent of three things:

1) that I and our party, the CPI(M), do appreciate and value the feelings of concern she or he has voiced in the letter;

2) that she or he is not alone in this concern; rather all the peace-loving and freedom-loving people of this nation and the world do share her/his anxiety; and

3) that, with all force at its command, our party will “strongly oppose sending Indian troops to Iraq, as they (the American rulers) are desperately trying to gain legitimacy for the(ir) invasion by involving our great nation.”

However, while the letter underlines as to where the BJP-led government has brought this country to and how this government is hell bent on surrendering our independent position in world community in order to please its American masters, at the same time it also shows how this government is going ahead with its evil designs by indicating that it is not bothered about how the common men and women of this country feel on the issue. This may, however, also be a rough indication that the days of this government are numbered. As a Hindi-Urdu proverb goes, a jackal runs towards the town when it is about to die. In much the same manner, a government indicates the imminence of its death by trying to ride roughshod over the anxieties and concerns of its common citizens.  

This is evident from the fact that, despite all their earlier ifs and buts, the leaders of this government have now given up all pretense and made up their mind about sending our troops to Iraq in the name of “stabilisation” duties but in fact to act as mercenaries in order to protect the American soldiers and interests in that hapless, occupied country. While only Poland has so far moved its troops into Iraq and Pakistan is yet to decide about the US requisition, the government of India (GoI) already seems to have made up its mind to be a willing accomplice in this first colonisation attempt in the post-war period. This is the lowly depth to which we, as a nation, are being pushed down to.  

Our article in the last issue has already made clear all the contours of this drive by the BJP-led government, and these need no reiteration here.

ROADSIDE SHOW OF CONSULTATIONS

THE question is: What, then, prevents this government from sending our troops to Iraq? As said last week, one reason is that the US administration is still not prepared to oblige India by dubbing Pakistan as a terrorist state or by taking action against that country in any other manner. We have also seen how what the BJP leaders want from Americans cannot but be a pipedream. Then there is also the resolution unanimously passed by Indian parliament, demanding that the US and UK withdraw their troops from Iraq and leave the task of that country’s reconstruction to Iraqi people themselves under the UN supervision. Therefore, till that resolution remains in force, any dispatch of Indian troops to Iraq cannot but be an illegal act and would amount to a violation of the sanctity of our parliament. This, as we said, is not likely to be swallowed by our people.

It was in this situation that the prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, held a meeting on June 15 with Mrs Sonia Gandhi, leader of opposition in parliament. Foreign affairs minister Yashwant Sinha, finance minister Jaswant Singh, national (in)security advisor and the prime minister’s principal secretary Brajesh Mishra, and Congress leaders Manmohan Singh, Natwar Singh and J N Dixit also attended the meeting. The stated aim of the meeting was to take a decision on sending troops to Iraq in the “best national interest” and after consultations with “interested (sic!) political parties, including the National Democratic Alliance” and also the “countries of the region.” Only one thing remains unclear. While Sinha said a decision would be taken after discussions with “concerned authorities,” he left unspecified as to who these authorities are!

Be that as it may, the fact remains that the GoI does want to send troops to Iraq; the only thing it wants is to stage a roadside show of consultations --- so that it is not left alone to bear the ignominy!

An important point to note in this connection is that these consultations with the Congress leaders were held just a day before the arrival in New Delhi, on June 16, “of a team of Pentagon officials to hold talks on troop deployment in Iraq” (The Indian Express, June 16). The meaning is clear: the Vajpayee government wanted to have something up its sleeve to show to its masters when they came here from saat samandar paar.

And the concern of these masters from abroad is also understandable, perfectly understandable. The way the Iraqis are increasingly resorting to sniper attacks against the US-UK occupation forces, has indeed made the Americans jittery and they do want to pull out from the lines of firing as soon as possible. The protesters also include the Iraqi soldiers who have been rendered jobless and are not getting any pay to maintain their families. As a recent Reuter dispatch from Baghdad says, more than 3,000 disbanded Iraqi soldiers staged a demonstration on June 2, outside the headquarters of the so-called interim administration. Not only that, they have threatened to become “suicide bombers,” with one warrant officers saying: “I will turn my six daughters into bombs to kill the Americans.” With anger increasingly gripping the Iraqi masses who want that the Yankees leave the country at the earliest, many of the soldiers have threatened to “carry out attacks on the Americans” and “declare a jihad.”

There is also no doubt that if the Yankees and Tom Blair’s New Toadies fail to find the weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq, in which task they are bound to fail as no such WMDs possibly exist, they will have to face the ire of not only Iraqis but of the whole peace-loving people of the world. It was after all in the name of such WMDs that the US and UK launched a war against Iraq!

It is not without reason that, as The Asian Age told on June 5, “Support has slipped for the American-led war against terrorism. Majorities in Western Europe and Australia still back the fight, but support has dropped 15 points in France and 10 points in Germany since last summer.”

By the way, while in India, the Pentagon team made clear that even if Indian troops carry the Indian flag while in Iraq, they would have to work under the overall US command. As for some clarifications the GoI sought, they simply skirted the issues, saying they would have to talk to their bosses back home.

WHITHER THE CONGRESS

IT is thus clear that what the government of India wants to have is a so-called “national consensus” on sending troops to Iraq. It is apparently not bothered by the fact that even a so-called national consensus cannot justify the role which our troops, if sent, will have to play in Iraq under the US command. That sending troops to Iraq for mercenary duties cannot be justified even in the name of a national consensus, is something incomprehensible to the people who have no love lost for our country’s or other countries’ independence and sovereignty.

However, what is disconcerting is the fact that even the Congress party seems to be stepping down from its earlier stated position on the issue. As The Indian Express (June 16) says, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, in her letter to the prime minister on June 4, had opposed any proposal for sending the Indian troops to Iraq “under any arrangement other than a UN command or as part of a multinational peace-keeping force that has the explicit mandate of the UN.” However, at the June 15 meeting with the prime minister, the Congress leaders “did not refer to the contents of the letter or reiterate its demand. But it is understood that the party leaders sought clarification on the areas in which the troops could be deployed and under whose command.”

Not only that, Natwar Singh even said, “We will wait for the Pentagon officials to brief the government, and then wait for the government to take a view and only then finalise our stand on the issue.” According to him, “the Congress suggested that the government should consult other parties and important countries neighbouring Iraq.” At the same time, J N Dixit, foreign affairs advisor to Mrs Sonia Gandhi, went so far as to say, “Regional support, if there is, will increase the efficiency of the US in restoring normalcy to Iraq.”

It is apparent from all this that now even Congress leaders are just one step short of acquiescing in the government’s design to send troops to Iraq, and that their concern is the same as the BJP’s --- i e, not to bear the brunt of ignominy alone. That they are still talking of the need of a UN mandate is simply meaningless. At a time when, manipulated by the US and UK, the UN Security Council has recognised the US as the occupying power and has authorised it for Iraq’s ‘reconstruction’ under its supervision, sending troops to Iraq even under a UN mandate cannot obliterate the fact that if India accedes to the US requisition, it would not be anything other than complicity in the first case of colonisation in the post-war period.

But this cannot but cost the Congress party and leaders dearly. To take a parallel example, they played a “soft Hindutva” card in Gujarat and paid a heavy price for it. (Here we would not go into the past cases of their surrender to and compromise with communal forces, for which they always received a severe drubbing.) In exactly the same manner, if they acquiesce in the BJP-led government’s surrender to the US-UK imperialists, they would have to pay no less for it. They have to keep in mind that this acquiescence is not likely to be swallowed by their own ranks because, despite their occasional vacillations and compromises, the Congress governments were always championing the cause of non-alignment, independent and self-reliant development, world peace, total disarmament and anti-imperialism. Their acquiescence with the BJP-led NDA government on the issue of patent bill, insurance privatisation and some other measures has already eroded their credibility to a no insignificant extent.

In sum, with the government out to surrender our independent position and the main opposition party only a step short of acquiescing in this surrender, the coming days appear to be crucial for the country. In such a situation, it is up to the Left and democratic forces in the country, who are not only in political parties but also out of them in large numbers, to rise to the occasion and tell the government that they are not going to tolerate any surrender of our great nation’s prestige and standing in the world community. This is precisely what our anonymous but valued correspondent pleads us to do.