POPULAR ANGER ERUPTS IN BENGAL AGAINST INDO-US AIR EXERCISES

No To This Poisonous Embrace

B Prasant

 CPI(M) and Left Front supporters protesting the joint air exercises at Kalaikunda air base in Bengal

STATEWIDE demonstrations rejected the Indo-US joint air exercises as an instance of compromising the sovereignty of the nation. 

From the Darjeeling district in north Bengal to Kolkata, Kalaikunda and beyond to the southern Sunderbans, more than 1.5 million people came out in strident protest against the Indo-US military duet in the sky.

The CPI(M) and the Left Front earlier gave a call for a statewide protest on November 7 against the joint exercises.

The biggest rally was held at Kalaikunda air force base where the joint exercises took place.  More than 1.5 lakh people gathered at the Kendua grass field adjacent to the air force base and started to raise tumultuous slogans against US imperialism and against the joint exercises, right from the morning until sundown.  The assemblage covered the full 20 acres of the field. 

Such was the pressure created by the rally on the air force personnel concerned that a reinforced barricade was quickly thrown up beyond the Kalaikunda perimeter.  However, as Anil Biswas and Biman Basu had repeatedly stressed, the rally remained very peaceful.

During the rally, an effigy of Bush was burnt. Significant also was the burning of a replica of the Indo-US agreement defence agreement.  The flames leaped high, the chain put around a large-scale relief map of India broke in several places and fell to the ground.

The huge rallying cry that went up from the assemblage must have created more than just unease among the participants of the joint exercises and their lackeys in the corporate media.  The latter has for some days now been acutely trying to run down the protest demonstration of the CPI(M) and the Left Front and has been offering support for and justification of the joint air exercises.

Principal speakers at the Kalaikunda rally were CPI(M) leaders Dipak Sarkar and Sudhir Giri, as well as Prabodh panda of the CPI.

Protest rallies were held in all the districts of Bengal throughout 7 November.

IN KOLKATA

The Kolkata rally held opposite the USIS in the core of the metropolis, and addressed among others by state secretary of the Bengal CPI(M), Anil Biswas, saw thousands of people from all walks of life come forth to show their condemnation of the joint exercise. 

The people were visibly angry with the union government for having been callous enough to organise the air exercise with the leading imperialist power, a power that has always been against humanity, nationhood, sovereignty, and independence around the globe.

Kolkata and Bengal which remain deeply in love with the people of Vietnam and Cuba for their heroic struggle against US hegemonic attempts, could never learn about, except in great fulminating anger, the manner in which the UPA government chose to agree to hold the joint military exercises on Indian soil, and that too, on the day of the October Revolution.

Anil Biswas said that the joint exercises would surely undermine the national security imperative of India. The exercises were but the advanced post of more evil things to come and these would certainly include the setting up of military bases in India.

The US, pointed out Anil Biswas, aimed at taking over the national assets of the countries of South and Southeast Asia through intervention, militarily if needed.  The CPI(M) would not remain a spectator to the train of events that would follow and it would mobilise popular opinion against the moves.

Anil Biswas raised the issue of the Volcker report and said that the report was not a final or a conclusive one.  He pointed out that it was not possible to ignore a US conspiracy behind the attempt to defame the country’s foreign minister. This seemed to be a planned attempt at maligning all those who protested against the occupation of Iraq and the brutalisation of the Iraqi people.

Addressing a rally at Krishnagar on November 6, Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee described the joint exercise as an attempt to drown in the river the sovereignty of the nation itself.  He wondered why the union government would go ahead with organising joint exercises with a power whose imperialist credentials were impeccable.

Two long processions –– one from Barasat and the other from Ultadanga crossing converged on the Kolkata airport in the morning of November 7.  A vast assemblage gathered near the airport with a myriad of red flags and banners to shout slogans against the joint exercises.  The principal speaker here was senior CPI(M) leader and Bengal Left Front chairman, Biman Basu.

Biman Basu said that the exercise was aimed at interfering with India’s sovereignty and security. He pointed out that the present union government by acquiescing to the US pressure in holding the exercises has committed a grave blunder. 

The independent foreign policy of India was being jeopardised, said Biman Basu.  The CPI(M), he said, would continue to organise protests against the joint military exercises by taking the mass of the people along.  Other speakers included Subhas Chakraborty (CPI-M) and Naren De (Forward Bloc).

PROTESTS ON ARRIVAL

An effigy of Bush being burnt by protestors at Kalaikunda air base

Wide-ranging programmes of demonstration and agitation were organised by the Bengal unit of the CPI(M) the moment the aircraft carrying US personnel landed at the Kolkata Airport on 5 November.  

Demonstrations were organised also at the Kalaikunda air force base where the joint exercise of Indian and US pilots were to take place.

Demonstrations were also held at the Bagdogra airport in the Darjeeling district.

The CPI(M) and the Left parties have already lodged a strong note of protest with the union government over the issue, which, they pointed out, would undermine the independent foreign policy of the country.

No sooner had the cavernous DC 10 aircraft touched down at the Kolkata airport early in the afternoon of November 5 than thousands of demonstrators holding high the Red banner rushed towards the exit and started shouting slogans against the joint exercises.

Such was the fierceness of the demonstration that the US air force personnel would keep delaying alighting from the aircraft and then, having alighted, would not go outside of the airport to the hotel where the Indian air force had put them up.

Once they went to the hotel, they met with another round of stormy demonstration with black flags in thousands being waved about.

The departure time of the US air force personnel to Kalaikunda air force base was delayed till midnight when two aircraft carrying them sneaked out of the Kolkata airport to land in stealth at the Kalaikunda base.

It must have come to the US air force officers as a rude shock to find a full-fledged demonstration going on at the Kalaikunda air force station.  A few curious US air force personnel drove near the perimeter of the base in motorised vehicles to take a look at, and perhaps photograph, as is their wont, the demonstrators, when the latter rushed at the boundary with black flags, shouting slogans ‘Go back!’ The US air force personnel hastily scrambled away for the safety of the interiors of the base. 

State secretary of the Bengal unit of the CPI(M), Anil Biswas has said that as long as the union government chose to continue with the joint Indo-US air force exercises, the present programme of demonstrations statewide would continue, and the movement would be democratic and peaceful sans anarchy.

Anil Biswas iterated that the CPI(M) was of the firm opinion that there should be no joint exercises on Indian soil; there should be no US bases set up in India; and India must not abandon an independent foreign policy.

Strongly rebuffing the comments of union defence minister Pranab Mukherjee, Anil Biswas said that the CPI(M) would never dismiss any joint military exercises with imperialist powers, as ‘routine’ and that the demonstrations represented an important attempt towards the preservation of sovereignty and security of the nation.  Biswas commented to say that those who supported the imperialist forces in any manner would be swept out like chaff from the soil of Bengal.