India Must Reject the American Agenda of Colonisation and Balkanisation of Iraq

(Handout issued by CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya at press conference held at the Party’s State Office in Kolkata on 10 April, 2003)

Three weeks after the US-led war of occupation began in Iraq, the country has been pushed into an abyss of unprecedented devastation. While the people and forces of Iraq are still offering significant resistance in different parts of the country, the US has already started installing a set of puppet rulers. Bush and Blair are clearly pursuing an agenda of disintegration or balkanisation of Iraq on the pattern of erstwhile Yugoslavia. It is a most brazen display and execution of Orwellian doublespeak wherein “freedom” means colonisation and “reconstruction” means balkanisation, systematic destruction and disintegration.
The need of the hour now is to squarely oppose and resist this Anglo-American imperialist agenda while standing by the Iraqi people in every possible way at this hour of national and humanitarian disaster. The growing anti-war opinion and movement of the Indian people has finally succeeded in forcing the Vajpayee government to adopt a parliamentary resolution against the war. It is however quite revealing that while the Vajpayee government agreed to adopt a resolution in Hindi, it lacked the courage to condemn the war in English, the language of Bush and Blair. We must also realise that a mere word of condemnation at this stage is certainly not enough and pressure must be mounted on the Government of India to reject and confront the emerging Anglo-American blueprint for the future of Iraq.
We strongly condemn the statement made yesterday by external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha on the floor of Rajya Sabha requesting a pre-emptive US-led military strike on Pakistan. He and his colleagues have repeatedly suggested that Pakistan is an ideal candidate for inviting a US-led war without UN support. This invitation being extended to the American war mongers constitutes a direct threat to India’s own national interests. At a time when the people of India are worried about the future of Iraq and about the impact and implications of this war for our own country and for the whole of South Asia and the third world, the war-mongers in Delhi are busy dancing to the American tune of war.
Regardless of the future shape of things in Iraq, the anti-war movement in India must be intensified to safeguard India’s own freedom and vital national interests from the spreading tentacles and tightening grip of the Anglo-American imperialists. In this context, we welcome every sincere expression of the Indian people’s anger and anguish and call for broadening and intensifying the anti-war anti-imperialist movement. A powerful rejuvenation of the Indian people’s anti-imperialist legacy will not only help halt the Anglo-American war machine in its tracks, it will also pave the way for giving a most effective rebuff to the merchants of communal fascism in India.