Powell talks peace in India, Pakistan but...
Anglo-U.S. strategy is 'divide & conquer'
By Michael Kramer
The possibility of another war between India and Pakistan
has greatly increased in the last few weeks. Tens of thousands
of soldiers have been deployed along the approximately 1,500
miles of border between the two countries, whose combined
population is more than 1.15 billion. Both countries fought
major wars against each other in 1948, 1965 and 1971. Since the
last war, both have introduced nuclear weapons into their
arsenals.
The flashpoint of the conflict is the region of Kashmir,
which has been divided between India and Pakistan since 1947.
The division is a legacy of the so-called British Empire, which
encouraged antagonism between different nationalities as a
means of rule throughout South Asia, and wherever else it had
colonies.
On Dec 13, 2001, a heavily armed squad attacked the Indian
parliament in New Delhi with automatic weapons. The Indian
government alleges that the attackers came from Pakistan.
According to a publication of the Socialist Unity Centre of
India (Proletarian Era, Jan. 1), "The Indian government is in
reality trying to take full advantage of the Dec. 13 incident
just as the USA took full advantage of the terrorist strikes on
Sept 11. At a time when Indian capitalism, too, is plagued with
intense, all-out crisis, political, social, educational, moral,
ethical, cultural--the terrorist attack on Parliament has
provided a golden opportunity, so to say, to the Indian
government."
Both India and Pakistan are multinational countries. Islam
is the predominant religion in Pakistan, while Hinduism
predominates in India. India legally defines itself as a
secular country, even though a right-wing nationalist
Hindu-based political party governs.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will be making a trip
to the region in mid-January. The Bush administration says that
Powell will try to get the two countries to back down from
their confrontational stands. The details of his real agenda
are not known. But they cannot be in the interests of the
workers and peasants of India or Pakistan, whose ruling classes
are allies of the U.S.
Current U.S. foreign policy in Central Asia relies on
Pentagon access to Pakistani air bases as well as large numbers
of Pakistani ground forces to secure the border between
Pakistan and Afghanistan. War between Pakistan and India would
disrupt this part of the plan.
With a population of over 1 billion, India cannot be easily
ignored by the U.S., either. Since the collapse of the Soviet
Union the Indian bourgeoisie has moved to align India closer to
the U.S. and has retreated from many of its independent foreign
policy positions. India is now seen by Washington as a
potential strategic ally in future confrontations with
China.
There are several large communist parties in India. At a
press conference on Jan. 11 the Communist Party of India
(Marxist-Leninist) called for nationwide protests on Jan. 18
against Secretary of State Powell's visit. The CPI (M-L)
stated, "Weakening of India's direct ties with Pakistan is only
emboldening and enabling the U.S. to deepen its intervention in
the subcontinent, which can only prove suicidal for the basic
interests of both India and Pakistan."
Another party, the Communist Ghadar Party of India,
commented in a statement on Jan. 10, "The Anglo-American
imperialists have always been bitter enemies of the peoples of
South Asia and their strivings for progress and emancipation.
The Anglo-American imperialists do not want the peoples of
South Asia to live together in peace and address their
problems. They do not want South Asia to break out of the
imperialist chain. ... The problems of peace and security of
the peoples of India and Pakistan cannot be left in the hands
of the bourgeoisie. ...We must not allow our rulers to foist
war on us. We must unite and oppose all imperialist military
and diplomatic intervention in South Asia."
Reprinted from the Jan. 24, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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