The Indian state is once again conspiring to organize a terrible tragedy in Punjab, reminiscent of that organized in the 1970s-80s. Beginning from May 14, sectarian clashes have been reported in several places in Punjab, including Bathinda, Khanna and Ludhiana, between various Sikh organizations and the followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect. The clashes followed the publication of a picture of the head of the Dera Sacha Sauda allegedly posing as Guru Gobind Singh. A state-wide bandh was called on May 22 by the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC). Various demands have been raised including closure of the Sacha Sauda branches in Punjab as well as action against the chief of the sect. One person has been killed in police firing – he was reportedly shot while trying to scale the wall of a Dera ashram.

It is significant that the Malwa region, where the tension is presently building up, is one of the regions of the state where the peasantry has been very active in the struggle for its livelihood, against the acquisition of land by the state government for SEZ’s and private monopolies and big corporation, as in the case of Trident (Trident is a major industrial group in the country dealing with yarn, hotels, chemicals, industries, marine projects etc). This region has witnessed in recent times, fierce clashes between the peasantry and the state over the issue of rights over the land. There has also been a sharp struggle of the landless peasants and agricultural workers for their rights, with agricultural workers organizing themselves. Throughout Punjab, the peasants, state government employees, and industrial and agricultural workers have been waging a stern struggle in defence of their livelihood, and for their rights.

Who benefits from sectarian violence in Punjab? It is clear that it is the Indian state, the bourgeoisie that wants to destroy the unity of the Punjabi people and liquidate their just struggles. The reactionary bourgeoisie has been desperately trying to divide the peasantry and the working class and impose its own agenda on the people. It is extremely important for the reactionary bourgeoisie to rake up sectarian issues from all sides and incite sectarian violence to advance its aims.

The two major political parties of the ruling class—the Congress and the BJP— are united on this issue. These two parties have vast experience in organizing communal divisions as well as massacres in different parts of the country, including in Punjab. The Congress Party was the principal organizer of the violence and mayhem in Punjab and other parts of India in the eighties and nineties. It is a past master in infiltrating various sects and groups and inciting sectarian violence, and in the present case too, there are many allegations of its involvement in the violence in Punjab. It is significant that both these political parties, as well as the ruling Akali Dal are raising the spectre in the media, of “hitherto dormant militant organizations” becoming active again. In other words, these parties on the one hand want to be free to incite and organize sectarian violence, and on the other hand to brand the people and their organisations who come on the streets in protest as “militants” and “terrorists”. In this manner, these reactionary parties want to create a justification for the suppression and massacre of youth, and all those resisting the state's policies, as was done in the past.

Today, all over the country, and particularly in Punjab and Haryana, the peasantry is up in arms against the massive onslaught on its livelihood in the form of SEZ’s, contract farming, and the corporatisation of agriculture. The working class is fully supporting this just struggle. Three years after the UPA came to power, its program of “reforms with a human face” stands discredited as an anti-worker, anti-peasant and anti-national program in the interests of Indian and foreign finance capital. All the main political parties of the ruling class are committed to this program of liberalization, privatization and globalization, and all of them are in deep crisis. In such conditions, the ruling class is resorting to its tried and tested weapon of organising sectarian strife and unleashing state terrorism to smash the unity of the people and achieve its nefarious goals.

People’s Voice calls on the people of Punjab to resist and expose the evil designs of the ruling class. It calls on the working people in cities and countryside to unite in struggle for their rights. They should thwart the conspiracy of the State in its plan to unleash state terrorism and drown the people in blood.