The UPA government has struck a deal called the 123 agreement, on transfer of nuclear technology from the US to India, with the Bush administration. This agreement is part of the strategic alliance which the ruling bourgeoisie has been forging with the US imperialists. The UPA government is now trying to ramrod this deal and this strategic alliance between the US and India down the throats of the Indian people.

This strategic alliance between the US and India is an alliance that is against the interests of the people of India, and against the interests of the peoples of South Asia. It is against all the countries and peoples who are trying to chart their own economic and political course, free from the dictate of the US imperialists. It is an out and out imperialist alliance that embroils India in the plans of the US for conquest of Asia and the world. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, US imperialism is viewing the peoples of the Islamic countries and China as major obstacles to its plans for world domination. US imperialism wants to use the Indian people as cannon fodder in its plans against these countries. The Indo-US alliance is an alliance that endangers India’s sovereignty. It is an alliance that fuels the arms race in the region as well as hostility between India and her neighbours. It is an alliance that must be rejected and blocked. The treachery of the ruling class, which is the architect of this alliance, must be exposed before the entire people of the country.

The apologists for this alliance are making out that they have suddenly discovered great merits in an alliance with the US. Speaking the language of American pragmatism, they want the Indian people to forget what US imperialism represents. Indian people can ill afford to forget this. US imperialism is the most bloodthirsty, war mongering imperialist power the world has ever seen. Following the Second World War, it emerged as the leader of world imperialism, and took up the task of crushing the revolution and liberation struggles of the peoples through fire and sword. In Greece and Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia, Iran and Nicaragua, Palestine and so many other countries in all continents of the globe, people have suffered the tragic consequences of US intervention.

Following the end of the Cold War, the peoples of former Yugoslav Federation, Somalia and Haiti, of Afghanistan and Iraq have been the victims of US imperialism’s plans for conquest of the world. US imperialism is threatening Iran, Korea, Cuba and other countries. It is trying to dictate and direct the course of world affairs, in a direction that will ensure the complete overlordship of the US over the whole world. For this purpose, it has launched the “war against terrorism”. As a result of its activities against the peoples and nations, and against peace, US imperialism is isolated and hated by the peoples of the world, including the people of the US. In these conditions, the US is looking to India to be its strategic ally — economic, political and military — to achieve its aims. Why should the Indian working class and people agree to this?

The ruling Indian big bourgeoisie is striving hard to transform India into a world class imperialist power in the next two decades. Its capital is spreading wings to other countries, even in such strategic spheres as oil exploration, minerals and metals and defence production. It is bolstering its armed forces, its nuclear and conventional weapons, strengthening its technological base, and striking strategic alliances with various imperialist powers. Every other day, there are news reports of the armed forces of India and the armed forces of other powers having joint exercises, and of new deals in defence equipment between India and other countries. The Indian big bourgeoisie is enthusiastic about the Indo US alliance as it sees this as an instrument to achieve its imperialist aims.

The plans of the Indian big bourgeoisie to become a big world class imperialist power pose a grave danger to the working class and people of India and to other peoples of Asia and the world. Their consequence will be a great intensification of foreign imperialist economic, political and military embroilment both in India and in the region. Within our region, the ongoing arms race will be stepped up, and friction between India and her neighboars will increase. For their part, various imperialist powers like the US will also like to see a state of tension and hostility between India and her neighbours.

The UPA government and all the apologists for the Indo US strategic alliance are declaring that all those who oppose the Indo US strategic alliance are “anti-national”. This is the typical game that the Indian bourgeoisie has played for the past 60 years and more. It has never hesitated to collaborate with the imperialists and reactionaries to advance its own interests, even if this collaboration is to the detriment of the working class and peoples. 60 years ago, it collaborated with British colonialism in organizing partition of the country and drowning the anti colonial liberation struggle of our people in blood. It did not hesitate in calling the communists as anti national for exposing the alliance with British imperialism. In 1971, the Indian rulers signed the Indo-Soviet Treaty which was a strategic alliance detrimental to our people and the peoples of this region. The communists who opposed this alliance were labeled as anti national and US agents. Today, it is preparing conditions to call those opposed to its alliance with US as pro fundamentalists, as working for Pakistan or China!

Communists must scornfully reject the pressure of bourgeois nationalism — of supporting “one’s own” imperialist bourgeoisie against others. Instead, the working class fights for that policy which is in the interest of workers of all lands, the peoples of all lands. Communists must go on the offensive and not be in the defensive for even a moment.

The constitution of India permits the government of the day to make major policy changes and international commitments and treaties, without necessary parliamentary approval, let alone engaging the people of India in an informed discussion and then allowing the people to decide. In 1991, the minority government of then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao signed the Dunkel Draft and joined the WTO in the teeth of mass opposition, with the declaration that he did not need the approval of parliament and the people. Neither the Vajpayee government that initiated the strategic alliance with the US, nor the present Manmohan Singh government which has continued on the same course, has thought it even necessary to discuss what is the content of the strategic alliance between the US and India in full view of parliament and the people.

Should important questions like the relationship of India with other countries, questions of war and peace, be left as a prerogative of the government of the day? Or should it be made constitutionally obligatory that no international treaty is deemed valid, unless and until it is placed before the Indian people for informed discussion and debate, and parliamentary approval is made mandatory after debate in parliament and the public. The working class and communists demand such a constitutional change.

There is a division amongst the ruling circles on how much India should commit to the US in its alliance, and what safeguards India must secure from the US and other big powers to ensure that its strategic options are not limited to what the US permits. These divisions present an opportunity to the working class to not only block the strategic alliance, but also to push for such Constitutional reforms that will prevent the ruling class from selling out the sovereignty of the country.