Hundreds of innocent people have been killed and injured in the dastardly terrorist strikes in Mumbai on 26-28, November. People of the whole country have been witness to the widely televised two-day long siege of Taj Hotel, Oberoi Hotel and Nariman House. The Communist Ghadar Party of India strongly condemns this terrorist crime and extends its heartfelt condolences to the families of all victims. We salute the brave hotel and railway workers and others who laid down their lives trying to save others!

Various accusations are being made or hinted at by different narrow-minded political interests. One view being spread is that some new group called Deccan Mujahideen is responsible. Another is that Lakshar-e-Taiba or some other group in Pakistan is responsible. Yet another is that this is the handiwork of Al Qeida. We must not fall prey to the stock propaganda. We must calmly and soberly reflect and question each of these claims and study the motivation behind them.

To be calm and think soberly means to ask oneself the question as to who gains from this wave of terrorist strikes in Mumbai at this time. The simple reason to ask this question is that those who gain are likely to be the real organisers.

In this context, it is useful to also think seriously as to who gained from the 9/11 terrorist strikes in New York and Washington in 2001.

The 9/11 terrorist strike was used by the rulers in the United States to create the spectre of terrorism, build the “coalition of the willing” to wage war and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq.  It led to the strengthening of US military presence and penetration in Asia. The strike on the twin towers served the interests of US imperialism more than anyone else. It served the US government to trample on democratic rights and civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism.

The 26-28 November strike in Mumbai will be used by the ruling bourgeois class of India to bring its two principal parties – Congress and BJP -, together, to more effectively rally the masses of people behind them in the so-called war against terrorism. It will be used to beef up the police, paramilitary and military apparatus of the Indian State, which have of late been compromised in the eyes of the people, as being linked to terrorism and terrorists of various hues. It will be used to justify the existing draconian laws and perhaps passing of new laws, to further curtail the democratic rights and freedoms of the people. It will be used to divert the working people from the struggle against the attacks on their livelihood, which have intensified following the global capitalist crisis. It can also be used to whip up hatred against Pakistan and to justify an Indian military operation against that country. In other words, the Indian bourgeoisie has much to gain.

The 26-28 November strike in Mumbai will be used by the US imperialists to justify escalating their military presence in Afghanistan and increasing penetration in Pakistan. It is to be noted that Barack Obama, who will become the new US President in January 2009, has been advocating less US troops in Iraq and more US troops in Afghanistan in the name of wiping out Al Qeida, which he says is hiding in Pakistan. The Mumbai strikes, which are being called India’s 9/11, provide the pretext to put this plan into practice. In other words, US imperialism definitely stands to gain.

Overall, all imperialists and capitalist ruling classes stand to gain, because this ‘war against terrorism’ serves to divert the class struggle against capitalism. It serves to divert the struggle against the attempts of the bourgeoisie to shift the burden of the capitalist crisis on to the backs of the working people everywhere.

In the past, ‘war against communism’ was the plank that imperialism used to pursue world hegemony. Anyone who opposed US imperialism used to branded as a communist. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new pretext was needed. ‘War against terrorism’ is the pretext in this post Cold War period, to persecute any force that stands up against imperialism and the bourgeois offensive.

CGPI calls on all the working people, all progressive forces and all communists to beware of the nefarious designs of imperialist powers. We must beware of the plots of the US and the Indian imperialist bourgeoisie. Let us not believe what is spread in the news media. Let us not get divided or diverted from our common struggle against the imperialist system, against the Indian bourgeoisie and the Indian State, and in defence of the rights of all working people.