Divide and paralyse the people

In the days preceding the terrorist attack in Mumbai, the TV and news media have been full of talk of “Hindu terror” and “Muslim terror”. This has accompanied accounts of an ever-widening conspiracy involving various Hindu groups, sadhvis, sadhus and even retired and serving Army officers, that was supposed to have organised the bomb blasts that took place in Malegaon and other places. Each day, lurid details about the involvement of these people in various activities is either released or ‘leaked’ to the press by the spokespersons of the Anti-Terrorism Squad dealing with the case, although hard evidence of their connection to the blasts has been conspicuously missing. Videos are aired day and night of the various arrested persons being hustled into the court rooms and being taken back to jails. Dozens of discussions are being aired on various TV channels on the goings on, with virulent opinions being publicly aired either in support or against those involved, and always comparing so-called “Hindu terror” with “Muslim terror”.  Meanwhile, L.K.Advani and other spokespersons of the BJP have been denouncing the UPA government for torturing sadhus and sadhvis and hurting the religious sentiments of the people, while Manmohan Singh has declared that he is “pained” to see the BJP defending terrorism just because Hindus are involved.

What is one to make out of all this clamour that is being raised at this time?  At a time when people are reeling under the blows of soaring prices and the full blows of the unprecedented global economic crisis are yet to fall on them, the ruling class parties are together working to keep the people’s attention focused on communal terror as the main danger facing the country. On the flimsiest of evidence, they are painting a picture of shadowy Muslim groups and Hindu groups who are out to kill and maim innocent people. Going from past experience, various people will be thrown into jail and tortured, but the real truth never comes out, the real organisers are never punished, and the terrorist incidents never cease. All that happens is that an atmosphere of fear and terror is created, whereby people are even afraid to come out on the streets and ordinary people are suspected on account of their religious or other affiliations. This kind of atmosphere is very helpful for the ruling class and its political parties to pose as the ‘saviours’ of the people and to push through whatever anti-people agenda they have in mind with no real opposition. Under the cover of the bomb blasts that have repeatedly taken place over the past year and more, the Congress and the BJP have been whipping up opinion in favour of strengthening the apparatus of repression and introducing new repressive laws in the name of putting an end to terrorism.

At the same time, the two major parties of the ruling class, the Congress and the BJP, are each maneuvering to put the other on the defensive and come out on top, in the conditions where crucial elections are taking place to several state assemblies and general elections are also around the corner. Initially, the Congress, as the party heading the central government, was making a big show of going after “Islamic terrorists” in different parts of the country. However, particularly after the raid on Batla House in New Delhi, serious doubts were raised about the truth behind the official version of what took place, and even some elements within the government began to support the increasing demands for an inquiry into what happened. The BJP, as was to be expected, took up as its main slogan that the Congress was “soft” on terror and unable to deal with it. Now, with the sudden discovery of a so-called “Hindu terror” network, the Congress has got the BJP on the back foot, and is pointing to the BJP and its allied groups as supporters of terrorism. In short, within the overall clamour about “terrorism”, which serves the interests of the ruling class and its agenda as a whole, the two major parties of the bourgeoisie are dueling with each other to come out on top.

The people of our country must see through the designs of the ruling class parties. We must clearly understand that it is the ruling class, with the state at its command, which has been the biggest perpetrator of terror and violence against our people. In order to defend its own narrow interests, the ruling bourgeois class has committed untold atrocities, killed thousands of innocent people, ruined the lives of countless others, thrown lakhs into jails, and so on. All of this has been legitimised by fascist laws such as AFSPA, TADA, POTA, NSA, etc. At the same time, it is an open secret that the Indian state also works covertly, through shadowy groups armed, financed and supported by it, to achieve the same ends when it does not want to openly show its hand. Although it calls itself a democracy, the apparatus of repression by the state is being strengthened,. The propaganda about “terrorism” carried out by unknown groups operating everywhere is in the service of the drive of the bourgeoisie to attain global imperial status, and crush all opposition and resistance to this agenda.