The response of the Indian state to the terrorist attack in Lahore on Sri Lankan cricketers is further proof that it is pursuing a systematic policy to whip up anti-Pakistan chauvinist war hysteria. It is putting immense pressure on Pakistan, in collusion with the US leadership, to achieve the imperialist goals of US and India in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Indian state expressed its sympathies to the Sri Lankan players and government, but not to the people of Pakistan. Instead, the official response was a sickening one of gloating at the tragedy. Home Minister P Chidambaram, denying India’s role in the Lahore terror attack, said “Pakistan is paying the price for not heeding our advice”. Chidambaram said, “Unless you dismantle terror, one day or the other you’ll be hurt.” Further on he said, “We have put enormous pressure on Pakistan, but the response is in Pakistan’s hands.”

The Indian state’s response to the latest terror strike in the sub-continent can only be understood as a threat to Pakistan that it will continue on its anti-Pakistan, war mongering, imperialist course. It has no interest in ensuring peace in South Asia on the basis of resolving outstanding issues between India and Pakistan. Far from this, it is actually viewing the crisis situation in Pakistan as an opportunity to advance its own geo-political interests in the region. When former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf visited India to participate in the India Today conclave, the Indian state refused to provide him the courtesies due to such a person. It denied him permission to visit various places, and did not provide him security at the Jama Masjid in the national capital, preventing him from addressing a scheduled meeting after prayers outside the mosque.

When the Mumbai terror attacks took place, the Pakistani government as well as public at large expressed immediate solidarity with the victims and the people of India. How come then, and why, did the Indian state pointedly refuse to reciprocate after the Lahore terror strike?

The answer lies in the “coercive diplomacy” being pursued by the Indian state. The Indian state does not care about the victims of terrorism, whether in India or abroad. It is simply interested in exploiting every terrorist attack to advance its internal and geo political aims. This is why, after every terror strike whether in India or in Pakistan, it is quick to advance conspiracy theories linking the strike with the Pakistani government, and more specifically with the Pakistani Army and the ISI, almost as if the Indian state has advance information of these attacks!

“Coercive diplomacy” means to use all methods to paint Pakistan as the ‘source of international terrorism’, as a ‘failed state’. It means that the Indian state will treat the Pakistani people as its enemies, and will oppose the striving of the peoples of India and Pakistan for lasting principled peace.

Within India, the ruling class wants to rally the toilers and tillers behind itself, in the name of “war against terrorism”. Terrorism and “war against terrorism”, just like communalism and secularism, have been time tested weapons of the ruling class to disrupt, divide, and paralyse the working masses. In the present conditions of the deep economic crisis, the ruling class is looking to fascisation, militarisation and war as a way to stabilize its rule, increase its profits, and suppress the opposition of workers and peasants. Side by side, electoral brinkmanship is also being carried out, with the Congress Party trying to prove to the Indian bourgeoisie and US imperialism that it can do a better job of fulfilling their aspirations than other parties like BJP.

The Indian ruling class is coordinating with US to advance its imperialist aims in Asia. It wants to resolve the Kashmir dispute in its favour as part of a deal with US. It is calling all Kashmiris as terrorists, and putting pressure on Pakistan, directly and through US, to openly block any support to the Kashmiri struggle from people in Pakistan. It is also preparing to deploy its armed forces in Afghanistan in collaboration with the US, in the hope of securing a share of the Afghanistan pie. The US is putting immense pressure on Pakistan government to deploy its armed forces to crush all opposition to US within Pakistan and in Afghanistan, by declaring them as “Taliban” and “Al quaida”. It is using its leverage in the various institutions of the Pakistani state, political parties, the army and so on, as well as its important role in the economy of Pakistan to achieve its goals. The US wants the Kashmir issue to fester, so that it can keep India and Pakistan at loggerheads, with both serving its aims in the region.

The Indian state’s “coercive diplomacy” and warmongering against Pakistan are against the interests of the peoples of the subcontinent. Indian ruling class wants to replace the Pakistani ruling class as the trusted ally and strategic partner of the US in the region. It is puffed up with arrogance. However, like the Pakistani people are paying for the crimes of their rulers, our working class and people will have to pay for the crimes of our rulers, if we follow the same course.