news from the cpi(m)
March 27, 2009
DEFEAT THE COMMUNAL FORCES, UNITE AGAINST TERRORISM
(Highlights of the Pamphlet on "Defeat The Communal Forces, Unite
Against Terrorism"
1. The experience over the last five years has been that the
communal BJP-RSS combine still poses a grave threat to the
secular fabric of India. Even though the Congress-led government
came to power on a mandate against the communal forces, it
refused to take stringent action against them. Moreover, the
pursuance of neoliberal policies by the UPA has had an adverse
impact on the livelihood and the living conditions of the people
and this is bound to generate discontent and becomes fertile
breeding grounds for their communal politics.
2. In recent years there has been an intensified threat to the
security of the country and its citizens by various terrorist
forces and groups. It is essential to mobilize the Indian people
and strengthen their unity as a political counter to these
forces, apart from the administrative and other measures to be
taken. The CPI(M) holds that the fight against communalism and
terrorism are interlinked.
3. The BJP and its RSS cohorts made every effort to utilize the
levers of state power to push forward sectarian policies, often
backed by violence that targets minorities, as in Gujarat,
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, or where it was a
coalition partner in the government such as in Orissa. The
communal violence targeted at the minorities, both Christian and
Muslim. Throughout the country the BJP-RSS-VHP-Bajrang Dal
communal violence was orchestrated against the Muslims.
4. The communal poison which continues to be fed to students in
highly toxic textbooks in the BJP states is another case in
point. Academic institutions, writers and artistes have been a
special target of attack. Women and dalits are also targets of
the communal forces.
5. Even as the violence in Orissa and Karnataka continued unabated,
the Central Government did not have the political will or
initiative to uphold the rights of minorities, refusing to use
the constitutional provisions available to it and direct the
state government to take action against the guilty individuals
and organizations like the Bajrang Dal despite ample evidence.
6. Despite a Supreme Court directive to hold CBI enquiry into the
communal violence in Gujarat in 2002, the UPA has failed to
initiate concrete steps in this regard.
7. Be it the question of implementing the Sri Krishna Commission
Report or taking decisive action against the Bajrang Dal, the
Congress-led government has displayed a distinct lack of
political resolve against communalists.
8. The Hindutva brigade also practiced the worst form of
reactionary obscurantist vigilantism and moral policing in the
country. The anti-woman face of the Hindutva brigade was exposed
in the attack on young women in a pub in Mangalore by the Sri
Ram Sene (SRS) where women were brutally beaten up in the full
glare of the media and the BJP government in Karnataka remains a
mute spectator.
9. The BJP tried to incite communal passions on the Setu Samudram
project. While it was the BJP which first gave the green signal
to the project, it did an about turn as it suddenly realized
that the setu issue could fuel its communal agenda. Shamefully
the Congress-led government vacillated on the issue helping the
BJP keep the issue alive.
10. The series of terrorist attacks in the country shows that the
Congress-led government has failed to revitalize the
intelligence agencies and the security set-up to track down the
terror networks.
11. Instead of strengthening these basic requirements, the
government went for the option of strengthening the Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act. Shamefully, the Congress-led
government has brought back draconian and widely misused POTA
provisions like detention without bail for 180 days, three years
imprisonment for withholding information, etc., within the UAPA.
The CPI(M) and Left parties were the only parties in Parliament
to oppose such measures.
12. The double standards of the BJP on terrorism stand fully
exposed. While it has no compunction in ascribing all terrorist
activities to the Muslim community, it protects the Hindutva
extremists accused in the Malegaon blasts case by branding the
ATS investigation as prosecution of "Hindu religious figures".
13. The CPI(M) argues that there is a need to create an atmosphere
in our country where communalism cannot feed terrorism and
terrorism cannot be used as an instrument for communal
polarisation.
the full text of the pamphlet is available at:
http://vote.cpim.org/sites/default/files/communalism.pdf
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