Monday, July 11, 2016

MODI'S VISIT TO US: ALL THE WAY TO WASHINGTON TO GENUFLECT. \ ORLANDO MASSACRE IN THE US : UNENDING WARS ABROAD - ESCALATING VIOLENCE AT HOME.

Modi's visit to US: All the Way to Washington to Genuflect.
(these articles published in CLASS STRUGGLE, monthly organ of CPI(ML).

In yet another visit the US, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to have agreed to all the demands made by the US imperialist monsters. This process of overtly aligning with the US imperialism began when Vajpayee was the PM and continued through the UPA and NDA governments.

According to press reports quoting diplomatic sources, the US officials expressed their “displeasure” over the slow pace of reforms, particularly in the field of market access, intellectual property rights, retrospective tax and goods and services tax, in official-level joint meeting.

On his part, Modi assured Obama that the issues related to the market access for US companies will be thrashed out in the Trade Policy Forum due to be held before the end of this year. Modi immediately generated business to US companies by agreeing to start preparatory work on the designated site in India for six AP 1000 nuclear reactors to be built by the Westinghouse and to the finance package for this project to be arranged by the Export- Import Bank of US. The finalization of the contract will be signed in June 2017. There is a confusion in the Indian press whether the Westinghouse reactors would be erected in Gujarat or Andhra Pradesh. The joint statement merely said it will be at a designated place. Modi described this as the “largest of its kind”, he did not only paid attention to the safety of Indian people but also not even bothered to calculate the cost of electricity to the end-user. For this break- neck speed decision, Modi is rewarded with a promise to support fully the entry of India into Nuclear Supply Group and Missile Technology Control Regime. Back home Modi presented this as a symbol of Superpower status for India. Notwithstanding these claims, it is clear that India’s civil nuclear programme will be under full control of the US imperialism.

The joint statement announced the ‘finalisation of the text of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement” which will be signed shortly. This will give access to the Indian military bases for US armed forces as a routine affair. Modi went a step ahead and said India is open to other such
agreements, such as Communication and Information Security Memorandum of agreement, which would facilitate further expansion of bilateral defence co-operation in practical ways”. The military ties between the two countries further pushed with Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) which included items covering naval systems, air systems and other weapon systems. The US promised to assist India in building an aircraft carrier. Thus knot by knot the US imperialists are toeing India closer to its strategic aims as a junior partner.

This is clearly visible when it comes to the so- called co-operation on Asia –Pacific region. As a part of “US-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia- Pacific and Indian Ocean Region”. Though the joint statement used subtle words in this regard, the US imperialism pinned down India to specific action such as US-India maritime security dialogue and road map to become Priority partners in this region. India is made a part of the US hegemonic design which makes India to confront China in South China sea. This ties India to the chariot wheels of the US’s world hegemonic designs.

Back home Modi showed his servile nature to imperialist masters. Within a fortnight, his government allowed 100 per cent FDI in defence production, aviation retail business, pharmaceuticals through automatic route. The only sectors which are not allowed for the entry of FDIs are lottery, gambling, real estate investment trusts, atomic energy and Railway operations. This will give away every sector of Indian economy to the imperialist domination conceding the demand for more access to the Indian market by the imperialist companies.It plans to perpetuate the dependence of India for its military needs on the imperialist countries, particularly US imperialism. With their regional hegemonic ambitions, the Indian ruling classes will resort to raking up national chauvinism against the neighbouring countries to divert the people’s attention from the hegemonic designs of imperialist powers as well as regional ambitions of Indian ruling elite in south Asia and Indian Ocean.

This should be stopped. India needs an independent, sovereign foreign policy that serves the interests if the country and people by establishing good economic and friendly relations with the
neighbouring countries and by not joining hands with the imperialist powers against the other countries particularly the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. We must oppose the campaign that sings peons about the virtues of US-India alliance and demand that India
should come out of the clutches of US imperialism.

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Orlando Massacre in the US: Unending Wars abroad – Escalating Violence at Home.

A lone gunman, identified as Omar Mateen, 29 years, killed 50 people and injured 53 more at an LGBT nightclub, the Pulse, in Orlando, Florida state early morning of 12th June. He was son of immigrants from Afghanistan and US citizen. He was killed in firefight with police.
At the time of shooting, the nightclub was packed with 350 people who had turned out for a music night. Many of the victims were Hispanic. What was going in the mind of Omar Mateen will likely never be known with any certainty.

However it is clear that this horrific tragedy in Orlando is only the latest in a series of bloody incidents. Omar Mateen made a call to 911 (emergency number) at the time of attack declaring his allegiance to the ISIS. Just hours after the attack, the ISIS declared that it was “carried out by an Islamic state fighter”. The truth in this claim may not be ascertained, but it thoroughly exposes the reactionary nature of ISIS.

The FBI acknowledged that it questioned Mateen three times, twice in 2013 in connection with his alleged inflammatory statement and in 2014 in relation to his possible ties to Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, who grew up in Florida and went to fight for an Islamist militia in the US-backed war for regime change in Syria. The FBI said that Mateen did not pose a threat. Mateen’s father said that his son voiced strong anti-gay sentiments and his son’s actions had “nothing to do with religion” So, the exact nature of Mateen’s motives remains unclear. The FBI also was skeptic about the claim of ISIS that his fighter had committed this crime.

Mateen worked for a private security contractor that served government agencies providing security personnel. So he had firearms and security officer’s licenses. So it is not correct to attribute the crime to the availability of firearms in the US society. Mateen lived in fort Pierce, 120 miles away from Florida city, where one third of the population subsists below the poverty line and the official unemployment rate is over 16 per cent.

The lone-gunmen-attacks have become virtually a daily fact of life in the US. There were 280 mass shootings in the US in 2014. There were 372 mass shootings in 2015 leaving 475 dead and 1870 wounded. In 2016 until now there were 175 such incidents. A look at the mass shooting statistics reveals a disproportionately large number of such incidents in the US and they were carried out in the US by all types of people. They are not performed by one religion or ethnic group.

Hence attributing Orlando massacre to the Islamic terrorism has no substantial evidence and smells of a political drama.The US witnessed escalating murderous violence at home in parallel with unending wars abroad. The US imperialist military continuously engaged since 2001
in invasions, bombings, drone strikes and “targeted assassinations” that had claimed the lives of over a million people in predominantly Muslim countries. As a corollary, or to use the US imperialist term, “collateral damage”, the US imperialist masters whipped up the most
reactionary ideologies to justify discrimination and violence against immigrants in general and Muslims in particular and to encourage the most backward homophobic sentiment.

In this process, they intensified the state repression in the US and escalated wars abroad. Within hours of the incident, the US media and political leaders claimed that it was a terrorist attack stemming from regressive religious doctrine. Barack Obama said that it was “an act of terror and an act of hate” while he authorized recently escalation of 15-year old US war in Afghanistan. His former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton said there is “need to defend our country from threats at home and abroad that means defeat terror groups, go after them wherever they are”.

Her Republican rival Donald Trump utilized this massacre to bolster his anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant bigotry. He claimed that “our leaders are weak. That is why such incidents are happening. I will not allow them to happen”.

The aim of the US imperialist ruling elite is to intimidate, frighten and disorient the American people with the spectre of terrorism in order to distract attention from the irreconcilable crisis it has landed, thus deciding the political discourse to get the approval for its acts to escalation of wars abroad and intensified attacks on the rights and conditions of the working class.
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