On May 7, the Indian Armed Forces launched a series of air strikes at Pakistan. The attack was labeled “Operation Sindoor.” The regions of Kotli, Muzaffarabad and Bagh in Pakistan and some regions of Pakistan-administered Kashmir were affected by the strikes. The attack reportedly killed a three-year-old girl and two others and injured 35 more. This was confirmed by Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry of Pakistan.

The words used by the Indian government to describe the air strikes were “non-escalatory,” as well as “measured” and “targeted at terrorist bases,” phrases that are often utilized by the U.S. during war on terror campaigns.

The attacks from the Indian side were in consequence of the killing of 26 Indian civilians in Pahalgam in Indian administered Kashmir by “Islamists.” The Indian government did not seek to investigate the situation, nor did they resort to a diplomatic resolution. They launched the air strikes without any proof that the Islamists were directly connected to the Pakistan government.

The attacks came after the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, which gives India control over the waters of the three “Eastern Rivers” – the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej – which have a total mean annual flow of 41 billion cubic meters. Control over the three “Western Rivers” – the Indus, Chenab and Jhelu – which have a total mean annual flow of 99 billion cubic meters, was given to Pakistan by India in 1960.

From May 8 to May 9, the border regions between India and Pakistan, as well as adjoining territories saw heavy machine gun shelling. Several people have died on both sides of the border, particularly in Poonch and Uri, in Jammu and Kashmir. Reportedly 300 to 400 drone strikes were launched from the Pakistani side towards India, affecting 36 locations on the Line of Control from Leh to Sir Creek. There were blackouts in the states of Punjab, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir.

To understand the present situation in these regions, here is a short timeline:

20th century:

• The Partition of India in 1947 following India's independence from British rule led to the creation of two dominions, India and Pakistan (East and West).
• After the partition of India, both Pakistan and India claimed the region of Jammu and Kashmir. This resulted in a regional war after Pakistan launched an attack from Waziristan, ultimately resulting in a UN-mediated ceasefire and a “Line of Control” founded in 1962.
• The second Indo-Pak war in 1965, following Operation Gibraltar, the purpose of which was to create an insurgency in the Indian region of Kashmir, ultimately leading to the Tashkent declaration.
• In 1990s, the religious tensions led several religious minorities to leave the regions, primarily Kashmiri Pandits. The Indian Army carried out several atrocities against civilians in Jammu and Kashmir, extrajudicial killings, murder, rape etc.
• 1999 the Kargil war breaks out and leads to the defeat of the Pakistan Army .

Recent history:

• The Bharatiya Janta Party came to power in India in 2014 and accelerated the religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims, by working towards a Hindu-Nationalism (Hindutva) through public policy, limitations on access of resources, citizenship amendment for Muslims and religious minorities.
• Pulwana attack occurs in 2019, where 40 border security personnel (CRPF) are murdered by “Islamists” in Indian administered Kashmir
• As a retaliation to Pulwana, the Modi government removed the special status (Article 370) of Indian administered Kashmir [Jammu and Kashmir remained a union territory after it became a part of the region, meaning that it operated under some autonomy while still being part of the larger whole of the region] and made the region into a state, enforcing heavy governmental clampdown, increased military personnel as well as shutting down the internet and preventing assembly while enforcing curfews.
• In 2025 Waqf bill is introduced impacting the ability of Muslims to manage property and religious institutions, sparking religious riots in West Bengal.
• Murder of 26 civilians in Pahalgam (Jammu and Kashmir) by “Islamist” forces, leading India to escalate a military conflict with Pakistan without proof of involvement from the Pakistani government

Pakistan and India are neighboring countries with deep-rooted ties historically. The governments of these regions have political elites and billionaires that have utilized this moment to embolden themselves. The news media from India and Pakistan have misled the populations categorically.

While the tensions were at their highest, the private news media spread lies about the war, showing pictures from regions that were not even involved. For example, a news outlet from India utilized pictures from Iran showering missiles on Israel.

The Reliance foundation i.e. Ambani, took the opportunity to make money off of the war by trying to trademark “Operation Sindoor” and this was met with tremendous pushback from progressive and communist parties.

The Trump administration met with their counterparts in Pakistan and India. On May 9, the Pakistani government received over $2 billion in aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), despite the Indian government arguing against this. Pakistan in the past has received several IMF loans, and it is in a phase of a debt trap due to these predatory loans. There were real fears the loan would bolster the war effort.

The Pakistani government grew closer to the United States after the removal of Imran Khan from office and his subsequently being sent to jail. The current prime minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, is seen as a keen ally of the U.S. while maintaining key relationships with China through the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Trump administration met with their counterparts in India and later proclaimed that “India will drop tariffs to nothing,” meaning import tariffs on American commodities would be reduced to zero. This figure was then adjusted to two-thirds. India is an ally the United States and, in recent times, has become a close ally of Israel. India and Israel have had trade and military exchange in the past. The pro-Indian government driven social media has also voiced open support for the governments of Israel and the U.S. during the genocide in Gaza. India is also a participant in the BRICS (Brazil Russia India China and South Africa) formation, leaving it in a strange and contradictory political position with the other constituents of the formation.

The unprecedented attack on Pakistan by India has led to the death of several on both sides of the border. Pakistan and India are both nuclear powers, but they are also 105th and 109th respectively out of 127 countries in the world hunger list. Both South Asian countries are in a phase of deep economic decline; unemployment is at an all-time high while health care and educational access is at an all-time low. Neither country can afford a war between themselves nor a war that involves other regional powers too.

Continuation of the war would lead to a severe decline in the wellbeing of both countries, while benefitting imperialist countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.

A ceasefire, though necessary, should be utilized to build a concrete peace plan that handles religious extremism delicately with cross-border participation.

#Opinion #Commentary #International #India #Pakistan

The question is, why is this a manufactured holiday?

The region of Awadh in ancient India, and present-day Ayodhya, is a site of religious significance to three major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. During the time of the Mughal Emperor Mir Baqi a mosque was constructed, called Babri Masjid, in honor of the Mughal Emperor Babar in the year 1528.

India, like several countries in the world, was a subject of colonization from the British Empire, so when the British arrived on Indian shores the goal was to subjugate India and create an atmosphere of communal and religious disharmony.

The seeds of disharmony were spread by the British in order to perform their goal of divide and rule and they did so by creating a sense of division between the Hindu and Muslim communities. The British also wrongly deduced in their own observations that India had no documentation of their own history, so they went ahead to reconstruct India's past through the lens of their own goals and interests.

As Romila Thapar, a notable Indian historian observes, several British historians from the time of colonization would establish that India had two nations, a Hindu nation, and a Muslim nation, distinct, separate, and with no interaction between each other, whereas in reality, this was absolutely a falsehood.

Several Hindu kings would often allow the construction of Islamic structures, and many Muslim landlords would allow Hindu temples to be constructed within their empires. The Babri Masjid was one such mosque. It was the target of controversy by the British empire, who cemented the idea into the minds of several kings, and in particular Jai Singh II, that the site of Bari Masjid was the birthplace of the mythological character from the Ramayana, Ram.

In the 1800s British surveyors Francis Buchanan-Hamilton and Montgomery Martin alleged that the mosque was built on that site of a Hindu temple, despite there being no tangible evidence of this being the case at the time. Several Indian historians, such as R.S. Sharma, Suraj Bhan, M. Athar Ali and Dwijendra Narayan Jha, pushed back against the narrative that the site was occupied by a Hindu temple and point out that calls for destructions of the Masjid started only in the 1900s and after the rise of the Hindu nationalist movement.

In 1925 the Rashtriya Samajsevak Sangh (RSS) a right-wing organization was formed on the basis that India was a Hindu country and their one only objective was to establish a Hindurashtra or Hindu ethnostate, drawing their inspiration from Mussolini's fascist party.

By 1947, the RSS was declared a terrorist organization and banned several times, preventing from contesting in elections. The RSS then formed the precursor of the Bharatiya Janta Party, known as the Jan Sangh.

In December 1949, the Hindu organization Akhil Bharatiya Ramayana Mahasabha led a nine-day protest just outside the mosque and ended the event by placing idols of Ram inside of the mosque. By the 1980s the RSS facilitated the creation of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or the international wing; the Bharatiya Janata Party, it's electoral wing, and the Bajrang Dal or the youth wing.

These groups openly called for the destruction of the masjid and the creation of Ram Mandir or Ram Temple in its place. with their reasoning being that the Bari Masjid was built on top of Hindu shrines in 1984. By 1989 LK Advani of the BJP embarked on a cross country Rath Yatra (religious-political rally) that would unite the right-wing elements, flaming the tensions between the Hindu and Muslim communities and leaving a trail of murder and destruction.

By 1992, the Rath Yatra came to a close in Ayodhya where the RSS, BJP, VHP and the Bajrang Dal arrived with the intension of being karsevaks (religious volunteers) and destroyed the Babri Masjid.

In the days following the destruction of the Babri Masjid, 3000 people were killed, in the following weeks several religious riots followed, across India and lead to the creation of Islamist groups in India and present-day Pakistan.

In 2003, the Archaeological Survey of India, on the orders of the Allahabad court, conducted an inspection of the mosque site, and their report concluded that there was a shrine underneath the mosque remains but were unable to conclude exactly what religious structure this was. Several politicians and historians criticized the fact that the report ignored the animal remains and lime-mortar presence at the site. Pressurized by Hindu groups, the court however upheld this report in 2010, and by 2019, at the height of the power of the BJP government, the site was handed over to a trust to construct a Hindu temple at the site.

Today in 2024 this temple has now been constructed with much fanfare from the BJP government, which declared this day as the “Pran-Prathista Diwas” or consecration day of the temple. This is a holiday built on several dangerous, and vile lies on the backs of thousands killed and millions disillusioned by the idea of a sovereign secular democratic republic that India promised to be after Independence.

The other question: Is the temple demand relevant in today's India?

The short answer is no.

The temple cost was approximately 1800 crore ($200 million). This comes at a time when India has some of the highest unemployment rates in Indian history following independence and a poverty rate of 11%, with over 190 million people going to bed hungry every night. The right-wing government has alienated millions and millions of its poorest people.

Political and religious lynchings are becoming an everyday reality and progressive news sites either becoming absorbed by the capitalists or being shut down and investigated by government agencies on falsified charges. Journalists are harassed and jailed for questioning the powers at be, and historians of international repute are vilified and labeled liars and anti-Indians.

How is this relevant for the U.S.?

The VHP, or the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, is the international wing of the RSS; it is the international wing of the Hindu right wing. This organization exists in the U.S., Canada and the UK. Historically the VHP has been accused of funneling in foreign cash to fund Hindu nationalist groups existent in India. The VHP was established in New York in 1970 as a non-profit organization by Mahesh Mehta, who received training from the RSS chief M.S. Golwalkar, who himself idealized Nazism and was a violent anti-communist. He even suggested a holocaust of Muslims in India. This organization has also pressurized local state governments across the U.S. to bend local laws in their favor.

The VHP operate in 21 chapters across the U.S. and has smaller local organizations such as the American Hindus Against Defamation, Hindu Students Council, Hindu Mandir Executive Conference and Hindu University of America. Leading up to the consecration day, the U.S. chapter of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), has erected over 40 billboards in ten states, including Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Georgia, and are planning car caravans in 12 or more cities across the U.S. The VHP in the past has also received funding to the tune of millions of dollars from the U.S. government and transferred these funds to hundreds of right-wing groups across India.

The BJP government has utilized several issues to build its election campaigns. In 2024 they have made the temple consecration the primary issue that they believe will create a wave of support to get them back into office. They believe that despite their several failings, this will be the uniting issue that will keep them in power. What they are missing, however, is that people are embittered by their governance and that it will be difficult for them to retain power to the extent that they expect.

In any case, the consecration day remains a stain on India's contemporary history, and only with the removal of the vile reactionary BJP government can India begin to wipe away this stain.

#Commentary #International #India #BJP #Hindutva

The strike was organized by some of the largest communist and socialist-led mass organizations and trade unions, such as Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Labor Progressive Federation (LPF) and United Trade Union Congress (UTUC).

The general demands of the organizations are:

1. The Four New Labor Codes and the Essential Defense Services Act (EDSA) be scrapped. These new labor codes, which are to replace the previous 29 laws, call for reducing the rights of workers, especially defense production units, from protesting against privatization of public sector units. These codes also increase contractual work, reduce fixed wages and increase working hours. They also reduce the effectiveness of agencies that monitor the structure of companies and that report on the exploitation of workers.
2. Acceptance of the demands of the farmers’ organizations. In the last months of 2021, farmers won a major victory against the BJP government to repeal the anti-farmer laws. Their demands now are that the Minimum Support Price be raised the Electricity Amendments Bill be withdrawn, as well the general attacks on farmers discontinue.
3. The proposal for the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP) be abandoned. The NMP seeks to privatize most public sector units such as electricity, railways, and other infrastructural organizations. The privatization of these units will make basic necessities more unaffordable and alienate the working population of India.
4. A minimum of Rs. 7500 per month for low-income families. COVID-19 and its delta variant destroyed the local economies of India, and increased poverty, as well as increased starvation. Poor planning from the BJP government furthered the destruction of these communities. This demand will help people temporarily escape from this extreme situation.
5. Larger allocation of rural and urban sector jobs.
6. Social guarantees for informal sector workers. These guarantees will help nearly 400 million workers who work in the informal sector of India, and this help them get allowances, health care benefits etc.
7. Minimum wages and social security coverage for 6 million Anganwadi [village child care] workers, ASHA [accredited social health activists], mid-day meal and other scheme workers who work in child and infant care sectors, whose lives and incomes have been destroyed during the pandemic.
8. Provide full protection, and insurance coverage, for frontline workers serving the people in the midst of the pandemic.
9. Larger spending on health, education agriculture and other public sector utilities, as well as increased resource allocation to revive the economy.
10. Heavy reduction of excise duty on petroleum products and take concrete steps to arrest price rise. The BJP government has been allowing the rise in petrol price, affecting the daily lives of workers and urban members of the society.
11. Regularize all contract workers and scheme workers and ensure equal pay for equal work for all. Regular posts for workers aren't being filled and contract workers aren't being paid even half their wages. This needs to change because laws are skirted around and minimum wage workers need to be paid.
12. Cancel the New Pension Scheme (NPS) and restore the old scheme; increase minimum pension under the Employees’ Pension Scheme. The New Pension scheme is being utilized to fund share market-based speculation. This in turn also reduces certain securities for workers as well.

The General strike was carried out very successfully in Kerala while there was major impact in the industrial hubs of West Bengal, Tamilnadu, Haryana, Telangana, Karnataka, Assam and Tripura.

Bank and Insurance workers saw the highest participation in the strike while other job sectors such as energy, transportation, government employees also participated largely in the strike. Anganwadi and ASHA workers had huge numbers in the strike as well.

The BJP government has roundly failed to protect the citizens of India during the time of the pandemic. The imposition of these new laws has deteriorated the lives of common people to a point they are barely subsisting. The general strike was a reflection of the growing anger of the working people of India towards the incumbent party.

The deterioration of conditions ever since the BJP came into power is reflected in the participation of protests in India. In early 2019 there was the 180 million-person protest, followed by the 250 million protesting in 2021. Reported numbers of the countrywide strike were estimated around the 200 million mark. These numbers were largely underreported by publications based in the United States and Europe. Some publications went to extent of reporting 50 million as a standard estimate. This number is untrue because the size of CITU is 6 to 8 million and AITUC is around 15 million. These members also organize local people and workers.

The BJP government must hear the people's demands and act according to the needs of the people and not a few individuals and corporations who exist to profiteer off the backs of the working populace.

#India #PeoplesStruggles #generalStrike #Asia

Dallas, TX – On January 16, progressives gathered downtown at Dallas City Hall to demand justice for Dheeraj Rajendran, an engineering student and member of the Student Federation of India, a mass student movement connected to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), murdered in the Indian state of Kerala by members of the Kerala Students Union and the youth wing of the Indian National Congress.

Dheeraj was murdered by the local branch of the Youth Congress because he was poised to win local school elections at the Government Engineering College of Idukki.

The protest was called by the Dallas Anti-War Committee, and attended by members of several organizations, including CODEPINK and Democratic Socialists of America. Signs at the rally called for justice for Dheeraj Rajendran.

After the rally, participants gathered around the steps to City Hall to hear more about Dheeraj Rajendran, as well as information related to the political situation in Kerala and in India in general, from Rick Majumdar, an engineering student and activist leader at The University of Texas at Arlington and who was an online acquaintance of Dheeraj.

#DallasTX #PeoplesStruggles #India #DheerahRajendran #Asia

The farmer protests were sparked by these three oppressive bills that were introduced under false promises. One claimed to give farmers more leeway to sell crops outside the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee without paying the necessary taxes; that bill’s official name is “The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020.” The second, called “The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020” allows private/corporate companies to invest in farming. The third, the “Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020” deregulates production, storage and movement of essential commodities. On the surface some aspects of these bills seemed to benefit farmers, but ultimately the legislation promoted corporate financial entities into the agricultural sector will take away people’s land and livelihoods.

The farmers’ protests started early in 2020 and faced major repression from the BJP government. Protesters were beaten and subjected to water cannons and left bloodied. The victory of the farmers came at a huge price. 700 protesting farmers from all over India were killed by the police, hired goons and state agents while peacefully demonstrating. The Modi government is solely responsible in this regard. The BJP would lay down barbed wire near the Delhi border to discourage protesters to drive into the city. They would also dig trenches to entrap farmers protesting on tractors. They would use the corporate media to malign the farmers’ protest and jail journalists reporting on the conditions of the protesters.

Though, despite this victory, there are concerns which linger on, regarding improving the conditions for the farmers. The fundamental demand of this historic farmers’ struggle was a Central Act to guarantee Minimum Support Price (MSP) to all crops of all farmers at one-and-a-half times the comprehensive cost of production (C2+50%) which remains unaddressed. The failure to address this demand aggravated the agrarian crisis led to the suicide of over 400,000 farmers in the last 25 years, of whom around one-fourth have ended their lives in the last seven years of the Modi-led BJP regime.

This was the second defeat for the BJP government at the hands of United Kisan movement (United Farmers Movement). Earlier, they were forced to put on hold the Land Acquisition Ordinance that allowed the government to acquire private land.

Prime Minister Modi's announcement rang the victory bell for the farmers. The efforts from the government's side to pursue neoliberal policies in corporatizing the farming sector failed.

The All India Kisan Sabha, the peasants wing of the Communist Party of India, Marxist were heavily involved in organizing the peasant farmers and congratulated the farmers on their massive earth-shattering victory. The All India Kisan Sabha are part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a coalition of over 40 farmers unions that were involved in organizing and carrying out protests throughout India. The Samyukta Morcha celebrated jointly celebrated the victory of the farmers and congratulated their tireless efforts as well.

#UnitedStates #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #India #NarendaModi #BharatiyaJantaPartyBJP

(Fight Back! News)”)

Kolkata, India – The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India has had a devastating effect, claiming more than 250,000 lives in a matter of three months, between April and June of this year.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling government in India, failed to address the concerns of the people and enacted repressive policies that are against their interests. In India the number of people living in poverty outnumber the entirety of sub-Saharan Africa, and privatized healthcare has led to the demise of countless people during this pandemic.

The callous attitude of the of BJP led to the shortage of vaccines, oxygen concentrators, oxygen cylinders, ventilators and other medical necessities – shortages that proved to have a devastating effect. During the first wave, the Narendra Modi-led government was shipping off vaccines manufactured by private entities like Serum Institute in Pune to countries like South Africa instead of bolstering the reserve stock. At the height of the pandemic, these private entities had vaccine shortages. These vaccines, namely Covidshield and Covaxin, are available at rates between Rs. 700-Rs. 1300 ($9-$18) depending on the medical facility offering these vaccines. The vaccine manufacturers and the hospitals, clinics and others providing these vaccines are profiteering even in these dire conditions by charging first-world rates for the vaccine.

The lockdown essentially broke down the economic structure in India. India, a cash-based informal economy with a massive service sector, came to a halt. During the first COVID wave hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave urban centres where they work to go back to their homes in the villages, but transportation such as trains and bus services were also closed down, leaving these workers no option but to return to their homes on foot. Many migrant workers died during this time and several others were inhumanly treated once they reached their home states. In Uttar Pradesh workers were doused with harmful chemicals – apparently to ‘sanitize’ them.

The informal nature of the Indian economy made establishing a lockdown even harder, since it is nearly impossible to reduce human interaction. The West Bengal government would have partial lockdowns where on certain days in a month the state would be closed down in a failed attempt to stop the spread. The unemployment crisis hit its highest numbers in West Bengal. Many engineering graduates were forced to seek working-class jobs after graduating because of the lack of industry-based jobs and the economic standstill. The cost of essential items skyrocketed due to inflation. Petrol prices increased as well, leading to increase in transportation costs.

Education took a major hit. During the lockdown the state and central governments mandated schools and colleges move to online classes. This had a very devastating effect, since majority of schools and colleges in the rural areas aren't equipped with the technology required for online learning, leaving millions of children without the means to get access to school resources. The Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government canceled examinations for 10th and 12th grades. This left several thousand at risk of not getting jobs after they graduate school, since the grades they would get in these exams would determine their career.

The student wing of the CPIM (Communist Party of India, Marxist), the Students Federation of India (SFI) called for the reopening of schools and colleges. The SFI across West Bengal organized classes in conjunction with teachers outside their colleges and universities demanding that these institutions be reopened. Anustup Chakravarty a member of the SFI unit of Jadavpur University spoke of how the TMC government was reopening theatres, malls and restaurants but left educational institutions closed to the benefit of no one.

The progressive left parties such as the CPIM and the SUCI (Socialist Unity Centre of India) suggested stimulus packages of Rs. 7000 per month to unemployed families, including the provision of basic food supplies such as rice, vegetables etc. every month. These proposals were roundly rejected by the BJP government.

CPIM leader Sujan Chakraborty of Jadavpur Constituency in Kolkata, told Fight Back! local members of the CPIM were involved in to provide food to the local working people who continued to work during the pandemic, such as rickshaw drivers, auto-rickshaw drivers, delivery workers, construction workers etc. While evaluating the conditions a situation of food scarcity was predicted. A community kitchen was then be set up that fed the working people for several months, after which many of the rickshaw drivers themselves offered to provide a minimum amount for the food. The “Sromojibi Canteen” (Working People's Canteen) then took off, providing full lunches for affordable rates of only Rs. 30 (40 cents). These canteens then spread throughout the state of West Bengal. Later “Sromojibi Bazaar” (Working People's Bazaar) was also set up to provide vegetables at significantly lower rates than the ordinary markets.

On August 16, various leaders of the CPIM spoke during the 500th day of operations of the Jadavpur Sromojibi Canteens about the work that the CPIM members were involved during the second wave, including the Red Volunteers who provided oxygen cylinders and carried patients to nearby hospitals.

Recently the Global Hunger Index placed India at a rank 101, below several other countries in the Indian sub-continent and Africa as well. 381 million people (a very conservative number which could easily be 500-600 million) live in conditions of extreme poverty. Food scarcity is due to extreme poverty and the breakdown of informal mechanisms to distribute crops and finished agricultural products to markets. These extreme conditions are aggravated by the anti-farmer policies that have led to massive farmers protests across the country.

Government policies have allowed COVID-19 to cripple the Indian economy. The local and state governments in India need to bolster the vaccination drive. The overall vaccination process has been slow in West Bengal, but it has picked up post-July.

Several automatic-rickshaw drivers and rickshaw drivers who are part of the TMC drivers’ union told Fight Back! they have received free vaccination, but it has been largely inconsistent, since many drivers have yet to receive vaccine for reasons being that they are either out of state or are not part of the ruling party's union.

Vaccination efforts need to continue on a larger scale to prevent another devastating situation when the third wave hits. The local governments and the state governments need to prioritize people over profiteering to ensure that more lives are not lost.

#KolkataIndia #India #COVID19 #BharatiyaJanataPartyBJP #vaccination #Asia

A million people from all walks of life came to the Brigade Parade Ground to show their support for the Left Front. Red flags and banners covered entire streets as people from all over the state of West Bengal flooded the grounds. Children, youth, middle-aged and the elderly sang slogans of protest. Representation from all communities were seen at the brigade with members of the LGBTQ, Muslims, Dalit-Bahujans, the indigenous as well as the disabled.

The Left Front groups are campaigning against the Trinamool Congress, the incumbent neo-liberal government that has been in power for ten years, and the Bharatiya Janata Party which sees West Bengal as an opportunity for the taking.

The leaders at the rally pointed out in their ten years in power the Trinamool Congress has failed on their promises.

The BJP, with its divisive politics to alienate the Muslims, Dalit-Bahujans and the so-called lower castes, have created nightmarish living conditions in their respective ruling states and broadly throughout India. The emergence and presence of the BJP in West Bengal would wreak havoc and disenfranchise millions in the state and hence the Left Front vowed to establish a government based on secularism. The Left Front viewed the policies of the BJP as entirely anti-people. The Left Front says no segment of society other than the ruling capitalist class have benefitted from the BJP being in power in the country.

The Left Front viewed this brigade as an immense success ahead of the upcoming Bengal elections.

#India #PeoplesBrigage2021 #Asia

The farmers in India oppose the three bills that would have long-term detrimental effects. Instead of building more APMC mandis (rural markets) that would promote better cooperation between the farmers and government institutions, improve procurement, build more storage facilities, and build better transport networks, the right-wing BJP (ruling party of India) government sought to remove the APMC's altogether and completely privatize the agricultural sector.

Privatising the agricultural sector has previously caused damaging effects. Since 1995 and the rise of globalisation, the lives of farmers have worsened year on year, leading to the death of nearly 300,000 farmers by suicide. Worsening conditions in terms of the environment has had a deep impact on agriculture. Private companies pay very little attention to the sustainability aspect of farming.

On Republic Day, the largest tractor rally, of 200,000 tractors, rocked the streets of New Delhi. Several thousands of farmers and protesters stormed the city’s historic Red Fort. These farmers broke through the police barricades and were met with violence from the police. Historically, Republic Day called for immense military processions. This year the tractor rally was used to draw the attention towards the protesting farmers and the repressive farmer bills. Various farmer, student and workers unions have lent their support alongside socialist and communist groups.

As of today, January 29, the farmers continue to protest all across the country. In Ghazipur, Uttarpradesh, the police failed in their attempts to remove the peaceful protesters opposing the farmer bills. These protesters were soon swarmed and viciously attacked by right-wing thugs from the BJP while the police there watched in silence. The state government then proceeded to cut off the internet to prevent circulation of news from the state. The farmers and protesters there have resisted these attacks and now continue to organize and demonstrate.

Since the BJP took power, they only sought to benefit the few by introducing anti-people laws. They have proved that they do not have the interests of the people at heart and their policies have stunted the growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Unemployment is also at an alarming 27% as well – owing in part to poor management of COVID-19. Protests will grow stronger over the next few months unless the situation regarding the farmers are properly addressed. The BJP has to keep in mind that the farmers are the providers of food in India and their voices are strong and will not easily be silenced.

#India #PeoplesStruggles #Antifascism #Constitution #Farmers #Asia

The farmer protest in India is sparked by the introduction of three oppressive bills. They were introduced under false promises. One claims to give farmers more leeway to sell crops outside the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee without paying the necessary taxes; that bill’s official name is “The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020.” The second, called “The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020” allows private/corporate companies to invest in farming. The third, the “Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020” deregulates production, storage and movement of essential commodities. On the surface these bills seem to benefit farmers, but ultimately the introduction of corporate financial entities into the agricultural sector will take away people’s land and livelihoods.

The lives of Indian peasants began declining faster with the growth of imperialist globalization in the early 1990s and with the insertion of multinational private players in the agricultural sector in India. Small-scale farming is hampered to a great degree because of the corporate profiteers who have no intention of paying the fair prices for the crops they acquire.

Imperialist countries like the U.S. impose trade laws that force Indian farmers to sell their produce at dirt-cheap prices. These anti-farmer policies will put further stress on small producers, peasants, and local businesses with the introduction of these new bills.

As reported by the National Crimes Bureau of India, the number of farmer suicides is 296,438 since 1995 with more than 60,000 deaths in Maharashtra alone. These deaths are due to poor crop yields, a decrease in the level of the water table, drought, anti-farmer policies, high debts, and corruption in subsidies.

Multinational corporate companies have no intention to keep the welfare of farmers in mind while they exploit them. In 2019 Lays potato chips, a $177 billion dollar company, sued poor Indian farmers in Ahmedabad, Gujarat for cultivating a specific variety of potato that Lays had apparently patented. These entities will stop at nothing to worsen living conditions of farmers, worsen environmental conditions, and monopolize agricultural industry – ultimately rendering these farmers landless and then eventually displacing them from their homes. On December 8 another major strike is planned by five major socialist and communist groups. It is expected to outdo the previous record-breaking numbers.

#India #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #Strikes

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist).

Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) organizes demonstrations expressing solidarity with the American people fighting against racist oppression and anti-people, pro-capitalist policy of the Trump administration

Undaunted by the Corona pandemic Cadres and leaders of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) marched om the streets and organized demonstrations in the metropolises and numerous small towns throughout India voicing solidarity with struggling people of USA who have come out to bravely fight against racism and racial oppression, torture and killing. Because of the lockdown the demonstrators had to walk long distances to reach the demonstration venue and, in the assembly, had to maintain physical distancing and took all precautionary measures. They shouted slogans denouncing the racist policies of the Trump administration burnt the effigy of president Donald Trump.

Provash Ghosh, General Secretary, SUCI (Communist) said in a statement:

“We express our solidarity with the struggling people of USA who are in the midst of historic movement against anti-people policies of the U S imperialist rulers. This is an outburst like a volcanic eruption of the accumulated grievances of the people not only against racial oppressions but also against all anti people policies and acts of the U. S. imperialist rulers including widespread unemployment, retrenchment, starvation and criminal negligence to tackle Covid-19 resulting deaths of lakhs of people. It is noteworthy all sections of the oppressed toiling people irrespective of colour and religion are united in this struggle. It reminds about the earlier heroic ‘occupy wall street’ movement which shook the foundation of U S imperialism. This struggle inspires all exploited people of the world to fight against imperialist-capitalist exploitation.

It teaches that real power lies not in the armory of the imperialist capitalist rulers, but in courageous undaunted struggling masses. We hope U. S. fighting people will achieve victory.”

#India #International #OppressedNationalities #US #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #Socialism #DonaldTrump #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #MinneapolisUprising #SocialistUnityCentreOfIndiaCommunist

The World Federation of Trade Unions, which represents more than 97 million workers from 130 countries in the 5 continents, stands firmly and militantly on the side of the Indian working class and expresses its internationalist solidarity with All India general strike on January 8th, 2020.

All-India general strike constitutes the escalation of workers’ and trade unions’ dynamic struggles against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and overall the anti-labour policy of Prime Minister Modi and the BJP. Massive mobilizations in a political environment of intimidation, bans and fierce repression, even in the BJP-ruled states, underlines the popular rejection of the anti-democratic and divisive act.

The international class-oriented trade union movement welcomes the pioneering role played by the WFTU affiliates and the massive response of tens of thousands of workers who participated in the protests, rallies, and demonstrations that were organized and took place all over the country during the past year. We condemn the government’s nationalist strategy of dividing and fragmenting the working class on an ethnic and religious basis which is not only reactionary, unacceptable and harps back to colonialist tactics but is also unconstitutional.

The WFTU strongly and emphatically condemns the communal polarization that the Modi government is trying to create in order to disorient the working class from austerity policies, aiming at the same time to the elimination of the class unity and future workers’ struggles. We denounce the outrageous violation of the workers’ protest right and the brutal repression against peaceful demonstrations that have so far caused hundreds of injuries and at least 3 assassinations of protesters by police bullets.

The WFTU calls upon the popular strata and workers from every region and sector of India to send a thunderous and decisive message of rejection of the CAA and of the whole neo-liberal policies which are against workers’ achievements and popular rights.

The Secretariat

#India #Labor #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #WorldFederationOfTradeUnionsWFTU #Strikes #allIndiaGeneralStrike

Dallas, TX – On December 22, about 1000 people gathered at Dealey Plaza in Dallas to protest the Indian Citizenship Amendment Act. The protest was called by the Indian American Muslim Council of Dallas.

In speeches and chants, protesters condemned the act, which targets Muslims and other religious minorities. They also spoke out against the government of Narendra Modi which has passed the act. Several speakers called the act fascist and compared Modi to historical fascist leaders.

#DallasTX #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #US #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #India #Antiracism #Antifascism #DonaldTrump #Modi #IndianCitizenshipAmendmentAct