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The Saffron brigade in India while Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan play upon these prejudices to gain political mileage
The killing of five Indian military personnel in firing across the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir yet again lays bare the festering wound Kashmir has become over the last 65 years. It also exposes the fragility of the relations between the two nuclear neighbours and the hoax of war and peace.
After every such incident, accusations, denials, condemnations and counter-allegations are traded between the two sides. It has become a monotonous routine. Most people are fed up with this rhetoric. In the recent instance, the Indian army alleged that Pakistani troops entered the Indian area and ambushed an army patrol in the Poonch sector. The prime minister of the Pakistani-controlled Kashmir accused the Indian army of abducting four citizens from Mirpur.
The latest incident comes as the two sides are preparing for peace talks, the first since the new Pakistani government took office. The chief minister of the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir state, Omar Abdullah, says such incidents ...dont help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Pakistan and call into question the Pakistan governments recent overtures. Indian Defence Minister A K Antony told the Indian parliament that New Delhi ...has lodged a strong protest with the government of Pakistan through diplomatic channels.
A top Indian army officer told the BBC that a group of elite commandos from the Pakistan army breached the LoC on August 6 and ambushed an Indian army patrol in the Poonch sector of Jammu region. The officer said one Indian soldier was also injured in unprovoked firing by Pakistani soldiers in a separate incident in Udhampur region a day before. A Pakistani military official described the Indian allegations as baseless and claimed there was no firing from the Pakistani side. Earlier in January this year, incident of beheadings and cross-border attacks triggered a diplomatic crisis and media-war.
India and Pakistan agreed upon a ceasefire once again along the LoC, which divides Kashmir, in November 2003. However, both sides keep violating it and blaming each other. Meanwhile, several soldiers and civilians have been killed or wounded on both sides. After the January episode that claimed the lives of three Pakistani and two Indian soldiers, relations between the two sides deteriorated so sharply that the fledgling peace process underway since February 2012 was threatened. Eventually, both India and Pakistan agreed to de-escalate the tensions.
There have been three-and-a-half major wars between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir question ever since Partition in 1947. At the time of Partition, the rules worked out by the British and the leaders of the local ruling classes were not implemented in Kashmir by design and the British imperialists left a contentious issue that would keep the fires of antagonism, hostility, hatred and conflict burning and the doctrine of divide and rule would prevail even after they left. The partition itself was an insane, bloody episode, leaving almost 2.7 million innocent people dead, millions maimed, homeless and in migration. However, Kashmirs division was provoked by a war. The present LoC is based on the position where the Indian and the Pakistani forces stood at the time of the ceasefire introduced by the UN in 1948.
Despite three wars, dozens of UN resolutions and innumerable negotiations between the rulers of the two countries, the situation has hardly changed. Nor has the plight of the oppressed masses of Kashmir and the rest of the subcontinent. Besides class and national oppression, they suffer poverty and misery. Ironically, the Indo-Pak establishments and military hierarchies use and abuse the Kashmir issue to justify hefty military budgets besides perks and privileges of the militarys top brass.
The imperialist military-industrial complex also benefits. It is not an accident that India and Pakistan, housing 22 percent of the world population, host 44 percent of the worlds poverty yet they are amongst the top five buyers of military hardware and sophisticated arms. At the same time, in the guise of national security, both these countries have become nuclear powers. To maintain their huge nuclear arsenals, the rulers on both sides have consigned the toiling masses to overwhelming poverty. It is estimated that the colossal wealth spent on the nuclear programme in India and Pakistan would have eradicated illiteracy and curable child diseases had it been spent on the social sector.
Paradoxically, neither the imperialists nor the Indo-Pakistani ruling classes can afford an all-out war between the two nuclear South Asian states. The destruction to be wreaked by any such war would not spare either the investments made by the imperialists or the assets built by the local elites. This vicious cycle consisting of peace gestures followed by intermittent LoC violations engendering war hysteria without an actual war will continue.
Among various calls for restarting the peace talks, the recent LoC firing incident fits pretty well into the scheme of things that the ruling classes have designed. As the tensions rise, both sides exploit national and religious chauvinism to curb class struggles and stall prospective mass revolts against the structured oppression. The Saffron brigade in India while Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan play upon these prejudices to gain political mileage.
In the meantime, the Kashmiris continue to suffer. Their dream of a national liberation is as distant as half a century ago. The armed struggle failed to get the Kashmiris their liberation. The numerous UN resolutions proved to be as futile as everywhere else. This impotent and deceptive slogan of implementing these resolutions is mere rhetoric to disrupt their struggle. The solution through a negotiated settlement between India and Pakistan is mere utopia. It is a reality that the ruling elites of the two countries and the establishments dont want to solve the Kashmir issue as they want to use it for domestic consumption and with it are linked their vested interests. The reality is that under the present set up a sustained peace is not in the interests of the ruling elites and the imperialists. Nor can they afford to go to war. Hence this hoax of war and peace will continue as long as the present redundant capitalist system persists.
In the recent period, the struggles in Kashmir on both sides of the divide have been more on socio-economic issues. The class content in the national liberation struggle is coming to the fore. This is a positive development. National liberation can only be achieved by the overthrow of the bourgeois states that are perpetuating this repression. It is only possible trough a victory of the class struggle in the subcontinent.
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
So True!! The Author is bang on Target!
The killing of five Indian military personnel in firing across the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir yet again lays bare the festering wound Kashmir has become over the last 65 years. It also exposes the fragility of the relations between the two nuclear neighbours and the hoax of war and peace.
After every such incident, accusations, denials, condemnations and counter-allegations are traded between the two sides. It has become a monotonous routine. Most people are fed up with this rhetoric. In the recent instance, the Indian army alleged that Pakistani troops entered the Indian area and ambushed an army patrol in the Poonch sector. The prime minister of the Pakistani-controlled Kashmir accused the Indian army of abducting four citizens from Mirpur.
The latest incident comes as the two sides are preparing for peace talks, the first since the new Pakistani government took office. The chief minister of the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir state, Omar Abdullah, says such incidents ...dont help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Pakistan and call into question the Pakistan governments recent overtures. Indian Defence Minister A K Antony told the Indian parliament that New Delhi ...has lodged a strong protest with the government of Pakistan through diplomatic channels.
A top Indian army officer told the BBC that a group of elite commandos from the Pakistan army breached the LoC on August 6 and ambushed an Indian army patrol in the Poonch sector of Jammu region. The officer said one Indian soldier was also injured in unprovoked firing by Pakistani soldiers in a separate incident in Udhampur region a day before. A Pakistani military official described the Indian allegations as baseless and claimed there was no firing from the Pakistani side. Earlier in January this year, incident of beheadings and cross-border attacks triggered a diplomatic crisis and media-war.
India and Pakistan agreed upon a ceasefire once again along the LoC, which divides Kashmir, in November 2003. However, both sides keep violating it and blaming each other. Meanwhile, several soldiers and civilians have been killed or wounded on both sides. After the January episode that claimed the lives of three Pakistani and two Indian soldiers, relations between the two sides deteriorated so sharply that the fledgling peace process underway since February 2012 was threatened. Eventually, both India and Pakistan agreed to de-escalate the tensions.
There have been three-and-a-half major wars between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir question ever since Partition in 1947. At the time of Partition, the rules worked out by the British and the leaders of the local ruling classes were not implemented in Kashmir by design and the British imperialists left a contentious issue that would keep the fires of antagonism, hostility, hatred and conflict burning and the doctrine of divide and rule would prevail even after they left. The partition itself was an insane, bloody episode, leaving almost 2.7 million innocent people dead, millions maimed, homeless and in migration. However, Kashmirs division was provoked by a war. The present LoC is based on the position where the Indian and the Pakistani forces stood at the time of the ceasefire introduced by the UN in 1948.
Despite three wars, dozens of UN resolutions and innumerable negotiations between the rulers of the two countries, the situation has hardly changed. Nor has the plight of the oppressed masses of Kashmir and the rest of the subcontinent. Besides class and national oppression, they suffer poverty and misery. Ironically, the Indo-Pak establishments and military hierarchies use and abuse the Kashmir issue to justify hefty military budgets besides perks and privileges of the militarys top brass.
The imperialist military-industrial complex also benefits. It is not an accident that India and Pakistan, housing 22 percent of the world population, host 44 percent of the worlds poverty yet they are amongst the top five buyers of military hardware and sophisticated arms. At the same time, in the guise of national security, both these countries have become nuclear powers. To maintain their huge nuclear arsenals, the rulers on both sides have consigned the toiling masses to overwhelming poverty. It is estimated that the colossal wealth spent on the nuclear programme in India and Pakistan would have eradicated illiteracy and curable child diseases had it been spent on the social sector.
Paradoxically, neither the imperialists nor the Indo-Pakistani ruling classes can afford an all-out war between the two nuclear South Asian states. The destruction to be wreaked by any such war would not spare either the investments made by the imperialists or the assets built by the local elites. This vicious cycle consisting of peace gestures followed by intermittent LoC violations engendering war hysteria without an actual war will continue.
Among various calls for restarting the peace talks, the recent LoC firing incident fits pretty well into the scheme of things that the ruling classes have designed. As the tensions rise, both sides exploit national and religious chauvinism to curb class struggles and stall prospective mass revolts against the structured oppression. The Saffron brigade in India while Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan play upon these prejudices to gain political mileage.
In the meantime, the Kashmiris continue to suffer. Their dream of a national liberation is as distant as half a century ago. The armed struggle failed to get the Kashmiris their liberation. The numerous UN resolutions proved to be as futile as everywhere else. This impotent and deceptive slogan of implementing these resolutions is mere rhetoric to disrupt their struggle. The solution through a negotiated settlement between India and Pakistan is mere utopia. It is a reality that the ruling elites of the two countries and the establishments dont want to solve the Kashmir issue as they want to use it for domestic consumption and with it are linked their vested interests. The reality is that under the present set up a sustained peace is not in the interests of the ruling elites and the imperialists. Nor can they afford to go to war. Hence this hoax of war and peace will continue as long as the present redundant capitalist system persists.
In the recent period, the struggles in Kashmir on both sides of the divide have been more on socio-economic issues. The class content in the national liberation struggle is coming to the fore. This is a positive development. National liberation can only be achieved by the overthrow of the bourgeois states that are perpetuating this repression. It is only possible trough a victory of the class struggle in the subcontinent.
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
So True!! The Author is bang on Target!
