Established 1946 1 Pages 20 Price : Rupees Five

Vol. 74 No. 51 It’s Time to Tell Amit Shah and January 12, 2020 Narendra Modi, ‘Hum Sab JNU’ Battle for India’s Soul: A Century-Long Struggle Against the Mahatma’s Vision Siddharth Varadarajan Harsh Mander Let us set aside the anger and disconnect—that this can’t ever For the First Time Since Independence, Muslims Have Come on the Streets revulsion, disbelief, helplessness happen to me and mine. Nizam Pasha and perhaps even fear that many of Well, after JNU, you need to be In Spite of Severe Repression, People are you would have felt over Sunday clear: this horror show can and will United in Protests night’s events at Jawaharlal Nehru be enacted in your neighbourhood, Sandeep Pandey, Anandi Pandey University, and let us also postpone whether you live in Defence Colony Largest Ever Strike in India Shakes Up Modi Govt the question of who those masked or Lajpat Nagar, or work in Chennai Subodh Varma thugs were that beat up students or study in Bangalore. Because, if How Many Millions did You Make for and faculty, and destroyed public the heads of students can be cracked the Pennies You Gave to the Coolies property on campus. We have a fairly open over the course of more than Vijay Prashad Interview: 'We Have Practically Lost good idea of who they were and who three hours in the heart of India’s Kashmir,' Says P. Chidambaram is protecting them—but more about capital, with the police standing by Staff that later. despite the presence of the national A Self-Made Fiscal Trap Instead, I want you to think and international media, then this C.P. Chandrasekhar about a more fundamental question: can happen anywhere, at any time, US Is a Rogue State and Suleimani’s Assassination Confirms It Regardless of where you work, study and to anyone whom the masked C.J. Polychroniou interviews Noam or live, are you safe? Do you feel thugs and their political masters Chomsky safe enough to speak freely about decide to target next. Editor : G. G. Parikh political matters outside the confines of your home? Do you trust the A question of command and Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain police to keep you safe? Do you trust control Managing Editor : Guddi the government to keep you safe? A host of shocking incidents If your answer to all these over the past five and half years Editorial Board : questions is ‘yes’, I don’t think have left us in no doubt about where B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali, you’re telling the truth but good India is headed. But the importance Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah, luck to you anyway. As for the rest of what happened at JNU is that it Amarendra Dhaneshwar, of us: we were disturbed by what marks a point of no return. The Modi Sandeep Pandey happened to the students at Jamia government has made it clear that it Milia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim will not be deterred from its project D-15, Ganesh Prasad, University when they protested the of suppressing the democratic rights Naushir Bharucha Marg, Citizenship (Amendment) Act last of the people and ensuring there is Mumbai - 400 007. month, and bore the full brunt of no effective opposition from any Email : [email protected] an out-of-control police force. And political, social or institutional Website:www.janataweekly.org yet many of us still felt a sense of quarter. When you allow thugs to 2 JANATA, January 12, 2020

do what they did in full public view rules. From there, the VC moved on is not a campus where anyone can to students of India’s top university, to undermine every department with simply walk in armed with lathis you are telling the country you don’t highly questionable appointments. and rods without being challenged care about the political or legal At the political level, the BJP by the guards stationed at every consequences. and the Central government—with entrance gate. Now, India is a democracy, so the collusion of the Delhi police and This rule, which has been around what kind of a regime can be so pliable media—launched an attack for some time, has been more strictly indifferent towards the consequences on the students. The first targets in enforced by the current VC. And of what happened? Only one that has 2016 were student activists framed ever since the mass of students have no intention of ever going away, and on false charges like sedition. This is been protesting the plan to hike which has been working towards that when the idiotic phrase ‘tukde tukde hostel fees, security has actually goal from the word ‘go’. gang’ was introduced and its use been on extra alert. Since 2014, the Modi industrialised across the right-wing So when the Ministry of Human government has systematically corporate media. Next, the ambit Resources Development admits in a undermined one institution after the was widened to tarnish the whole tweet that “a group of masked people next. The list includes parliament of the JNU student population as entered the JNU campus today, and its committees and protocols, anti-national freeloaders. And then threw stones, damaged property the cabinet system, the judiciary, the came the full-fledged assault on the and attacked students”, the obvious RBI, the CBI and other investigative right of poor students to even come question it is sidestepping is how a agencies, the Right to Information, to JNU: by announcing a hike in group of masked and armed people the office of the Comptroller and hostel fees a few months ago. could enter the campus in the first Auditor General, the federal system Cutting across political lines, place. and, of course, the media. The idea is JNU’s students resisted the fee To my mind, the goons could not to ensure the power vertical around hike. But presumably because of have entered without the cooperation Modi should face no countervailing pressure from the RSS and BJP, the of JNU security. And given the challenge. Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad kind of regime the VC runs, it is (ABVP) detached itself from the unthinkable that the JNU security Why JNU matters movement and started taking the side could have acted in this way without In India, as around the world, of the administration. the VC’s blessings. But the VC, universities have traditionally been who is a handmaiden of the Modi an important source of resistance to Connecting the dots government and a person who has rulers with undemocratic ambitions. By linking Sunday’s violence to never hidden his bias towards the University resistance comes in the fee hike and the movement by RSS, would not have allowed the two forms: from the power of its students to oppose the registration goons to wreak mayhem without intellectual ideas and research, process for the new semester, the his political bosses egging him on and the strength of its student and JNU VC has helpfully connected and promising the deployment of teachers organisations and unions. the dots. It is now apparent that the stormtroopers. And if there is one university that masked thugs who were allowed to Maharashtra chief minister typifies both forms of resistance in attack the students protesting the fee Uddhav Thackeray has compared India, it is JNU. hike were a last desperate throw of what happened in JNU to 26/11 in That is why, from day one, the dice by an administration and Mumbai. He may be right at one the Modi government has worked a government unwilling to admit level, because for several hours the to undermine the university on defeat at the hands of students. masked thugs were able to do pretty both fronts. First, they appointed a Why do I say this with such much what they pleased. But if we pliant vice chancellor, Mamidalla certainty? As an occasional visitor to are looking for analogies, I’d say Jagadesh Kumar, to destroy JNU’s JNU, to visit friends who live there I was reminded of Delhi 1984 and traditions of collegiality and or to give a talk, I have always been Gujarat 2002, when the police stood democratic governance, and tie stopped at the entrance and asked by as innocent people were attacked down its faculties in bureaucratic about the purpose of my visit. This and killed. JANATA, January 12, 2020 3

Operation cover-up be filed are all against the victims of citizens” through the NPR–NRC– Next, ask yourself this: when Sunday’s violence. CAA will further open the eyes of does the police adopt such a lenient the people to what is actually going attitude towards hoodlums? When Silver lining on. the hoodlums are connected to the If there is a silver lining to the To the popular slogans of ‘Kagaz ruling party and the government, assault on JNU, it is that more and Nahin Dikhayenge’ and ‘Hum obviously. By now there is more people across the country have Dekhenge’ the government’s storm- enough evidence from WhatsApp, realised that we have indeed reached troopers have just helped people coin Instagram, eyewitness accounts and a point of no return. They know a third: ‘Hum Sab JNU’. We are all even media interviews of ABVP Modi’s shock-and-awe methods JNU now. members for there to be no doubt must not be allowed to prevail. about the identity of the masked The fact that this attack on JNU’s (Siddharth Varadarajan is journalist, attackers: as ABVP activists and students has come at the same time political analyst and academic. He is supporters. as the government’s plan to turn a Founding Editor of The Wire. He Such is the wealth of evidence millions of Indians into “doubtful was earlier the Editor of .) that the ruling establishment has launched multiple efforts to ensure action is not taken. The minister Battle for India’s Soul: A Century-Long of state for home affairs—whose Struggle Against the Mahatma’s Vision ministry controls the Delhi police— has already declared that there is no Harsh Mander way anyone connected to the BJP could be involved in violence! And A hundred years have passed class citizens. Though less explicitly rather conveniently, a outfit since a battle was launched for the enunciated, people of disadvantaged that no one has ever heard of has soul of this ancient land. At stake castes and tribal ethnicities would come forward to take responsibility, was the country we would together also be lesser citizens. thus letting ABVP off the hook. build after the British left our shores. The turbulent combat eventually These efforts at a cover-up are all This was the time when Mahatma took a toll of over a million lives, part of the wider political game-plan Gandhi returned from South Africa including that of Gandhiji, and run from the top to terrorise JNU into to join India’s freedom struggle. caused the largest cataclysmic submission. In his leadership of three decades, displacement of human populations If you don’t want to take my a majority of Indians—Hindu, in history. word for it, I have another foolproof Muslim and of other faiths—shared Today, we find ourselves at a formula for identifying guilt in his vision of a country resolutely decisive phase of this same battle. such situations. Just ask yourself inclusive and humane, which would We are led today by men who have whether the police is making any welcome people of every belief and spent all their adult lives as staunch effort to identify, arrest and punish ethnicity to be equal citizens with members of the RSS. They believe the culprits. In Gujarat, Modi’s guilt equal rights. This ideal lay at the their time has come, to remould for the 2002 killings was obvious foundations of the constitution of India into the muscular and resentful when it took the intervention of the the new republic, crafted in the care nation of their imagination. National Human Rights Commission of Babasaheb Ambedkar. and Supreme Court for any of the This goal was bitterly contested Ideals of the past riot cases to progress. At JNU, all these hundred years by the Hindu I was born eight years after we are told the police has begun a Mahasabha, founded around 1915, India won her freedom. I recall a probe. But since the police itself is and by the RSS in 1925. Their vision childhood in which the idealism being accused of collusion with the for India was of a nation exclusively of the freedom struggle, although administration and the goons, it’s for India’s Hindu majority, in which rapidly unravelling, still endured. best not to hold our breath. It is not Muslims and Christians would be We were raised without bigotry, a coincidence that the first cases to ‘allowed’ inclusion only as second- taught to be thrifty and kind. 4 JANATA, January 12, 2020

Friendships across religion were legitimising and valorising bigotry Then, like a sudden flash of common (though much less, I realise and hatred, which have become the brilliant light in a stormy night, now, across caste). Our cinema, our dominant markers of social life. the revolt led by students across poetry, music and theatre, celebrated Crowds gather to lynch Muslims the country has broken through our plural identities. It was an and Dalits in the name of protecting the darkness. By refusing to allow unequal India, but comfortable in the cow, and proudly post videos their nation to be divided by hate, its diversity, stirred with the hope of the lynching on social media. young people are challenging the of building a better future for all Relationships between Muslim men government’s hubris. The movement our people. and Hindu women are stigmatised might or might not sustain. But the Today, my grandson is being as love jihad. Christian priests, nuns fact that it has happened reassures us raised in a worryingly altered India. and shrines are attacked. Dissenters that our young have the moral fibre From the time he will make sense are pilloried as anti-national. A new to seize the mantle. They will fight of his world, he will routinely slur bandied by even the Prime for the kind and equal country that hear conversations of bigotry Minister is something called ‘Urban Gandhi fought for a hundred years and exclusion, in living rooms, Naxal’. earlier. in classrooms, on his phone and laptop, on his television screen. He Vortex of fear (The writer is a human rights worker, will join a section of the world that In the midsummer 2019 author and teacher.) is complacent in its comfort and elections, the BJP government vulgar overconsumption, indifferent won an expanded mandate, despite to the stark penury and want outside economic collapse, mounting farm its doors. distress and unemployment peaking Janata India did not suddenly change in to a 45-year high. This has been recent years. The slide started much interpreted by the leadership as a is available at earlier. In college, idealistic students mandate to implement their alternate of earlier batches had disappeared vision for India as a land only www.lohiatoday.com into the countryside to fight rural for Hindus. They have moved oppression. We fought against the with resolve and swiftness, hubris corruption and authoritarianism of and recklessness. Diminishing the Congress government and against Kashmir to a Union Territory, the Janata Subscription the Emergency. The 1980s saw vast law criminalising triple talaq and the fractures crack India’s plurality: judicial ruling for a Ram temple at Annual Rs. : 260/- calamitous communal massacres, the site of the demolished mosque, Three Years : 750/- regressive mobilisation against the all fulfil the long-prized agenda of rights of Muslim women, a violent the RSS. Demand Draft / campaign to destroy a mosque in The next pivotal step for this Cheque Ayodhya, to demonise the Muslim, raging juggernaut is to create by and to construct a sense of permanent law, for the first time, a hierarchy on grievance in the Hindu people. of citizenship rights based only on Mumbai Bank Since 2014, however, India has religion, which bars only India’s hurtled far more rapidly downwards Muslims. This, if followed by the in favour of to become a country increasingly National Register of Citizens that dangerous and unwelcoming to has been pledged repeatedly by JANATA TRUST minorities, especially its vast Home Minister Amit Shah, will Muslim populace. Fear and hate thrust India’s Muslims into the D-15, Ganesh Prasad, have become inseparable from same vortex of permanent fear and Naushir Bharucha Marg, public life, for both minorities and desperate insecurity that has been Grant Road (W), for those who stand with them. the fate of Bengali-origin people of Mumbai 400 007. Elected leaders flaunt hate speech, Assam. JANATA, January 12, 2020 5 For the First Time Since Independence, Muslims Have Come on the Streets

Nizam Pasha

Ironically, the unholy trinity of to appropriation and the tricolour in the freedom movement. These the National Register of Citizens- became synonymous with the neo- leaders broke away from AMU and Citizenship (Amendment) Act- nationalists, who were carrying it Jamia was founded as a centre of National Population Register, to their rallies and literally wearing the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat designed to place a question mark on it on their sleeves. The image of the movements, with Mahatma Gandhi the citizenship of Muslims in India, tricolour flying in the protest march as its patron. Gandhiji once pledged has had the unintended consequence in Jammu taken out in support of that if need be, he would go around of reaffirming their Indian identity. the accused being tried for the brutal with a begging bowl to fund the Despite having chosen to stay in rape and murder of an eight-year-old fledgling university. India after independence, weathering Muslim girl in Kathua was seared The words of the “Aligarh ka the rising tide of communalism into public memory. tarana” or the anthem of the Aligarh that Partition brought, Muslims Lynchings in the name of cow Muslim University written by Majaz in India have constantly had their slaughter, extra-judicial killings, Lukhnawi have proved strangely patriotism questioned. Most Muslim absurd laws criminalising forms of prophetic in describing the role of leaders that the freedom struggle had divorce already rendered ineffective Jamia and AMU in the anti-NRC– produced left for Pakistan, and it is by the Supreme Court, five acres CAA–NPR protests: safe to say that since independence, of land given to compensate the Jo abr yahan se utthega, wo Muslims have had no leader with a irreparable damage to the secular sarey jahan par barsega pan-India appeal. fabric of the nation caused by the [The cloud (of revolution) rising As per the report of the Sachar illegal demolition of a 464-year- up from here will rain down on the Committee, the participation of old mosque, revocation of Article whole world.] Muslims in all fields of public life, 370 and the ensuing clampdown in The intention here is not to including their numbers in the armed Kashmir—none of these was able communalise and colour what is forces, the police, bureaucracy, to awaken the Indian Muslim and quintessentially a pan-India people’s educational institutions and even force them to leave the safety of their movement as a Muslim movement. It organised private sector employment homes to venture onto streets that is only to emphasise that for the first is disproportionately low, lower even felt increasingly hostile and alien. time since independence, Muslims than the Scheduled Castes and at par And then, the government went have emerged on to the streets to or lower than the Schedules Tribes. a little too far and passed a series raise their voice and claim an equal With the rise of the political right, of laws, the net effect of which is share in the political discourse of increasingly, the public discourse to require Muslims to prove their their country. of “nationalism” was coopted citizenship or face prosecution, It is true that protests do not by jingoism, toxic masculinity providing all other communities a win elections. Let us even assume and communalism. Every bigot safe passage. The rest, as they say, for a moment that the majority of started referring to her/himself is history. Finally, the knife had cut the people are still behind Modi as a “nationalist”. At every step, too close to the bone. and back the discriminatory law. Muslims were accused of being anti- The protests began in Jamia But for the first time since the national or pro-Pakistan and told Millia Islamia and quickly spread to Modi–Shah combine came to power, to go to Pakistan. All individuals, Aligarh Muslim University and then there is nationwide opposition to associations and collectives to the rest of the country. The fact that their discriminatory and divisive subscribing to liberal values were the protests started in Jamia is also policies and rhetoric. And this put in the box as not being patriotic apt and in keeping with its historic opposition is not by any political enough or being soft on terrorists, tradition. Jamia Millia Islamia was party or individual. It is by the separatists, infiltrators and sundry founded by Muslim leaders who felt people themselves. anti-nationals, most of which were that AMU was too colonial in its The protests are notable for their synonyms for Muslims. outlook and Muslims should come spontaneity and lack of leadership. Symbols are always vulnerable forward and be equal participants Student leaders, stars of popular 6 JANATA, January 12, 2020

culture, local and regional icons Pradesh. Alongside these, as Hasrat of women participating has increased are seen floating from one protest Mohani’s “Inquilab Zindabad”, steadily. The age demographic to another, trying to find their own Bismil Azimabadi’s “Sarfaroshi ki has also changed, from a student role in what is in the truest sense a tamanna” and Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s movement to a movement of persons people’s movement. The common “Hum dekhenge” become rallying of all ages from all walks of life. Muslim man and woman have cries once again, it is also a reminder School children are seen waving decided to wait no longer for this that Muslims of the sub-continent anti-CAA banners from school political party or that, this leader or are no strangers to the fight for civil buses, grandmothers are coming to that, to voice their concerns. Nor are liberties. protests in wheelchairs and raising they lamenting the lack of national In fact, so perplexed and clueless slogans. leadership in their community. is the establishment by the uprising As the number of headscarves Men and women, old and young, that they have started resorting to at protest venues has multiplied, the have taken to the streets and decided absurdities like ordering an enquiry protests venues have responded by to speak for themselves. Unlike the into whether Faiz’s “Hum dekhenge” becoming more gender sensitive. #Notinmyname protests of 2017 is anti-Hindu in its reference to idol One of the two mosques on campus to protest the lynching of Muslims breaking. Perhaps the director of IIT in Jamia has been converted into in the name of gau raksha (cow Kanpur would do well to look up the a mosque reserved exclusively for protection), where persons of all meaning of the word ‘iconoclast’, women; and its washrooms have other communities came together which literally means breaker of been set aside for their use. In (on a much smaller scale) to say that idols but has come to mean someone Shaheen Bagh, a shamiana has been they do not want atrocities against who attacks entrenched institutions erected in the middle of the road with Muslims to be perpetrated on the and ideas, and note that Ambedkar carpets for seating to provide some pretext of protection of Hinduism, has been described by the famous barrier against the biting cold to the this time Muslims are not merely the former Supreme Court judge, Justice women who have been sitting on object of the protest, they are leading V.R. Krishna Iyer, as a “creative dharna day and night, some of them the movement from the front. iconoclast”. Perhaps Justice Krishna with their children. For a community The protests have been marked Iyer was referring to something that is often accused of gender by Muslims reclaiming India’s other than desecration of idols. As inequality, these are welcome signs national icons and symbols. Men was Faiz. that the churn is not just outside but wearing skullcaps and women Simultaneously with the also within. wearing hijabs waving the tricolour reclaiming of national symbols It is a little-known fact that or even with the tricolour painted on and icons, there is a reaffirmation Allama Iqbal actually wrote two their faces have taken over the streets of their Muslim identity by the taranas. One, which we know so and protest venues in practically Muslim protesters. Protests are well—“Saare jahan se achcha every city in the country. Muslims paused for namaz, and non-Muslims Hindustan hamara” to imbue a no longer feel constrained to restrict protestors form human chains national identity and sense of pride themselves to pictures of Maulana around the people offering prayers. among the people of India, and the Azad and Zakir Hussain to rally Duas (prayers) for a roll-back of other lesser known one—“Cheen-o- around. They are reclaiming national the discriminatory law are being Arab hamara Hindustan hamara, leaders as their own, as people conducted after namaz in mosques. Muslim hein hum watan hai who fought for their freedom, the Rozas (fasts) have been observed saara jahana hamara” to engender freedom that is sought to be taken in various places as a statement a global Muslim identity and away today. of solidarity with the fight against emphasise the stake Muslims have Mahatma Gandhi, who we hear NRC–CAA–NPR and community in India. It seems today that Indian about these days only when his iftars are being organised. Muslims have fused together the assassin is glorified, is once again In Jamia, Shaheen Bagh and two to raise a new slogan—“Muslim a symbol of resistance. Dr B.R. surrounding Muslim areas, a whole hein hum watan hai Hindustan Ambedkar once again belongs culture and routine has emerged hamara”. to ‘We The People’ he gave the around the protests. Over the course constitution to and is not the reserve of the three odd weeks that the (Nizam Pasha is a lawyer practicing of one political party in Uttar protests have continued, the number in the Supreme Court.) JANATA, January 12, 2020 7 In Spite of Severe Repression, People are United in Protests

Sandeep Pandey, Anandi Pandey

At New Delhi's Jamia Millia with each other. It was a protest was about to get married, received University if one visits the library against the government. People were injuries on their leg and head, it may appear as if a pitched battle on one side and police on the other. respectively, inflicted by police was fought here. Almost all glasses In , FIR no. 600 lathis. Their house was attacked by have been broken by tear gas shells registered at Hazratganj Police about a hundred policemen. So far or stun grenades and furniture has Station on 20 December names no FIR has been registered by any of been vandalised. And this was in 39 people as accused of whom 36 the victims or their family members. response to some peaceful protests are Muslims. Among the arrested Victims and social activists are in a outside the library. Although protests are Advocate Mohammad Shoaib, state of shock. against Citizenship Amendment Act who was under house arrest on 19 In Meerut there was no protest and the National Register of Citizens December, when most violence organised, yet people returning have been staged by students in took place in Lucknow, and he after namaz in the afternoon on various institutions, including IITs is being accused of provoking 20 December were attacked by and IIMs, the police cracked down violence. A battery rickshaw police without any provocation, first on institutions with Muslim majority operator Mohammad Wakeel was with lathis and then when people students like Jamia Millia University, killed by a bullet injury. People with retaliated by throwing stones, by Aligarh Muslim University, Nadwa bullet injuries are not coming out in firing bullets—17 people received College and Integral University, the open for fear of retributive action bullet injuries. Officially 5, and last two in Lucknow. Students have by police. additionally one more, deaths have been brutally beaten. Minazuddin In Muzaffarnagar there was a taken place. Among the dead were lost one eye, both hands of Mustafa protest against CAA–NRC organised Aleem, 24 years old, a roti maker are fractured and Shayan has both on 20 December and when people at a dhaba, Mohammad Asif, 20 legs fractured. 26 people have were returning to their homes around years old, who used to ply battery been arrested from AMU campus 3–4 pm a mob comprising of police rickshaw and Mohammad Mohsin, out of a total of 52 in Aligarh so and members of Hindutva brigade 30 years old, a scrap dealer—all of far. But there are more than 1000 went on rampage and vandalised them were most likely shot by the unnamed people in two FIRs each. Muslim houses like those of Hamid police, all belonged to the lower 4 students of Nadwa College are Hasan, Intezar, Farooq in Sarwat economic strata of society. Aleem in jail with their bail denied by the and Naseem Ahmed, Ishtkhar in received a bullet on his head, and lower court. Ahamad Raza Khan, Khalapar and attacked Madarsa Asif and Mohsin on their chests. a student of Khawaja Moinuddin hostels. Some minors are still Again no FIRs have been registered Chisti Urdu, Arabi, Farsi University in jail. FIR no. 684 registered at by family members of the deceased in Lucknow has been rusticated by PS Civil Lines and FIR no. 1161 as the people are afraid that the the Vice Chancellor for having sent registered at PS Kotwali Nagar on administration may attach their a message to his fellow students for 21 December against 107 and 151 property as it considers all the dead participating in a protest against people respectively, contain named as rioters. For example, Md. Asif CAA-NRC. Muslims and unnamed 2,500–3,000 had a Delhi identity card as his All the 17 deaths that have taken people in both. 21 years old clothes entire family had moved to Delhi for place in due to bullet vendor Noor Mohammad was killed livelihood and returned three years injuries during the recent violence by a bullet shot at his forehead, most back. He is being accused by police are Muslim youth in their 20s and likely by the police. Abdul Kareem of having brought 20–25 rioters 30s and mostly from poor families. Mosque in Darjiyon Wali Gali from Delhi to incite violence in Strangely, the police has not taken was also vandalised. 13-year-old Meerut. responsibility for any except one in Mohammad Ahmed, student of class The pattern is clear. It is the Bijnor, when there is no question IX at Himalayan Public School, Muslims who have been attacked of groups of people having clashed and his elder sister Rukayya, who during vandalism, arson, looting or 8 JANATA, January 12, 2020

police firing and it is they against abandonment of women by men oppose this sinister move of the whom FIRs are also being registered. practising other faiths. Abrogation government. In an atmosphere The modus operandi is to make of Articles 370 and 35A related reminiscent of freedom movement, victims the accused. The state to Jammu and Kashmir, while at while the rulers are trying their government in UP has also declared the same time continuing dialogue best to divide people on communal that it'll recover the cost of damage with National Socialist Council lines, the common Muslims and to public property from rioters. So, of Nagaland for partial autonomy Hindus are together on the streets the victims who have FIRs against to Nagaland, was an example of in this struggle against a repressive them also face the danger of their humiliating a Muslim majority state. government. People everywhere, property being seized by the local The judgement in favour of Ram south and north, east and west, administration. The police and temple by the Supreme Court even are protesting against CAA–NRC. administration went into overdrive though all evidence pointed to the It remains to be seen whether the after a late night meeting of senior contrary was a stamp of approval ongoing national movement will officials with the Chief Minister on on majoritarian politics even by liberate the country from repressive 19 December night. the judiciary. However, the CAA forces or the country will recede Since the Bhartiya Janata Party and NRC, even though clearly further into a communalised and has come to power at the centre, a targeting the Muslims again, have polarised society. clear policy targeting the Muslims touched some sensitive nerve of can be delineated. Act to ban illegal society because of which people (Sandeep Pandey is a social-political triple talaq has criminalised a across faith, gender, caste, class activist and Anandi is a II year B.A. civil matter without talking about and region have come together to student at Ashoka University.) Largest Ever Strike in India Shakes Up Modi Govt

Subodh Varma India woke up on January 8, to throughout the country as trucks, Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh affiliated witness the largest ever strike with buses, autorickshaws, taxis were off to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an estimated 25 crore (250 million) the roads in most parts while railway refused to participate. However, workers, employees, farmers and workers held protest demonstrations. it’s opting out doesn’t seem to rural labourers stopping work In many parts, like West Bengal, have made any difference to the and hitting the streets to protest Bihar, Punjab etc., rail services were participation in strike, which was against the Modi government’s blocked by protestors. Protestors described as “unprecedented”. economic policies and divisive clashed with police in several Support was extended by dozens of politics. states. independent federations and unions. Reports coming in from various In rural areas, protests and traffic The government had issued a states indicate that the strike was stoppages were seen in nearly 480 warning to government and public complete in the country’s massive districts of the country as lakhs of sector employees to not participate public sector across sectors, farmers and agricultural workers, in the strike and attend work. But such as steel, coal, other mining, along with non-farm rural workers this appears to have been roundly defence production, port & dock, came out in protest, at the call of rejected. oil & natural gas, telecom, power AIKSCC, an umbrella platform of Demands of the striking generation, etc. Ancillary industries over 175 organisations. workers/employees include increase also were mostly shut. Students in over 60 universities in minimum wages, reining in Besides this, workers in the and institutions, and their affiliated rising prices, policies to curb raging private sector across engineering, colleges, too, observed a strike with joblessness, rollback of hostile automobile and components, thousands joining protest marches labour law changes, end to public telecom, metals, textiles and after boycotting classes. sector sell-off, curbing contract and garments, power and many other The protest strike was called by casual work. sectors were on strike. a joint platform of 10 central trade Farmers and agricultural Transport was affected unions. Only one trade union, the workers are demanding better prices JANATA, January 12, 2020 9

for produce, increase in wages, have not been entertained by the Struggle to Continue and complete debt-waiver. Other government for over four years. In This is the fourth country-wide prominent demands of workers fact, changes in labour laws indicate strike by workers during Modi’s and farmers are withdrawal of that the government will allow regime, the earlier three being— the communal citizenship laws increase in working hours but let September 2, 2015; September 2, (CAA and associated NPR/NRC employers fix their own wages by 2016 and the two-day strike on process), end to attacks on minorities keeping statutory levels low. January 8–9, 2019. Besides these, and those protesting against the There is widespread discontent several sectoral actions have taken government, and end to destruction and anger at the way Modi place, including since Modi 2.0 of Constitutional provisions. The government has been kowtowing took over: protests by railway trade unions have also condemned to corporate bigwigs and global workers over corporatisation of recent attacks on students in corporations, even as it ignores several production units; strike Jamia Millia Islamia, Jawaharlal the voices of working people in by over one lakh workers of 41 Nehru University, Aligarh Muslim the country. Not only has it cut ordnance factories; strike by over University, Jadavpur etc. corporate taxes and given huge 6 lakh coal workers against 100% The strike and protest actions concessions to big industrialists foreign direct investment; strike by have acquired a heightened intensity the government has also opened up bank employees against merger of because of the Modi government’s several sectors to private and even 10 public sector banks; strike in all recent moves to ask people to prove foreign capital, like coal, defence refineries, marketing and pipeline their citizenship, with a covert aim production and railways. workers of BPCL and HPCL against of targeting the minority Muslim According to data put out by privatisation, etc. Other sectors community. This has led to massive the finance ministry’s department of where actions have taken place protests throughout the past month investment and asset management include defence, construction and and that anger, converging with the (DIPAM), the BJP government has transport. economic distress in the country, has sold off Rs.2.97 lakh crore worth of It is worth noting that since the found expression in the strike. public sector assets in its rule since imposition of neoliberal economic 2014. If you add the proposed sale policies on the country began 28 Economic Distress Fuelling Anger of BPCL, CONCOR and SCI, the years ago, workers have gone on Over 7.3 crore people, mostly combined net worth of which is strike 19 times pushing back several youth, are currently unemployed estimated at about Rs.76,000 crore, unjust and harsh policies. Similarly, according to Centre for Monitoring the total disinvestment done by farmers and agricultural workers Indian Economy estimates. This government reaches Rs.3.73 lakh have carried out massive movements is perhaps the largest army of crore. including rallies at Parliament. jobless people India has ever seen. In rural areas, wages of In recent years, students in The unemployment rate stood at agricultural workers have remained universities have been agitating 7.7% in December 2019, while in virtually stagnant for the past two against fee hikes, throttling of urban areas, it was even higher at a years despite bumper harvests. democracy and, of late, against staggering 8.9%. Farmers have repeatedly protested police atrocities. They have also Meanwhile, retail prices of and demanded increase in support joined or led protests against the wheat have increased by 56%, atta prices and strengthening of Citizenship Amendment Act/ (wheat flour) by 26% and those of procurement system in order to save National Population Register/ rice by 14% in the past one year even them from pauperisation. With over National Register of Citizens for as the Modi government was sitting half the country’s farmers indebted, the past month. on record stocks of foodgrain, some and debt being the primary reason The momentous strike of January 567 lakh tonnes in December 2018, behind unconscionable suicides, the 8, 2020, therefore, represents a up 25% over last year, and more than demand for complete debt waiver convergence of all these streams double the foodgrain stocking norm has also been repeatedly raised. But and holds the promise of even wider of 214 lakh tonnes. the Modi government continues to struggles in the coming days. Long-standing demands of deceive farmers by claiming that it industrial and agricultural workers is already giving the needed price (Subodh Varma is a senior Indian for fixing a dignified minimum wage levels. journalist.) 10 JANATA, January 12, 2020 How Many Millions did You Make for the Pennies You Gave to the Coolies

Vijay Prashad

As we enter the new year, produces its Billionaires Index. This Chinese worker who produces goods protests across the planet continue year’s index, which was published in for the Walmart global value chain unabated; rising levels of discontent the last days of 2019, shows that the makes—on average—$300 per are manifest in both progressive and world’s top 500 billionaires increased month, or $3,600 annually—what reactionary directions. The political their wealth by $1.2 trillion; their the Walton family makes in three character of the anger might whip wealth is now at $5.9 trillion, up by seconds. The wealth of the Walton across the spectrum of opinion and 25%. The largest number—172—of family is a direct consequence of hope, but the underlying frustrations these 500 billionaires live in the the social labour of the millions of are similar. There is anger at the United States. They added $500 workers who make the products that decades-long crisis of capitalism, billion to their fortunes; this includes Walmart sells and of the millions of and anger at the consequences of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who workers who sell these products. But austerity. Some of that anger is added $27.3 billion and Microsoft’s they earn a fraction of the vast profit directed towards hope for a world Bill Gates, who added $22.7 billion. of $510 billion earned by Walmart without inequality and without Eight of the ten richest people on the in 2019. catastrophe; some of that anger planet are U.S. nationals (from Jeff Last year, in January, thousands deepens into a toxic hatred of other Bezos to Julia Koch). of Bangladeshi garment workers— people. Such reports do not explain the majority of whom are women— Toxic anger whips against anything; they merely offer us a began industrial action against immigrants and minorities, festering window into Richistan—the country factories that made clothes that are hate as a false hope against austerity. of the very wealthy. But a deeper sold by retailers such as Walmart and Genuine hope is to be found in the look into these numbers provides H&M. In retaliation for these strikes, plea for a new system to better an understanding of the essence of 7,500 workers were dismissed by the organise our common resources to social inequality. The Walton family, owners, while thousands of workers end hunger and dispossession and which owns the global retail giant faced criminal cases for what Human to manage the great catastrophes of Walmart, is well-represented in Rights Watch called ‘broad and capitalism and climate change. the Bloomberg list of billionaires. vague’ allegations. Most of these No surprise that young people This family appropriates $70,000 workers earn not more than 3,000 are on the streets with banners that per minute, or $100 million per taka a month (US $30), a tenth of the plead for a new world, for it is these day. This is the lion’s share of wages of a Chinese worker. When young people who recognise that Walmart’s earnings. A comparison these workers—paid extremely low their lives are at stake, that the class between the share of Walmart’s wage rates—ask for modest wage realities of property and privilege are earnings that is seized by the Walton increases, they face the full wrath of shutting the doors on their aspirations family and the share left to the the owners of the small factories that (a new UN report on Chile says that Walmart workers is instructive. produce for Walmart backed by the socio-economic inequality is the Walmart’s own Economic, Social, repressive power of the Bangladeshi main grievance of the protestors). and Governance Report (2019) State. This is not a youth uprising without admits that the average wage for Bloomberg’s list should be a class character; these young people Walmart workers in the United annotated to include the other side know that they will not be able to States is $14.26 per hour. If the of wealth, the garment workers in easily access housing and work, joy average Walmart employee (2.2 Bangladesh whose social labour is and fulfilment. million of them globally) worked seized to produce the wealth for the The rational kernel of genuine for 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, Walton family. It should somehow hope points its fingers at obscene the employee would earn $29,660 find a place for the name Sumon social inequality. Each year, the annually—what the Walton family Mia, a Bangladeshi garment worker financial news service Bloomberg makes in twenty-five seconds. A who died when police opened fire JANATA, January 12, 2020 11

on striking garment workers on 8 His poem begins with a worker as young people sincerely, and not January 2019. getting beaten by a boss. Nazrul naively, struggle to build a new A World Bank report in Islam, who never let such atrocities world. 2019 showed that eight million numb him, writes with great feeling: But what would that world Bangladeshis are no longer living ‘My eyes well with tears; will the be like? Simply being against under the poverty line. This report’s weak get beaten like this all over the exploitation and against oppression main point—the decrease in world?’. He hopes that this condition is not sufficient. We will need to poverty—hides its actual findings. is not eternal, that the exploitation build a socialist world ... One in four Bangladeshis remain of humanity is not permanent. below the poverty line, and 13% of These hopes—written into poetry (Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, the population is living under the a century ago—remain alive today editor and journalist.) extreme poverty line. The numbers regarding the decline in poverty are untrustworthy—the Bangladesh Interview: 'We Have Practically Lost Kashmir,' Institute of Development Studies points out that the government data Says P. Chidambaram on which they are based is neither reliable nor consistent. The Wire Staff The protests of the workers in Bangladesh to increase their wages “We have practically lost calm’. All that the government has to a decent standard are part of the Kashmir,” former Union home managed to do is to “put a lid on worldwide wave of anti-austerity minister P. Chidambaram said a volcano” by sending troops to protests. Demonstrations not only about the Bharatiya Janata Kashmir, Chidambaram said. decry cuts in government spending Party-led Central government’s and the rise in prices of basic goods Kashmir policy in an interview to How normalcy was achieved after (public transportation) but also The Wire. the 2010 agitation demand the rights of workers. Appearing on the National The veteran Congress leader These struggles that have inflamed Security Conversations show hosted revealed that after the 2010 Chile and Ecuador, and India, by Happymon Jacob, the senior agitations, the government of India Haiti and Lebanon, Zimbabwe and Congress leader argued that by undertook a major course correction Malawi, are not just against bribery carrying out fundamental changes in terms of dealing with Kashmir. or against fuel price rises; they in the (erstwhile) state of Jammu The 2010 agitation in the Valley and are against the entire framework and Kashmir, the BJP government the killing of over 100 Kashmiris of austerity and the harsh rate of has committed ‘constitutional was a major wake up call for the exploitation that immiserates a desecration’. government of India, which realised greater share of humankind. He also decried the manner that it had to change its strategy to The revolutionary Bangla poet, in which the government of India stabilise the Valley. Nazrul Islam (1899-1976), sang with has treated the people of Kashmir: Increasing engagement with the indignation at this robbery: “No democratic country can keep Kashmiris and sending a team of an entire population under siege.” interlocutors to Kashmir were part Beton Diacho? Chup rou joto Chidambaram sharply criticised the of that approach, he said. New Delhi mithyabadir dal! BJP government’s Kashmir policy, also pulled up the J&K government Koto pai diye kulider tui koto crore saying that “it looks at the entire then headed by Omar Abdullah peli bol! 7.5 million people in Kashmir as through an unprecedented resolution (Have you paid wages? Shut up militants, as anti-nationals, as pro- adopted by the Cabinet Committee you gang of liars! Pakistanis”. on Security to ensure that there were How many millions did you The government’s claims about no further civilian casualties. make for the pennies you gave the the calm in the Kashmir Valley today, The BJP, according to coolies!) he stated, is nothing but a ‘deceptive Chidambaram, continued with this 12 JANATA, January 12, 2020

policy of engagement till 2015 On the habeas corpus petitions quickly and gave a verdict on before becoming more militaristic pertaining to the Kashmiri leaders them. These petitions pending and less accommodative. in detention, Chidambaram said, since middle of August is Chidambaram agreed that the “I would have fervently hoped and unfortunate.” UPA government should have prayed that the Supreme Court implemented the various measures heard the habeas corpus petitions (Full interview available on thewire.in.) suggested by the interlocutors’ report on J&K, which would have improved the situation in the state. “My only A Self-Made Fiscal Trap regret is,” he said, “that we didn’t implement the interlocutors report” C.P. Chandrasekhar because “there was not enough political will within the government” In the Revised Estimates for The crisis that this differential to do so. The former minister also 2018–19 reported in Budget 2019, between the seven-month actual admitted that all governments the National Democratic Alliance and annual projected growth rates have made mistakes in Kashmir (NDA) government had hugely points to is the result of many acts including those led by the Congress inflated figures on Central revenues of commission and omission by this party. and expenditures in 2018–19. This government and some that preceded Chidambaram recommended was one of many signals that it was it. that the first step to resolving the faced with a fiscal crisis it did not First, since a central objective Kashmir issue is to engage the want to reveal. Matters have only of neoliberal reform is to incentivise people there in a dialogue. If other worsened since then. Numbers the private sector into leading parts of the country can have special released by the Controller General investment and driving growth, tax provisions, Jammu and Kashmir, of Accounts (CGA) show that over reform has emphasised rate reduction which acceded to India on the basis the months April to October net tax and leniency, resulting in a situation of an autonomy promise, could also revenue accruing to the Centre rose where tax buoyancy has eroded and have a modicum of autonomy, the by just 1.1 per cent relative to the the tax-to-GDP ratio has on average former minister said. corresponding period of the previous been low and falling over a number Chidambaram said that while he year, way short of the inflation rate of years. In the 1990s, the adverse was still part of the UPA government, and the rate of growth of nominal effect that this tendency could have he had advocated for a more humane gross domestic product (GDP). If we had on public expenditure was law in place of the armed forces go by the figures quoted in the papers countered by resorting to borrowing special powers act, but there was a tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala to finance additional spending, with lack of consensus within the UPA Sitharaman, the government had the Centre reneging on its promise to government on removing AFSPA projected net tax revenue to rise by global finance and the international from J&K. 11 per cent in 2019–20 relative to financial institutions to rein in the On the issue of talking to the Revised Estimates it provided fiscal deficit. But that changed Pakistan, Chidambaram argued that for 2018–19. in 2003, when the government while Pakistan is a trouble-maker But since those Revised chose to succumb to demands in Kashmir, it is still important to Estimates were inflated as the from those sources and passed the engage in a bilateral dialogue. With provisional CGA figures for 2018– Fiscal Responsibility and Budget regard to the Kashmir backchannel 19 suggest, the net tax revenue for Management Act, which forced it that had discreetly negotiated a deal 2019–20 needed to grow by more to opt for fiscal conservatism and to resolve the contentious bilateral than 25 per cent for projections reduce the fiscal deficit to GDP issue during the 2004-2007 period, to be realised. It is with that high ratio to 3 per cent over time. Since Chidambaram said that he did not figure that we need to compare the taxes were not buoyant, reducing think it would be possible to have abysmally low 1.1 per cent growth the fiscal deficit ratio required soft borders between India and rate in the first seven months of this limiting expenditures, even allowing Pakistan in Kashmir. fiscal year. for receipts from disinvestment JANATA, January 12, 2020 13

and various forms of off-budget since July 2017, the GST regime has compensation transfers due to the manoeuvres. had enough time to overcome all States and greater freedom for the This should have slowed teething troubles. States to borrow and spend. growth considerably because of a This made sense since what fall in government investment and Holding back payments is needed in a context when debt- consumption. It did not because Yet, 2019–20 is proving to be a financed private spending is winding this was the period when, as a result dismal year for collections from the down is an increase in government of a surge in commercial bank GST. Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget expenditure, financed, if necessary, lending triggered by large inflows of scaled down earlier estimates of with increased borrowing. With the capital from abroad, debt-financed GST collection and projected an Centre not acceding to the demands private spending on investment and average collection of Central GST of the States, the responsibility for consumption more than substituted at Rs 5.26 lakh crore in 2019–20, adopting an expansionary fiscal for the now constrained tax and compared with the Rs 6.04 lakh stance falls on the Centre. Such debt-financed public spending. crore budgeted for in 2018–19. an increase in Central expenditure This helped raise India’s growth This was because the actual GST can only be financed with some rate considerably, lifting with it the collection in 2018–19 was, at Rs combination of (i) enhanced revenue revenues and expenditures of the 4.58 lakh crore, around three-fourths generation by raising tax rates government. of what had been projected. The Rs and widening the tax base and (ii) However, in time it became clear 5.26 lakh crore figure for 2019–20 additional borrowing by relaxing that this growth riding on a credit implied average monthly collections ceilings set on the fiscal deficit. If the bubble could not be sustained, with of CGST of around Rs 43,830 crore. tax and/or debt-financed increase in large non-performing assets and From April to November 2019, the spending raises growth, it will also closure of some banks and non- average monthly CGST collection improve tax collection in future and bank finance companies heralding stood at around Rs 41,000 crore, facilitate the recovery. Unable to the end of the debt-financed private implying that even the scaled- raise tax revenues and unwilling sector boom. As a result, growth down projection is unlikely to be to raise the fiscal deficit to GDP has been decelerating sharply in realised. The situation is so bad ratio, the government has in the recent quarters, and signs are that that the government is holding back past resorted to temporary measures India is likely to be overwhelmed payments of the compensation due to such as increasing receipts from by a recession. Falling growth, the States because of shortfalls in the disinvestment and privatisation or by curtailing in turn tax revenue GST revenues relative to a promised pushing public enterprises to borrow increases, only limits government 14 per cent annual increase. and spend off-budget. But the expenditure even more, assuming Besides delays in the payment government has already exploited that it sticks close to its deficit of overdue compensation on the such options to the full. For example, reduction “glide path”. That worsens grounds that collections from the disinvestment receipts have already the recession. compensation cess were inadequate, touched an unprecedented high of But, it turned out that this the Centre is pushing for a reduction around Rs 100,000 crore in 2018–19. was the least of the government’s in the 14 per cent guaranteed increase Thus, the real options are problems. While these fiscal in revenues of the States. This effort increased taxation and enhanced developments were unfolding, the to punish the States for the failure deficit-financed spending. The previous NDA government not only of a regime designed and pushed government is clearly not pursuing damaged the economy through its by the Centre threatens to trigger a the first. To the contrary, in demonetisation blunder but also new round of Centre–State conflict. September, Nirmala Sitharaman decided to implement in haste a The Centre would have liked to announced a “stimulus” in the Goods and Services Tax regime that raise GST rates in a meeting held form of a huge reduction in the has proved to be a major mistake. in December. But that was opposed corporate tax rate from 30 (or an It has not delivered the revenues by the States on the grounds that it effective rate of 34.61 per cent the government expected, and even would further squeeze demand. In after surcharge and cess) to 22 per those revenues have shrunk with the their view, what was required was cent (or an effective rate of 25.17 recession. Having been implemented delivery of legitimate revenue and per cent) for domestic companies 14 JANATA, January 12, 2020

that do not avail themselves of tax The presumption that the bonanza and demand have shrunk and have incentives or exemptions. New offered to the corporate sector will aggravated rather than compensated domestic manufacturing companies stir animal spirits and unleash an the fall in private demand resulting incorporated on or after October 1, investment boom is naïve to say the from the developments discussed 2019, will pay corporation tax at the least. Faced with dwindling demand earlier. This is now proving to be a reduced rate of 15 per cent (or an and rising inventories, firms would recipe for disaster because slowing effective rate of 17.01 per cent) so absorb as extra profit the subsidy growth has worsened the fiscal long as they do not avail themselves implicit in the tax cut and invest if position of the Centre, as tax revenue of incentives and exemptions. at all in speculative areas that do not growth turns even more sluggish. And the minimum alternative run up against the barrier of deficient The Centre may try to reduce its own tax applicable to companies that demand. burden by penalising the States, but do make use of incentives and Along with the tax cut, the the economy as a whole will suffer exemptions has been reduced from government declared that other as decelerating public and private 18.5 per cent to 15 per cent. This is than for small deviations it would investment and consumption drive a huge bonanza, which is expected zealously stick to its fiscal deficit it to recession. The government is to result in revenue foregone of target, and has in practice done so. clearly caught in a fiscal trap which anywhere up to Rs 1.45 lakh crore Moreover, it has refused to accede it has set for itself. in a full year, or around 0.8 per cent to demands from States that they of GDP. Wiping out revenues of be allowed to increase their deficit (C.P. Chandrasekhar is currently that magnitude when faced with a spending to 4 per cent of State Professor at the Centre for Economic fiscal crisis would only intensify that GDP from the current 3 per cent. Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal crisis by forcing further austerity. The result is that public spending Nehru University, New Delhi.) US Is a Rogue State and Suleimani’s Assassination Confirms It

C.J. Polychroniou interviews Noam Chomsky

C.J. Polychroniou (CJP): top general, in the Mexico City not forgotten that when the huge, Noam, the US assassination of international airport, along with heavily armed US-trained Iraqi army Iran’s Quds Force commander the commander of a large part of quickly collapsed, and the Kurdish Qassim Suleimani has reaffirmed the US-supported army of an allied capital of Erbil, then Baghdad and all Washington’s long-held obsession nation. Would that be an act of war? of Iraq were about to fall in the hands with Tehran and its clerical regime, Others can decide. It is enough for of ISIS [also known as Daesh], it was which goes all the way back to the us to recognise that the analogy is Suleimani and the Iraqi Shia militias late 1970s. What is the conflict fair enough, and that the pretexts he organised that saved the country. between US and Iran all about, and put forth by Washington collapse Not a small matter. does the assassination of Suleimani so quickly on examination that As for what the conflict is all constitute an act of war? it would be embarrassing to run about, the background reasons are not Noam Chomsky (NC): Act through them. obscure. It has long been a primary of war? Perhaps we can settle on Suleimani was greatly principle of US foreign policy to reckless international terrorism. It respected—not only in Iran, where control the vast energy resources seems that Trump’s decision, on he was a kind of cult figure. This of the Middle East: to control, not a whim, appalled high Pentagon is recognised by US experts on necessarily to use. Iran has been officials who briefed him on options, Iran. One of the most prominent central to this objective during the on pragmatic grounds. If we wish experts, Vali Nasr (no dove, and who post-World War II period, and its to look beyond, we might ask how detests Suleimani), says that Iraqis, escape from the US orbit in 1979 has we would react in comparable including Iraqi Kurds, “don’t see him accordingly been intolerable. circumstances. as the nefarious figure that the West The “obsession” can be traced Suppose that Iran were to murder does, but they see him through the to 1953, when Britain—the overlord the second-highest US official, its prism of defeating ISIS.” They have of Iran since oil was discovered JANATA, January 12, 2020 15

there—was unable to prevent the between Israel and Saudi Arabia Finally, the US pretty much government from taking over its are surfacing much more clearly took over, sending naval forces own resources and called on the now within the framework of the to ensure Saddam’s control of the global superpower to manage the reactionary alliance that the Trump Gulf. After the US guided missile operation. There is no space here administration is forging as a base cruiser Vincennes shot down an to review in detail the course of the for US power in the region: the Gulf Iranian civilian airliner in a clearly obsession since, but some highlights dictatorships, the Egyptian military marked commercial corridor, killing are instructive. dictatorship and Israel, linked to 290 passengers and returning to Britain called on Washington Modi’s India, Bolsonaro’s Brazil port to great acclaim and awards with some reluctance. To do so meant and other similar elements. A rare for exceptional service, Khomeini surrendering more of its former semblance of a coherent strategy in capitulated, recognising that Iran empire to the US and declining even this chaotic administration. cannot fight the US. President Bush more to the role of “junior partner” The Carter administration then invited Iraqi nuclear scientists in global management, as the foreign strongly supported the Shah until to Washington for advanced training office recognised with dismay. The the last moment. High US officials— in nuclear weapons production, a Eisenhower administration took Henry Kissinger, Dick Cheney, very serious threat against Iran. over. It organised a military coup Donald Rumsfeld—called on US Conflicts continued without a that overthrew the parliamentary universities (mainly my own, MIT, break, in more recent years focusing regime and re-installed the Shah, over strong student protest but on Iran’s nuclear programs. These restoring the oil concession to faculty acquiescence) to aid the conflicts ended (in theory) with the its rightful hands, with the US Shah’s nuclear programs, even Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action taking over 40 percent of the former after he made clear that he was (JCPOA) in 2015, an agreement British concession. Interestingly, seeking nuclear weapons. When between Iran and the five permanent Washington had to force US the popular uprising overthrew the members of the UN, plus Germany, corporations to accept this gift; they Shah, the Carter administration in which Iran agreed to sharply preferred to keep to cheaper Saudi oil was apparently split on whether to curtail its nuclear programs—none (which the US had taken over from endorse the advice of de facto Israeli of them weapons programs—in Britain in a mini war during World Ambassador Uri Lubrani, who return for Western concessions. War II). But under government counselled that “Tehran can be taken The International Atomic Energy coercion, they were forced to over by a very relatively small force, Agency, which carries out intensive comply: one of those unusual but determined, ruthless, cruel. I mean inspections, reports that Iran fully instructive incidents revealing how the men who would lead that force lived up to the agreement. US the government sometimes pursues will have to be emotionally geared intelligence agrees. long-term imperial interests over the to the possibility that they’d have to The topic elicits much debate, objections of the powerful corporate kill ten thousand people.” unlike another question: Has the sector that largely controls and even It didn’t work, and soon US observed the agreement? staffs it. Ayatollah Khomeini took over Apparently not. The JCPOA states The Shah proceeded to institute on an enormous wave of popular that all participants are committed a harsh tyranny. He was regularly enthusiasm, establishing the brutal not to impede in any way Iran’s cited by Amnesty International as clerical autocracy that still reigns, reintegration into the global a leading practitioner of torture, crushing popular protests. economy, particularly the global always with strong US support as Shortly after, Saddam Hussein financial system, which the US Iran became one of the pillars of US invaded Iran with strong US backing, effectively controls. The US is not power in the region, along with the unaffected by his resort to chemical permitted to interfere “in areas Saudi family dictatorship and Israel. weapons that caused huge Iranian of trade, technology, finance and Technically, Iran and Israel were at casualties; his monstrous chemical energy” and others. war. In reality, they had extremely warfare attacks against Iraqi Kurds While these topics are not close relations, which surfaced were denied by Reagan, who investigated, it appears that publicly after the overthrow of the sought to blame Iran and blocked Washington has been interfering Shah in 1979. The tacit relations congressional condemnation. steadily. 16 JANATA, January 12, 2020

President Trump claims that with nuclear weapons programs. Iraq Association Robert Jervis. Both his effective demolition of the hadn’t, as they were soon forced to in the main establishment journal, JCPOA is an effort to negotiate an concede. But the US continues to Foreign Affairs, 1999, 2001). improvement. It’s a worthy objective, violate the Resolution to the present After Bush took over, easily realised. Any concerns about in order to protect its Israeli client qualifications were dropped. It was Iranian nuclear threats can be and to allow Washington to violate asserted as fact that the US “has overcome by establishing a nuclear US law. assumed many of the very features weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in Interesting facts, which, of the ‘rogue nations’ against which the Middle East, with intensive unfortunately, are apparently too it has … done battle.” Others outside inspections like those successfully incendiary to see the light of day. the US mainstream might think implemented under the JCPOA. There’s no point reviewing the of different words for the worst As we have discussed before, years that followed in the hands of crime of the millennium, a textbook this is quite straightforward. the man “sent by God to save Israel example of aggression without Regional support is overwhelming. from Iran,” in the words of the credible pretext, the “supreme The Arab states initiated the proposal serious figure of the administration, international crime” of Nuremberg. long ago, and continue to agitate Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And others sometimes express for it, with the strong support of Returning to the original their opinions. Gallup runs regular Iran and the former nonaligned question, there’s quite a lot to polls of international opinion. In countries (G-77, now 132 countries). contemplate about what the conflict is 2013 (the Obama years), it asked Europe agrees. In fact, there is about. In a phrase, primarily imperial for the first time, which country is only one barrier: the US, which power, damn the consequences. the greatest threat to world peace. regularly vetoes the proposal when CJP: The term “rogue state” The US won; no one else even it comes up at the review meetings (used widely by the US State came close. Far behind in second of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Department) refers to the pursuit place was Pakistan, presumably countries, most recently by Obama of state interests without regard to inflated by the Indian vote. Iran— in 2015. The US will not permit accepted standards of international the greatest threat to world peace in inspection of Israel’s enormous behavior and the basic principles US discourse—was scarcely nuclear arsenal, or even concede its of international law. Given that mentioned. existence, though it is not in doubt. definition, isn’t the US a star example That was also the last time the The reason is simple: under US of a rogue state? question was asked, though there law (the Symington Amendment), NC: State Department officials needn’t have been much concern. It conceding its existence would are not the only ones to use the term does not seem to have been reported require terminating all aid to Israel. “rogue state.” It has also been used in the US. So the simple method of ending by prominent American political We might ponder these questions the alleged concern about an Iranian scientists—referring to the State a little further. We are supposed threat is ruled out and the world must Department. Not Trump’s, Clinton’s. to revere the US Constitution, face grim prospects. During the era between Reagan’s especially conservatives. We must Since these topics are scarcely murderous terrorist atrocities in therefore revere Article VI, which mentionable in the US, it is perhaps Central America and Bush’s invasion declares that valid treaties shall be worthwhile to reiterate another of Iraq, they recognised that for “the supreme law of the land” and forbidden matter: The US and UK much of the world, the US was officials must be bound by them. have a special responsibility to work “becoming the rogue superpower,” In the post-war years, by far the to establish a NWFZ in the Middle considered “the single greatest most important such treaty is the East. They are formally committed external threat to their societies,” UN Charter, instituted under US to do so under Article 14 of UN and that, “In the eyes of much of the initiative. It bans “the threat or use Security Council Resolution 687, world, in fact, the prime rogue state of force” in international affairs; which they invoked in their effort today is the United States” (Harvard specifically, the common refrain that to concoct some thin legal basis for professor and government adviser “all options are open” with regard their invasion of Iraq, claiming that Samuel Huntington; President of to Iran. And all cases of resort to Iraq had violated the Resolution the American Political Science force unless explicitly authorised by JANATA, January 12, 2020 17

the Security Council or in defense Abrahamian observes: the external arbiter. against armed attack (a narrowly “The killing of Soleimani … Elsewhere, even among construed notion) until the Security has actually provided a wonderful Washington’s Gulf allies, Putin Council, which must be immediately opportunity for ISIS to recover. has presented himself, apparently notified, is able to act to terminate There will be a resurgence of ISIS with some success, as the one the attack. very much in Mosul, northern Iraq. trustworthy outside actor. Trump’s We might consider what the And that, paradoxically, will help bull-in-a-China-shop diplomacy (if world would look like if the US Iran, because the Iraqi government that is the right word) is winning Constitution were considered will have no choice but to rely few friends outside of Israel, on applicable to the US, but let’s put more and more on Iran to be able to which he is lavishing gifts, and the that interesting question aside— contain ISIS [which led the defense other members of the reactionary not, however, without mentioning of Iraq against the ISIS onslaught, alliance taking shape. Any thought that there is a respected profession, under Suleimani’s command] … of “soft power” has been pretty called “international lawyers and Trump has pulled out of north Iraq, much abandoned. But US reserves law professors,” who can learnedly of the area where ISIS was, pulled of hard power are enormous. No explain that words don’t mean what the rug out from the Kurds, and now other country can impose harsh they mean. he’s declared war on the pro-Iranian sanctions at will and compel third CJP: Iraq has struggled since militias. And the Iraqi Army has not parties to honor them, at cost of the US invasion in 2003 to maintain been in the past capable of dealing expulsion from the international a balanced situation with both with ISIS. So, the obvious thing is financial system. And, of course, no Washington and Tehran. However, now, the Iraqi government, how are one else has hundreds of military the Iraqi parliament has voted they going to deal with the revival bases around the world or anything after Suleimani’s assassination to of ISIS? … they will have no choice like Washington’s advanced military expel all US troops. Is this likely to but to actually rely more and more power and ability to resort to force happen? And, if it does, what impact on Iran. So, Trump has actually at will and with impunity. The idea would it have on future US- Iraq- undermined his own policy, if he of imposing sanctions on the US, Iran relations, including the fight wants to eliminate Iran’s influence or anything beyond tepid criticism, against ISIS? in Iraq.” borders on ludicrous. NC: We don’t know whether Much as W. Bush did when he And so, it is likely to remain it will happen. Even if the Iraqi invaded Iraq. even as “in the eyes of much of government orders the US to leave, CJP: Putin appears to have the world, in fact, the prime rogue will it do so? It’s not obvious, and as outmaneuvered the US not only on state today is the United States,” always, public opinion in the US, if Syria, but almost everywhere else considerably more so than 20 years organised and committed, can help on the Middle East front. What is ago when these words were uttered, provide an answer. Moscow after in the Middle East, unless and until the population As for ISIS, Trump has just and what’s your explanation for the compels state power to pursue a given it another lease on life, just often infantile diplomacy displayed different course. as he gave it a “get out of jail free” by the United States in the region card when he betrayed Syrian Kurds, and in fact around the world? (C.J. Polychroniou is a political leaving them to the mercy of their NC: One goal, substantially economist/political scientist who has bitter enemies Turkey and Assad achieved, was to gain control of taught and worked in universities after they had fulfilled their function Syria. Russia entered the conflict and research centers in Europe and of fighting the war against ISIS in 2015 after advanced weapons the United States. Noam Chomsky (with 11,000 casualties, as compared provided by the CIA to the mostly is professor emeritus at MIT and with half-dozen Americans). ISIS jihadi armies had stopped Assad’s laureate professor of linguistics at organised at first with jail breaks and forces. Russian aircraft turned the the University of Arizona who has is now free to do so again. tide, and without concern for the published more than 120 books on ISIS has been given a welcome incredible civilian toll, the Russian- linguistics, global affairs, US foreign gift in Iraq as well. The eminent backed coalition has taken control of policy, media studies, politics and Middle East historian Ervand most of the country. Russia is now philosophy.) 18 JANATA, January 12, 2020 JANATA, January 12, 2020 19 R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, January 12, 2020 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. Published on Sunday, January 12, 2020 & Posted on Wedenesday, January 15, 2020 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

GANNON DUNKERLEY & CO., LTD. An infrastructure company established since 1924

REGD. OFFICE New Excelsior Building, (3rd Floor), A.K. Nayak Marg, Fort, Mumbai 400001. Tel. : 022 2205 1231 Fax : 022-2205 1232

Office : Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai & New Delhi

Printed and Published by G.G. Parikh on behalf of Janata Trust. Printed at Parijat Printer, Gaiwadi, Girgaum, Mumbai - 400 004 and published at D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Naushir Bharucha Marg (Sleater Road), Mumbai - 400 007.