India - The Enemy Within

The current ruling coalition government led by the Congress Party is set to be humiliated internationally, because the Indian Communists (who provide “outside” support to the coalition) are opposing the India-US nuclear deal. The Indian Prime Minister has staked his personal reputation as well as that of the nation on this deal. This does not bother the Communists. The Communists say (falsely) that the deal will make India a vassal state of the US. They are well aware that with rising inflation and a worsening economy, the Congress will be loath call their bluff and call for an early general election. They have the Congress party down, and nearly out. Let us look at the facts and the track record of our Indian Communists:

• Communist China (a country idolized by Indian Communists) has signed an identical nuclear deal with the US. Do Indian communists feel that China is a vassal state of the US?
• Erstwhile communist state Russia is exhorting India to sign the deal, saying it will help in the development of the country.
• It has been established beyond all doubt that the deal will provide power and fuel starved India access to unlimited amounts of clean, inexpensive nuclear energy that the country sorely needs if it is to join the ranks of developed nations in the 21st century. Besides, China is now providing Pakistan with sophisticated nuclear technology. Can you imagine what will happen if Pakistan develops sophisticated nuclear technology and India doesn’t?

The Congress Party, dominant partner in the current ruling coalition government has been sleeping with the enemy for the last four and a half years. The Communists have taken every opportunity to embarrass, humiliate and denigrate their “allies”, the Congress.

• They have not allowed foreign direct investment in the country’s retail and insurance sectors. This would have created millions of much needed jobs in India’s hinterlands.
• They have not allowed the Congress to disinvest in chronically loss-making public sector enterprises, a move that would have brought in much needed funds for strengthening public education and enhancing India’s appalling road and port infrastructure.
• A recent international survey showed that India is a “soft target” for international terrorism. India is the country with the second largest number of victims of international terrorism – second only to Iraq. The current government has done nothing to curb terrorism – it is shameful. Yet our Communists believe that terrorism within our country is not something that demands attention and a solution. In their view, it is a mere “law and order” problem. Nothing could be further from the truth. Maybe our “comrades” should ask the families and loved ones of the hundreds who died in the horrific Mumbai suburban train blasts if terrorism is only a “law and order” problem.
• The Indian Communists are strong supporters of China. Over the last year or so, China has been flexing its military muscle by sending its troops into Indian territory in the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. The Chinese do not recognize the international border and claim the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh and upper Assam as part of they call “greater Tibet”. India’s response to these Chinese transgressions has been feeble, partly because the Communists have not allowed India to protest. It is important to remember that during the Indo-China war of 1962, the Indian Communists were the only party in India that celebrated when China won!! To date, Indian Communists claim that India was the aggressor in that war – a claim that has been proved wholly wrong by documented historical facts.
• Critics of the Indian Communists also claim that they support the destructive Maoist insurgency that has now taken hold of large parts of central and eastern India. I do not know if this allegation is true, but it is certainly a possibility. What is beyond dispute is that the Maoist insurgency has grown exponentially more powerful and threatening since the current ruling coalition and their allies (read: the Communists) came to power at the Centre four and a half years ago.

Matters have not been helped by a weak, timid Congress party. The Congress who have a much larger number of seats in Parliament, have been completely bullied into submission on every single issue by the Communists, who have not more than 11% of all the seats in the Indian Lok Sabha (Parliament). I am no great supporter of the Indian Congress party, but there is no doubt that it is one of the only two parties in India (the Bharatiya Janata Party is the other) that can lay claim to being a pan-Indian, progressive political party. The decline of the Congress, while self-inflicted, is still sad. The Communists have actively plotted and connived to wound the Congress Party over the last few years. And they are allies of the Congress in the current political dispensation. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Make no mistake about it. The biggest threat to India and our vibrant, diverse democracy comes not from Pakistan, China or religious fundamentalists. It comes from the Indian Communists – the enemy within. To make matters worse, Indian communists are not nearly as progressive as their Chinese counterparts. China today is a capitalist dictatorship – a communist country only in name. Thanks to extensive economic reforms in that country, China today has transformed itself into a powerful, developed nation. Our home-grown communists on the other hand, pine for the days of Stalin and Mao, men who impoverished their countries and murdered millions of their countrymen in the name of communism. Our comrades still use outdated, discredited terms in their speech – “capitalist roaders”, “imperialists and their running dogs”, etc. These are terms that have been discreetly eliminated from the vocabularies of their counterparts in China.

Our comrades would like to remodel India and make it like the China or Russia of the 1940s and 1950s, or the North Korea of today – an extreme left-wing totalitarian state that robs its citizens of their basic liberties and ships off dissidents to gulags (when it does not kill them). If you think I am joking, look at rural West Bengal – an Indian state ruled by the Communists for the last thirty years. Most Bengalis with an education and initiative to succeed have left the state to seek greener pastures elsewhere in the country, or overseas. The economy of West Bengal is in shambles, A similar situation would have prevailed in the other Indian state run by the Communists – Kerala, if it wasn’t for the vast amounts of money repatriated to that state by residents who live and work (largely in menial jobs) in the Middle East. Kerala’s economy is afloat in large part, due to the state’s “remittance economy”. Therefore, the economic track record of our Communists does not inspire confidence.

Mikhail Gorbachev and Deng Xiao-ping were visionaries, who realized that there was nothing romantic or desirable in keeping their countrymen impoverished and disenfranchised. They realized that communism as a political and more importantly, as an economic system was flawed and was not working. Thanks to them, Russia and China are well on the way to prosperity and power today. Russia has become a capitalist country with some degree of democracy. China has become a capitalist dictatorship that pays only lip service to communism. Somehow, these changes in Russia and China bypassed our home-grown communists, who still whole-heartedly believe in the old-style communist dogma propagated by Mao Zedong – it doesn’t matter how you come to power or who you have to kill to achieve it, as long as you rule, absolutely and totally. For them, “power flows from the barrel of a gun”, as Mao so succinctly put it. There is no room for debate or disagreement, and economic prosperity is anathema.

Educated middle-class Indians who now constitute 30% of the country’s population are often accused of not caring enough about India. There is a simple way to show that you care about this country of ours, which is on the verge of greatness. There will be a general election shortly – it is anywhere between three to twelve months away (depending on how political events unfold in the next few weeks). Make sure you vote.

On one side is progress and prosperity. On the other, is the abyss of despair and continued impoverishment – as embodied by India’s communists. I am not a believer in totalitarianism. The Indian Communists have a right to contest elections, just like every other political party out there. And you have the right and the duty to vote - for your conscience, and the continued progress of our great nation. Please do so – and send these enemies of our nation back to the political wilderness from where they emerged. Make sure you vote. Make sure your voice is heard. You deserve it. India deserves it.