Voice of Solidarity from PunjabStruggling Masses Support Right to Self-Determination for Kashmir Nationality
- from Our Correspondent
The revolutionary and mass-democratic
movement of Punjab has raised a strong voice against the blatant coercion of
the just demands of the people of Kashmir by the Indian state. Along with
raising the immediate demands to repeal the August 5 decisions as well as the demand to call
back the armed forces from the state, it has strongly condemned the Indian
rulers for their occupationist misdeeds and tyrannical conduct in Kashmir;
hence, raising the banner of class solidarity and democratic support to the just
struggle of Kashmiri people for their national aspirations.
This voice was raised in Punjab on earlier
occasions also such as at the time of the mass-outrage of Kashmiri people after
the killing of Burhan Wani by Indian security forces. But this time the scale
of the involvement of the struggling masses was much greater. Different
contingents of the revolutionary and democratic mass movement of Punjab
constituted this voice. The activity of mass organizations, specifically those
of the peasants, was particularly notable. Over a month-full of intense
propaganda and agitation campaigns in wake of the August 5 decision of the Centre government,
converted the issue of coercion and oppression of the Kashmiri people by the
Indian rulers into a very own concern of the struggling people of Punjab. It
should also be noted that in addition to the earnest and conscious efforts of
the leaders and activists; and the historical, cultural and geographical
proximity of Punjab with Kashmir; peoples' receptiveness and readiness to
listen and respond to the Kashmir issue was increased by general feeling of
angst against peoples' repression at the hands of the state machinery. This
feeling was specifically deep among the people of Punjab given their bitter
past experience wherein the slogan of unity and integrity of country was used
as an ideological tool to wield the brutal sword of state terrorism against
them.
Along with serving the general expansionist
interests of the Indian state by coercing and oppressing the national aspirations
of the people of Kashmir, the recent decisions (of abrogating article 370 and 35 (a) as well as that of bifurcating the
state and converting it into a Union Territory) of the BJP government were also
directed towards further consolidating the earlier gains of national chauvinism
and communal frenzy. By whipping up the flames of national chauvinism and
communalism, it had extended the currency of the ruling class slogan of unity
and integrity of India among various layers of people. Amidst the loud din of
this slogan, it had attempted to hide the occupationist misdeeds and tyrannical
face of the Indian state in Kashmir. The sizable sections of struggling masses
of Punjab had outrightly rejected to be drowned into this frenzy; rather they
raised a loud and clear counter-voice against the policy of state repression
and in support of the people of Kashmir. The development acquires significance
in context of planned attempts of the government of Punjab for using incidents
of the killings of soldiers belonging to Punjab in Kashmir in favor of national
chauvinism and state terrorism against people of Kashmir.
Campaign by Democratic Mass Organizations:
A Newly Emerging Element of Political
Consciousness
The most prominent campaign, in this
context, was run under the banner of “Solidarity Committee for Kashmiri
National Struggle, Punjab”. This committee was constituted by eleven mass
organizations of peasants, agriculture workers, industrial workers, students
and youth. These organizations are Bharati
Kissan Union (Ekta) Ugrahan, Punjab Students Union (Lalkaar), Kisan
Sangharsh Committee Punjab, Karkhana Mazdoor Union, Punjab Students Union
(Shaheed Randhawa), Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, Naujwan Bharat Sabha, Pendu
Mazdoor Union (Mashal), Hosiery Kamgoor Union Punjab, Naujwan Bharat Sabha and
Molder and Steel Workers Union. The committee had run a 15 day intensive propaganda and agitation
campaign around the following demands:
• Put an end to the atmosphere of
state-terror and oppression.
Create a fair and democratic atmosphere to
lay basis for the Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self-determination through a
plebiscite.
• Immediately
roll back the step of abrogating article 370 and 35 (a) as well as that of bifurcating the
state and turning it
into a Union Territory.
• Roll
back the steps of opening up the state for corporate
plunder.
• Remove
all the restrictions imposed upon the people of
Kashmir, release all the arrested activists.
•
Withdraw AFSPA and call back armed forces from J&K.
Thousands of people have been approached in
different forms throughout the campaign which covered more than 500 villages, localities, educational
institutions etc., and organized several mass events such as meetings,
solidarity marches, conventions etc. Attempts were made, throughout the
campaign to involve various layers of the struggling masses. Hence, reaching
beyond the active mass following of the participating organizations, the
campaign had also drawn the masses in the general influence or periphery of the
mass democratic movement into one or other kind of activity. Lok Morcha Punjab
(Peoples' Front Punjab), a revolutionary organization, which also ran an
independent campaign by itself, also supported this campaign.
In the first round of the campaign, the
massive task of pasting 30,000 of
campaign-wall-posters as well as distributing over one hundred thousand of
pamphlets was accomplished. BKU (Ekta) Ugrahan also held district level
discussion gatherings wherein the leadership of the organization gave thorough
exposition of its views on the issue. The task of preparing the district level
leadership and activists; and equipping them to further disseminate the message
of the campaign was addressed in these gatherings. 10 such meetings of peasant activists were
held with huge number of people attending these meetings. For instance 500 people attended the meetings in Mansa
districts, 360 in
Bathinda district and 300 in
Barnala. People were particularly curious to get to know the Kashmir issue and
paid keen attention to what their leaders had to say. The huge turnout in these
gatherings and the receptive attitude of the listeners had already indicated
how the people are going to respond.
These preparatory gatherings were then
followed by district level protest gatherings under the joint banner of the
Solidarity Committee for Kashmiri National Struggle, Punjab. Around 10 such gatherings were held in 10 districts of the state. The biggest of
these gathering was in district Sangrur with around 2000 participants. The smallest was in
district Ludhiana with around 150
participants. Meanwhile, a continuous stream of small corner meetings and other
form of gatherings at village, or institution or locality level was always
happening. The slogans of the campaign such as “Kashmir Kashmiri Lokan da,
nahin Hind-Pak jokan da”; "Kashmir tells the nation, Its
self-determination"; "Nationalism is the mask, Subjugation is the
task"; "Rulers open the valley gates, 'Thank you' say the corporates";
"Indian rulers grab the land, Indian masses lend the hand", "Who
can quell, Spirit with shell" etc. were an instant hit among the people.
There was such a huge demand for the campaign pamphlet that 125 thousand of pamphlets failed to meet
it. As per leading activists it was read with more curiosity than the pamphlets
on their own class issues.
As against the ruling class lie about the
Kashmir issue being an issue of unity and integrity of the Indian state, the
campaign has led to a large scale introduction of the struggling people of Punjab
with the stark reality of the Kashmir issue i.e. the historical-political
background of accession of Kashmir to India and article-370, the occupationist designs and
political treachery of both the Indian and Pakistani rulers, the long-standing
struggle of the people of Kashmir against the Indian as well as Pakistani
rulers for fulfillment of their national aspirations. It was shown how Kashmir
was never an integral part of India, and how “the accession” was temporary, and
was supposed to come to an end with a plebiscite. The treacherous political
conduct of the Indian rulers was exposed by showcasing how the Indian
government made loud but false commitments with the people of Kashmir at the
time of accession, how it turned its back to the promise of a plebiscite and
rather used article-370 to
smuggle the Indian Constitution into Kashmir while eroding it substantially
during the process.
It was also shown that along with this
political treachery, the Indian state being true to its autocratic character, used
the policy of violent repression and bloodshed to realize its occupationist
designs and further its expansionist interests in Kashmir. It was told how
under the name of fighting terrorist infiltrators, the armed forces of India
are given a free hand to punish, torture and persecute the people of Kashmir
for raising their just voice. The role of the Indian army as an army in
occupation of Kashmir is laid bare before the masses. The saga of the painful
reality of Kashmir, brimmed up with incidents of false encounters of its youth,
mass rapes of its women, day to day degradation of its citizens, pellets
blinding its children, curfews, illegal detentions, tortures and persecutions,
was brought forth before the struggling people of Punjab.
The heroic mass resistance of the Kashmiri
people against this state tyranny was hailed throughout the campaign. The false
propaganda of the Indian state about individual terrorists spreading violence
for the vested foreign interests held no ground before the glaring truth of
mass resistance being put up by the people of Kashmir. The stories about the
heroic defiance of the people of Kashmir who were performing the dare-devil
acts of bare-breast mass confrontation with the armed security forces, in hope
to rescue the militant Kashmiri youth being 'encountered', were most compelling
for the people of Punjab.
It was this combined picture of the state
tyranny and heroic mass resistance of the people of Kashmir that moved the
struggling people of Punjab from their insides, and they felt compelled to act.
It is also significant to note that
throughout the entire campaign, Kashmiri peoples' right to self-determination
was extensively discussed and the demand to create conducive atmosphere for a
plebiscite was raised with positive response from the people. The title-heads
of the campaign pamphlet and the wall-poster, released and distributed by the
committee during the campaign, read “Support the Kashmiri Nation's Struggle for
Right to Self-Determination…..”. A clarion call to condemn and defy the ruling
class stance of national chauvinism and jingoism and to hail the struggle of
Kashmiri nation echoed all through the campaign. People of Punjab were urged to
recognize the common enemy of the people of Kashmir and of their own struggles
against the anti-people policies of the rulers. It is the same rulers who are
exploiting and oppressing the people on both the lands. The true patriotism, it
is told, lays not in jingoism, but in efforts to build a common struggle
against the common enemy of the people.
Attempts were also made at some places to
approach the Kashmiri students studying in Punjab. In the charged atmosphere of
national chauvinism, the campaign propaganda proved to be a cool breeze of
reassurance for these students. The students expressed their appreciation. A
deputation of mass democratic organizations also went to demand from the
authorities of an institution to defer the exams so as the students who got
stuck in Kashmir were not to be harmed academically.
It was for the first time that mass
organizations in Punjab had run such a huge campaign with such a thorough
political message on Kashmir issue. Especially, for the peasant masses it was a
fresh experience. However, the way the peasantry responded to the campaign, the
keenness and receptiveness for campaign-propaganda and the readiness for
campaign activity shown by it, turned it into a significant political event
even nationally. It also indicates the growing element of democratic
consciousness of the mass movement in Punjab.
The organized peasantry of Punjab is waging
a consistent struggle on their own class issues and forms a major force in the
field of ongoing class struggle in the state. The massive political churning on
Kashmir issue from peoples' parallel democratic perspective among the peasant
masses and their enthusiastic response had made the Congress government of the
state worried. It was forced to throw away its mask of shallow ruling class
opposition which was directed at serving
its own needs of rival parliamentary competition to the BJP government. The campaign was to
culminate into a mass gathering near the state capital on the final day for a
state level protest march towards the capital city and submitting a memorandum
to the Governor of Punjab. The Congress government of the state had decided not
to allow this final day gathering. The formal permission to hold a gathering
was denied. As part of prohibitory measures, section-144 was imposed at the venue for the
state-level gathering; the place was surrounded by huge number of police
personnel a day before. The tent hired by the committee was confiscated from
the venue and its owner was detained. On the day of the gathering check posts
were established all over the state on the roads approaching the venue in order
to prevent anybody from reaching it.
Despite such prohibitory attitude of the
state government around 12 thousand
people hit the roads in different parts of the state; when encountered by the
police check-posts they sat down then and there to block the roads in protest
against suppressing the democratic voice of the people of Punjab. Dodging the
huge police fortification a group of around 50 students under the leadership of Punjab
Students Union (Lalkaar) even reached the venue in Mohali and staged a symbolic
yet daring protest in defiance of large number of police personnel before being
detained. The defiant mood of the young students showcased a glimpse of the
mood of the protesting masses and was widely covered over the social media and
regular press. Similarly, another group of industrial workers of Molder and
Steel Workers Union and Hosiery Kamgaar Union Punjab reached Chandigarh railway
station and staged a protest there before being detained.
It was announced originally to lift the
road blockades at 2.30 pm, but
just before concluding the protest it was realized that the administration was
showing reluctance to release the detained protesters. This led to an
announcement for the road blockades to continue till the detained protesters
were not released. Finding itself unable to bear the mass pressure, the
administration released the detained protesters immediately and made it a point
to inform the organizers so as the road blockades be concluded. The road
blockades were then lifted in an enthused mood, and the protest was concluded
after burning the effigies of the Centre as well as the State government and
marching through respective cities or towns nearby all the points of road
blockades.
The impressive scale of mass mobilization
in this show of political solidarity with just cause of Kashmiri people has
represented the mass political voice of struggling people in Punjab. This voice
contains a number of healthy elements including independence from national
chauvinist and communal chauvinist political parties belonging to ruling class
camp. It has raised banner of peoples' unity in support of Kashmir struggle
beyond the narrow sectarian frame of divisions based on religion, region,
nationality, caste etc. It has represented a current of secular mass protest
not only parallel to but at a much larger scale than supporters of theocratic
reactionary politics of Khalistani forces.
Lok Morcha Punjab: A Campaign to Project Broader Political Perspective
Another independent campaign in support of
the people of Kashmir and against the state oppression was run by Lok Morcha
Punjab (LMP). LMP is a revolutionary platform committed to propagate and
popularize the revolutionary alternative to the present reactionary system for
establishing a genuinely democratic and revolutionary state of people. It urges
all the people of the present society, who are economically and socially
oppressed, to come together for the purpose. These people are workers,
peasants, middle class sections and all those small capitalists who are
oppressed under the imperialist-feudal yoke; and the people facing all kinds of
social oppression, be it based on caste, nationality, gender, religion or
tribal identity.
Lok Morcha Punjab (LMP) was raising its
voice on the Kashmir issue since the Pulwama attack and Balakot strikes. It
held 3 conventions and
around 15 corner meetings in
3 districts at that
time. This time also it was among the first to speak up on the recent steps of
state coercion in Kashmir. Even before the August 5 decision, the organization was
campaigning, wherein the voice was being raised generally against the fascistic
steps of the government and the amendment to UAPA. On August 4, in its Bathinda convention, a
resolution was passed against the steps of increasing the number of armed
forces in Kashmir, imposing restrictions and creating an atmosphere of fear in
the valley. Therefore, at the time of August 5 decisions, the organizations was already
raising its voice against the recent steps of coercion by the Indian state.
Immediately after the August 5 decision,
LMP focused its campaign on the Kashmir issue and continued.
Quickly responding against the August 5 decision, the organization called for a
protest march in Bathinda city only a day after the August 4 convention. In response to this quick
call, 135 men and women
joined together and held a protest march in the city. During the subsequent
campaign run by Lok Morcha Punjab, discussion meetings and conventions cum
protest marches were organized at around 30 different places in 4 districts.
Around 2000 persons
participated and listened to these gatherings; a significant chunk of these
participants were relatively conscious sections among the leadership and
activist layers of varied sections (peasants, agriculture laborers, electricity
employees, contract workers, youth etc.) of the revolutionary democratic
movement of Punjab. One state level convention was also held by LMP, in support
of the campaign by Solidarity Committee on the first day of the campaign. The
convention was attended by around 450 leading
activists of different sections of the struggling people. Actively reported
over different social media platforms and local press coverage, this entire
campaign thus turned out to be an important initiative to set in motion the
peoples' alternative narrative on Kashmir issue. Given a relatively weaker
organizational strength of the platform, the Lok Morcha Punjab's campaign was a
considerable success.
In its propaganda, the platform took the
issue of the right to self-determination at general plane beyond the specific
historical context of Kashmir issue. It stated that irrespective of what was
promised to the people of Kashmir, the right to self-determination of any
nationality in India is otherwise inviolable and intact. It is a democratic
right of not only the people of Kashmir, but of any nationality to exercise
their will; and it is the duty of the revolutionary democratic movement of
Punjab, as a truly democratic force, to uphold the right to self-determination
for any nationality as part of the programme for a revolutionary democratic
state. In this way Lok Morcha campaign has appreciated the need and expressed
concern for upgrading the emerging consciousness in support of right to
self-determination for Kashmiri people to a broader political concern for right
to self-determination of any nationality.
Referring to the characteristic disregard
for the so-called parliamentary procedures to rush through to the August 5 decision and the deceitful manner and
blatant lies of the BJP government to impose the decision, it said the decision
not only violates the will of the people of Kashmir but even the will of the
people of India was also missing in it. The thorough arrangements to strangulate
the voice of Kashmiri people only highlighted the fact that the 'biggest
democracy' had no recognition of peoples' will and reaffirms that the system is
based upon the oppression and coercion of the people of India. The campaign
asserted to hammer home the fact that it was this oppressive and repressive
system which ensures the imperialist and feudal loot and oppression of the
people of India.
Through its campaign it urged the
struggling people of Punjab to understand that the August 5 decision was not only directed against
the people of Kashmir, it was also directed against all the people of India. It
had been and would be used to further consolidate the national chauvinistic and
communal winds which would in turn accentuate the imperialistic and feudal loot
and oppression of the people of India. The national aspirations of the people
of Kashmir as well as the class and other aspirations (i.e. against all kinds
of social oppression) of the people of India, call for a united struggle to put
an end to the exploitative and oppressive anti-people regime of India. Hence,
while upholding the Kashmiri peoples' right to self-determination, the campaign
by LMP attempted to highlight the need of unified struggle for revolutionary
transformation of the system itself.
Campaign by Forum against Hindutava Fascism
Another protest campaign was run under the
banner of Forum against Hindutava Fascism. In this campaign from 1 to 15 September and participated by three
organizations which are part of the Forum, protest gatherings and marches were
organized around 16 district
and sub-divisional head-quarters. The campaign condemned the August 5 decision of the Government and its
fascistic conduct in Kashmir, while mainly focusing against the increasing
intensity of the fascistic onslaught all over the country. Regardless of that
limitation the campaign has contributed positively in favor of the just cause
of the Kashmiri people. The demands raised during the campaign were:
-
Restore
the earlier status of Kashmir and call back the armed forces from the state.
- Kashmiris
be provided with the right to self-determination.
- Release Kashmiris and all the other intellectuals, writers,
journalists, activists and leaders who were thrown into jails.
- Repeal all the black laws, including UAPA, in the country.
Another Variety of Support
After these campaigns, another platform
including communist revolutionary, revisionist and even social democratic
organizations came into existence in month of October. It was named as
“Kashmiri Lokan te Fascivadi Hamle Virodhi Front, Punjab” (Front against the
Fascistic Attack on the People of Kashmir, Punjab) and joined by the seven
organizations i.e. Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Marxist Party of
India, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, Communist Party
of India (Marxist-Leninist) New-Democracy, Inquilabi Kendra Punjab, Lok Sangram
Manch Punjab, Inquilabi Lok Morcha, and Inquilabi Jamhoori Morcha.
This front organized conferences in four
cities, covering four major regions of Punjab. These cities were Moga, Patiala,
Amritsar and Jalandhar. Each of these conferences was attended by around 1500 participants, thus covering around 5000 to 6000 people.
The following demands were raised in this
campaign:
- Restore article-370 and 35-A in the original form.
- Restore earlier status of the State.
- Call back armed forces from Kashmir.
- Restore all the public services and civil amenities in Kashmir.
- Release all the arrested leaders and people.
- Restore the democratic rights.
The activity of the platform has reflected
the additional element of opposition from a section of ruling classes and their
allies to immediate drastic steps of Modi regime against people of Kashmir. But
the communist revolutionary organizations in this platform had to keep aside
the demand for right to self-determination from the charter of common minimum
demands. It happened because of uncalled for yielding to the pressure to
accommodate those parties in the joint platforms who are otherwise known for
feverishly upholding the national chauvinist frame regarding Kashmir struggle
around the reactionary slogan of defending “unity and integrity” of the
country. The implication of the presence of these forces becomes more serious
in absence of an independent campaign on Kashmir issue from the communist
revolutionary platforms. The social democrats and revisionists rather utilized
the joint platform to go much beyond the minimum frame of common demands and to
project the platform as part of the “unity of the left” for opposing and
defeating “Hindutava Fascism” in arena of parliamentary contention. Communist
revolutionaries need to evolve better forms to make use of broadest opposition
to the enemies in governmental power without incurring the cost of dilution of
revolutionary class consciousness and ideological as well as political
distinction from the alien forces.
This entire agitational activity by the
struggling people of Punjab has earned appreciation and praise of the progressive,
democratic and other sections of India. Siddharth Varadarajan Editor of The
Wire expressed this sentiment by saying that it was Punjab that's roaring in
support of Kashmir while addressing the annual function in memory of Gadarites.
This voice of political solidarity also reached the Kashmiris residing outside
Kashmir. Moved by the genuine concern and ardent efforts of the struggling
people of Punjab who blocked national and state highways to express their
support for Kashmir, a Kashmiri Phd student in CEU Budapest wrote the following
letter and posted it on his Facebook account,
"Dear
comrades in Punjab,
My heartfelt greetings!
Your recent demonstration in Punjab against
the Indian state and the ruling fascist BJP government has rejuvenated my hope in
humanity in general but particularly in the working class people of India. It
is a silver lining and I thank you for that....
It
is time that the movement of solidarity that has birthed in Punjab spreads beyond its borders
and the people; especially the working class, the marginalized, the oppressed,
and the subaltern speak. It is time that we the people, the wretched of the
earth, speak for each other's rightful aspirations and extend our solidarities.
It is time we shake the current political world order to its core in order to
remove the ruling fascist class.
I, on behalf of the Kashmiri people, extend
my gratitude to the people of Punjab for raising their voice and proving once
again that there still is hope in this gloomy world. Our work does not end
here. The journey is long, and our struggle for our rights must go on.
Till victory, Zindabad!
Ain Saad."
