Yet another blast killing nearly 200 and injuring 800 in Mumbai. All those hit were middle class citizens traveling back from work. A Kashmiri group supposedly claimed responsibility. Yet the government and the media first began whipping up hysteria against the SIMI (Student Islamic Movement of India), without any shred of evidence against it; then it dropped that angle and tried to link terrorism and Naxalism after the Maoist action on the Salwa Judum lumpens; and ofcourse it resorted to the standard Pak-baiting technique to serve its geo-political needs in the region. It seems the government and media were more interested in using the incident to whip up hysteria rather than find the real perpetrators of the action or help the victims.

Why should any group or party fighting for freedom, kill and injure such large numbers of innocents who have nothing to do with the cause for which they are fighting? In the first class compartment in a Mumbai train there are middle class employees and professionals going back from work. There could be women and children of all religious faiths amongst them, including Muslims. What was their crime that that they should be so badly and brutally hit?

Besides, the way these bombs are placed in compartments it is the mere work of cowards who are unable to take the risk to hit the real criminals, like a Modi, Advani, Singhal, and their gang, or the police and military mafia, or the Congress-type hoodlums. These gangsters are responsible for thousands and thousands of killings. They are spared while the common citizen is targeted. To plant a time bomb in a compartment, besides sophisticated technical knowledge to prepare them, even a single person can go and plant it.

A similar event took place in Delhi in a middle-class market area. Here too the victims were the same, even more vulnerable as the shopping complex would have a larger proportion of women and children. Similar was the attack on religious institutions in Benaras and Gujarat where the ordinary Hindu worshiper is the target, not the Hindu fascist gangsters. And whenever the real culprits are supposedly targeted, the ‘mission’ somehow always seems to be unsuccessful, as in the supposed attack on Parliament, the RSS Headquarters in Nagpur, etc. One begins to wonder as to really who are behind these attacks all over the country.

Such actions are inhuman, despicable, and counter-productive to any genuine people’s movement; whether for national self-determination or against minority oppression or for any other cause. But who then are the beneficiaries? Who actually gains from such actions? Though we may never come to know the truth behind such actions it would be one of those who benefit who could be the culprit.

The first and major beneficiary is the Hindu fundamentalists as they hope that the anti-Islamic hysteria will help them regain their lost glory. In the doldrums ever since they lost power, and the victims of intrigue, internecine battles, they desperately need a cause to revive their lost fortunes. Even their rath yatra turned out to be a damp squib which was conveniently given up on some pretext. Preceded by the Bhiwandi events where Moslems objected to the building of a police station leading to the death of two Muslims in police firing; followed by the mayhem of the Shiv Sena over the supposed defiling of the statue of Bal Thackeray’s wife; the bomb blast took place in this already tense environment. The Hindu fascists vowed that the police station will be built in Bhiwandi in a bid to further communalise the atmosphere.

The Muslim fundamentalists and the ISI-type bodies also seek to gain by attacking ordinary Hindus in order to polarize the two communities and thereby win more support to their fundamentalist cause from ordinary Moslems. Besides this narrow interest the cause of the Kashmir people suffer as it turns a large section of the Indian population against them.

Ofcourse the main gainers of such action is the Government and the rulers, backed by the moneybags and imperialists. Why?

Firstly, because it acts to divert the oppressed masses away from their genuine problems. Today, when the country is reeling under massive hike in prices, unemployment and when over one lakh peasants have been made to commit suicide in the last decade a great anger is building up against the policies of LPG implemented by the government at the behest of the imperialists, particularly the US. The media blitzkrieg after the Mumbai event has helped to focus away from these real problems. With over a thousand middle class people affected by the blast it can have a spiraling affect in the vast middle classes who too are getting discontented with the growing mafia rule. Such diversion helps too the moneybags and the imperialists who gain the maximum from the policies of LPG, and are its chief promoter.

Second, the ruling classes, fearful of the growing anger of the oppressed masses and their rising discontent, seek to bring in more and more fascist measures (like the amendments to the CrPC, the proposed Act to gag the Press, so-called anti-terrorist legislation, curbing the rights to union activity, etc). Such bomb blasts create the right atmosphere for such fascist measures. Particularly they are panic stricken with this discontent being led by the revolutionaries, the Maoists, for this they are making preparations of genocidal proportions. Such blasts act to legitamise any of the genocidal policies of the government on its own people. The media has played an effective role in building up the necessary hysteria.

Third, such blasts help turn the entire populace against the Moslems and further the ruler’s conspiracy of ‘divide and rule’. Moslems are made the scapegoat for the ills of the country and the ‘enemy’ within; thereby diverting from the real enemy ……… the traitors who sell our country for a few dollars to the US gangsters. In Mumbai a veritable witch-hunt has been unleashed against any and every Muslim and roughly 1,200 have been arrested.

And finally, such regular blasts in public places create a sense of insecurity in the entire populace and a fear psychosis, which subsumes all the other insecurities in life, particularly economic insecurities. Utilizing this weakness the rulers then seek to build a fascist mentality amongst the populace targeting a community and desiring a monolithic state.

So, in short the main gainers of such actions are the two types of fundamentalists and more particularly the Indian and Pakistani rulers. It is not only the intelligence wing of the Pak government that is known to do such actions, also that of the Indian government, RAW, is notorious for using such methods. All the bomb blasts, successful and unsuccessful, need to be thoroughly investigated by an independent citizen’s committee.

First, the main losers are the ordinary citizen who loses their near and dear ones for no reason what so ever. Suddenly, and overnight one thousand families are hit by a terrible tragedy. All government compensation, if it ever reaches them, cannot compensate for the loss, particularly if it was the main earner in the family. While the Congress and BJP are seeking to make political capital out of the tragedy, the innocents have to suffer in silence.

Second, it is Kashmiri cause that suffers as inevitably the blame is put on a Kashmiri group. As it is, due to a massive government propaganda, there is not much support for the Kashmiri cause in India; this only further distances the Indian people from the just struggle of the Kashmiri people for self-determination.

Third, it is the struggle against the Hindu fascists and for the rights of the minorities that suffer. By such acts secular opinion is undermined and the two communities tend to get polarized. One major victim is a secular polity.

Fourth, peoples’ movements suffer as such actions give legitimacy to the governments repressive policies, most of which are turned against the struggling people of the country. This particularly hits the revolutionary movement which in the forefront of such battles for justice and equality.

And finally, democratic opinion suffers as people are not able to distinguish between necessary revolutionary violence and such terrorist violence. This blunts the struggle against the ruthless terror of the State, thereby weakening the genuine democratic movement. Today in the face of a monstrous fascist State mere peaceful resistance can lead to a dead end as the rulers could not care. Resistance often has to go beyond the bounds set by the rulers. In the present hysteria this too can be branded as ‘terrorism’, thus affecting the overall democratic movement.

The oppressed masses of the country should not get diverted by such actions, they should firmly oppose it and call for an independent citizen’s commission to inquire as to who is responsible. They are suffering enormously due to the policies of the government and their imperialist masters. Living itself is becoming a nightmare for crores living in the villages and slums of the country. The bulk of the middle classes are also getting more and more affected due to the lack of jobs and any gainful employment. The masses are frustrated with the political parties as all are corrupt and serve the rich moneybags. There seems no alternative, except for the Naxalites, who the ruling classes and media try to portray as black. In this state of frustration and insecurity the people could fall prey to the vilest propaganda.

But the people have seen a lot. No longer will they easily fall prey to such a hoax and will join with the masses fighting the anti-people policies of the government. They will try the perpetrators of such evils no matter who they are — ISI, RAW or any of the fundamentalists. They will take to struggle and militant action against the rulers and their hangers on that run this corrupt system.