PDSU: Unite against Indian expansionism – the common enemy of all the oppressed classes, races and people of South Asia

We publish a statement by the People’s Democratic Students Unity we received via Email:

Recently, an extremist Hindutva-supporting group backed by the BJP attacked the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Agartala, India. In addition, anti-Bangladesh rallies and protests have been organized in various parts of India. The People’s Democratic Students Unity (PDSU) strongly condemns and protests against these actions, which are aimed at undermining the communal harmony in Bangladesh with the support of the Indian state.

Former autocrat Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League were some of the main collaborators of Indian expansionism in this country. The fall of the Awami League from power has significantly weakened India’s influence over Bangladesh. Through these activities, India seeks to re-establish its influence in Bangladesh. For various geopolitical reasons, all factions of the Bangladeshi ruling class, to varying degrees, are agents of American imperialism and Indian expansionism. The current military-backed interim government is no exception. With the change in power, American imperialism and the European Union have solidified their hold. Therefore, Indian expansionist activities should not only be viewed as the support of Sheikh Hasina’s autocracy, but also understood in terms of South Asian geopolitics.

On the other hand, fascist Narendra Modi and his government have intensified the exploitation and persecution of India’s workers, farmers, indigenous people, Dalits, Muslims, and various ethnic groups using the expansionist and anti-people Indian state apparatus. To confuse the Indian population and keep them engaged in communal divisive actions, they are trying to create communal instability in Bangladesh. The Indian state is conducting massacres of indigenous and Maoist revolutionaries in regions like Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. We firmly support the Maoist people’s war being fought to overthrow the semi-colonial, semi-feudal Indian state and the fascist BJP government in order to establish a people’s democratic India. This expansionist Indian state and its government are enemies not just of Bangladesh, but of the oppressed classes, nations, and peoples throughout South Asia. Bangladeshi nationalism and Muslim values alone will not stop Indian expansionist aggression. Only the united struggle and solidarity of the oppressed classes, nations, and peoples of both countries can resist Indian expansionist aggression.

The so-called “anti-India politics” driven by Bangladeshi nationalism and Muslim values is not new in the history of the country. After the overthrow of the authoritarian, communist-killing Sheikh Mujib, the country witnessed the emergence of such so-called “anti-India politics” after various military coups that brought anti-people ruler General Zia to power. At that time, the country was still operating under the prescriptions of American imperialism. The revisionist–reformist–leftist factions and parties in the country joined this “anti-India stance” in alignment with the interests of the ruling class and American imperialism. Driven by false nationalism, these revisionist–reformist–leftists indirectly supported the interests of the ruling classes of both countries. Not to establish a people’s democratic Bangladesh or to resist imperialist and expansionist aggression, but rather, they adopted an anti-India stance in alliance with the ruling classes in order to gain political advantage, which isn’t so different from ‘populist’ politics. Similarly, the religious groups that have used Muslim and Hindu values to identify the other community as an enemy and engage in politics of opposition between India and Bangladesh are not and will never be able to liberate the peoples of both countries from the clutches of the Indian ruling class, which is anti-people and expansionist.

Opposition to the BJP’s Hindutva-nationalist fascist actions in India from the perspective of Bangladeshi nationalism or Muslim values will primarily destroy communal harmony among the common people of both countries. The current interim government’s subservient foreign policy and appeasement of imperialism and expansionism, masked under the banner of Bangladeshi nationalism and Muslim values, will only lead to sectarian and ethnic divisions among the people. This, in turn, benefits American imperialism, Indian expansionism, and their allied comprador–bureaucrat capitalist elites and semi-feudal classes.

Therefore, let us build a united people’s struggle against the expansionist Indian state and its ruling class, the common enemy of the oppressed classes, nations, and peoples of South Asia. Let us also stand against all forms of imperialism, including American imperialism.

For that purpose:

● We must intensify the movement to cancel all unequal treaties with foreign powers, including India, to stop border killings, and to protect the natural flow of shared rivers between the two countries.

● We must build a militant unity among workers, farmers, students, and patriotic democratic people to protect the country and people from market control and unjust wars driven by the support of the US, China, Russia, and the European Union.

● We must protest against the genocide of indigenous and Maoist people under the guise of operations like Operation Kaagar and Operation Clean in India, maintain communal harmony in both countries, and

● We must advance class struggle with the aim of establishing a government for the

oppressed classes, nations, and peoples and building a people’s democratic

Bangladesh.

People’s Democratic Students Unity

জনগণতান্ত্রিক ছাত্র সঙ্ঘ

E-mail : PDSU.Bangladesh@gmail.com

Phone : 01617884799