America, Israel & Iran: The challange of India’s foreign policy
When Israel, with the support of America, attacked Iran without any reason or provocation, it seemed that Iran would collapse and surrender in front of Israel’s strategic power. But this did not happen and no one had even thought that Iran would stand up so strongly in front of the US-Israel alliance that Israel would start seeing stars in the daytime. No matter how many true or false pictures of Iran’s destruction are shown by the media, the truth is that the amount of devastation that Iran has caused in Israel was not even imagined by America and Israel together. The innocent people of Israel are suffering the consequences of Netanyahu’s expansionist policies and they are not even getting space in bunkers to escape from Iranian attacks.
But why this attack? Israel alleges that Iran is making a nuclear bomb. This allegation is being made by Israel, which has itself made a nuclear bomb and is guilty of the massacre of Palestinians. Remember that Saddam Hussein was assassinated by making a similar allegation on Iraq and later it was found out that there was no substance in the American allegations and this allegation was being made only to remove Saddam from power. The same is true in the case of Iran, because before this attack, the head of the American intelligence department Tulsi Gabbard was continuously giving statements that Iran has not made a nuclear bomb, nor does it have the capability to make it. A similar statement has been given by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, just two days ago that Iran is not making a nuclear bomb and is cooperating in the investigation of all its centers producing nuclear power.
The statements of the head of the US intelligence department and the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency are credible, because Iran has signed the international treaty Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which prevents any country from making nuclear bombs. Iran has also given a guarantee in the agreement with the five permanent members of the United Nations including the US, Russia, China, France and Britain that it will not make any nuclear bomb. Its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes and it has the right to do so. Till a few days ago, talks were going on between the US and Iran and Trump himself had informed about good progress in the talks.
It is clear that the allegation of Iran having a nuclear bomb is just an excuse, the real thing is to grab Iran’s oil, to divide the world market afresh, to bring the bankrupt American economy back on track. Everyone is seeing what happened to the trade war that Trump tried to start against the whole world in the name of tariff. This is a cover to get out of the embarrassment caused by it. It is an exercise to intimidate the whole world again and make it a pasture for imperialist looters. It is a desperate attempt to create a world where barbarians and uncivilized people can rule without any rules and morality and can loot the natural resources of this earth for their profit.
But imperialism’s efforts to plunder the world have never found stability, nor will they ever. Vietnam has challenged it, Cuba has challenged it. Even after the end of the Soviet Union and the world becoming unipolar, the dream of imperialist America has not been fulfilled, and will not be fulfilled. It has received a tremendous challenge from even the weakest force fighting against exploitation, because human civilization is moving forward by breaking the chains of colonialism, and will move forward.
But what is India’s position in this world scenario, where does India stand? There was a time when India’s voice was considered the voice of the exploited and oppressed in the world. Today, this silence has been replaced by a silence. There was a time when India was the vocal voice of the Palestinian side. Today, that India, like a puppet, is neutral on the United Nations resolution to stop Israel’s attack on Palestine at the behest of America, while Britain, Canada and Japan, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, all member countries of SAARC, BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have voted in favor of ceasefire. Narendra Modi’s government has done the work of cutting itself off from the peace loving people of the whole world. This is the first government in power at the Center, which has suppressed the demonstrations in favor of Palestine in India and arrested the agitators. The Modi government sitting at the Center is considering Palestine as an enemy nation.
The same attitude is about the Iran-Israel war. Iran has been our traditional friend, which has stood with us in every critical time in the matter of Kashmir. But today the Indian people are ashamed that India is standing in favor of the Israel-America alliance. This attitude of the Modi government is also an insult to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, without whom Narendra Modi could not even dream of becoming the Prime Minister today. Narendra Modi has brought India’s foreign policy of non-alignment to the policy of anti-Muslims. What could be a bigger fall of Indian politics on the world stage than this?
(The author Sanjay Parate is the Vice President of Chhattisgarh Kisan Sabha, affiliated to All India Kisan Sabha)
