On India’s side, the India’s Vice
President Venkaiah Naidu laid the
foundation stone for the four – lane
human corridor on Nov 26, 2018
at Dera Baba Nanak of
Gurudaspur, Punjab, 2km from the
International Border with Pakistan.
In the midst of thousands of
cheering people, he expressed the
hope that the corridor would “pave
the way for peace and greater
progress of all our people.”
On Pakistan side, Pakistan PM
Imran Khan has laid down the
foundation stone at Kartarpur
shrine for four km corridor from the
border with India. Addressing a
large gathering of Sikhs from
Pakistan and Sikh pilgrims from
India, Imran Khan said: “…..today I
as the Prime Minister (of Pakistan),
my party, all our political parties,
and our Army are on one page. We
want to move forward.” He
expressed the desire and hope to
“break the shackles of the past.”
He noted, “the past is for learning
from, not for living in.” and there is
need to restart engagement
between India and Pakistan as
there is no way other than dialogue
to resolve the problems between
India and Pakistan. “It is not in
Pakistan’s interest that our soil be
used for terrorism.”
Here the Pakistan’s political
leadership as well as all powerful
Army spoke in one voice when they
expressed the urge to turn Pakistan
and India relations for better and
resolve the problems through
dialogue. How for their urges are
earnest can be tested and proved
only in practice. Yet, for the
present, we can say that these
statements reflect the genuine
urges and aspirations of people in
both Countries for peaceful and
fraternal relations between the two
countries and two people.
But there reflected contra-
dictory views in India. The Indian
Govt. laid the foundation stone for
the corridor. But it maintains that
Pakistan Govt. must stop all its
crimes against India before any
move on India’s side towards
6
normal relations between the two
countries. India’s Army Chief of Staff
GL. Bipin Rawat said that Kartarpur
corridor “needs to be seen in
isolation” and must not be linked
to anybody else. He even advised
that the Islamic state of Pakistan
“must willingly become a secular
country.” Punjab CM Capt.
Amrindar Singh has declined the
invitation to attend the foundation
stone laying ceremony in Kartarpur
because, he said, not a single day
passes without killing or injuring the
Indian soldier on the Loc of Jammu
and Kashmir and the ISI is engaged
in nefarious activities in Punjab.
The Punjab Minister Navjot Siddhu,
however, gladly attended the
Kartarpur ceremony. But it became
a point of controversy in Punjab.
Once the channel of intera-
ction or dialogue is closed one will
be left with only option: to live in an
endless state of hostilities, tensions
and mutual bloodshed. It will be a
sheer immaturity and lack of
responsibility for a govt. or political
leadership to refuse to pick up even
a weakest and thinnest thread that
may help to take the issues into the
realm of dialogue. This is what the
Indian rulers are choosing to do.
The US imperialists never tired
of preaching about peace between
India and Pakistan. But they never
wanted India and Pakistan to
resolve their problems on their own
peacefully and through dialogue.
In reality, they have vested
interests in the persistence of
tensions, hostilities, war like
situations and even wars between
India and Pakistan as these
conditions provided them unlimited
opportunities to earn super profits
in arms business with both
countries. These conditions also
provided
them
abundant
opportunities to keep the ruling
classes of these Countries
perennially and pathetically
dependant on the imperialist aid.
The ruling classes of these
countries also had developed a
vested interest in these conditions
as they provide a convenient alibi
for them to impose more economic
burdens on the people and keep
them diverted from the real
problems. The weaponisation also
had become a big source of
earning for the ruling classes of the
concerned countries.
For long, the Pakistan rulers
had been serving the US
imperialists as dependable allies.
They served virtually as merce-
naries of US in its war of invasion
and
occupation
against
Afghanistan. Presently, they are
passing through a critical phase in
the relations with the US as the US
imperialists are angry with
Pakistan’s growing economic,
political and military relations with
China. The US is building pressure
on the Pakistan rulers (stopping
aid to Pakistan is one of its form)
to stop their drift and retain them
in their own fold. Present moves of
Pakistan rulers to improve relations
with India can be an attempt to tide
over the present crisis. On India’s
side, the Indian rulers had gone a
long way in tying themselves to the
strategy of US for domination in
Asia, Asia – Pacific region. In the
days to come, there is every
possibility for the US to rely more
on the services of Indian rulers in
the region. It will be disastrous for
India. It will be in the interests of
India and Pakistan to break free
from the octopus embrace of US
imperialists. India and Pakistan
resolving their problems through
dialogue and forging unity will be
in the best interests of people of
both countries. This will foil the
nefarious game of imperialists to
use each country separately and
by pitting one country against the
other to tighten their imperialist
hold on both and in the interests
of imposing their domination over
the entire region.
Let Kartarpur shrine corridor
project serve as a small positive
step towards improving the
relations and forging unity and
fraternal bondage between the
people of India and Pakistan.
Class Struggle