This week the mainstream press presented us with a meeting
of two big-time bosses of imperialism—India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi who met
with US President Barack Obama. Modi has been busy lately. His fascist
government has been arresting political dissidents, while he travels around
trying to make himself look important. His imperialist partner, Obama, is
willing to help him build up his political career both at home and abroad.
Just recently the
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State governments have disrupted the one day
convention of the FORUM FOR ALTERNATIVE POLITICS in Hyderabad on Sep. 21. They
stopped the forum and arrested the convener of it, Varavararao, and several
activists. The action was typical of a growing state of fascism that is spreading
across India. They included undemocratic and unconstitutional acts.
Yet Obama has received Modi as if he were a champion of
democracy and liberty in the world. Most of the US press has completely ignored
the arrests of political activist, but some, such as The Washington Post, have given lavish coverage to Modi’s state
visit. The western press continuously calls India “the world’s largest
democracy.” The US press routinely
ignores the continuing Maoist insurgency, of the
Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the Indian government’s human rights
violations.
Another plan, according to RT, is for Modi to address the UN
General Assembly. He will also meet with the CEOs of 17 multinationals,
including Google, Boeing, IBM, PepsiCo and MasterCard, and he has had a private
dinner with Obama. Modi’s.
Modi and Obama have released a press statement that was
published in The Washington Post. For example:
As nations
committed to democracy, liberty, diversity and enterprise, India and the United
States are bound by common values and mutual interests. We have each shaped the
positive trajectory of human history, and through our joint efforts, our
natural and unique partnership can help shape international security and peace
for years to come.
Neither country can really claim to represent democracy—the
US is a two-party system were most ideas outside of the status quo are tightly controlled,
marginalized or excluded. India has been fighting a war against political and
religious minorities for decades. Diversity in either country is a joke. The US
is fighting to keep up an empire that worships multinational corporations and
tries to destroy any ideology that conflicts with its interest anywhere in the
world. This is one reason that Obama has declared war on ISIS (Islamic State or
ISIL). The US Empire is mono-ideological.
India is not a fist world industrialized nation as the US or
Europe, yet it is not as underdeveloped as most third world countries, such as
Bangladesh or Afghanistan. India has its own small forms of hegemony over neighboring
countries such as Nepal. Yet it has massive poverty. It has some development,
but there are huge parts of the country left behind from any development. One
reason the Communist Party of India (Maoist) has succeeded so well in the Red Corridor is that the
people in those places have had little contact with the people of the more
developed parts of the country.
India’s economical development, similar to other countries
of its class, is not likely to ever catch up with the US or Europe. Such quick
development just doesn’t happen and the US and other fist world countries have
no interest in letting new countries join in the G7 summits or the good o’l
boy government networks which are an exclusive club that only the most industrialized
and developed nations can belong to. Those outside of this exclusive club are
deliberately kept out of the loop.
Indian people who believe their country will someday catch
up with the rest of Europe are being duped into illusions and pipe dreams that
simply aren’t real. Modi won his prime minister post by convincing a lot of
young people that he can grow the Indian economy. Those educated enough to
understand the imperialist relations between rich and poor countries realize
the imperialist powers rely on underdevelopment to keep neocolonialist
countries subservient.
Modi must realize this, but he still relies on the help of
the US and other imperialist powers to maintain his own national power. And
added to that is his reliance on US aid to prevent Maoist guerrillas from
overrunning his government. Again from The
Washington Post Statement:
Ties between
the United States and India are rooted in the shared desire of our citizens for
justice and equality. When Swami Vivekananda presented Hinduism as a world
religion, he did so at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
When Martin Luther King Jr. sought to end discrimination and prejudice against
African Americans, he was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent teachings.
Gandhiji himself drew upon the writings of Henry David Thoreau….
…. Today our
partnership is robust, reliable and enduring, and it is expanding. Our
relationship involves more bilateral collaboration than ever before — not just
at the federal level but also at the state and local levels, between our two
militaries, private sectors and civil society. Indeed, so much has happened
that, in 2000, then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee could declare that we
are natural allies.
Ironically they mention military cooperation while citing
the influence of Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent teachings. Both countries are
highly militarized. The US is probably THE most militarized nation on the Earth
and it is definitely the main imperialist power in the world today.
If there is one really important role of a blog as this it
is to counter the massive propaganda machine made up largely of the US mainstream
news media. We can’t sit back silently while our mainstream press presents these
two world leaders as if they actually represent democracy and liberty. This
visit has little to do with such concepts.
-សតិវ
អតុ
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