People's Democracy

IN a statement issued from New Delhi on September 26 by its general secretary Tapas Sinha, the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) urged its rank and file members as well as the Indian youth in general to observe October 12-13 as the Anti-War and Anti-Terrorism Day. Members of the organisation will take to the streets on the day and hold demonstrations and processions against terrorism as well as war. The DYFI is to observe the day in response to the call of an international organisation, called Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER).

Condemning the dastardly terrorist attacks in the USA on September 11, in which thousands of innocent lives were lost, the DYFI statement said this indeed is a very tragic twist of history that the creators and perpetrators of this monster of terrorism are themselves its victims today. Not only the terrorist network Al-Qaida and its infamous leader Osama bin Laden, but almost all terrorist outfits including the Israeli terrorist government owe their inception and growth to the support and indulgent indifference of the imperialist US administration. Right from the killing of Patrice Lumumba to the deposition and later the hanging of Afghan president Najibullah, from the numerous bids to assassinate the Cuban leader Fidel Castro to the recent Zionist massacres in the killing fields of Israel-occupied Palestine, and back home the gruesome murder of the missionary Graham Stein and his two children are as much acts of terrorism as any other, the statement said. It then added that, in the garb of fighting terrorism, one cannot allow the imperialist powers to perpetrate a war in the vicinity of our sub-continent and the US to strengthen its grip in our region.

The DYFI statement also criticised the BJP-led NDA government’s servile submission to the US interests and its decision to provide the US logistic support in its military campaign in our region. Giving a free hand to the US in the region would be disastrous to our nation and our people’s future, the statement warned.

It is in this background that the statement emphasised the urgent need to mobilise the masses against terrorism, war and US intervention in the region. Declaring a war against war, it called on the DYFI members to immediately take up the task of galvanising the Indian youth and masses against war, terrorism and racism. (INN)