People's Democracy

Independence Requires Defence Of National Sovereignty

Prakash Karat

As we observe the 61^st anniversary of India�s independence, a key question confronting the country is how to defend national sovereignty. Independence and national sovereignty go together. Erosion of our national sovereignty will endanger our independence. The strategic alliance which is sought to be forged with the United States of America will prove detrimental to our national sovereignty. As the CPI(M) Party Programme states: �The imperialist driven globalisation and the policies of liberalisation adopted by the Indian ruling classes have heightened the imperialist penetration in all spheres in our country.� This growing collaboration of the Indian ruling classes with imperialism has also found reflection in foreign policy. That is why the Party Programme states: �A major struggle lies ahead for the Left and democratic forces to fight back the pro-imperialist direction in foreign policy and ensure that foreign policy retains its non-aligned basis and orientation to ward off imperialist pressures.�

Forging a strategic alliance with the United States is a major step towards aligning India with US imperialism. This is what was attempted by the Joint Statement signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Bush in July 2005. The strategic partnership consists of four parts. Firstly, India is to be part of the US bandwagon of �spreading democracy� around the world; secondly, the strategic economic partnership based on a blueprint for the interests of US and international finance capital; thirdly, a military collaboration as expressed in the Defence Framework Agreement; and fourthly, the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.

The nuclear deal is the centerpiece of the overarching alliance the US is drawing India into. Once such an agreement is operationalised, the strategic tie-up would be cemented and that would have a long-lasting impact on India�s foreign policy and strategic autonomy.

Effects on People�s Lives

The fight against the strategic alliance with the United States is not only on the nuclear deal. It will have serious repercussions for our economic sovereignty, independence, foreign policy and the lives of the working people. As part of the strategic economic partnership, a series of policy measures have been undertaken. These are as per the plan set forth by the US-India CEO Forum which was unveiled during President Bush�s visit to India in March 2006. The US-India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative opens the way for US multinationals to dictate the course of India�s agricultural research and to open up agriculture to the corporate sector. This has serious implications for our farmers. Similarly, the entry of FDI in retail trade will spell ruin for lakhs of small shopkeepers and traders. The entire gamut of the economy is to be opened up further to foreign capital and other sectors such as education and the media. The entry of FDI in real estate is sucking land into the hands of big corporates and making land for housing beyond the reach of ordinary people. The further liberalization and penetration of foreign capital in the financial sector will undermine economic sovereignty.

The failure of the government to tackle price rise can be directly attributed to the neo-liberal policies which demand doing away with food subsidies and curtailing the Public Distribution System. The futures trading in essential commodities are to be promoted as per the neo-liberal prescriptions and not curbed. That is why the strategic alliance with the United States will lead to further onslaughts on the livelihood of the people through vicious economic policies.

Military Collaboration is the Key

US imperialism is mainly interested in drawing India into a military alliance. As per the long term strategy of the United States, getting India to be a military ally is crucial. Despite its overwhelming military superiority, the United States find it increasingly unable to use military interventions to consolidate its position. It requires a string of regional military allies to maintain its global dominance. In Asia, apart from Japan, it finds India the most attractive as a military ally. The ten-year Defence Framework Agreement has laid the basis for Indo-US military collaboration on a scale never seen before with any other country. Already the Pentagon has listed India as one of the countries with which it has base facilities. So far, it has been the firm opposition of the Left that prevented the Manmohan Singh government from signing the Logistics Support Agreement which would ally free access for US armed forces of India�s naval ports and air bases.

Following the announcement of the bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement in July 2007, Nicholas Burns, the Under Secretary of State, who was responsible for negotiating the 123 agreement said: �And I think now that we have consummated the civil nuclear trade between us, if we look down the road in the future, we�re going to see far greater defence cooperation between the United State and India: training; exercise, we hope, defence sales of American military technology to the Indian armed forces.�

Already the United States is getting India to coordinate its policies in South Asia. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal are all areas where US-India joint strategy is being evolved.

The manner in which the BJP-led government, between 1998 and 2004, went ahead for forging strategic ties with the US and the way the Manmohan Singh government pursues the same course underlines the fact that the ruling classes in India want to have deep collaboration with the United States. This is acknowledged in the US ruling establishment. Bruce Reidel, who has worked for the CIA and the Clinton Administration, in an interview to Foreign Affairs in April 2008 stated: �There is still resistance to stronger US-Indian relations. The Communists are very much opposed to it. But there is a very large consensus between the Congress party and the main opposition � the BJP � that US-Indian relations will be one of the Central pillars of India�s foreign policy�.

This is the situation where the Left had to break with the Congress-led government at the Centre. The withdrawal of support by the Left parties has come on the basic issue that a government supported by the Left cannot be allowed to go ahead with such a strategic alliance contrary to the Common Minimum Programme.

The defence of national sovereignty requires that a strategic alliance with the United States be thwarted. The determination with which the Manmohan Singh government is going ahead to operationalise the nuclear deal shows that the Congress party cannot be relied upon to defend national sovereignty. By adopting such a pro-imperialist policy, the Congress party will not be able to counter the BJP and the communal forces. Experience has shown that the BJP and the Hindutva forces are avidly pro-American. By pursuing the same approach, the Congress party has further eroded its capacity to take on the communal forces.

The defence of national sovereignty is directly connected with the struggle to safeguard the rights of the working people and their livelihood which are under attack from the pro-imperialist economic policies. The CPI(M), as decided in the 19^th Congress, will mobilise all patriotic and democratic sections to thwart the US imperialist designs to convert India into its strategic ally.