By Greg Beaune
Following the April 22 attack in Indian-occupied Kashmir, a terrorist act that killed at least 26 tourists, a series of military escalations between India and Pakistan culminated in the most intense exchange of fire between the two countries in decades.
Hostilities erupted immediately after the attack, with India’s Narendra Modi blaming Pakistan without evidence and cutting off water supplies to the neighbouring country, while the two states’ armies sporadically exchanged light fire across the border.
In early April, the risk of open war between these two nuclear-armed states had escalated to a level never higher in recent years. That risk sadly became real just weeks later.
On May 6, India launched a series of missile strikes and aerial bombardments against targets in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab, causing at least 26 deaths. Pakistan responded by shelling border towns, causing a dozen civilian casualties, and reportedly shooting down several Indian military aircraft.
Reactions of regional communist parties
The Communist Party of Pakistan, in a statement titled “No India-Pakistan War Other Than Class War,” strongly rejected what it called “acts of aggression” by the Indian state and the Pakistani ruling class. It described the conflict as a bourgeois rivalry for regional hegemonic control, at the expense of working-class interests. Finally, it called on the working-class and progressive forces in South Asia to reject “this false nationalism and instead embrace proletarian internationalism.”
In an earlier statement, the party also asserted – specifically on the issue of regional terrorism – that it was imperative to “work toward robust and sustained collaboration between the two countries to eradicate terrorism comprehensively and permanently.”
The Communist Party of India, for its part, issued a statement calling for the building of a “national consensus” against terrorism, regional cooperation with Pakistan to eradicate terrorist activities in the region, and stressing the importance of prioritizing diplomatic channels to resolve the current crisis.
Belligerent nationalism to stifle popular anger
These events come amid significant social unrest in both countries. In Pakistan, a broad coalition is opposing a canal project that would disrupt the water system, threatening farmers in the Indus Valley. In India, a proposed land rights law, seen as a new offensive against the Muslim minority, has sparked major protests that have been violently repressed – particularly in West Bengal, where several protesters were killed by police in early April.
Clarté
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