India and Pakistan did not agree to bilateral measures to reduce the danger of nuclear war, but only to (unspecified) "national measures" to reduce "accidental or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons under their respective control." They agreed "to continue to abide by their respective unilateral moratorium on conducting further nuclear test explosions-unless either side... decides that extraordinary events have jeopardised its supreme interests." Pakistan "Bread not b
Only the radical left has dared oppose the India-Pakistan war in
Kashmir, and the arms race between the two countries.
Mohammed Farooq
Skirmishes with India along the cease-fire line in Kashmir are a blessing for Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif. The Pakistan Muslim League
[PML] government is trying desperately to rekindle the nationalist fervour that followed tit- for-tat nuclear tests by India and
Pakistan twelve months ago. War is a welcome distraction from the multiple economic and political crises that surround the government.
The state-run electronic media and a large section of the press blinded by years of anti-India indoctrination lend the government a helping hand in glorifying the nuclear adventure.
Government supporters covered the Prime Minister's home town of
Lahore with propaganda trying to show massive pro-nuclear sentiment. But over 3000 peace activists gathered outside the
Punjab Assembly Building on May
28, to demonstrate their opposition to the nuclear madness. They chanted '"Bread not Bombs,
Education not Bombs!"
The timing of the Indian decision to deploy air power reflects the temptation of the Vajpayee "caretaker" government (which has lost Parliament's confidence) to outmanoeuvre its domestic political opponents.
The ruling coalition is in deep trouble and its principal opponent, the Congress, is on the upswing with the return of Sonia Gandhi as president. (She had earlier resigned as party leader after opponents said her "foreign origins" disqualified her from leading the country.
Congress and other opposition parties have criticised the government handling of the conflict, and refused nationalistic demands for unconditional "national unity"
In Pakistan, the Sharif government has brutally cracked down on critical journalists and public-spirited NGOs and women's groups as it desperately seeks a fig leaf of legitimacy through Islam to cover up corruption and misgovernance.
But most of all, the current conflict exposes the false claim that nuclearisation could introduce stability or maturity ombs!"
The demonstration was organised by the Labour Party Pakistan in collaboration with the Communist Mazdoor Kisan [Worker-Peasant] Party. But a representative crosssection of society was present: political parties, community-based organisations, trade unions, and student unions.
Unfortunately, the massive backdrop of official banners and posters confused some passers-by into thinking that this was a pro-nuclear demonstration! But many others gave quick victory signs once they understood the nature of the protest.
Renowned Left leader Tahira
Mazhar Ali regretted the official celebrations while the masses driven by economic hardship were committing suicide. "It is sheer madness. We need bread not bombs. We need housing, clothing, education and a nuclear free region" , she said. "Is it hunger, poverty and suicide that the rulers are celebrating?" She demanded an immediate end to the nuclear race in the region.
Farooq Tariq, General Secretary
Labour Party Pakistan, was critical of
Punjab Law Minister Raja Bhasharat who says the peace activists are
"traitors" and "bread not bombs"
an "anti-national slogan. According
БЛІГО * in India- Pakistan relations, or reduce the danger of a conventional conflict. In reality, nuclearisation has created more insecurity. * © Inter Press Service. The author is a well-known left wing journalist on the Times of India and Frontline magazine and has co-authored with Achin Vanaik a series of studies and tracts against nuclearisation.
ME WAN NUCLEAR FREE WORLD 9000: Indian author Arundhati Ro nucle ests atter tne May to Tariq "May 28 is being observed in Baluchistan [the province where the nuclear testing and dumping of nuclear waste took place] as a black day. Sind Province has also boycotted the so-called celebration organised by the government. This demonstration in Lahore proves that the working class, community-based organisations, trade unions and students of Punjab do not approve of the celebration. Taria also criticised Punjab Welfare Minister Pir Benyamin for harassing and blackmailing the governmental organisations.
Ex-Federal Minister and Convener of the Pakistan-India Forum for Peace and Democracy, Mubhashar Hasan demanded an immediate end to the shelling at the Line of Control between India and Pakistan. He further demanded that the two sides sit around a table to seek a peaceful solution to all the issues. "War is no solution. It just adds to the misery of toiling masses" ", he observed.
Syed Azim, Temur Hasan, and other noted political activists also spoke on the occasion. Asghar Ali sang a peace song from a peasant-based organisation in Punjab. Its theme was "Until the system changes, wars will continue"
The author is a leading member of the Labour Party Pakistan. A shorter version of this article previously appeared in Green Left Weekly. Additional content by BS.
International Viewpoint #313 July 1999 17
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