By Nilotpal Basu
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s narrative about him administering homeopathic medicine is largely a self-inflicted assault. Far from being a successful strategy it is proving to be a self-goal – a case of unmitigated frustration. To brand all those who have views contrary to the regime and Hindutva as “dimagi naxals” leads to only one inescapable conclusion: that all those who support Modi and his ideas are “gair-dimagi andh bhakts”.
Nothing exemplifies the absurdity of this line of thinking than the Delhi Declaration of the BRICS concerning Palestine. Taking the cue from Modi’s increasing intimacy with Israel, “gair-dimagi andh bhakts” had emerged as flag bearers of Zionism and genocide. But the Declaration advocated a two-state solution for a sovereign Palestine state. It also strongly opposed forced displacement of Palestinians, rejecting geographic and demographic changes in Gaza, and viewed Gaza as an integral part of the territory to be unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian authority. It demanded an unconditional ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal, hostage releases and unimpeded delivery of aid while condemning the use of starvation as a weapon. Not stopping at that, the Declaration also supported full UN membership and representation for Palestine in multilateral organisations.
This being decided by a summit piloted by Modi’s India, has obviously shocked the ‘andh bhakts’. More so because in the run up to the grotesque invasion of Iran by Israel and US, Prime Minister Modi provided the optics of support with his presence in Tel Aviv. That diplomatic fiasco is now being sought to be corrected.
The economics and geopolitics of the world today are clearly showing growing sings of multi-polarity. The act of putting all diplomatic eggs in the singular US imperialist basket and bracketing oneself with the genocidal Zionists cannot sustain. There ought not be any illusion about the genocidal nature of what has been taking place in Gaza. Authentic reports, from Palestinian authorities as well as UN bodies record that nearly 75,000 Palestinians have been killed in the strip in the last three years. More than 40 per cent of these are women and children. Apart from the deaths, more than 171,000 people have been reported injured. Thousands more remain missing with many presumed dead and buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. The indirect toll however would be far more due to public health emergency, factoring in deaths from preventable diseases, lack of medical care and malnutrition. The situation in West Bank also continues to be grave and is at a breaking point. The occupied West Bank features record high levels of settler violence, severe military restrictions and an escalating campaign of displacement.
Needless to say, that all these inhuman actions have been inflicted by Zionist Israel and its killer IDF in flagrant violation of the international settlement and Security Council resolutions. It also bears no repetition that US imperialism and especially the Trump administration continues to support these unlawful genocidal activities. Therefore, the joint invasion of Iran forcing the regional conflict in West Asia, stoppage of oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and the resistance of Iran, have brought back the Palestinian question to the centre stage of global politics. The situation in Palestine has also inspired hundreds and thousands of solidarity actions across Europe and in US itself. Palestinian question has been a key issue in US electoral process with an unprecedented level of immigrant mobilisation and opposition towards Israel. This has led to alienation of many European governments which were hitherto supportive of the Zionists.
This is the backdrop which has led to the Delhi Declaration pertaining to Palestine and the rights of its people. The tragedy of Modi’s promotion of his brand of ‘andh bhakt’ politics and diplomacy are that the one-sided treatment of Israel’s unilateral action as ‘legitimate right to punish Muslims of Palestine’ is a complete violence against history, the anti-imperialist legacy of our foreign policy, national interest and the crude capitulation before US hegemonic supremacy.
The increasing crisis of cosying up to Israel is becoming increasingly untenable in the face of evidence of opinion within Israel itself. Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, eminent film makers of Israel who won Oscar awards last year have made a new 80-minute documentary named ‘Naza’. Naza has earned great acclaim in the Venice Film Festival. The documentary “details the system behind Israel’s calculated mass killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza during the genocidal war on Gaza. One of the people interviewed says that there was approval for an attack to kill 500 people for ‘one human target’.” Official spokesperson of IDF has predictably denied this. But Israel’s Minister of Culture, Miki Zohar, has requested the Interior Ministry to strip the film makers of their Israeli citizenship. The film makers’ Oscar last year was for another documentary ‘No Other Land’ chronicling violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. These alternative voices from Israel itself and the alacrity with which the Netanyahu government’s henchmen display their iron fist only underlines their fascist bent of mind.
Therefore, for us it is not difficult to understand the common cause that Modi and ‘andh bhakts’ find with each other. The new West Bengal government in a rush of blood declared Israel as the theme country for the coming year’s International Kolkata Book Fair, which is one of the oldest and well-known book events in the country.
One does not know whether the events in and around Palestine as recognised by the Delhi Declaration of the BRICS Summit will restore some rationality and sense of reality among the ‘andh bhakts’. Earlier the BJP IT Cell goons were openly pushing for Israeli genocidal actions and echoing the Zionist call for wiping out Palestinian people. Hopefully, the Delhi Declaration will bring back sense to recognise that ‘dimagi naxal’ is antonym for ‘gair dimagi andh bhakt’. No sensible, civilisational consideration can allow an ancient civilisation like India to be demonised for such intellectual degeneration. (IPA Service)
Courtesy: People’s Democracy
