By Tanvir Ratul
India is a fascist regime, I don’t support it in any way. I have protested their murders in the past. But if I am suggested that I shouldn’t protest Indian imperialism in Bangladesh unless I attack terrorist Pakistan at the same time then should I mention USA’s interventions at the same time too? What about Russia? These are all oppressive regimes meddling in the area and certainly, India’s political intervention in Bangladesh is no excuse for supporting US intervention.
I think the problem is anti-outsider-intervention or anti-Pakistan sentiment is automatically transferring into sympathy for India. The campaign should be anti-war, anti-arms and anti-foreign intervention and not anti-US intervention as is reigning the social media. Even then anti-foreign intervention (for want of a better expression) is problematic for countries where UN intervention is resisted to cover up human rights abuse. So we need to devise something that is not populist.
I do agree that the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” mentality is a serious problem in the left. You see it especially with support for Palestine (a righteous cause) bleeding into the support of Hamas (a totally reactionary fascist organization) or in the romanticization of tyrants like Gaddafi and Assad because they are/were enemies of the US.
And it is true that – to quote me, when you take the biggest shark out of a shark tank, it’s still a shark tank – but the biggest shark is still the biggest shark. This is a fictional speech written by ghost of Sheikh Mujib about Indian imperialism and its provocation of war against Bangladesh with reference to other countries it has waged war against in the region or collaborated with and with reference to US military bases around the world.
How would you rewrite a historic speech?
Hands off, India!
Get out of Kashmir
(except it’s ok to stay in Tibet until China leaves too)
Also, although I would unite with anyone who is anti-war (depending on the war), I believe the campaign should be anti-imperialist. Anti-imperialism is not populism; it has specific content: against imperialism and capitalism.
#7thMarchSpeechofBangabandhu
#FictionalSpeech
#GhostOfShiekhMujib992 CommentsLike
