CPI(M) plans padayatra in Pondicherry for removal of Lt. Governor

The Puducherry unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will organise padayatra in the town and suburban areas on May 7, 9 and 10 to generate public opinion for the party's campaign against the continuance of Iqbal Singh as Lieutenant Governor.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Tamil Nadu State committee member of CPI(M) T. Murugan and local committee secretary of the party V. Perumal said they would continue with the struggle demanding removal of the Lieutenant Governor. Mr. Singh had also misused his office in getting approval for a private medical college, Mr. Murugan alleged. The party had already made a representation to the President of India demanding recall of the Lieutenant Governor, he added.

Killing of Osama Bin Laden

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

 

Osama Bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan by the US special forces. This, however, does not mean an end to the problem of terrorism, which has many dimensions.

 

The death of Osama Bin Laden, while being a setback for the Al Qaeda, will not result in an end to the extremist violence spawned by fundamentalism. At the same time, the methods used by the United States to fight the so-called global “war on terror”, has only worsened the situation. In the name of fighting the Al Qaeda, the US devastated Afghanistan and Iraq. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives in these wars of aggression.

 

The fact that Bin Laden could live in Pakistan for so many years points to the linkage between the security establishment and some of the extremist groups operating there. The US had enlisted Pakistan to fight the Afghanistan government backed by the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The Pentagon and CIA had equipped and financed through the ISI, people like Osama, thus fuelling the later day Taliban and Jehadi fundamentalists.

 

The recent military intervention in Libya and the continuing war in Afghanistan, show that the United States has learnt no lessons from the past. State terrorism and fundamentalist terrorism feed each other. Unless the United States changes its approach of resorting to military force and state terrorism, the problem of terrorism cannot be tackled successfully.