PRAGOTI

Vijay Prashad comments on the reactions to the Fort Hood massacre in the US, where more than a dozen people were shot dead by a US military man.

 Look what trouble the BJP is in, just two weeks before voting begins for the 15th Lok Sabha.

 It is hugely ironical that the BJP (and thus also their candidate from Pilibhit parliamentary constituency, Varun Gandhi) should accuse the Election Commission of bias against the young lad due to the presence of Chief Election Commissioner designate, Naveen Chawla. But before we get to explaining that irony, here are a few facts.

You cannot have such double standards. If you want to fight terrorism, you have to create the atmosphere in our country where communalism cannot feed terrorism and terrorism cannot be used as an instrument for communal polarisation for political ends. We have to end that atmosphere, otherwise, we cannot fight terrorism in our country. That is one precondition. The other precondition is, you have to eliminate the sort of stark poverty, impoverishment and depravity that we find in large parts of our country. It is this poverty that creates and lays the basis; foundation, unfortunately, for such terrorist groups and activities to flourish.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Comrade.Sitaram Yechury's intervention on National Investigation Agency and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act in Rajya Sabha.Highlighting the human rights violations that were fostered by the erstwhile anti-Terrorist laws,Comrade.Yechury points out that the crux of the matter lies in the elimination of communal polarizations and poverty,which provides the fertile ground for the growth of terrorism.