June 4 marks the date of the ghastly Tiananmen Square incident in which helpless protesting students were butchered mercilessly in a somewhat similar but much more nightmarish fashion to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. This incident is not a one-off outlier story of murderous revenge against any form of dissent in a communist regime but it is the hallmark of all red revolution clad utopian dreams across the dimensions of time and space, writes Sudhakar Upadhyay, TISS Mumbai
Bengaluru: “After our armed enemies have been crushed, there will still be our unarmed enemies, who will try to fight us to the death. We must never underestimate their strength. Unless we think of the problem in precisely those terms, we will commit gravest of errors” - Mao Zedong at the Central Committee of the Seventh Congress, Chinese Communist Party (March 1949).
This quote sums up the barbarous and iron fist clad rule that the Chinese communist party in particular and the communists world over have unleashed whenever and wherever they have got the opportunity. June 4 marks the date of the ghastly Tiananmen Square incident in which helpless protesting students were butchered mercilessly in a somewhat similar but much more nightmarish fashion to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. This incident is not a one-off outlier story of murderous revenge against any form of dissent in a communist regime but it is the hallmark of all red revolution clad utopian dreams across the dimensions of time and space. The India left repeatedly chants the mantra of “freedom of expression” and demands a right for students where they can speak almost anything and everything without any curbs even at the cost of social disharmony or national disintegration but forgets easily that as early as in May 1926, 47 students were killed for peacefully protesting in an anti-Japanese demonstration in Beijing.
Tiananmen Square protests was a student-led movement and started in April 1989 with some basic and inalienable human demands for greater political freedom, freedom of speech & expression and less censorship & media control by the state. During the 1980s china was grappling with a lot of economic problems making the poor and working classes face unprecedented hardships. The students who acted as a catalyst for the organisation of the protests had lived in foreign countries and were exposed to the democratic values guaranteed to the citizens there. The immediate trigger resulting into the demonstrations was the death of a leading communist party politician, Hu Yaobang, who had played an instrumental role in bringing some economic and political reforms. He was removed from the top echelons by his opponents and hardliners in the communist party. Tens of thousands gathered for Hu’s funeral in April and demanded political rights. The numbers of protestors kept on increasing in the coming weeks and they gathered in Tiananmen Square, one of Beijing’s most famous historical places. In its heydays, is is estimated that the protests attracted more than a million protestors. Many students started a hunger strike from the. Month of May and the Chinese government became increasingly disturbed by the protests. On May 15, the welcome ceremony of Soviet Union’s leader Mikhail Gorbachev was disrupted and had to be shifted from the Tiananmen Square to the airport. Martial law was imposed on May 20 and more than 2,50,000 troops of army entered Beijing to quell the movement. But, all this was not able to dampen the spirits of the protestors and the protests kept on getting bigger and attracting more attention with marches being conducted on a daily basis. Despite strict control of the state apparatus on the media the photos of the events were regularly sent to United states and European nations exposing the real situation of failure of the policies of Communist party of china. On the ensuing black night between June 3 and 4, the troops marched towards Tiananmen Square and opened fire via tanks and guns on the peaceful crowd mercilessly killing and injuring most of them. Rest of the protestors were arrested and control of the area taken back by the government. The real count of deaths could never be known because of the strict censorship regarding the incident maintained by the Chinese side continuing even today. The estimates vary from hundreds to many thousands. Reporters who were able to speak have said that thousands of protestors died in the bloody firing. The then British ambassador to China, Sir Alan Donald. in his telegram to his government the very next day claimed that at least 10,000 protestors had died. Despite such cowardly deed done by a government to its 2 own civilians which a modern civilised nation would not even do the civilians of other nations, many in china even do not know about the incident especially the ones of younger and newer generation as information dissemination in china is highly censored and controlled.
I feel surprised when I get to know that students in Bharat are totally unaware of such incidents. The funky young just admitted college going youth smitten by the newly experienced charm of communism especially the irresponsible individualism and freedom it promotes have no knowledge of such endless brutal murders in all communist regimes starting from Soviet Union itself. Thus, the purpose of this article is not only to mark one of the saddest days of history but also to present the violent, despotic and murderous nature of communism. Although it may seem insensitive but the nature of communist atrocities have been such that the above mentioned brutal disaster would seem like a trailer to the actual movie. Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) is the finest example of what chaos and bloodbath can be caused while chasing the dream of a pure communist society.
It was a decade long mayhem marked by political, social and economic chaos resulting into estimated deaths with a consensus on minimum count of half a million and maximum of around three million by some historians. It was started by Mao with twin objectives of purging china from any of the capitalist elements it had accrued in the later periods and more importantly to tighten up the losing grip of Mao on the communist party after the disastrous famine caused due to the ‘Great Leap Forward’ strategy by eliminating his opponents in political and academic circles. Thousands of young students in the form of Red Guards and Soldiers of People’s Liberation Army butchered people just because they were considered bourgeoise and capitalist because of their lifestyle, dressing and hair patterns. An imaginary fight against imperialism was created by Mao using a fictitious fear of bourgeoise control of the state to destroy “four olds” - old ideas, old customs, old habits and old culture. China drifted into a state of civil war with the masses killing the urban classes aided by students with Mao’s supporters hailing his decision in every hook and corner of the country including aeroplanes. On June 1, 1966, the Party’s official mouthpiece called on the masses to “clear away the evil habits of the old society” by launching an all-out assault on “monsters and demons”. Millions died, the economy crashed and the country’s own people hailed 3 into one class became murderers of the other class. Mao had envisaged this with the aim to purge the country of any capitalist elements but the exact opposite happened at the end of the cultural revolution after Mao’s death as the future leaders opted for more and more capitalist reforms. Mao on the other hand was not doing anything new but just following in the revolutionary footsteps of his ideological predecessors Lenin and Stalin. The revolution that Lenin lead resulting into a socialist state of USSR and Stalin perfected by causing more than 20 Million estimated deaths. The total death toll which can be attributed in the path of realising this dream of ‘communist international’ is expectedly more than 100 million lives.
The Indian communists have acted even worse than their Chinese counterparts. The Chinese communists at least on the outset try to work for the country’s economic growth and increasing world standing but the Indian radical leftists have been a perpetual force against the country’s interests recently turning into “tukde tukde gang” breaking nation’s unity and integrity. During the famous ‘Quit India Movement’ of 1942, the Communist Party of India (CPI) officially opposed the freedom movement. The most bizarre angle of this decision was that it was not taken by the Indian communists after taking into consideration the country’s interest at such a critical juncture but was taken because of a Russian dictate and thus began a journey of loyalty always lying outside the geographical boundaries of the state at the feet of a imperialist communist dictator. The communists actively and overtly helped the British nab down and arrest the nationalists during this movement. In 1948, just after few months of independence when india had begun its journey of self-rule via parliamentarian democracy, CPI under the leadership of B.T. Randive launched the slogan that this freedom is false (yah azaadi jhoothi hai) and called the masses for an armed rebellion against its own state. Again, this line was not based on their own understanding of India’s needs but on an order by Moscow that the congress was nothing more than a “satellite of imperialism”5. In 1962 during the Indo-china war, CPI again supported china keeping ideology and communist party over and above the nation. Any type of help given to the Indian government and hence army personnel was considered anti-party. Former chief minister of Kerala V.S. Achuthanandan was opposed and sidelined from the party when he suggested to organise a blood donation camp for our brave jawans . This episode led to a split into the party with the pro-Chinese faction leaving the parent 6 CPI and forming CPI(Marxist). When former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed emergency in the country and every nationalist was immersed in the fight to save the democracy, CPI supported the emergency. The above mentioned examples are a crystal clear testimony to the fact that Indian communists have always been against everything promoting country’s peace, stability, cohesion and development. Not only consistent in these anti country stands but the Indian communists are second to none when it comes to using violence as a tool to perpetuate their rule and eradicate any form of opposition. The state sponsored dreadful massacre of helpless Dalits in Marichjhapi by the left government in 1979 resulting into deaths of thousands7 and the Sainbari murders when a mother was forced to eat rice soaked in her own son’s blood8 are a must read for all those who want to understand the true colours of communism. The Indian communists in leftist dominated social sciences institutions celebrate and hail autocratic leaders like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Che Guevara and Ho Chi Minh. Two things are common about all the inspirational communist ideologues - first that none of them are Indian and second that all of them are mass murderers with none of them accounting for deaths in numbers amounting to less than millions under their regime.
Being true to their true chaotic nature the communists have always tried pit one group against the other and benefit from the ensuing clash. Acting completely blind to the theological ill practices and practical misdeeds of islam, the communists oppose every aspect of hinduism including its time tested and unifying localised festivals. The people who oppose any existence of islamic terrorism are busy spreading a botched up narrative of saffron terrorism. The hinduphobic nature of communists was on full display during the recent anti-CAA protests with derogatory posters mocking our sacred symbols like “Swastik”, placards with written messages like “Fuck hindutva” and people like Sharjeel Imam coming out openly with their nefarious plans to break the country into pieces. Across some select university campuses having left dominated student unions full support and sympathy was offered to sharjeel imam with a student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai going to the extent of sloganeering “sharjeel tere sapne ko ham Manzil tak pahuchayenge” which translates to “sharjeel your dreams will be fulfilled by us”. The Kerala government which found it fit to jail more than 2000 innocent shraddhalus who were peacefully demonstrating to safeguard their locally grown ancient religious and cultural traditions and supported entry of women in the Sabarimala temple has not taken any step to facilitate entry of women in mosques. The government which seemed in a magical rush to implement the Supreme Court’s order in the above case has not taken a single step to implement the supreme court’s guidelines on use of loudspeakers in mosques.
The Ram Mandir dispute would have been solved years ago with discussion and consensus among the involved communities if not for the communist academicians who aided and supported some radical islamist elements to spread lies and keep the issue burning. They spent all their might to prove that no temple existed at the site before the Babari masjid was built. The archaeological findings before and the recent discovery of idols, pillars and shiv ling found in Ayodhya after the construction started has exposed their nexus and falsified the cooked up theories in front of the whole nation. The endless wait of crores of Indians coming to an end through the Supreme Court judgement finally resulting into the construction of Ram Mandir is proof enough that the country has started to see through the conspiracies master minded by the communists to deride our culture and weaken the nation. The emergent new India has in itself the required wherewithal to successfully counter such unholy alliances and dreams of utopian bloody revolution.
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