[PEN-L:11176] addendum on India, USSR v US

["James Michael Craven" <CRAVJM@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Addendum (had to leave office)

The real nature of Indian-USSR relations became the subject of
widespread discussions in India--among more than Maoists-- especially
in the 1970s when the pro-Soviet CPI endorsed "Emergency Measures" by
Indira Gandhi's Government. How any so-called "Communists" or
"Socialist system" could endorse wide-spread forced sterilizations
(more concentrated in Muslim areas), assassinations of Naxalites,
total suppressions of all core civil liberties, total martial law etc
was the subject of many debates--formally suppressed in the media
under provisions of "emergency measures." Just as the U.S. was
prepared to tolerate--even facilitate--wholesale human rights abuses
in places like Chile, El Salvador etc to maintain U.S.-client-State
relations, so the Government of the USSR and the pro-Soviet CPI
endorsed Indira's Government and emergency measures to maintain their
special patron-client relationship. I once spoke with the head of
the CPI in Kerala (also Dean of the Law Faculty at Kerala University)
who said that the CPI endorsement of "emergency measures" just about
finished the CPI and was instrumental in the rise of CP-M in Kerala
and elsewhere (he tried to defend the endorsement on the grounds of
"primary vs secondary contradictions/enemies" but was clearly in pain
trying to do so).

                             Jim Craven

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