Fascism: July 2004 Archives

Report by the internationally respected Human Rights Watch

On the morning of February 27, 2002, the gruesome attack on the Sabarmati Express in Godhra, Gujarat, left fifty-eight dead. The train cars set alight were carrying Hindu kar sevaks (religious volunteers) returning from Ayodhya. By evening, retaliatory attacks against Muslims had begun, including in Rajkot, Vadodara, and Bharuch.50 That same day the Vishwa Hindu Parishad called for a statewide bandh (shut-down) for February 28, a call that according to press reports, its cadre interpreted as a call to action.51 The state's endorsement of the bandh, announced through a press note issued at 8 p.m. on February 27, was taken by the VHP/Bajrang Dal as an endorsement of its stand.52

State support of the bandh also sent a message to the police. A reporter for the Hindu observed that, "In such a situation, the police would always be hesitant to act lest it hurt the interests of the political bosses. And the saffronised police also found a common cause with the criminals to `punish' the minorities."53 The same reporter wrote that, "insiders in the Bharatiya Janata Party admit that the police were under instructions from the Narendra Modi administration not to act firmly."54

by Arundhati Roy

Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy has said that 'fascism is alive and well and living in Gujarat'.

"Gujarat, the only major state in India with a government headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, has for some years been the petri dish in which Hindu fascism has been fomenting an elaborate political experiment and in spring of 2002, the initial results were put on public display," Roy wrote in the inaugural issue of the Indobrit, a quarterly magazine launched in London on Tuesday night.

The "Good War" story of World War II is a Big Lie, used today by the likes of George W. Bush and John F. Kerry to create a mind set in which America's rulers are the good guys who, despite all of their faults and foibles, are saving the world from the really really bad guys.

FDR told Americans that the war was about fighting fascism and tyranny. But FDR lied about his real war objectives, just as Hitler lied to the Germans and Japanese militarists lied to the Japanese people to get them to fight the bloodiest war in history.

NBC news is reporting federal election officials will meet next week with officials of the Department of Homeland Security to discuss whether the November presidential election should be postponed in the event of a terrorist attack. Top Bush administration officials said Monday there were no plans to postpone the elections, but the head of the newly created US Election Assistance Commission is seeking the power to do just that in case of a national emergency. Last week when a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan if the elections will go ahead as planned, McClellan said " I don't think anyone can make guarantees. But the full intention is to move forward and hold those elections." The country has never postponed or rescheduled a presidential election before. Many historians yesterday pointed out that even during the midst of the Civil War the country went ahead with elections. In 1864 President Abraham Lincoln said "We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us."

"Fascism should rather be called corporatism, as it is the merger of state and corporate power."

Benito Mussolini