By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 5: Former Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) leader and activist Kavita Krishnan joined the solidarity protest organized by the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress Samyeling at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi where hundreds including Tibetan poet and activist Tenzin Tsundue paid homage to protestors in China on Friday.
Krishnan who recently resigned from the CPIM central committee said, “This kind of protest all over China on a single issue is [quite] rare.” She went on to debunk misinformation online to discredit these protests, noting the loopholes of the Zero-Covid policy including intensified surveillance on its citizens through data procured during the pandemic. “Just like in India, these very tight lockdowns have resulted in massive unemployment and small businesses have suffered. 20% of Chinese youth are unemployed today, young Chinese are not getting jobs, they are bound to be unsatisfied with that,” she further noted in her speech.
“If the people of East Turkestan or Tibet are not allowed to demand their rightful autonomy, in that case, that government has no moral right to remain,” she told the crowd. Krishnan’s disagreement with the Chinese Communist government is said to be one of the issues that saw her resign from the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Fellow activist and writer Tenzin Tsundue in his address to the crowd said that there is an urgent need to send this message of solidarity to the people of China, “As I stand today and speak, there is a revolution happening in China. It is not just a ‘protest’, it is a revolution. Look at what they are demanding; they want the CCP to go. They want Xi Jinping to step down. It is not just happening in some parts of the country but all across China.”
There have been numerous solidarity protests all over the globe, including exiled Tibetans who have been holding protests and peace marches to express their support for the protestors in China, East Turkestan and Tibet. The Tibetan Women’s Association also held a candlelight vigil at the McLeod Ganj square on Friday to show their support with the anti-lockdown protests, which first began from Urumqi city in East Turkestan where an apartment fire claimed the lives of 10 people. Many had speculated that Covid curbs had hindered the escape of the residents who died in the fire. There is no official response to the discontentment and public outcry but higher Chinese officials reportedly warned that the authorities will crack down on “criminal acts that disrupt social order”.
The recent protests is seen as the largest public protests since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Four Dharamshala-based rights groups on Tuesday participated in a non-violent direct action activity near the Chinese embassy, holding messages of solidarity and blank A4 papers, representing the symbol used in the anti-government protests in China.
One Response
The protests in China have died down for now as the communist regime was forced to backtrack its so called zero covet policy. They are also cracking down on those protesters who have dared to call for the head of Xi Jinping and the overthrow of the communist regime. The regime will never tolerate such “malignant slogan” as the internal memo termed it. However, what we have to remember is, the CCP can kill the people who espouse the notion of freedom, democracy and rule of law but they cannot kill the idea! Be it in the erstwhile USSR or communist China, the ideas envisaged by the intellectuals or the people have always thrived which culminated in the demise of the Soviet Union and will do the same with communist China. The difference between an animal and a human being is, human spirit cannot be confined within the confines of four walls. That is why, all oppressive regimes whatever their name or colour have always fallen by the way side. Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime also came unstuck despite phenomenal success in the initial stages. Communist China is bound to come unstuck one day with its untiring zest for suppression of liberties thus enslaving the people. Today, the communist regime has erased the lines of red China’s anthem which goes; if you don’t want to be a slave, arise!”
The reason why the students in China’s universities were singing the red anthem was to call the people to arise as is clearly mentioned in its lyrics!
These protests and their call for the leader to stand down and the removal of the regime is corrosive. It depletes the legitimacy of the regime and loses its lustre. Communist China has lost its dignity and standing after its shadowy dealing with the coronavirus debacle! The refusal to allow unimpeded access to international investigators has only compounded the situation since it is widely believed that the virus has leaked from the Wuhan lab. Today, it’s loathed by most of the international community with the exception of Russia, Cambodia and Pakistan. The democratic countries have ganged up to keep Chinese aggression in check both in the Indo-Pacific and the Himalayas with US and India joint conducting military exercises on the Indo-Tibet border.
Among the Tibetan exiles, the most dedicated Tibet campaigners are the independence advocates such as the Tibetan Youth Congress and individuals like Tenzin Tsondue. Frankly speaking, the U-Mey Lam advocates should be in the forefront of supporting the Chinese students and people because they profess to befriend the Chinese as a means of gaining autonomy. But alas, they are all MIA (missing in action). It just goes show these people have no real commitment of their own. They blither their way without an iota of personnel commitment to the cause! All the protest and peace marches are carried out by independence advocates and not a single one by the U-Mey Lam advocates. They should by now come out to support the crying call of the Chinese people but to our dismay, none of them or their leading lights have so much as raised their little finger!