Sectarian violence has been unleashed against the people of Mumbai in the past week. Following a sustained campaign targeting the working people from UP, Bihar and Bengal for the problems of Mumbai, small shops and taxis were wrecked, while working people such as taxi drivers and others beaten up mercilessly because of their language or state of origin.

Various political parties have jumped into the fray to inflame passions on all sides. Their hand is very much evident in the present sectarian violence. The government of Maharashtra, as always, has been benignly supervising the violence. It is clear that all the political parties – Congress and BJP, as well as the major regional actors – have their hands in the inflaming of passions. All this is part of the preparation for the General Elections as well as the state elections for Maharashtra.

Three and half years after the UPA government came to power at the centre with the slogan of “reforms with a human face”, the anti worker and anti peasant character of this government's programme has become exposed in the eyes of broad masses of people. There is increasing resistance to the liberalisaton privatisation programme of the big bourgeoisie. In these circumstances, unleashing sectarian violence is a favourite weapon of the big bourgeoisie to divide and disorient the working masses and keep them suppressed.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India condemns the ruling class for unleashing sectarian violence against the people of Mumbai.