India being pulled into vortex of wars

India is being pulled into the vortex of local wars, set in motion by World War I, said CPI(M) MP Sitaram Yechury here on Monday. He was delivering the first Satyendranath Majumdar memorial lecture on the completion of a hundred years of the World War I.

“The World War I is being replicated in several places across the globe… India is being pulled into the vortex of these wars. India is the largest buyer of Israeli weapons. Thus, in a way India is financing Israel’s inhuman crimes on Palestine,” Mr. Yechury said. He added that the Indian Government should have at least suspended purchasing weapons from Israel, if not completely stopped buying them.

Coming down heavily on capitalism, he said that World War I was the ‘first illogic created by capitalism.’

“Six times more money was spent on armaments [in the wars following World War I] than during the Cold War. If this much money was spent on building social welfare infrastructure for the poor, it would have led to better spending power which would have ultimately been a boon for capitalists,” said Mr. Yechury, who is also a Politbureau member of the CPI(M).

The U.S. requires to have control of economic resources to exercise its hegemony, Mr. Yechury said, adding that Afghanistan falls into the crux of this problem, stemmed by the need to control vast oil and natural gas reserves.

Source - The Hindu