LAHORE, Sept 4: The Communist Party of India Marxist Leninist (CPIML) has supported giving right to self-determination to Kashmiris.

CPIML leader Sri Lata Swami Nathan said at a seminar on ‘Secularism and Democracy in India’ on Thursday the Kashmiri people should be allowed to decide whether they wanted to live with India or Pakistan or go independent.

The seminar had been organized by the Labour Party whose chairman and secretary-general, Shoaib Bhatti and Farooq Tariq, also spoke on the occasion.

Mrs Nathan warned that Kashmir was very important for the sole super power of the world seeking access to Central Asian oil reserves.

She urged the Kashmiris that besides fighting to win their right to self-determination they should also contribute their share in the anti-imperialism struggle.

She claimed that Gwadar port and Mirani dam were being built to facilitate the US forces as Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf had surrendered before the US and were serving its interests “diligently.”

Declaring Indian secularism and democracy as a farce, Mrs Nathan said all good constitutional articles and laws were present on papers with no physical implementation. Money could win all freedoms and mould all laws in her country, she added.

“Elections is a game of money, which is openly used both by the BJP and the Congress to reach power corridors.”

She claimed that Indian rulers were creating war mania among the masses to divert their attention from their failure to provide them necessities of life.

“Whenever people demand facilities and jobs, they would start propagating that Pakistan is preparing for war so the government has to increase defence spending leaving no room for development schemes.”

Admitting that religion was a psychological need of the man, she said it was being used as a tool to hoodwink illiterate and poor strata of society.

She regretted that democracy had changed nothing in her country. “The 13 per cent feudal elite present since pre-partition era is yet possessing 85 per cent landholding while the general public is facing economic and social insecurity.” Mrs Nathan was also critical of the former Soviet Union which, she said, had been active in providing heavy financial assistance to those working against her party.

She alleged that even the Congress was given funds for the purpose.