If the demolition of
the Babri Masjid was a turning point in
the history of the Republic, the re-emergence of vicious, divisive politics of
Hindutva forces that we are witnessing now is a serious challenge to the very
survival of the Republic.
Narendra Modi embodies that challenge.
Twenty one years ago it was a wave generated on the emotive
issue of the temple which gave an unprecedented push to the political forces of
Hindutva. The soft Hindutva of the ruling party only helped the process. But like
all waves, it too had its eventual flattening.
Today, what is new is Hindutva’s camouflage of “development”
and “governance” which has gripped
sections of urban, vocal, “aspirational”, upwardly mobile youth. Their views
are being amplified beyond all proportion by the sections of electronic media
and the corporate capital. The ruling party’s response is confused and
pathetic. It wants to cover up its record of unparalleled venality and
incompetence. It is showing misplaced “efficiency” and “decisiveness” where it
ought to have taken more mature, political decision as in the case of sordid
hanging of Afzal Guru. It does not seem averse to playing “ real politick”
of welcoming the polarization that
Narendra Modi is inevitably bringing about. It seems unmindful that this short-
sightedness would prove even more damaging to the Republic than the soft
Hindutva politics of yesteryears.
Recent happenings have shown how the cancer of majoritarian
communalism has seeped into the sensitive wings of the government. The exposure
of the right wing terrorism by the late Karkare has been upheld by subsequent
investigations by NIA. There have been
earlier cases of fake encounters by police in the name of fighting
terrorism. The latest expose by CBI of the fake encounter in which Isharat
Jahan was murdered in cold blood along with three others shows to what extent
the police and intelligence machinery can go in a political environment which
has been systematically poisoned by majoritarian communalism over long years.
Ascent to power at the Centre of such politics is the beginning of the end of
the idea of India
as enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic.
The challenge to the survival of the Republic needs to be
faced upfront and unambiguously.
First, we must put an end to the apparently innocent and
well-meaning but ultimately dangerous
politics of seeking “apology” from Narendra Modi for what was perpetrated
adroitly by his henchmen in 2002 under the benign eye of his administration. It
costs little at this point in time for Narendra Modi to tender such an apology,
although he is too arrogant to do even that. Perhaps his cold calculation is to
allow the demand to grow to a crescendo such that conceding it at the right
time just before elections would make him appear an angel. Whatever the
compulsions of some of his stooges in Gujerat, such an apology is not going to
wash off even one single spec of blood of the innocent that has smeared his
hands. Apologies are hardly the stuff that serve the ends of justice, nor do they constitute the closure of the political
process.
Second, the
camouflage of “development” and “governance” must be ripped off. Both in terms
of what has actually happened in Gujerat in the last ten years and the
inexorable logic of this path of development. It should be remembered that
there is convergence in Modi’s party and the ruling party at the centre on
these two issues. Both will find it inconvenient to raise the questions of
whose development and whose subjugation. The illusion that has gripped the
urban, well- off youth has to be countered by mobilizing the disillusioned
millions of unemployed youth and those in the rural and tribal areas whose very
livelihood has been endangered and whose resistance is being treated as
rebellion.
Third, a strong movement must be built around the demand
that all cases where muslim youth have been arrested in large numbers under
black laws and have been in police custody for long periods must be
investigated on a priority basis and tried in special courts so that the
innocent are not made to suffer any longer. Those who have been or would be let
off because of failure to prove the leveled charges must be duly compensated
for the years spent in police custody/jail and rehabilitated with dignity and
honour. Moreover, the police who clamped such cases and were responsible for
abrogation of human rights and the misery and indignity of the innocent youth
must be prosecuted in courts of law so that such atrocities are not repeated.
Particularly stringent and exemplary action must be taken
against the culprits who have been found responsible for cold blooded murder
committed under cover of “encounter”.
Fourth, a special debate must take place in the Parliament
to consider specific measures to prevent such abuse of law and authority at the
hands of political executive and the intelligence and police machinery.
And last, the challenge to the Republic is political. It has
to be fought politically. A mass movement must be built against the new,
camouflaged manifestation of majoritarian communalism. Years ago in France, the
Socialist Party under the leadership of Mitterand had given a challenge to the
right-wing fascistic politics of hatred
and violence of La Pen’s party encouraging physical violence against the French
youth of Algerian origin. “Do Not Touch My Pal” was the slogan which mobilized
the French youth in support of their Algerian origin brothers. We need a mass
movement to mobilize the Indian youth to openly come in support of their Muslim
brothers in every locality. Local committees should be formed of the resident
youth to protect the life and property of the Muslim youth at all times. Such
committees should extend all legal and material support to the Muslim youth to
ensure that the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution are actually
available to them in trying times. It should be remembered that denial of these
rights and freedoms to one section is tantamount to end of such rights and
freedoms for all.
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