[Statement] Modi Govt. Stifles Dissent and Democratic Values: The real aim of the politics of 'Desh-droh' and 'Gaddaar'
- New Socialist Initiative (NSI)
There is poison in the air. Loud abuses of 'deshdrohi', 'gaddar', 'maaro
maaro' are rending the air. Angry men shouting these words have beaten
up teachers and students of one of the best known universities in the
country in the Patiala House Court of Delhi, barely three kilometers
away from the seat of the national government. An elected MLA of the
ruling party was part of the team of attackers. Women teachers of the
university have publicly said that they were physically harassed by the
mob, while the police looked the other way. This happened on 15th
February. We can turn a day back. The Home Minister of the country
announced to the world that a protest by a handful of students at the
Jawaharlal Nehru University was the handiwork of India's 'enemy number
one', Hafez Saeed of Lashkar-E-Taiba. The basis of his claim proved to
be a fake tweet within hours. Three days before that, the elected
president of JNU students union Mr Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested by Delhi
police on charges of sedition, under the same clause of IPC which was
used by the colonial rulers against Indian freedom fighters. Kanhaiya
Kumar, belonging to a poor family from interiors of Bihar, is the first
one from his family to attain university education. There is no
evidence to date that he was part of the group that raised anti-India
slogans on 12th February in his university. There are Supreme Court
decisions which state that charges of sedition can only be levelled if
someone is actively involved in enticing violence against the country,
raising slogans is not seditious. Yet the police in Delhi did not
hesitate in occupying the campus of eight thousand students,
interrogating, harassing and threatening them, and arresting their
elected union president on trumped up charges. Before that it was
reported that a group of people, may be five, may be ten, raised
anti-India slogans during a meeting held to oppose the way Afzal Guru, a
Kashmiri convicted by Indian courts of involvement in the attack on
Indian parliament, was hanged. Students of JNU organise and participate
in scores of meetings every month. Their ripples are rarely felt outside
their campus. But the meeting on Afzal Guru has generated unprecedented
turmoil. This is not by accident, but by deliberate design.
Actually, the people of India have to take a call. What disturbs their
sense of being Indian more? A few minutes of anti-India slogans by an
unknown group of people, in one corner of the city of Delhi, or the
occupation by police of a sprawling university campus housing thousands
of students and teachers, arrest of a bright young man from a poor
family on trumped up charges of sedition, false claims by the home
minister of the country to spread fear among people over terrorist
activity, and a very public physical attack on teachers, students and
journalists in a court of law by members of the ruling party. The first
action by unknown people perhaps offends their sentiment of being
Indian, the latter set of actions by the Government of India, police and
the members of the ruling party, have physically hurt a number of
citizens of India, are going to devastate future of many bright young
men and women of the country, and have embarrassed the country with its
home minister found making false public claims. Perhaps many Indians
will feel that their sense of being Indian is hurt by both these sets of
actions. But one set of action is almost ephemeral. TV channels looking
for cheap sensationalism have played the same video clip again and
again of some people shouting anti-India slogans. There are many such
clips floating in the social media, some allegedly showing the members
of the ABVP, the student wing attached to the ruling party, shouting
anti-India slogans. Which is real, and which is someone's conspiracy, is
not immediately known. The other set of actions leave little doubt
about their intentions and effects. People have been really beaten up,
arrested and terrorised. Which set of actions should draw immediate
attention of Indians, and if they find themselves sufficiently outraged,
their condemnation?
Since 'anti-National', 'deshdrohi' and 'traitor to the nation' have
become common abuses used by members of the ruling party, it is
necessary to distinguish their idea of nation which fuels their
agression and violence, from the other idea of Indian nation which
underlies its constitution. Free India had a very violent birth.
Hundreds of thousands of Indians were killed by Muslim communalists in
the areas which became Pakistan, and by Hindu and Sikh communalists in
areas which became India. Gandhi, the unquestioned leader of India's
freedom movement himself was killed by a Hindu fanatic. However, framers
of Indian constitution led by Dr B. R. Ambedkar decided that they will
not be led by communal passions engulfing the country at that time. They
framed a constitution which guarantees equality and a set of
fundamental rights to every Indian, irrespective of her/his caste,
religion, ethnicity, or language. The Indian nation inhering in its
constitution is concerned with the welfare of all. It attempts to
provide a secure life, free from oppression, tyranny and arbitrary use
of state power to all Indians. This Indian nation is concerned with the
real problems of Indians, like hardships they face due to poverty and
social oppression. This India is self confident and assured. It is not
rattled by the presence of those who do not agree with its basic
assumptions. It advocates dialogue in case of differences, and asks for
state action only if violence is used. In contrast to the nation
envisioned in Indian constitution, the nation of Hindu Rashtra imagined
by the RSS ideologues, whom the current government follows, is driven by
hatred against minorities. It feeds upon the fears and insecurities of
Hindus, and amplifies them through rumours, like country's home minister
discovering Hafez Saeed's plan behind a student meeting in JNU. It
creates mythical demons from history, to exploit people's sentiments for
its violent politics.
The nation envisaged in the constitution requires an aware and
enlightened citizenry. It provides a framework of fundamental rights to
free speech, to form associations, to express dissent and protest.
Without all these rights an aware citizenry is impossible. However,
constitutional rights have little meaning if citizens are not allowed to
exercise these rights. Through its politics of hatred, threats and
violence, Hindutva makes it difficult for citizens to enjoy precisely
these rights. It has always been targeting minorities. Now, through the
politics of 'deshdroh' and 'gaddaar' it is targeting anyone who
questions its politics. It has arrogated to itself the right to define
who is a nationalist, and who is an anti-national. Now that it is able
to gather mobs to attack citizens even in courts of law, it is essential
to realise that it degrades the rights of its own followers too.
Instead of citizens capable of independent political judgment, it makes
them slaves of their own hatred driven passions.
It should be clear that the targetting of students and teachers of JNU
is not due to any real threat to the nation. Anyone with common sense
knows that even if some people did raise anti-India slogans in a student
meeting, that would not have compromised India's national security wee
bit. The real aim of the politics of 'desh-droh' and 'gaddar' is
somewhere else. Ever since the Modi government came to power in 2014,
the BJP, its allied organisations and the state machinery under it have
been attacking one group of people after another. Minorities have been
attacked through politics of communal polarisation, 'ghar vapsi', beef
ban, and arrests of youth under charges of terrorism. Radical dalit
groups like the Ambdekar Periyar Study Circle in IIT Madras, and
Ambedkar Students' Association in Hyderabad Central University, which
question the Brahminical caste sytem and its continuing hegemony in
independent India, have been declared anti-national and targeted through
adminsitrative means. The target of politics of 'desh-droh' and
'gaddar' are vocal and articulate sections of the society who do not
agree with the fundamentals of Hindutva politics. The return of
government awards by many noted writers and artists after murders of Dr.
Dabholkar, Com. Govind Panasare, and Prof. Kalburgi for their
rationalist positions, and the killing of Mr Mohammad Akhalaq by a mob
in Dadri, had put Modi government at backfoot. It lost Bihar elections
badly. The persecution and subsequent suicide of Rohith Vemula laid bare
the anti-Dalit core of Hindutva politics, and ignited widespread
revulsion against it among oppressed castes. Under the garb of threat to
the nation, and attacks on 'desh-drohis' and 'gaddars', the Modi
government is aiming to kill two birds with one stone. First, it wants
to terrorise a very vocal group of students, teachers and intellectuals,
who have been raising their voice, and organising protests against its
policies. Second, it wants to gain back the political ground it had lost
to its opponents in the recent past. The politics of 'desh-droh' and
'gaddari' is a battle of hegemony. At stake is the very nation of
India. Which nation would Indians uphold? A democratic nation whose
framework is given to them in the constitution, or a violent, and hatred
driven nation which first creates, and then thrives upon their fears
and insecurities!
Modi government has proved itself to be too clever for its own good. It
thought that by targeting a group of students as 'desh-drohis' and
'traitors' it will be able to whip up a nationalist fervour, and garner
the support of Indians. However, the principled and determined
resistance put up by students, youth and enlightened sections of Indians
all over the country is already unravelling its nefarious designs.
Their struggle in the defence of democracy is the symbol of Indian
democracy. This India, a democratic, secular and tolerant India will
defeat Modi government's vile plans.