SAHMAT
8, Vithalbhai Patel House, Rafi Marg,New Delhi-110001
Telephone-2 3711276/ 23351424
e-mail-sahmat@ vsnl.com
28.12.2007
Press Note
Safdar Hashmi, actor, poet, political and street theatre activist was fatally attacked on January 1, 1989 while performing a play 20 kms away from Delhi. The spontaneous protest generated by this gruesome act led to the formation of the platform - Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, (SAHMAT). Actors, academics, writers, painters, poets, photographers, architects, theatre, media and cinema persons and cultural activists came together with the conviction that all creative and intellectual endeavour in India upholds the values of secularism and pluralism. The imperative of defending freedom of expression was deeply felt.
SAHMAT commencing 20th year of its activities has undertaken performances, exhibition, publication of books and posters, campaigns, protests, seminars and all manners of creative programmes.
Sufi Bhakti tradition of music and poetry, the values that propelled the national movement and social reform movements have provided the basic resource material for our activities.
April 12, Safdar Hashmi's birthday is observed as National Street Theatre Day every year.
Since 1989, artists and cultural activists gather at a central place in the capital city on January 1 to pay homage to Safdar‚s memory.
This year the memorial will be held at the Vithal Bhai Patel House Lawns from 1 p.m. onwards. Apart from music, theatre, poetry recitation and modern dance this year's memorial is going to foreground the moment of the modern in the Indian cultural tradition. The theatre, poetry and music of IPTA, photography of Sunil Janah and paintings and woodcuts of Chittoprasad contribute greatly to define that moment. M.F.Husain, one of the most eminent painters of independent India, currently being hounded by the fundamentalists, has been in the forefront of fostering modern iconography. This year's memorial will have three presentations-Sunil Janah ( by Ram Rahman), Chittoprasad ( Sanjay Mullick) and M.F.Husain ( K. Bikram Singh). Sumangla Damodaran with Deepak Castelino will render some of the famous IPTA songs in different languages. Tanveer Ahmad Khan and Imran Ahmad Khan of Delhi Gharana will sing Amir Khusro's Kalam.
Vidya Shah has composed a number of songs in a new cross-cultural idiom. A CD of these songs will be released. Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar, the Dhrupad maestro will also be performing accompanied on pakhawaj by Pt. Mohan Shyam Sharma.
The programme will conclude with traditional Sufi compositions by Baba Gulam Mohammad, a direct descendent of Bhai Mardana.
This year the programme will commence at 1 p.m. sharp.
Traditional food of Delhi will be available on the venue.
Ram Rahman
Madangopal Singh
M.K.Raina
Sohail Hashmi
|
December 29, 2007
December 27, 2007
Communal Mayhem in Orissa: News and Editorials
ORISSA'S COMMUNAL FLARE UP
by Sampad Mahapatra
NDTV, December 27, 2007 (Kandhmal)
o o o
Indian Express
December 27, 2007 at 0000 hrs
Editorial
REMEMBER STAINES
ATTACKS ON CHURCHES, PRIESTS FRAME A CULTURE OF IMPUNITY IN WHICH HATE CRIMES ARE ALLOWED TO OCCUR
The Indian Express
: On Tuesday, this paper reported the case of Brother Ramesh, a Catholic priest from Tamil Nadu working in Gujarat. Brother Ramesh was attacked a few days earlier in Kwant, a tribal town in Vadodara, by “activists” who alleged that he was involved in “conversions”; four fingers of his right hand have had to be amputated since. Strangely, though, the police has registered an FIR against the victim, while the assailants are still absconding. Brother Ramesh’s predicament appears to point to the vicious circle of impunity within which attacks on minority communities, including Christians, continue to take place in parts of our country. The attack on churches and large-scale violence between Hindu and Christian groups that has followed in the wake of a reported attack on a VHP leader who leads the anti-conversion movement in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, must be seen in the same grim context.
Both Gujarat and Orissa have a recent history of violence against Christian missionaries by groups that subscribe to an ideology of militant Hindutva. On the night of January 22, 1999, in Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his minor sons were burnt alive by a mob as they slept in their station wagon. That case had rightly sparked country-wide outrage. At roughly the same time, a 10-day spate of violence against Christians in the Dangs district of Gujarat had also stirred the nation’s conscience. Both events have been seared into collective memory and this, in itself, should have ensured that such hate crimes did not recur.
Yet the latest episodes of violence in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat and Naveen Patnaik’s Orissa frame a continuing failure of both civil society and the state. In a diverse and plural polity like India, both must be vigilant against forces of intolerance. The onus is especially on the government. The message must be sent out that violence will not be tolerated and that all its perpetrators will be brought to book. Only when justice is done and is seen to be done will goons and criminals acting in the name of their faith be dissuaded.
editor@expressindia.com
o o o
The Tribune
27 December 2007
Editorial
ATTACK ON CHURCHES
Attempt to terrorise a whole community
WHILE the people the world over were celebrating Christmas on December 25, the Christians in Orissa’s Kandhamal district were at the receiving end with alleged activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad destroying church after church. In the mindless violence unleashed on the community, one person was killed and several were injured. The attack was ostensibly to retaliate against the alleged manhandling of a VHP leader. That the VHP chose to convert some Christians to Hinduism on that day bears out that the whole purpose was to foment trouble. Orissa is one state where the so-called Freedom of Religion law is in force which makes it obligatory for the organisers of such conversion ceremonies to follow certain procedures. That the VHP has been paying scant regard for such a law on the specious plea that what it organises is not conversion but “home-coming”.
Despite all the potential for mischief, the district authorities failed to take any preemptive action. What’s more, they could not even protect the house of a minister from the communally surcharged lot. It is not the first time that Orissa has witnessed religious tension. The burning of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons was preceded by several incidents of attack on the minorities in the name of protest against cow slaughter and religious conversion. It is the kid-glove treatment those behind such violent campaigns received that emboldened them to burn the missionary who was tending to the leprosy patients in one of the most backward areas of Orissa. There are feudal and pseudo-political forces that do not want the poor to get educated and know their legal and democratic rights for fear it would upset the caste-based social system.
The Orissa government is duty-bound to take stringent action against all those who desecrated the churches. It should also go after those who “attacked” the VHP leader and bring them to book. No excuse is good enough to terrorise a whole community. In fact, any leniency shown will be construed as a failure of the state to protect not just the life and property of the people but also their right to preach and practise their religious beliefs. What the Orissa government does in Kandhamal district will show how committed it is to uphold the rule of law and the religious rights of the people.
by Sampad Mahapatra
NDTV, December 27, 2007 (Kandhmal)
o o o
Indian Express
December 27, 2007 at 0000 hrs
Editorial
REMEMBER STAINES
ATTACKS ON CHURCHES, PRIESTS FRAME A CULTURE OF IMPUNITY IN WHICH HATE CRIMES ARE ALLOWED TO OCCUR
The Indian Express
: On Tuesday, this paper reported the case of Brother Ramesh, a Catholic priest from Tamil Nadu working in Gujarat. Brother Ramesh was attacked a few days earlier in Kwant, a tribal town in Vadodara, by “activists” who alleged that he was involved in “conversions”; four fingers of his right hand have had to be amputated since. Strangely, though, the police has registered an FIR against the victim, while the assailants are still absconding. Brother Ramesh’s predicament appears to point to the vicious circle of impunity within which attacks on minority communities, including Christians, continue to take place in parts of our country. The attack on churches and large-scale violence between Hindu and Christian groups that has followed in the wake of a reported attack on a VHP leader who leads the anti-conversion movement in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, must be seen in the same grim context.
Both Gujarat and Orissa have a recent history of violence against Christian missionaries by groups that subscribe to an ideology of militant Hindutva. On the night of January 22, 1999, in Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his minor sons were burnt alive by a mob as they slept in their station wagon. That case had rightly sparked country-wide outrage. At roughly the same time, a 10-day spate of violence against Christians in the Dangs district of Gujarat had also stirred the nation’s conscience. Both events have been seared into collective memory and this, in itself, should have ensured that such hate crimes did not recur.
Yet the latest episodes of violence in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat and Naveen Patnaik’s Orissa frame a continuing failure of both civil society and the state. In a diverse and plural polity like India, both must be vigilant against forces of intolerance. The onus is especially on the government. The message must be sent out that violence will not be tolerated and that all its perpetrators will be brought to book. Only when justice is done and is seen to be done will goons and criminals acting in the name of their faith be dissuaded.
editor@expressindia.com
o o o
The Tribune
27 December 2007
Editorial
ATTACK ON CHURCHES
Attempt to terrorise a whole community
WHILE the people the world over were celebrating Christmas on December 25, the Christians in Orissa’s Kandhamal district were at the receiving end with alleged activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad destroying church after church. In the mindless violence unleashed on the community, one person was killed and several were injured. The attack was ostensibly to retaliate against the alleged manhandling of a VHP leader. That the VHP chose to convert some Christians to Hinduism on that day bears out that the whole purpose was to foment trouble. Orissa is one state where the so-called Freedom of Religion law is in force which makes it obligatory for the organisers of such conversion ceremonies to follow certain procedures. That the VHP has been paying scant regard for such a law on the specious plea that what it organises is not conversion but “home-coming”.
Despite all the potential for mischief, the district authorities failed to take any preemptive action. What’s more, they could not even protect the house of a minister from the communally surcharged lot. It is not the first time that Orissa has witnessed religious tension. The burning of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons was preceded by several incidents of attack on the minorities in the name of protest against cow slaughter and religious conversion. It is the kid-glove treatment those behind such violent campaigns received that emboldened them to burn the missionary who was tending to the leprosy patients in one of the most backward areas of Orissa. There are feudal and pseudo-political forces that do not want the poor to get educated and know their legal and democratic rights for fear it would upset the caste-based social system.
The Orissa government is duty-bound to take stringent action against all those who desecrated the churches. It should also go after those who “attacked” the VHP leader and bring them to book. No excuse is good enough to terrorise a whole community. In fact, any leniency shown will be construed as a failure of the state to protect not just the life and property of the people but also their right to preach and practise their religious beliefs. What the Orissa government does in Kandhamal district will show how committed it is to uphold the rule of law and the religious rights of the people.
Shiv Sena Attacks MF Husain exhibit in Delhi
SENA ACTIVISTS ATTACK HUSAIN EXHIBITION; VANDALISE PAINTINGS
New Delhi (PTI): Shiv Sena activists on Thursday attacked an exhibition of paintings by acclaimed painter M F Husain in the capital, damaging two of his works on display.
The activists managed to enter the 'Art Gallery' at the famous India International Centre here, despite a heavy police presence at the venue and prior information of Shiv Sainiks planning to attack the exhibition.
Two Sainiks entered the hall in the guise of visitors to watch the 'India in the Era of Mughals' exhibition at around 4 p.m. They shouted slogans against the artist and damaged the frames of two paintings.
One of the damaged paintings depicted Emperor Akbar and was priced at Rs 1.5 lakhs. The second painting suffered minor damage as police overpowered them when they tried to damage it.
The activists shouted slogans like 'Balasaheb (Bal Thackeray) Zindabad', 'Shiv Sena Zindabad' and 'M F Husain Murdabad' besides distributing pamphlets, which threatened to disrupt any exhibition of Husain in the country. They were later taken to the police station.
However, IIC officials said they will not close the exhibition. "If police wants us to close down the exhibition, we will do. But they have to give it in writing," they said.
The attack on the 12-day exhibition comes a day before its closure on Friday.
The exhibition ran into rough weather last week with the organisers deciding to suspend the display for a day last Saturday after curator Dolly Narang and the IIC receiving threat calls from Bajrang Dal.
Narang as well as the Centre received threat calls, SMSes and letters on December 20 and on wednesday from Delhi, Mumbai and Pune asking that the exhibition be closed.
Four men claiming to be Bajrang Dal activists barged into the room of IIC Secretary Venugopal and allegedly threatened him with dire consequences if they continued with the exhibition.
However, they defied the threat calls and decided to go ahead with the exhibition later.
The exhibition, the first major exhibition of Husain's works in Delhi after a gap of about 20 years, have 20 graphical prints of the paintings which are permanently put up at Fida Museum in London. These works are a tribute to the history of Indian cinema.
The 92-year-old artist, described by Forbes Magazine as the 'Pablo Picasso of India', is currently in self-exile in Dubai after a series of protests against him for his depiction of Hindu Goddesses.
New Delhi (PTI): Shiv Sena activists on Thursday attacked an exhibition of paintings by acclaimed painter M F Husain in the capital, damaging two of his works on display.
The activists managed to enter the 'Art Gallery' at the famous India International Centre here, despite a heavy police presence at the venue and prior information of Shiv Sainiks planning to attack the exhibition.
Two Sainiks entered the hall in the guise of visitors to watch the 'India in the Era of Mughals' exhibition at around 4 p.m. They shouted slogans against the artist and damaged the frames of two paintings.
One of the damaged paintings depicted Emperor Akbar and was priced at Rs 1.5 lakhs. The second painting suffered minor damage as police overpowered them when they tried to damage it.
The activists shouted slogans like 'Balasaheb (Bal Thackeray) Zindabad', 'Shiv Sena Zindabad' and 'M F Husain Murdabad' besides distributing pamphlets, which threatened to disrupt any exhibition of Husain in the country. They were later taken to the police station.
However, IIC officials said they will not close the exhibition. "If police wants us to close down the exhibition, we will do. But they have to give it in writing," they said.
The attack on the 12-day exhibition comes a day before its closure on Friday.
The exhibition ran into rough weather last week with the organisers deciding to suspend the display for a day last Saturday after curator Dolly Narang and the IIC receiving threat calls from Bajrang Dal.
Narang as well as the Centre received threat calls, SMSes and letters on December 20 and on wednesday from Delhi, Mumbai and Pune asking that the exhibition be closed.
Four men claiming to be Bajrang Dal activists barged into the room of IIC Secretary Venugopal and allegedly threatened him with dire consequences if they continued with the exhibition.
However, they defied the threat calls and decided to go ahead with the exhibition later.
The exhibition, the first major exhibition of Husain's works in Delhi after a gap of about 20 years, have 20 graphical prints of the paintings which are permanently put up at Fida Museum in London. These works are a tribute to the history of Indian cinema.
The 92-year-old artist, described by Forbes Magazine as the 'Pablo Picasso of India', is currently in self-exile in Dubai after a series of protests against him for his depiction of Hindu Goddesses.
Church leaders urge Prime Minister to ensure safety of Christians in Orissa
PRESS STATEMENT:
Church leaders urge Prime Minister to ensure safety of Christians in Orissa
Over 30 churches, Institutions destroyed in Christmas violence, many injured as Hindutva extremists go on the rampage, fire on people in
tribal belt
[The following is the text of the memorandum submitted by Dr John Dayal, Member: National Integration Council, Government of India, on behalf of the All India Catholic Union (Founded 1919), the All India Christian Council (Founded 1999), and the President: United Christian Action, Delhi (Founded 1992). Dr Dayal was member of the Church delegation, together with Archbishop Vincent Concessao, Dr Richard Howell, and Dr Dominick Emmanuel, which was meeting Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the Orissa issue.]
Christmas 2007, 25-26 December 26, 2007
Dr Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
New Delhi
Re: Appeal for immediate action to prevent massacre of Christians in
the Tribal Phulbani region of Orissa, and desecration of Churches in the state. There must be no repeat of Gujarat’s Dangs area violence on Christmas 1998.
Dear Prime Minister
I bring to you and your government Greetings of Christmas from the All India Catholic Union, representing the 1.6 crore [16 million] Catholic laity in the country, and the All India Christian Council, whose membership includes 3,000 Independent churches, Human rights organisations and Insitutions.
It is, however, with a heavy heart that I also bring to you our collective apprehensions and fear that the current atrocities against Christians in the tribal area of Phoolbani in the State of Orissa is fast exploding into the type of violence we saw in the Dangs district of Gujarat during Christmas 1998. The official apathy, the police indifference and the freedom allowed to marauding bands of Hindutva fanatics and armed thugs in Gujarat has been repeated in Orissa in what is a planned conspiracy against the Church and our faith.
Spokesman of communal groups are coming on television and in the Print media to announce they will not tolerate the presence of Christians in the trial areas of Orissa. The threat of continuing and escalating violence, the targeting of Church leaders and the concerted attack on institution prove that the conspiracy has been planned over a period of time, with meticulous mobilisation. This would not have been possible without the complicity of the official machinery, and the backing of powerful political groups.
Unless immediate and urgent action is taken, we fear that the situation in Orissa will deteriorate and will lead to much suffering for our people, as also for the common men, women and children of the tribal areas, the poorest of the poor.
The main aggression is from the Kui Janakalyan Samiti. This organization had declared bandh on 25th and 26th December 2007 in order to press for their demands. But Christians feel that it was only ploy used against Christians in order to:
a) Disturb their Christmas celebration, the important feast of Christians; it is even a National holiday.
b) Instead of conducting bandh they have unleashed a reign of terror, destroying institutions, intimidating Christians and forcing them to go out of their homes.
c) Their entire attention is on driving away Christians from the region.
We narrate for you, in brief, the course of events and the volume of violence:
INSTITUTIONS ATTACKED SO FAR
PARISH CHURCH VILLAGE CHURCHES
Balliguda
Bodagan-Balliguda
Balliguda town
Kamapada – Balliuda
Pobingia
Mandipanka- Godapur
Baminigam
Jhinjirguda- Bamunigam
Ulipadaro – Bamunigam
Goborkutty-Kattingia
Kulpakia- Nuagam
3 more village church
CONVENTS PRESBYTERY
Balliguda Balliguda
Pobingia Pobingia
Phulbani Bamunigam
Bamunigam
HOSTELS
Pobingia 2
Balliguda 2
Bamunigam 2
Minor Seminary (Balliguda)
Vocational Training Centre (Balliguda)
In addition, offices such as those of World Vision have also been destroyed.
The course of violence so far is:
24/12/07: Trouble began at Bamunigaon village when a Christmas pandal was attacked with guns, injuring three persons. On 25th December, church building at Bamunigaon has been attacked and damaged.
The Catholic Church at Baliguda a sub-divisional headquarters town, was suddenly attacked by mob and vandalised, ransacked and damaged very badly. The Computer Institute was attacked and completely destroyed. Ambulance Van set on fire.
25/12/07: CNI Church attacked and damaged at Baliguda...
World Vision ADP Office at Daringbadi was attacked and vandalised. Two Jeep and motor bikes set on fire.
Police Station at Tikabali a Block headquarters was surrounded by the mob and two police jeeps set on fire.
Two churches in Chakapadu area were attacked while church service was going on and people chased out and beaten up. Meals prepared for Christmas feast was trampled.
No church service was allowed to conduct in Phulbani the District headquarters of Kondhmal district, despite the presence of District Collector and Superintendent of Police. The district administration said they could go ahead to conduct church service at their own risk.
Chandballi Baptist Church in Balasore district was attacked while Christmas Service was going on and people were chased out and beaten up.
Towards evening heavy fighting between Christians and Hindu fundamentalist group erupted in Barakhama area, near Baliguda town.
Our efforts to get the government of Orissa to expeditiously contain the violence, arrest the culprits and restore the confidence of the poor tribal and Dalit Christian community in the have met with a phlegmatic bureaucratic response.
While the Christian leadership has been appealing for peace and harmony, aggressive religious fundamentalist elements or local ashrams and political organisations have a run of field, and are openly threatening the Church.
We appeal to the Central government to impress on the Government of Orissa t ensures that there is ample police protection given to the Christian community, its personnel, and insitutions in the state.
God Bless you
And God Bless India
Dr. John Dayal
Church leaders urge Prime Minister to ensure safety of Christians in Orissa
Over 30 churches, Institutions destroyed in Christmas violence, many injured as Hindutva extremists go on the rampage, fire on people in
tribal belt
[The following is the text of the memorandum submitted by Dr John Dayal, Member: National Integration Council, Government of India, on behalf of the All India Catholic Union (Founded 1919), the All India Christian Council (Founded 1999), and the President: United Christian Action, Delhi (Founded 1992). Dr Dayal was member of the Church delegation, together with Archbishop Vincent Concessao, Dr Richard Howell, and Dr Dominick Emmanuel, which was meeting Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the Orissa issue.]
Christmas 2007, 25-26 December 26, 2007
Dr Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
New Delhi
Re: Appeal for immediate action to prevent massacre of Christians in
the Tribal Phulbani region of Orissa, and desecration of Churches in the state. There must be no repeat of Gujarat’s Dangs area violence on Christmas 1998.
Dear Prime Minister
I bring to you and your government Greetings of Christmas from the All India Catholic Union, representing the 1.6 crore [16 million] Catholic laity in the country, and the All India Christian Council, whose membership includes 3,000 Independent churches, Human rights organisations and Insitutions.
It is, however, with a heavy heart that I also bring to you our collective apprehensions and fear that the current atrocities against Christians in the tribal area of Phoolbani in the State of Orissa is fast exploding into the type of violence we saw in the Dangs district of Gujarat during Christmas 1998. The official apathy, the police indifference and the freedom allowed to marauding bands of Hindutva fanatics and armed thugs in Gujarat has been repeated in Orissa in what is a planned conspiracy against the Church and our faith.
Spokesman of communal groups are coming on television and in the Print media to announce they will not tolerate the presence of Christians in the trial areas of Orissa. The threat of continuing and escalating violence, the targeting of Church leaders and the concerted attack on institution prove that the conspiracy has been planned over a period of time, with meticulous mobilisation. This would not have been possible without the complicity of the official machinery, and the backing of powerful political groups.
Unless immediate and urgent action is taken, we fear that the situation in Orissa will deteriorate and will lead to much suffering for our people, as also for the common men, women and children of the tribal areas, the poorest of the poor.
The main aggression is from the Kui Janakalyan Samiti. This organization had declared bandh on 25th and 26th December 2007 in order to press for their demands. But Christians feel that it was only ploy used against Christians in order to:
a) Disturb their Christmas celebration, the important feast of Christians; it is even a National holiday.
b) Instead of conducting bandh they have unleashed a reign of terror, destroying institutions, intimidating Christians and forcing them to go out of their homes.
c) Their entire attention is on driving away Christians from the region.
We narrate for you, in brief, the course of events and the volume of violence:
INSTITUTIONS ATTACKED SO FAR
PARISH CHURCH VILLAGE CHURCHES
Balliguda
Bodagan-Balliguda
Balliguda town
Kamapada – Balliuda
Pobingia
Mandipanka- Godapur
Baminigam
Jhinjirguda- Bamunigam
Ulipadaro – Bamunigam
Goborkutty-Kattingia
Kulpakia- Nuagam
3 more village church
CONVENTS PRESBYTERY
Balliguda Balliguda
Pobingia Pobingia
Phulbani Bamunigam
Bamunigam
HOSTELS
Pobingia 2
Balliguda 2
Bamunigam 2
Minor Seminary (Balliguda)
Vocational Training Centre (Balliguda)
In addition, offices such as those of World Vision have also been destroyed.
The course of violence so far is:
24/12/07: Trouble began at Bamunigaon village when a Christmas pandal was attacked with guns, injuring three persons. On 25th December, church building at Bamunigaon has been attacked and damaged.
The Catholic Church at Baliguda a sub-divisional headquarters town, was suddenly attacked by mob and vandalised, ransacked and damaged very badly. The Computer Institute was attacked and completely destroyed. Ambulance Van set on fire.
25/12/07: CNI Church attacked and damaged at Baliguda...
World Vision ADP Office at Daringbadi was attacked and vandalised. Two Jeep and motor bikes set on fire.
Police Station at Tikabali a Block headquarters was surrounded by the mob and two police jeeps set on fire.
Two churches in Chakapadu area were attacked while church service was going on and people chased out and beaten up. Meals prepared for Christmas feast was trampled.
No church service was allowed to conduct in Phulbani the District headquarters of Kondhmal district, despite the presence of District Collector and Superintendent of Police. The district administration said they could go ahead to conduct church service at their own risk.
Chandballi Baptist Church in Balasore district was attacked while Christmas Service was going on and people were chased out and beaten up.
Towards evening heavy fighting between Christians and Hindu fundamentalist group erupted in Barakhama area, near Baliguda town.
Our efforts to get the government of Orissa to expeditiously contain the violence, arrest the culprits and restore the confidence of the poor tribal and Dalit Christian community in the have met with a phlegmatic bureaucratic response.
While the Christian leadership has been appealing for peace and harmony, aggressive religious fundamentalist elements or local ashrams and political organisations have a run of field, and are openly threatening the Church.
We appeal to the Central government to impress on the Government of Orissa t ensures that there is ample police protection given to the Christian community, its personnel, and insitutions in the state.
God Bless you
And God Bless India
Dr. John Dayal
December 24, 2007
Taslima Nasrin: A Personal Account
THE VANISHING
by Taslima Nasreen
(Publication Source: www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/12/22/vanishing /)
Where am I? I am certain no one will believe me if I say I have no answer to this apparently straightforward question. They may believe what they wish, but the truth is I just do not know. I don't even know how I am. Sometimes I even appear to forget my own existence. I am like the living dead: benumbed; robbed of the pleasure of existence and experience; unable to move beyond the claustrophobic confines of my room. Day and night, night and day. Death becomes an intimate. We embrace. Yes, this is how I have been surviving.
This did not begin the other day when I was bundled out of Kolkata. This has been going on for a while. It is like a slow and lingering death, like sipping delicately from a cupful of slow-acting poison that is gradually killing all my faculties. This is a conspiracy to murder my essence, my being, once so courageous, so brave, so dynamic, so playful. I realize what is going on around me but am utterly helpless, despite my best efforts, to wage a battle on my own behalf. I am merely a disembodied voice. Those who once stood by me have disappeared into the darkness.
I ask myself: what heinous crime have I committed? Why am I here, in this singularly unenviable position? What sort of life is this where I can neither cross my own threshold nor know the joys of human company. What crime have I committed that I have to spend my life hidden away, relegated to the shadows? For what crimes am I being punished by this society, this land, this world? I wrote of my beliefs and my convictions. I used words, not violence, to express my ideas. I did not take recourse to pelting stones or bloodshed to make my point. Yet, I am considered a criminal. I am being persecuted because it was felt that the right of others to express their opinions was more legitimate than mine. To disobey the powers that be is to court public crucifixion. Yes, I am a victim of this new crucifixion: is the nation not a witness to my suffering? Does the nation not witness my immense suffering, the death of my hopes, aspirations, and desires?
Does the nation not realize how immense the suffering must be for an individual to renounce her most deeply held beliefs? How humiliated, frightened, and insecure I must have been to allow my words to be censored. Only the expurgation of what they considered offensive satisfied them. If I had not agreed to their grotesque bowdlerization, I would have been hounded and pursued till I dropped dead. Their politics, their faith, their barbarism, and their diabolical purposes are all intent on sucking the lifeblood out of me. They will continue till they have bled me dry, expurgated these words, and removed these truths which are so difficult for them to stomach. Words are harmless, truth defenceless and devoid of arms. Truth has always been vanquished by the force of might. How can I - a powerless and unprotected individual - battle brute force? Come what may, though, I cannot take recourse to untruth.
What have I to offer but love and compassion? I have never wished ill of anybody. Call me romantic but I dream of a world of harmonious coexistence free from the shackles of hatred and strife. In the way that they used hatred to rip out my words, I would like to use compassion and love to rip the hatred out of them. Certainly, I am enough of a realist to acknowledge that strife, hatred, cruelty, and barbarism are integral elements of the human condition. This will not change; such is the way of the world. I am an utterly insignificant creature: how can I change all this? Even if I were to be eradicated or exterminated it would not matter one whit to the world at large. I know all this. Yet, I had imagined Bengal would be different. I had thought the madness of her people was temporary. I had thought that the Bengal I loved so passionately would never forsake me.
She did.
Exiled from Bangladesh, I wandered around the world for many years like a lost orphan. The moment I was given shelter in West Bengal it felt as though all those years of numbing tiredness just melted away. I was able to resume a normal life in a beloved and familiar land. So long as I survive, I will carry within me the vistas of Bengal, her sunshine, her wet earth, her very essence. The same Bengal whose sanctuary I once walked a million blood-soaked miles to reach has now turned its back upon me. I find it hard to believe that I am no longer wanted in Bengal. I am a Bengali within and without; I live, breathe, and dream in Bengali but, bizarrely, Bengal offers me no refuge
I am a guest in this land, I must be careful of what I say. I must do nothing which violates the code of hospitality. I did not come here to hurt anyone's sentiments or feelings. Arguably, I came here to be hurt. Wounded and hurt in my own country, I suffered slights and injuries in many lands before I reached India, where I knew I would be hurt yet again.
This is, after all, a democratic and secular land where the politics of the vote bank implies that being secular is equated with being pro-Muslim fundamentalists. I do not wish to believe all this. I do not wish to hear all this. Yet, all around me I read, hear, and see evidence of this. I sometimes wish I could be like those mythical monkeys, oblivious of all that is going on around me. Death who visits me in many forms now feels like a friend. I feel like talking to him, unburdening myself to him. You must realize I have no one to speak to, no one to unburden myself to.
I have lost my beloved Bengal. The Bengal I cherished, whose land, smells and sounds, hose very air was a part of me, is gone. I had to leave Bengal. No child torn from its other's breast could have suffered as much as I did during that painful parting. Once gain, I have lost the mother from whose womb I was born. The pain is no less than the ay I lost my biological mother. My mother had always wanted me to return home. That was something I could not do. After settling down in Kolkata, I was able to tell my mother, ho by then was a memory within me, that I had indeed returned home. How did it matter which side of an artificial divide I was on? I do not have the courage to tell my mother that my life now is that of a nomad. How can I tell her that those who had given me shelter saw it fit to expel me so unceremoniously? My sensitive mother would be shattered if I were to tell her all this. I choose not to tell her, not even when I am lonely and alone. Instead, I have now taken to convincing myself that I must have transgressed somewhere, committed some grievous error. Why else would I be in such an unenviable situation? Is daring to utter the truth a terrible sin in this era of falsehood and deceit? Don't others tell the truth? Surely they do not have to undergo such tribulations? Why do I have to undergo such suffering? Is it because I am a woman? What can be easier than assailing a woman?
I know I have not been condemned by the masses. If their opinion had been sought, I am certain the majority would have wanted me to stay on in Bengal. But when has a democracy reflected the voice of the masses? A democracy is run by those who hold the reins of power who do exactly what they think fit. An insignificant individual, I must now live life on my own terms and write about what I believe in and hold dear. It is not my desire to harm, malign, or deceive. I do not lie. I try not to be offensive. I am but a simple writer who neither knows nor understands the dynamics of politics. The way in which I was turned into a political pawn, however, and treated at the hands of base politicians, beggars belief. For what end you may well ask. A few measly votes. It is I who have suffered; I am the only victim of this great tragedy. The force of fundamentalism, which I have opposed and fought for very many years, has only been strengthened by my tragic defeat.
This is my beloved India, where I have been living and writing on secular humanism, human rights, and emancipation of women. This is also the land where I have had to suffer and pay the price for my most deeply held and fundamental convictions, where not a single political party of any persuasion has spoken out in my favour, where no non-governmental organization, women's rights' or human rights' group, has stood by me or condemned the vicious attacks launched upon me. This India is not known to me . Yes, it s true that individuals in a scattered, unorganized manner are fighting for my cause and journalists, writers, and intellectuals have spoken out in my favour. I do not know whether hey are familiar with my work or not, indeed if they have even read a single word I have penned. Yet, I am grateful for their opinions and support.
Wherever individuals gather in groups, they seem to lose their power to speak out. Frankly, this facet of the new India terrifies me. Then again, is this a new India, or even a facet of a new India; or is it the true face of the nation? I do not know. Since my earliest childhood I have regarded India as a great land and a fearless nation. The land of my dreams: enlightened, strong, progressive, and tolerant. I wish to live to be proud of that India. I will die a happy person the day I know India has forsaken darkness for light, bigotry for tolerance. I await that day. I do not know whether I will survive, but India and what she stands for has to survive, must be allowed to survive.
18 December Delhi
by Taslima Nasreen
(Publication Source: www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/12/22/vanishing /)
Where am I? I am certain no one will believe me if I say I have no answer to this apparently straightforward question. They may believe what they wish, but the truth is I just do not know. I don't even know how I am. Sometimes I even appear to forget my own existence. I am like the living dead: benumbed; robbed of the pleasure of existence and experience; unable to move beyond the claustrophobic confines of my room. Day and night, night and day. Death becomes an intimate. We embrace. Yes, this is how I have been surviving.
This did not begin the other day when I was bundled out of Kolkata. This has been going on for a while. It is like a slow and lingering death, like sipping delicately from a cupful of slow-acting poison that is gradually killing all my faculties. This is a conspiracy to murder my essence, my being, once so courageous, so brave, so dynamic, so playful. I realize what is going on around me but am utterly helpless, despite my best efforts, to wage a battle on my own behalf. I am merely a disembodied voice. Those who once stood by me have disappeared into the darkness.
I ask myself: what heinous crime have I committed? Why am I here, in this singularly unenviable position? What sort of life is this where I can neither cross my own threshold nor know the joys of human company. What crime have I committed that I have to spend my life hidden away, relegated to the shadows? For what crimes am I being punished by this society, this land, this world? I wrote of my beliefs and my convictions. I used words, not violence, to express my ideas. I did not take recourse to pelting stones or bloodshed to make my point. Yet, I am considered a criminal. I am being persecuted because it was felt that the right of others to express their opinions was more legitimate than mine. To disobey the powers that be is to court public crucifixion. Yes, I am a victim of this new crucifixion: is the nation not a witness to my suffering? Does the nation not witness my immense suffering, the death of my hopes, aspirations, and desires?
Does the nation not realize how immense the suffering must be for an individual to renounce her most deeply held beliefs? How humiliated, frightened, and insecure I must have been to allow my words to be censored. Only the expurgation of what they considered offensive satisfied them. If I had not agreed to their grotesque bowdlerization, I would have been hounded and pursued till I dropped dead. Their politics, their faith, their barbarism, and their diabolical purposes are all intent on sucking the lifeblood out of me. They will continue till they have bled me dry, expurgated these words, and removed these truths which are so difficult for them to stomach. Words are harmless, truth defenceless and devoid of arms. Truth has always been vanquished by the force of might. How can I - a powerless and unprotected individual - battle brute force? Come what may, though, I cannot take recourse to untruth.
What have I to offer but love and compassion? I have never wished ill of anybody. Call me romantic but I dream of a world of harmonious coexistence free from the shackles of hatred and strife. In the way that they used hatred to rip out my words, I would like to use compassion and love to rip the hatred out of them. Certainly, I am enough of a realist to acknowledge that strife, hatred, cruelty, and barbarism are integral elements of the human condition. This will not change; such is the way of the world. I am an utterly insignificant creature: how can I change all this? Even if I were to be eradicated or exterminated it would not matter one whit to the world at large. I know all this. Yet, I had imagined Bengal would be different. I had thought the madness of her people was temporary. I had thought that the Bengal I loved so passionately would never forsake me.
She did.
Exiled from Bangladesh, I wandered around the world for many years like a lost orphan. The moment I was given shelter in West Bengal it felt as though all those years of numbing tiredness just melted away. I was able to resume a normal life in a beloved and familiar land. So long as I survive, I will carry within me the vistas of Bengal, her sunshine, her wet earth, her very essence. The same Bengal whose sanctuary I once walked a million blood-soaked miles to reach has now turned its back upon me. I find it hard to believe that I am no longer wanted in Bengal. I am a Bengali within and without; I live, breathe, and dream in Bengali but, bizarrely, Bengal offers me no refuge
I am a guest in this land, I must be careful of what I say. I must do nothing which violates the code of hospitality. I did not come here to hurt anyone's sentiments or feelings. Arguably, I came here to be hurt. Wounded and hurt in my own country, I suffered slights and injuries in many lands before I reached India, where I knew I would be hurt yet again.
This is, after all, a democratic and secular land where the politics of the vote bank implies that being secular is equated with being pro-Muslim fundamentalists. I do not wish to believe all this. I do not wish to hear all this. Yet, all around me I read, hear, and see evidence of this. I sometimes wish I could be like those mythical monkeys, oblivious of all that is going on around me. Death who visits me in many forms now feels like a friend. I feel like talking to him, unburdening myself to him. You must realize I have no one to speak to, no one to unburden myself to.
I have lost my beloved Bengal. The Bengal I cherished, whose land, smells and sounds, hose very air was a part of me, is gone. I had to leave Bengal. No child torn from its other's breast could have suffered as much as I did during that painful parting. Once gain, I have lost the mother from whose womb I was born. The pain is no less than the ay I lost my biological mother. My mother had always wanted me to return home. That was something I could not do. After settling down in Kolkata, I was able to tell my mother, ho by then was a memory within me, that I had indeed returned home. How did it matter which side of an artificial divide I was on? I do not have the courage to tell my mother that my life now is that of a nomad. How can I tell her that those who had given me shelter saw it fit to expel me so unceremoniously? My sensitive mother would be shattered if I were to tell her all this. I choose not to tell her, not even when I am lonely and alone. Instead, I have now taken to convincing myself that I must have transgressed somewhere, committed some grievous error. Why else would I be in such an unenviable situation? Is daring to utter the truth a terrible sin in this era of falsehood and deceit? Don't others tell the truth? Surely they do not have to undergo such tribulations? Why do I have to undergo such suffering? Is it because I am a woman? What can be easier than assailing a woman?
I know I have not been condemned by the masses. If their opinion had been sought, I am certain the majority would have wanted me to stay on in Bengal. But when has a democracy reflected the voice of the masses? A democracy is run by those who hold the reins of power who do exactly what they think fit. An insignificant individual, I must now live life on my own terms and write about what I believe in and hold dear. It is not my desire to harm, malign, or deceive. I do not lie. I try not to be offensive. I am but a simple writer who neither knows nor understands the dynamics of politics. The way in which I was turned into a political pawn, however, and treated at the hands of base politicians, beggars belief. For what end you may well ask. A few measly votes. It is I who have suffered; I am the only victim of this great tragedy. The force of fundamentalism, which I have opposed and fought for very many years, has only been strengthened by my tragic defeat.
This is my beloved India, where I have been living and writing on secular humanism, human rights, and emancipation of women. This is also the land where I have had to suffer and pay the price for my most deeply held and fundamental convictions, where not a single political party of any persuasion has spoken out in my favour, where no non-governmental organization, women's rights' or human rights' group, has stood by me or condemned the vicious attacks launched upon me. This India is not known to me . Yes, it s true that individuals in a scattered, unorganized manner are fighting for my cause and journalists, writers, and intellectuals have spoken out in my favour. I do not know whether hey are familiar with my work or not, indeed if they have even read a single word I have penned. Yet, I am grateful for their opinions and support.
Wherever individuals gather in groups, they seem to lose their power to speak out. Frankly, this facet of the new India terrifies me. Then again, is this a new India, or even a facet of a new India; or is it the true face of the nation? I do not know. Since my earliest childhood I have regarded India as a great land and a fearless nation. The land of my dreams: enlightened, strong, progressive, and tolerant. I wish to live to be proud of that India. I will die a happy person the day I know India has forsaken darkness for light, bigotry for tolerance. I await that day. I do not know whether I will survive, but India and what she stands for has to survive, must be allowed to survive.
18 December Delhi
December 23, 2007
Modi's Victory: Portents for Indian Democracy
by Ram Puniyani
Surpassing many predictions, Modi did very well in the recently held assembly elections, (Dec. 2007) bringing his victory tally to the one close to post carnage elections of 2002. While 2002 elections were preceded by an unprecedented polarization of the society, in the current one it appeared as if there are many a factors which will go against Modi, the internal dissidents, the incumbency factor, the efforts of secular groups and slightly better efforts by Congress. This gave the impression that the results will be touch and go, but they turned out to be similar to the previous one giving him a massive mandate.
This makes many a things clear for us. One, the polarization has seeped in very deep in the Gujarat society. The observation is that after every communal-violence, the major player of the violence, in this case, RSS affiliate, BJP, becomes stronger. In this electiona also, as was the case in the last elections, BJPs performance has been best where the carnage was maximum. In other parts of the country the polarization is reaching towards the critical line from where the rupture in fabric of society becomes irreversible. It seems that it has already become so in Gujarat. Gujarat which began as a Hindu Rashtra laboratory seems to be turning in to a factory of Hindu rashtra. One of the major success of RSS combine has been that it has been able to propagate successfully that Hindu Rashra is for the benefit of all the Hindus, there is a struggle between Hindu and Muslim interests, RSS is on the side of Hindus, while others are against the interests of Hindus. The real fact is that in the name of Hinduism, RSS is merely playing with the identity of Hindus and enhancing an agenda which is against the social transformation of caste and gender, which is against the interests of majority of Hindus.
Further it has succeeded in instilling the fear of Muslims in the majority community. The formula used is that all terrorists are Muslims, baying for the blood of Hindus and RSS combine is their only savior. The propaganda is that while so many terror attacks are taking place all over the country, the Hindus in Gujarat are safe due to Modi/BJP/RSS. The fact is in during NDA regime and also during the rule of Modi major terror attacks have taken place including the attack on parliament and Akshardham. This, so called attitude towards terrorists is projected by RSS combine as Nationalism. Nationalism as such should mean sticking to the values of freedom movement and Indian constitution. The second illusion created is that of progress of Gujarat. As such Gujarat was already amongst the leading developing states. Now it is being presented that all this is due to Modi. Goebells is being beaten hollow in the techniques of innovating the propaganda techniques.
Sometimes what matters is not the truth but as to what is propagated and made a part of social psyche. One cannot but draw many analogies from Hitler who went on to create a fascist state, and in due course do away with the democracy. This also led to the disintegration of Germany and its terrible defeat the World War II, rupturing the German national fabric. There also, one saw the charisma of one person overshadowing the party. There also the polarization was brought in and sustained by targeting one after the other community or social group. In Gujarat one sees the targeting of Muslims followed by the Christians. What will follow next will unfold shortly? The only difference between the German and Gujarat analogy is that in Germany the nation came under the impact of the fascist boots at a rapid pace in most of the parts of the state, while here the trishuls are marching at different pace in different states. In Gujarat the RSS agenda seems to have come close to the peak, while in other states, the march is on and is in different stages of intimidation of democracy.
The journey of Hindutva fascism in Gujarat began with the anti dalit riots of 1980-81, followed by anti OBC riots of 1986. Both these crystallized the support base of Hindutva, the upper caste, affluent sections. The NRI Gujaratis, the money order senders, played no mean role in consolidating the native fascism. The alienated NRI Gujaratis fed the local divisive politics with dollars and pounds, aggravating the divisive politics. Conscious social engineering was deployed to co-opt Adivasis and dalits into the Hindutva fold from late 1980s. For co-opting Adiviais, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram campaigned against the miniscule Christian missionaries and attacked the tiny Christian community. For co-opting other deprived sections, including dalits, intense religiosity was promoted, Pandurnag Shstri, Asaram Bapu and Morari Bapu etc. ploughed the ground for BJP to reap the harvest. Section of urban people saw the benefits of the type of intimidation brought in by RSS affiliate politics. While Muslims and Christians were directly hit the major goal was to subdue the dalts and Adivasis, to ensure that they remain where they are, that the status quo is maintained.
With Ram temple movement, the polarization along religious lines went on deepening. The state sponsored genocide on the pretext of Godhra sealed the issue. The laboratory took clear shape, all necessary instruments in place. The experiment began. Carnage was conducted with RSS affiliates playing the coordinating role. No rehabilitation for the carnage victims, no justice for those who suffered violence and then their gradual marginalization from social sphere. The relegating of Muslims minority as second class citizens has become an established fact and a section of Muslims even started the campaign to reconcile to their changed status. A large section of Muslims saw that the only alternative for them is to be on the bent knees, to join in the victory celebration of the murderer-in-chief of the genocide, which led to their miseries. Yes life has to go on irrespective! Some sheep are beginning to cultivate the illusion that wolf is their savior.
The indirect fall out of this was the eventual ghettoization of the community in Gujarat and its fall out all over the country was in the form of widening gulf between religious communities. It set rolling the similar phenomenon all over the country. While electorally BJP sounds weak at all India level, the seeds of communal politics and polarization have been sown all over.
While comparing the BJP/RSS politics with fascism in the decades of 1990 one was hard pressed to explain the absence of a charismatic leader at the national level at that time. Classically fascist movement has to have a charismatic leader at the helm. While Advani was spearheading Hindutva agenda and Vajpayee was wearing the liberal mask very cleverly, none of them had the requisite charisma to send the crowd into frenzy to call for the extra judicial killing of a criminal. Modi has filled the gap and that too very effectively. Not only he is getting away with justifying the fake encounter, he is able to project it as a sign of bravery and courage. With observations of Gujarat poll, with the type of charisma, which Modi has cultivated, the analogy with Modi-Hitler, Hindutva-Fascism is more or less complete.
History does not repeat it self in the same manner. In Germany Fascism rode all over Germany with uniform speed, with speed which was blinding, and went on to target Jews to begin with. RSS, the patriarch of all Hindu right wing organizations, began in 1925; it is from 1980s that is has been able to actualize its political agenda in a serious way.
While Modi's victory will pave the way for total abolition of liberal space in Gujarat, the party, BJP, has already been overshadowed by one supreme leader. Those dissatisfied with him are shown the door. The plight of minorities and weaker section is going to be worse. A section of affluent middle class will shine while the majority deprived sections' voices will be put under the carpet in the name of Gauravi Gujarat, under the slogan of development. And of course development will never reach them.
At national level, the rising communal forces will derive encouragement from this and in other states like Karnataka; BJP will try with stronger assertion. The BJP ruled states will strongly implement the Hindutva agenda i.e. emotive, anti minority and anti poor policies in a more systematic way.
Modi's victory is a warning signal of transition of sub critical fascism, transcending the critical line to strangulate democratic values in an ideological form all over the country. The disarray in the BJP will give way to strong optimism, to strive for power at center. All this may take place sooner than later if the secular movements do not wake up and broaden their reach. Even today those standing for secular values are much more in number and strength than those who have came under the spell of divisive forces, communal forces. The point is can they come together to ensure that the country does go in the direction being asserted by Modi/BJP/RSS type politics? Need that the vision of founding fathers of India is brought back to the social and political arena, that pluralism, justice and harmony is made the central focus of our movement.
Surpassing many predictions, Modi did very well in the recently held assembly elections, (Dec. 2007) bringing his victory tally to the one close to post carnage elections of 2002. While 2002 elections were preceded by an unprecedented polarization of the society, in the current one it appeared as if there are many a factors which will go against Modi, the internal dissidents, the incumbency factor, the efforts of secular groups and slightly better efforts by Congress. This gave the impression that the results will be touch and go, but they turned out to be similar to the previous one giving him a massive mandate.
This makes many a things clear for us. One, the polarization has seeped in very deep in the Gujarat society. The observation is that after every communal-violence, the major player of the violence, in this case, RSS affiliate, BJP, becomes stronger. In this electiona also, as was the case in the last elections, BJPs performance has been best where the carnage was maximum. In other parts of the country the polarization is reaching towards the critical line from where the rupture in fabric of society becomes irreversible. It seems that it has already become so in Gujarat. Gujarat which began as a Hindu Rashtra laboratory seems to be turning in to a factory of Hindu rashtra. One of the major success of RSS combine has been that it has been able to propagate successfully that Hindu Rashra is for the benefit of all the Hindus, there is a struggle between Hindu and Muslim interests, RSS is on the side of Hindus, while others are against the interests of Hindus. The real fact is that in the name of Hinduism, RSS is merely playing with the identity of Hindus and enhancing an agenda which is against the social transformation of caste and gender, which is against the interests of majority of Hindus.
Further it has succeeded in instilling the fear of Muslims in the majority community. The formula used is that all terrorists are Muslims, baying for the blood of Hindus and RSS combine is their only savior. The propaganda is that while so many terror attacks are taking place all over the country, the Hindus in Gujarat are safe due to Modi/BJP/RSS. The fact is in during NDA regime and also during the rule of Modi major terror attacks have taken place including the attack on parliament and Akshardham. This, so called attitude towards terrorists is projected by RSS combine as Nationalism. Nationalism as such should mean sticking to the values of freedom movement and Indian constitution. The second illusion created is that of progress of Gujarat. As such Gujarat was already amongst the leading developing states. Now it is being presented that all this is due to Modi. Goebells is being beaten hollow in the techniques of innovating the propaganda techniques.
Sometimes what matters is not the truth but as to what is propagated and made a part of social psyche. One cannot but draw many analogies from Hitler who went on to create a fascist state, and in due course do away with the democracy. This also led to the disintegration of Germany and its terrible defeat the World War II, rupturing the German national fabric. There also, one saw the charisma of one person overshadowing the party. There also the polarization was brought in and sustained by targeting one after the other community or social group. In Gujarat one sees the targeting of Muslims followed by the Christians. What will follow next will unfold shortly? The only difference between the German and Gujarat analogy is that in Germany the nation came under the impact of the fascist boots at a rapid pace in most of the parts of the state, while here the trishuls are marching at different pace in different states. In Gujarat the RSS agenda seems to have come close to the peak, while in other states, the march is on and is in different stages of intimidation of democracy.
The journey of Hindutva fascism in Gujarat began with the anti dalit riots of 1980-81, followed by anti OBC riots of 1986. Both these crystallized the support base of Hindutva, the upper caste, affluent sections. The NRI Gujaratis, the money order senders, played no mean role in consolidating the native fascism. The alienated NRI Gujaratis fed the local divisive politics with dollars and pounds, aggravating the divisive politics. Conscious social engineering was deployed to co-opt Adivasis and dalits into the Hindutva fold from late 1980s. For co-opting Adiviais, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram campaigned against the miniscule Christian missionaries and attacked the tiny Christian community. For co-opting other deprived sections, including dalits, intense religiosity was promoted, Pandurnag Shstri, Asaram Bapu and Morari Bapu etc. ploughed the ground for BJP to reap the harvest. Section of urban people saw the benefits of the type of intimidation brought in by RSS affiliate politics. While Muslims and Christians were directly hit the major goal was to subdue the dalts and Adivasis, to ensure that they remain where they are, that the status quo is maintained.
With Ram temple movement, the polarization along religious lines went on deepening. The state sponsored genocide on the pretext of Godhra sealed the issue. The laboratory took clear shape, all necessary instruments in place. The experiment began. Carnage was conducted with RSS affiliates playing the coordinating role. No rehabilitation for the carnage victims, no justice for those who suffered violence and then their gradual marginalization from social sphere. The relegating of Muslims minority as second class citizens has become an established fact and a section of Muslims even started the campaign to reconcile to their changed status. A large section of Muslims saw that the only alternative for them is to be on the bent knees, to join in the victory celebration of the murderer-in-chief of the genocide, which led to their miseries. Yes life has to go on irrespective! Some sheep are beginning to cultivate the illusion that wolf is their savior.
The indirect fall out of this was the eventual ghettoization of the community in Gujarat and its fall out all over the country was in the form of widening gulf between religious communities. It set rolling the similar phenomenon all over the country. While electorally BJP sounds weak at all India level, the seeds of communal politics and polarization have been sown all over.
While comparing the BJP/RSS politics with fascism in the decades of 1990 one was hard pressed to explain the absence of a charismatic leader at the national level at that time. Classically fascist movement has to have a charismatic leader at the helm. While Advani was spearheading Hindutva agenda and Vajpayee was wearing the liberal mask very cleverly, none of them had the requisite charisma to send the crowd into frenzy to call for the extra judicial killing of a criminal. Modi has filled the gap and that too very effectively. Not only he is getting away with justifying the fake encounter, he is able to project it as a sign of bravery and courage. With observations of Gujarat poll, with the type of charisma, which Modi has cultivated, the analogy with Modi-Hitler, Hindutva-Fascism is more or less complete.
History does not repeat it self in the same manner. In Germany Fascism rode all over Germany with uniform speed, with speed which was blinding, and went on to target Jews to begin with. RSS, the patriarch of all Hindu right wing organizations, began in 1925; it is from 1980s that is has been able to actualize its political agenda in a serious way.
While Modi's victory will pave the way for total abolition of liberal space in Gujarat, the party, BJP, has already been overshadowed by one supreme leader. Those dissatisfied with him are shown the door. The plight of minorities and weaker section is going to be worse. A section of affluent middle class will shine while the majority deprived sections' voices will be put under the carpet in the name of Gauravi Gujarat, under the slogan of development. And of course development will never reach them.
At national level, the rising communal forces will derive encouragement from this and in other states like Karnataka; BJP will try with stronger assertion. The BJP ruled states will strongly implement the Hindutva agenda i.e. emotive, anti minority and anti poor policies in a more systematic way.
Modi's victory is a warning signal of transition of sub critical fascism, transcending the critical line to strangulate democratic values in an ideological form all over the country. The disarray in the BJP will give way to strong optimism, to strive for power at center. All this may take place sooner than later if the secular movements do not wake up and broaden their reach. Even today those standing for secular values are much more in number and strength than those who have came under the spell of divisive forces, communal forces. The point is can they come together to ensure that the country does go in the direction being asserted by Modi/BJP/RSS type politics? Need that the vision of founding fathers of India is brought back to the social and political arena, that pluralism, justice and harmony is made the central focus of our movement.
How To Elect A Fascism
Tehelka Magazine, Dec 29, 2007
Narendra Modi has married progress to Hindutva with a diabolical brilliance the Congress has offered few answers to. SANKARSHAN THAKUR reports
MR MEHTA told me a simple and quite stunning thing: To understand Gujarat, understand Gujaratis first, there is nothing that matters more to them than dhando and dharma, business and religion. Would it be in that order, Mr Mehta? Quite, he said, what dharma are you going to do on an empty stomach? But please understand this carefully because a lot of you don’t, Gujarat is what Gujaratis make it, not what people like you want it to be, don’t fit our image to the requirements of your frame.
It had begun with a casual remark on the flight from Delhi to Vadodara, but slowly turned into a long and blunt discourse on understanding Gujaratis. “So you are one of those people,” he had said, with no wish to veil his sardonic tone, “You will go to Gujarat and tell the world what a terrible place it is, what a terrible people Gujaratis are.”
But terrible things have happened in Gujarat.
And a great many good things too, why does everyone ignore that? We are the country’s most prosperous part, everybody is happy. Not everybody, there are lots of people who are terribly unhappy, they have suffered, they are denied justice, they live oppressed.
Oh, only a small part, and that happens everywhere, injustice is everywhere. And why do you only always talk about them? Muslims are only a small part of Gujarat. But they are part of Gujarat and they live like second-class citizens.
Then they are free to leave, this is a free country, go away. There are many others in Gujarat, why do you not talk about them? Most people are prosperous and happy, nobody talks of them, they are Gujaratis too, why is nothing said about how they are, what they think, how they want to run their lives, what they think is right? You cannot tell us what is right and wrong, we must judge what is right for us.
Killing thousands of people and denying them justice cannot be right.
Of course not, I am not supporting what happened in 2002. And I probably know more about what happened then than TEHELKA has reported and the likes of Teesta Setalvad scream about. But these things happen, they happen everywhere, not just in Gujarat, people react, political parties react and often the reaction is violent. It happened in your Delhi in 1984, nobody goes on and on about it. Why do people go on and on about 2002, as if that is the only thing that happened in Gujarat? Many other things have happened, nobody talks about them. Do you know we have not had a single riot since 2002? And do you know why? Because it was made clear to Muslims we will not put up with nonsense any more, they were taught a lesson and they remain reined in. Peace has been achieved.
And at what cost?
That is not important, what is important is that there have been no riots, what is important is that Gujaratis are prospering and are happy. Gujarat is not Muslims alone, Gujarat is many, many more people. Why does nobody talk about them? We are not man-eaters, but we are entitled to our likes and dislikes. It is important to learn what we think, what is right for us.
And what is right for you?
But don’t you know already?
You will know soon, and you will stay say it is wrong, that electing Narendra Modi is wrong. Can’t you see the fallacy of it all, telling the people they are wrong, telling Gujaratis they are wrong, they voted wrong, is that not anti-democratic?
Hitler was elected too, and we all know what he did. So are you telling me you agree with what the Jewish nation is doing in the Middle-East? I might agree with it, but do you?
That’s an entirely different context, history has moved.
This is a different context too, but people like you will not understand because you don’t want to, you will impose the will of a small minority on the majority. But why? Is that not wrong too? Don’t try to preach to Gujaratis what to do, which way to go, they know well enough, and they will let you know soon.
YOU DON’T ask in the cities and towns. It’s a waste of time, unless, of course, Modi worship is music to your ears. The most diehard Congressman, the most optimistic liberal will tell you that — pointless asking about in the cities and towns, barring a few pockets of Leuva Patel rebellion in Saurashtra, they are all quite Modified.
Urban Gujarat is a partitioned demography presided over by the smug Modi smile, architect extraordinaire of fractures. Everywhere you go, you see the neon-lit eruption of seething frontiers mined with malevolence: distilled prejudice and hatred, often bilious flashes of anger, always displays of distrust and suspicion, of vile and vicious myth — the first thing a Muslim child is taught is how to slaughter a cow, Hindus are bent and devious, that is why they produce the best spinners. Bigotry begets bigotry, there’s little to choose between one kind or the other. But divides have their uses, especially at election time. Modi has reason to wear that smug smile, on his face and on the millions of China-made masks his propaganda machine has blitzed the state with. He has the greater bigotry behind him in urban Gujarat, there’s no arguing with that.
In most other states, that could be cause for comfort to the adversary — how far can a party with an urban base go, after all? But in Gujarat, that Indian truism stands upended. Close to 60 per cent of Gujarat is urban or semi-urban today. Thirty cities with populations in excess of one lakh, thirty other towns that have more than 50,000 people. A city hasn’t ended when a town begins and where the town tapers off and you are announced into a village, you must often gape — metalled streets, concrete housing, water, electricity, satellite TV, drainage and, fairly routinely, an NRI-fed stretch of ultra well-being: ATMs, air-conditioning, food courts that offer a vegetarian carnival. “The last few years have been great,” says Sudarshan Vyas, “Strong leadership and good governance have given people like me a stake in coming back and investing. This is what we have always needed.” Vyas has come back from the United States to his oncehumble village near Anand in central Gujarat to vote Modi. “This place is a sea-change from what it used to be, I can be in Ahmedabad in less than an hour, the roads are so good, and there is constant electricity so I can provide my old parents all the worldly comforts they can have. What more do you want?” Pointless querying Vyas about Gujarat’s Muslims; he’d tell you much the same things as Mr Mehta: Modi has made Gujarat safe and profitable for us, who cares what happens to the rest?
“Urbanisation is happening at a brisk rate in Gujarat,” says social scientist Achyut Yagnik, “and Modi has cleverly married the logic of Hindutva to the interests of that notion of prosperity to the exclusion of all else, that is the bedrock of Modi’s support base.” In that sense, Modi’s appeal isn’t very dissimilar to the alchemy of nationalism and progress Nazism once sold. Many have come to believe that Modi’s hard and heavy-handed Hindutva is the only insurance against disruptions that would imperil dhando. It’s a belief that holds good for the big industrialist and the small cornershop owner alike. “I’ll get to work only 20 days out of 30 if Modi is gone,” says our taxi driver, “There will be clashes and curfews every other day, we will sit idle and lose money. Under Modi nobody feels encouraged to disrupt life, that is what is good about him, strong man, no nonsense permitted.”
It is a myth, of course, that Modi is the fount of all of Gujarat’s visible prosperity, but it is a myth he has been able to sell well, it is a myth popularly believed, it is a myth that has become babble on the tongues of the thousands you meet wearing Modi masks. You don’t need Modi to announce any more that his five years in power have been better than the 45 years of the Congress, every other person you come across will tell you that until you begin to go numb with the truth of the myth. “Look at the Sensex,” argues a hosiery merchant at his till in Dahod’s chaotic hub, “Would the Sensex go so high without Narendrabhai? Think about it.” Popular election- time rhetoric has little time for analysis or history. With those that have convinced themselves of the Modi magic, it is pointless arguing that Gujarat has always been a relatively prosperous state, that Modi inherited a sound economic base, that Gujarat is also reaping the rewards of the buoyancy in the national economy.
And those that could have credibly challenged the myth did not. The Congress joined the argument too late and when it did, it did so with unstrategised dissonance. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives in Gujarat singing a song of liberalisation and of his party’s “big role” in the well-being of Gujaratis. His partymen are still extolling Nehruvian socialism. In the tribal heartland of Dahod, where the Congress is meant to be doing extremely well, party leaders are chanting the Indira mantra. “Modi is the party of the rich, the Congress is the party of the poor,” says Jaisingh Dangi, Congressman and tribal sarpanch of Mota Hathidra. “The poor, they are all with us, you will see, Indiraben had given us the right slogans.” But who remembers Indiraben anymore, you wonder. “The old kakas all remember Indiraben,” Dangi announces enthusiastically. But this campaign is not about the kakas. Garibi Hatao seems no longer a resonant cry in these parts, it’s swung on Amiri Badhao; the local grocer is playing the satta-bazaar on his mobile.
The Congress campaign lumbers from blunder to blunder, utterly uninspired by selfbelief. Its tagline for the poll is a skittish response to Modi’s “Jeetega Gujarat”. It reads“Chak de Gujarat”. Most of its talking points are reactive rather than proactive and they achieve more for Modi than for the Congress.
The latest is a poll ad with a picture of Masood Azhar emblazoned on top, the Congress’ way of trying to embarrass Modi on the handling of the Kandahar hijack. But that’s grist to Modi’s mill; he’s able to turn it around to telling effect. “There was a time when Mahatma Gandhi’s photographs used to appear on Congress posters, now they have Masood Azhar.” The crowd is in splits. This is Borsad in central Gujarat, traditionally Congress territory, home to Madhavsinh Solanki, former chief minister, and Bharat Solanki, current state Congress boss. But fifteen minutes of Modi demagoguery and you would not believe Borsad had never returned anyone but a Congress candidate since Independence. The man is almost Lalooesque on stage, casting a spell on the crowd with a rich weave of colloquialism, hyperbole and sarcasm until he has begun to command it like a puppeteer.
“They are calling Gujaratis murderers, tell me are you murderers?”
NO!“They are calling me a murderer, tell me am I a murderer?”
NO!!“You elected me last time, tell me did you elect a murderer?”
NO!!!“Have you ever heard a corruption charge against me?”
NO!!!!“They say I have 250 pairs of clothes, tell me should I be walking naked?”
NO!!!!! And rapturous laughter.
Modi flags are fluttering. Men wearing Modi masks and Modi shirts are doing mock victory laps in the crowds, waving, cockading, Modi-style. This is the Laloo Yadav of 2000, playing on hurt provincial pride, turning the “jungle raj” slogan against him upside down. So is Modi exhorting Gujaratis to send a response to all those who’ve been criticising Gujarat. “They say horrible things have happened in Gujarat, have horrible things happened?” NO!!!!!!!
You’d worry to your bones if you were a Congressman at a Modi show. You’d worry even if you were BJP, for this campaign has been the foundation ceremony of a separate entity: the Modi cult. His masks, his posters, his slogans, Modi, Modi, Modi all the way. The Sangh and the BJP are not used to such individualism, they work with cadres and command flows top down. Modi hasn’t seemed to care. “He has bypassed the party and the Parivar and gone straight to the people,” says a senior Ahmedabad journalist. “So much so that Advani has seemed to want him more than the other way round. And if he wins this one, the BJP will have a serious problem on its hands.”
You can sense what he is riding on all across Gujarat — the oppressive power of the excess of numbers. The subtext of these elections is not the idea of equality, it is the affirmation of the hegemony of the many over the few. Modi has refused even to acknowledge the minority, leave alone woo it. “Nobody talks about the Muslims,” says Prakash Karan, a retired engineer. “Nobody discusses what happened or is happening, nobody is interested, as if it was a closed chapter, it is suffocating. I have known people who fear to utter a word against Modi in public, there’s a frightening conspiracy of silence. If you are for Modi, you shout it out from the rooftops, if you are against, you merely listen.”
NOT FOR nothing does JS Bandukwala, probably the most celebrated and articulate survivors of Gujarat’s poisoned flames, go around preaching forgive and forget. Not for nothing is Usmancha, vendor of luscious kebabs in Ahmedabad’s Bhatiargali, arguing it is better Modi comes back to power.“Aur lafda nai hone ka, aur pitai nai khane ka, dhanda karna hai ne, chup se baitho, paisa kamao, zindagi chalao (don’t want more trouble, don’t want to be hit again, stay silent, earn your buck and get on with life).” Usmancha’s friend, wizened, white-bearded, is nodding assent. “Kya fayda? Modi aane se hi aman hai, sabko pata hai kaun kitne paani mein hai, hum to akliyat hain na (what’s the use? It’s better if Modi comes back, everybody here knows who stands where, and after all we are in a minority).”
Tridip Suhrud, one of the few liberal and forthright voices you come across in Gujarat, would still pin hope on those who do not speak, or speak out. “There is a section that does not like Modi, wants him out, but they are silent, it is time they spoke.” Suhrud himself has been speaking out at every forum he can find but he can sense the absence of resonance. Last week, members in the audience of a live TV show protested his presence on the panel and shouted him down. Retired police officer RB Sreekumar, who has been exposing the Modi administration’s partisan excesses in 2002, had to be escorted out of another show under guard. “In many senses, Gujarat has become a terrible place,” Suhrud says. “Even in Ahmedabad there are very few people you can talk to, and few whom you can reason with.” So, much as Suhrud and his like may hope, they themselves are proclaiming minority status in Modi’s Gujarat. And waiting, in desperate hope, for silence to speak.
Narendra Modi has married progress to Hindutva with a diabolical brilliance the Congress has offered few answers to. SANKARSHAN THAKUR reports
MR MEHTA told me a simple and quite stunning thing: To understand Gujarat, understand Gujaratis first, there is nothing that matters more to them than dhando and dharma, business and religion. Would it be in that order, Mr Mehta? Quite, he said, what dharma are you going to do on an empty stomach? But please understand this carefully because a lot of you don’t, Gujarat is what Gujaratis make it, not what people like you want it to be, don’t fit our image to the requirements of your frame.
It had begun with a casual remark on the flight from Delhi to Vadodara, but slowly turned into a long and blunt discourse on understanding Gujaratis. “So you are one of those people,” he had said, with no wish to veil his sardonic tone, “You will go to Gujarat and tell the world what a terrible place it is, what a terrible people Gujaratis are.”
But terrible things have happened in Gujarat.
And a great many good things too, why does everyone ignore that? We are the country’s most prosperous part, everybody is happy. Not everybody, there are lots of people who are terribly unhappy, they have suffered, they are denied justice, they live oppressed.
Oh, only a small part, and that happens everywhere, injustice is everywhere. And why do you only always talk about them? Muslims are only a small part of Gujarat. But they are part of Gujarat and they live like second-class citizens.
Then they are free to leave, this is a free country, go away. There are many others in Gujarat, why do you not talk about them? Most people are prosperous and happy, nobody talks of them, they are Gujaratis too, why is nothing said about how they are, what they think, how they want to run their lives, what they think is right? You cannot tell us what is right and wrong, we must judge what is right for us.
Killing thousands of people and denying them justice cannot be right.
Of course not, I am not supporting what happened in 2002. And I probably know more about what happened then than TEHELKA has reported and the likes of Teesta Setalvad scream about. But these things happen, they happen everywhere, not just in Gujarat, people react, political parties react and often the reaction is violent. It happened in your Delhi in 1984, nobody goes on and on about it. Why do people go on and on about 2002, as if that is the only thing that happened in Gujarat? Many other things have happened, nobody talks about them. Do you know we have not had a single riot since 2002? And do you know why? Because it was made clear to Muslims we will not put up with nonsense any more, they were taught a lesson and they remain reined in. Peace has been achieved.
And at what cost?
That is not important, what is important is that there have been no riots, what is important is that Gujaratis are prospering and are happy. Gujarat is not Muslims alone, Gujarat is many, many more people. Why does nobody talk about them? We are not man-eaters, but we are entitled to our likes and dislikes. It is important to learn what we think, what is right for us.
And what is right for you?
But don’t you know already?
You will know soon, and you will stay say it is wrong, that electing Narendra Modi is wrong. Can’t you see the fallacy of it all, telling the people they are wrong, telling Gujaratis they are wrong, they voted wrong, is that not anti-democratic?
Hitler was elected too, and we all know what he did. So are you telling me you agree with what the Jewish nation is doing in the Middle-East? I might agree with it, but do you?
That’s an entirely different context, history has moved.
This is a different context too, but people like you will not understand because you don’t want to, you will impose the will of a small minority on the majority. But why? Is that not wrong too? Don’t try to preach to Gujaratis what to do, which way to go, they know well enough, and they will let you know soon.
YOU DON’T ask in the cities and towns. It’s a waste of time, unless, of course, Modi worship is music to your ears. The most diehard Congressman, the most optimistic liberal will tell you that — pointless asking about in the cities and towns, barring a few pockets of Leuva Patel rebellion in Saurashtra, they are all quite Modified.
Urban Gujarat is a partitioned demography presided over by the smug Modi smile, architect extraordinaire of fractures. Everywhere you go, you see the neon-lit eruption of seething frontiers mined with malevolence: distilled prejudice and hatred, often bilious flashes of anger, always displays of distrust and suspicion, of vile and vicious myth — the first thing a Muslim child is taught is how to slaughter a cow, Hindus are bent and devious, that is why they produce the best spinners. Bigotry begets bigotry, there’s little to choose between one kind or the other. But divides have their uses, especially at election time. Modi has reason to wear that smug smile, on his face and on the millions of China-made masks his propaganda machine has blitzed the state with. He has the greater bigotry behind him in urban Gujarat, there’s no arguing with that.
In most other states, that could be cause for comfort to the adversary — how far can a party with an urban base go, after all? But in Gujarat, that Indian truism stands upended. Close to 60 per cent of Gujarat is urban or semi-urban today. Thirty cities with populations in excess of one lakh, thirty other towns that have more than 50,000 people. A city hasn’t ended when a town begins and where the town tapers off and you are announced into a village, you must often gape — metalled streets, concrete housing, water, electricity, satellite TV, drainage and, fairly routinely, an NRI-fed stretch of ultra well-being: ATMs, air-conditioning, food courts that offer a vegetarian carnival. “The last few years have been great,” says Sudarshan Vyas, “Strong leadership and good governance have given people like me a stake in coming back and investing. This is what we have always needed.” Vyas has come back from the United States to his oncehumble village near Anand in central Gujarat to vote Modi. “This place is a sea-change from what it used to be, I can be in Ahmedabad in less than an hour, the roads are so good, and there is constant electricity so I can provide my old parents all the worldly comforts they can have. What more do you want?” Pointless querying Vyas about Gujarat’s Muslims; he’d tell you much the same things as Mr Mehta: Modi has made Gujarat safe and profitable for us, who cares what happens to the rest?
“Urbanisation is happening at a brisk rate in Gujarat,” says social scientist Achyut Yagnik, “and Modi has cleverly married the logic of Hindutva to the interests of that notion of prosperity to the exclusion of all else, that is the bedrock of Modi’s support base.” In that sense, Modi’s appeal isn’t very dissimilar to the alchemy of nationalism and progress Nazism once sold. Many have come to believe that Modi’s hard and heavy-handed Hindutva is the only insurance against disruptions that would imperil dhando. It’s a belief that holds good for the big industrialist and the small cornershop owner alike. “I’ll get to work only 20 days out of 30 if Modi is gone,” says our taxi driver, “There will be clashes and curfews every other day, we will sit idle and lose money. Under Modi nobody feels encouraged to disrupt life, that is what is good about him, strong man, no nonsense permitted.”
It is a myth, of course, that Modi is the fount of all of Gujarat’s visible prosperity, but it is a myth he has been able to sell well, it is a myth popularly believed, it is a myth that has become babble on the tongues of the thousands you meet wearing Modi masks. You don’t need Modi to announce any more that his five years in power have been better than the 45 years of the Congress, every other person you come across will tell you that until you begin to go numb with the truth of the myth. “Look at the Sensex,” argues a hosiery merchant at his till in Dahod’s chaotic hub, “Would the Sensex go so high without Narendrabhai? Think about it.” Popular election- time rhetoric has little time for analysis or history. With those that have convinced themselves of the Modi magic, it is pointless arguing that Gujarat has always been a relatively prosperous state, that Modi inherited a sound economic base, that Gujarat is also reaping the rewards of the buoyancy in the national economy.
And those that could have credibly challenged the myth did not. The Congress joined the argument too late and when it did, it did so with unstrategised dissonance. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives in Gujarat singing a song of liberalisation and of his party’s “big role” in the well-being of Gujaratis. His partymen are still extolling Nehruvian socialism. In the tribal heartland of Dahod, where the Congress is meant to be doing extremely well, party leaders are chanting the Indira mantra. “Modi is the party of the rich, the Congress is the party of the poor,” says Jaisingh Dangi, Congressman and tribal sarpanch of Mota Hathidra. “The poor, they are all with us, you will see, Indiraben had given us the right slogans.” But who remembers Indiraben anymore, you wonder. “The old kakas all remember Indiraben,” Dangi announces enthusiastically. But this campaign is not about the kakas. Garibi Hatao seems no longer a resonant cry in these parts, it’s swung on Amiri Badhao; the local grocer is playing the satta-bazaar on his mobile.
The Congress campaign lumbers from blunder to blunder, utterly uninspired by selfbelief. Its tagline for the poll is a skittish response to Modi’s “Jeetega Gujarat”. It reads“Chak de Gujarat”. Most of its talking points are reactive rather than proactive and they achieve more for Modi than for the Congress.
The latest is a poll ad with a picture of Masood Azhar emblazoned on top, the Congress’ way of trying to embarrass Modi on the handling of the Kandahar hijack. But that’s grist to Modi’s mill; he’s able to turn it around to telling effect. “There was a time when Mahatma Gandhi’s photographs used to appear on Congress posters, now they have Masood Azhar.” The crowd is in splits. This is Borsad in central Gujarat, traditionally Congress territory, home to Madhavsinh Solanki, former chief minister, and Bharat Solanki, current state Congress boss. But fifteen minutes of Modi demagoguery and you would not believe Borsad had never returned anyone but a Congress candidate since Independence. The man is almost Lalooesque on stage, casting a spell on the crowd with a rich weave of colloquialism, hyperbole and sarcasm until he has begun to command it like a puppeteer.
“They are calling Gujaratis murderers, tell me are you murderers?”
NO!“They are calling me a murderer, tell me am I a murderer?”
NO!!“You elected me last time, tell me did you elect a murderer?”
NO!!!“Have you ever heard a corruption charge against me?”
NO!!!!“They say I have 250 pairs of clothes, tell me should I be walking naked?”
NO!!!!! And rapturous laughter.
Modi flags are fluttering. Men wearing Modi masks and Modi shirts are doing mock victory laps in the crowds, waving, cockading, Modi-style. This is the Laloo Yadav of 2000, playing on hurt provincial pride, turning the “jungle raj” slogan against him upside down. So is Modi exhorting Gujaratis to send a response to all those who’ve been criticising Gujarat. “They say horrible things have happened in Gujarat, have horrible things happened?” NO!!!!!!!
You’d worry to your bones if you were a Congressman at a Modi show. You’d worry even if you were BJP, for this campaign has been the foundation ceremony of a separate entity: the Modi cult. His masks, his posters, his slogans, Modi, Modi, Modi all the way. The Sangh and the BJP are not used to such individualism, they work with cadres and command flows top down. Modi hasn’t seemed to care. “He has bypassed the party and the Parivar and gone straight to the people,” says a senior Ahmedabad journalist. “So much so that Advani has seemed to want him more than the other way round. And if he wins this one, the BJP will have a serious problem on its hands.”
You can sense what he is riding on all across Gujarat — the oppressive power of the excess of numbers. The subtext of these elections is not the idea of equality, it is the affirmation of the hegemony of the many over the few. Modi has refused even to acknowledge the minority, leave alone woo it. “Nobody talks about the Muslims,” says Prakash Karan, a retired engineer. “Nobody discusses what happened or is happening, nobody is interested, as if it was a closed chapter, it is suffocating. I have known people who fear to utter a word against Modi in public, there’s a frightening conspiracy of silence. If you are for Modi, you shout it out from the rooftops, if you are against, you merely listen.”
NOT FOR nothing does JS Bandukwala, probably the most celebrated and articulate survivors of Gujarat’s poisoned flames, go around preaching forgive and forget. Not for nothing is Usmancha, vendor of luscious kebabs in Ahmedabad’s Bhatiargali, arguing it is better Modi comes back to power.“Aur lafda nai hone ka, aur pitai nai khane ka, dhanda karna hai ne, chup se baitho, paisa kamao, zindagi chalao (don’t want more trouble, don’t want to be hit again, stay silent, earn your buck and get on with life).” Usmancha’s friend, wizened, white-bearded, is nodding assent. “Kya fayda? Modi aane se hi aman hai, sabko pata hai kaun kitne paani mein hai, hum to akliyat hain na (what’s the use? It’s better if Modi comes back, everybody here knows who stands where, and after all we are in a minority).”
Tridip Suhrud, one of the few liberal and forthright voices you come across in Gujarat, would still pin hope on those who do not speak, or speak out. “There is a section that does not like Modi, wants him out, but they are silent, it is time they spoke.” Suhrud himself has been speaking out at every forum he can find but he can sense the absence of resonance. Last week, members in the audience of a live TV show protested his presence on the panel and shouted him down. Retired police officer RB Sreekumar, who has been exposing the Modi administration’s partisan excesses in 2002, had to be escorted out of another show under guard. “In many senses, Gujarat has become a terrible place,” Suhrud says. “Even in Ahmedabad there are very few people you can talk to, and few whom you can reason with.” So, much as Suhrud and his like may hope, they themselves are proclaiming minority status in Modi’s Gujarat. And waiting, in desperate hope, for silence to speak.
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