[Reader-list] baroda 14 may

[Avinash Kumar]

Dear All,

Despite the fact that the news is now 24 hours old and all of you must have
got many updates on what happened in Baroda yesterday, just wanted to chip
in with my few paragraphs since I felt that the justice was still not done
to the kind of exposure we had to the 'rakhwalas of Hindu sanskriti' which
was on display in all its splendour.
Hence...
*First stage:* We all reached at just about two p.m., the designated time
for the 'silent protest demonstration' only to find a place bustling with
slogans, shouts, screams, a bit of heckling and a lot of chaos in front of
the gates of the Arts Faculty.
It so transpired that while there were a group of protestors (against the
treatment meted out to 'Chandramohan' in particular and the entire range of
things that had happened in the past few days in general) (lets call them
group A) since morning, just two minutes ago a group of about 40-50
self-styled student leaders had landed up shouting slogans against the
former group of protestors (lets call them group B). Many of them definitely
looked as if they were really enjoying their careers as students for many
many years (and not in the sense an artist would describe herself as a
'student of art')!
Besides hand written placards and a large printed poster shaming the
'kalakars who supported nudity in the name of art', group B protestors had
these saffron coloured flags (along with a few saffron coloured bandanas,
some of them even sporting tea shirts), which was supposedly meant to convey
the 'true' colours' of Indian/Hindu culture.
*Second stage:* After we decided not to join the slanging match and instead
form a human chain, that too on the other side of the street while
distributing pamphlets we had brought with us to the passers by; they
temporarily seemed confused! They also soon realised that they have been
heavily outnumbered (at least by 6-8 times!), as far as numbers game was
concered (some say, the corner stone of democracy!). Some of them I could
hear complaining about this 'unforeseen turn of events'.
I could also see a heavy 'bandobast' of Police vans, geeps with all its
paraphernalia to 'evoke terrors in the minds of the unruly', which evidently
didn't seem to make much effect on either side. Strangely, besides all the
major news channels with their recognisable mikes, there were about fifty
video shooters of the drama being played out there and all of them seemed to
be picking people and asking them why had they turned up. If they found some
articulate person, they would soon lose interest and mockingly leave her
mid-way in her talk.
*The third stage:* group B then decided to come to our side of the street
and start shouting slogans, force passers by to throw the pamphlets handed
out to them and tear them off in bulk. Finally, police seemed to stir and
politely intervened to clear the road blockage which had occurred due to
their presence on the mid-street.
*Fourth stage:* Not to be deterred (especially by the fact that in their
raj, they were being outnumbered!), they immediately came back with a new
strategy and in groups finally pounced on a couple of young teenagers to
pluck them away from the 'human chain', shouting that 'these chhokras had
been brought by group A after payment of a 'hefty sum of twenty rupees
each'. After quite a bit of heckling, beating, our intervention and
eventually, police 'rescue work' (this time in what they describe 'civilian
clothes'), three guys were taken to one police station and put in detention
at Sayajirao polce station. We were later told, it was for their own
security! We later heard that about 20-2 students from MSU had been taken to
another, Fatehgunj police station.
In the meanwhile, all those from group B, decided to rephrase their just
anger by using choicest epithets suggesting relations of intimate kinds with
those of group A. Looking directly at women they also suggested things like
'Nanga karke maaron salon ko', 'jute dekar maro salon ko' etc For the flag
bearers of Indian/Hindu culture, it was a moment of epiphany. Their eyes
must have gone moist with the kind of valour displayed by group B.
Obviously, police never thought it fit to even question those (forget about
detaining) who were using such laguage, both physical and verbal.
*Fifth stage: *Admittedly after a certain confusion in the ranks of group A
after all this added with the news that Chandramohan had been granted bail
and the new task of rescuing those who had been officially 'rescued' by the
police, it was decided to disperse.
Some of us trooped to Sayajiganj police station to find guys who were
missing. We found that while two of them were kept inside the p.s., the
third, the youngest of the lot, not more than 17-18 years of age, had been
put behind the lock-up. Upon our insistence, he was taken out and made to
sit alongwith the other detainees. Now, the police claimed that since P.I.
was still handling affairs at the 'battleground', he would take time to come
and only afterwards the detainees could be released even though they kept
claiming that 'they had been actually rescued from the VHP mob'...sorry,
group B.
In the meanwhile, one of the guys sitting there (in civilian clothes 'once
again', actually most of the staff sitting their seemed to be in civilian
clothes, perhaps their way of appearing civil to the people!) asked one of
our colleagues, 'whether we had come *in support* of "ashleel/vulgar
pictures" or against them'...needless to say, argumentation went long,
but one could really marvel at the way Modi has taught an entire class of
people to turn the language of debate in which things can be turned to look
quite commonsensical by reducing the entire debate to things like 'ashleel
versus shleel'. It definitely does pose a challenge how to carry a debate in
public domain, with all possible nuances.
After about three hours wait and lot many phone calls, a car finally
appeared bearing a yello light. One of the guards came out, went in and went
back to the car. While the car stood waiting (us too with baited breath!),
an officer finally emerged with the good news that the detainees are being
released finally. The car, of course moved soon afterwards.
*P.S.* Upon our return, I got to unravel the mystery of so many video
shooters as well. One of the fellows told me that, one of the car with
activists returning to Ahmedabad was intercepted by a crowd of people whom
they thought as media people thanks to their cameras. They them mobbed these
youngsters, mostly students, heckled them and kept asking them to say before
the cameras that they (i.e. from group A) didn't know about the issue at all
and they had come there by mistake as they were misled by their leaders!

a
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