[Reader-list] Whither India: Qualitative change in Polity

[Shivam Vij शिवम् विज्]

Whither India: Qualitative change in Polity

Ram Puniyani

Last six months have been most disturbing on the Indian political
scene. As far as the values of integration are concerned they are
being attacked very severely by terrorist-communal forces. First, we
saw the series of bomb blasts, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi and
Malegaon. It was projected by the authorities that all these acts are
due to Jehadi Muslim groups that police have succeeded in cracking the
network. One outcome of this was the Batla house encounter in which
police, bravely killed the terrorists. It put out a version that now
the terror ring has been busted and kingpins have been arrested. It is
another matter that later the relevant-uncomforta ble questions were
raised and satisfactory answers to these were not forthcoming. On the
top of this the claim that Malegaon blasts were done by SIMI proved to
be false as the investigation showed the possibility of ABVP/Bajrang
Dal being involved in same.

During the same time two Bajrang dal Activists got killed while making
bomb in Kanpur, two activists of Hindu Jagran Samiti were involved in
placing the bombs in Thane due to which seven people got injured.
During this time again in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu, the bombs went off near
RSS office and as usual the cry of wolf was made, but the wolf here
had different shades than what RSS wanted to propagate, as most of
those planting the bombs turned out to be Hindus, with affiliation,
which are not difficult to guess.

During the same time the anti Christian violence was orchestrated and
launched in Orissa to begin with, later on spilling to Karnataka. The
pretext first was that Christians have beaten Swami Laxmananand
(December 2007) and later that Christians have killed the swami.
Interestingly a Maoist group claimed to have killed him but the RSS
combine stated that they don't believe in the claim of Maoists,
meaning there by that they have the right to decide who the culprit
is!

The third tragedy related to the Hindu Muslim violence in Burhanpur,
Dhulia and few other places on the slightest pretext of tearing a
banner or some such. What is disturbing is the way things are shaping
in the country. The anti Muslim hate propaganda, which has been
sustained on various myths have gradually been taking he shape of deep
rooted perceptions. Earlier lot of planning and bigger pretext was
needed to unleash the violence, now even a small pretext suffices to
initiate the mayhem. Some of the properties are well marked in advance
for destroying. The loss of lives of minorities is many times more
than their presence in population.

The stereotyping of Muslim community through reporting of acts of
terror has boosted the negative perception of the community in a
serious way. At the same time the there is a realization that there
are two set of laws, that they will not get justice and that their
feeling of insecurity in the society is going up by leaps and bounds.
One does not know whether this disturbs the ruling coalition or not.
For Muslim minorities to keep faith in the Governemnt in such
circumstances is not difficult, it is impossible.

Christian minority was not the target till quite late. As the hate
propaganda based on make believe forcible conversions, allurement,
insult of our gods, foreign money keep percolating in the society, and
a silent sanction for attacking them started building up. Now even a
slightest pretext is sufficient to undertake the despicable violence
against the community.

This is a clear case as to how already a social mind set has been
created, through word of mouth propaganda and media where by the
minorities have been demonized and now the violence against them has
become the order of the day. Even the global phenomenon of terrorism
and local phenomenon has added on to the same and in this case Islamic
terrorism, and 'all terrorists are Muslims' has been made the fodder
of social thinking. As such, starting from Golwalkar, RSS's
formulation that Muslims and Christians are threats to Hindu nation,
to the present day, there is a consistent worsening of the level of
demonization of minorities.

These entire social phenomenons are raising a deeper question related
to our democracy. Democracy not only ensures that are citizens are
treated equally it also stands for giving affirmative action for
weaker sections of society. As such the litmus test of democracy is
the welfare and security of minorities. Here we see that as to how the
marginal stream which came up during freedom movement and kept aloof
from it, the Hindutva vehicle, RSS, has been successfully working,
using the democratic space to abolish, precisely the democratic values
which gave it a space to stand. While totally defamed after Gandhi
murder by one of its followers, its acceptability began with
Jayapraksh Narayan letting it run the movement, which led to emergency
and later formation of Janata Party. RSS began by spreading hate
against Muslims and Christians, formulated by its founders and penned
by its ideologue, M.S. Golwalkar. Golwalkar instructed that Muslims,
Christians and
 Communists are the threat to Hindu nation. The RSS shakhhas kept
spreading this ceaselessly and it became a part of social common sense
over a period of time.

RSS also planted its swayamsevaks in different walks of social and
political life, education, media, police, bureaucracy etc. Once its
political child, Jana Sangh became part of Janata party, it ensured
that large number of swaymsevaks become part of media establishment.
And later during NDA regime, this game of theirs' had a field day.
Capping these efforts through Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, social
engineering got intensified in Adivasi areas. With US administration
coining the word 'Islamic terrorism' and that propaganda that
Madrassas are the dens of training terrorists; RSS completed its
indoctrination module.

The deadly poison it spread against minorities first spread hate and
created divides in the communities, leading to 'hate other', which in
turn forms the base of communal violence. Communal violence in Indian
context gets assistance from the communalized state apparatus,
sections of police in particular leading to polarization of
communities and rise to political power of the communal party. The
conveyer belt begins from demonizing other and leads to the RSS's
political child becoming politically strong. That's how a political
party which managed two seats in parliament in1984 elections has
become formidable electoral force today, knocking the democratic
values and imposing the religion based nationalism.

Though not in power in center, its machinations are polarizing the
society all over, creating divisions in the society, rampaging the
rule of law and paving the way for creeping  fascism. What is
happening today is reminder of how things happened in Germany, with
Hitler leading the carnage. Beginning with hate Jews and then
Christian minorities, then Communists and trade unionists paved the
way for the stifling atmosphere of fascism, authoritarian state with
social base. Today we seem to be helplessly watching a similar
situation. While RSS combine is behaving like a rampaging bull,
Bajrang Dal planting bombs, its workers carrying arms openly,
distributing trishuls en masse, the state ruled by so called secular
combine, UPA alliance seems to be a helpless observer, as the whole
machinery itself seems to be affected by the communal virus.

Where do we go from here? Opposition to this fascist politics,
fighting it tooth and nail cannot be postponed by a single minute. The
time has come that all those believing in democracy and welfare of all
need to come together and put and end to the politics of hate. Popular
front at social and political level is the need of the day. The power
seeker political formations may not look beyond their personal gains
but the social movements need to put the pressure in the right
direction for these political people to hang together before we are
hanged separately. It is not just a question of opposition to one
political formation. The question is can we let the RSS version of
Hindusim destroy the Kabir and Gandhi version of Hinduism and
religion? The question is can we let the innocent minorities be the
scapegoats for the fascist politics to keep on going? Should we let
the democratic space be usurped by those wanting to bring in a nation
state in the name of
 religion?

Whether India will nurture the values of freedom movement and strive
for human rights of all depends on us, as in no time in past the very
concept of democracy has been stifled as much as we are witnessing
today.

--
Issues in Secular politics

October 2008 II

ram.puniyani@ gmail.com
www.pluralindia. com

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