Bhagana's daughters too are India's Daughters

Is ‘India’s daughter’ a victim of corporate media war ?

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

A few days ago our finance minister and the legal brain of the current government Mr Arun Jaitley spoke in a conference and said that ‘you can not ban anything in the current age of information’. ‘How can any government ban any thing when the flow of information is so far and vast he said’. It is not more than a month when the government was seen hiding itself in the war cries of nationalism and arrogance of ‘we will see’ and ‘India’s reputation is being targeted’. It look childish when our lawmakers speak such a language in Parliament where a number of politicians are sitting who have publically supported khap Panchayats as well as killings and rapes too for political purposes. A video online on the Indiatimes website reported that some of the supporters of a rabble rousing BJP MP’s supporter openly asking to rape even the ‘dead women from Muslim community’ and it shamefully does not outrage us. When Hindutva lunatics are roaming free and seeking revenge, the ‘conscious keeper’ of this country, in the ‘Times Now’ does not feel comfortable to carry a campaign against it. Our ‘conscience’ does not wake up when Maya Kodnanai and all the accused from Gujarat have been released by the ‘courts’ and when Teesta Setalwad face charges because she fought against the communal violence and the political which was party to it.

It is strange that ‘Times of India’ which has always stood for ‘freedom of expression’ and has not shied away from publishing naked and titillating photographs of ‘famous’ people including film stars to the extent of even violating their privacies, is campaigning this time, through a megalomaniac called Arnab Gosami who think that except ‘him’ none think for India and none has a right to claim propriety on Indian nationalism except him. Women activists have given a call to boycott him but I would say all the politicians and activists should boycott Arnab and his ‘Times Now’. It is a channel of the corporate, for the corporate and by the ‘Corporate’, which massages the Indian egos through tainted ugly nationalism.  Sadly, when we want public opinion be developed against the mindset, which the rapists are having, Times of India has come for the rescue of such a mindset. I always say that India has enough laws but it does not has the capacity to introspect. It is simply living in denial mode and Arnab Goswami and Times of India are exploiting that mindset in India.

The entire issue of anti woman mindset that starts from the birth of a girl has been hijacked in the jingoism of ‘nationalism’ by these media thugs and the lobby of the government which is forcing the media to create an impression as if ‘rapist’ has got a ‘platform’ to project his view point. The fact is that all court proceedings are already completed and the convicts have already been sentenced to deaths, which will need Supreme Court’s scrutiny. So, it is really not the case of trying to influence the courts, which ‘Times Now’ and many others do everyday without fail. The entire ‘News hour’ is nothing but a public ‘lynching’ of the ‘opponents’ done by a rabble rousers who is enjoying the support of hyper ‘upper-caste middle classes’. The way some of them carried ‘news’ of ‘government’s ‘notice’ send to BBC as if it is a very great act of the party with ‘transparency’.  At the end of the day Arnab had egg on his face when BBC rescheduled the broadcast of the film four days earlier and the film, thank to Arnab Goswami and his foolishly negative campaign became a big hit on the youtube. The question is why the ‘Times of India’ allowed its channel to carry this utterly disgraceful propaganda which ultimately hurt the ‘freedom of expression’ and creativity.  I wish we had a Ramnath Goenka today who lead ‘Indian Express’ from the front and did not succumb to the dirty tricks of the government during emergency when the rest of the media in India was ‘crawling’, the ‘Indian Express’ kept the voice of the people high. Today, it pains to see the pathetic condition of the media lampooning itself and championing the cause of censorship on behalf of the government. During emergency the entire media was one even when we saw many fought openly while others surrendered yet they did not carry sinister campaign against each other. Today, media PR forgot its ethical duty and unfortunately supported such censorships, which are unwarranted in this age.

It is equally painful that the ‘Times of India’ and ‘Times now’ was picking up small issues like ‘revealing’ the name of the victim. We must understand that original name of Nirbhaya  is revealed by her parents and there is nothing unusual of that. It is not for the first that a film is being made on rape victim. In 1994, Shekhar Kapoor made film ‘ The Bandit Queen’ on the life of ‘Phoolan Devi’ and though there were charges of ‘commercialism’, the film was accepted by the people. The issue of not revealing the name of the rape victim comes through a ‘mindset’, which considers sexual violence as ‘end of life’ for woman. It is important to reemphasize the fact that a woman does not become ‘jinda laash’ as Sushma Swaraj, now our honorable external affairs minister, claimed in Parliament in 2012. A woman neither loses her identity nor dignity just because she has been violated or raped. It is important that society changes its attitude and it wont be possible without taking the issue head on.

To make the issue as an issue of ‘Indian’ verses ‘foreign’ is simply farcical. In reality ‘Times Now’ can at most be compared to ‘Fox News’ in United States where ‘loudspeakers’ sensationalise the issues on daily basis. The fact is that BBC has a longterm relationship with India and has been acknowledged as more credible source of information in far rural India than the government owned Doordarshan and Aakashwani during the emergency days. We all got the tuned to BBC London to get the factual information on ‘operation Blue Star’ or the death of Indira Gandhi through BBC when the government radio had blanked out the entire news. The news channels in India are not doing a great service to their credibility through such disinformation campaign.

One must ask the question as how many Indian News channels allow the individual filmmakers this liberty.  Let them reveal as how much money are they ready to put in for such stories, which need time and investigation. Most of them have ‘slaughterhouses’ in their TV studios, which is the easiest and safest way to carry their prejudiced agenda and disinformation campaign on important people’s issues. So, as far as credibility and quality is concerned, BBC remains far ahead of any Indian news channel.

So, for me, it is important we defend this right of the filmmaker to make a film. No filmmaker or writer will surrender her or his right to write a story to the jailer or authorities. We take permission to follow security procedures and once they are followed, it is not the concern of the authorities as what did the accuse say or what is the script of my film or story. It will be a dangerous sign if such thing ever happens than it would be impossible to expose the corruption and break many stories that have so far come out in public domain. The judicial process is over and the fact is that the case against the accused will be more stringent with this. So, to say that attempt has been made to ‘influence’ the case is highly contested and untrue.

Much noise is being made on the statement of the accused Mukesh Singh in the film. I can bet that it is making mountain out of a mole. For me, that only show what ails our society. Mukesh Singh remain unrepentant and is actually speaking what his ‘lawyers’ have told him. The biggest interviews of the film are outside the Tihar Jail where no ‘security’ is violated. They are the lawyers of the accused who have taken oath to the constitution of India and to defend it. Yes, all the accused are already sentenced and we know Supreme Court too will upheld their sentences as there is so much public outrage on the issue but what do you do with the mindset of those who are ‘suppose’ to ‘defend’ the constitution. So the most unfortunate, unethical and outrageous statement that has come out in this documentary is not really from the precincts of Tihar Jail but outside it and by the lawyers of the two accused. Indian judiciary and Bar has to think as what can it do with such people and whether they deserve to be in the profession or not.

There is no big deal about the film except the fact that it is not preachy in nature and try to address the issue through social prism unlike most of our ‘activists’ who give us ‘laws’ to resolve a crisis which we all are facing. That the film does not have many ‘experts’ is better side and left many of them ‘bitter’ but then you cannot expect a documentary to cover and resolve all the issues that women face in India. It fall short on many account but it is not giving the accused a ‘platform’ to propagate their views. It has succeeded in bringing the issue back to the forefront but it fails on many counts and the biggest irony is that the filmmaker was in India for two years to make the documentary and did not have time to visit rape victims of Bhagana’s Dalit families who have been sitting on Dharna. It failed to capture the imagination of Dalit victims of upper caste violence where rape is a tool to assert your caste supremacy and hundreds of such cases have been reported. The film make a case that India’s youth are ‘asserting’ against rape violence but it is a crude joke that the same caste mind does not come forward and speak the same language when the victim is a Dalit. If Indians have woken up against rape culture, we would have seen much more politicized protests all over the country but the fact is that those rape protests though might have been spontaneous outburst but there is a fact that Hindutva element infiltrated into these movements and gave it a shape as if this culture of rape and impunity was started with the government of the day. None spoke of social violence and hidden apartheid existing in this country and the filmmaker needed no permission from Tihar to visit Jantar Mantar and speak to these victims of Jat caste violence. It would have done much better help to international community and expose the hypocrisy of the upper caste Indians as why India does not respond to the cases of rape violence Dalits in the villages and Muslim victims during the so called communal disturbance. Why our heart does not beat or why we do not come to the street listening to painful and traumatic conditions of rape victims of Mujaffarnagar violence 2013 or those faced similar trauma in Gujarat 2002. Clear enough, a ‘rape’ stirs our ‘conscious’ when the victim is from among ‘us’ and accused the not like ‘us’.

Blood relations and caste identities are most important in India so someone may be criminal for ‘others’ but become my ‘hero’ if the caste matches. Your brother cannot do anything. My husband is the best one. My father is the best one in the world are the often-repeated excuses when the criminals are saved. The statement of the wife of accuse Mukesh Singh reflect the ‘dilemma’ of an Indian woman who is framed in the perception of ‘my husband is my God’. ‘ What will I do, if my husband is no more’, she says. And then pure generalization as what happened to ‘others’ and that this is not the ‘only’ case and why her husband is being targeted. Sadly, this is the problem as I mentioned with this ‘cultural’ society where all the ‘wrongs’ are ‘done’ by ‘others’. This is acute because this woman without any fault of her will now face ostracisation and isolation of an absolutely Hippocratic society where the punishment is much severe.  So, Mukesh Singh will get whatever punishment for his act but his wife is getting much harsher punishment and we do not know how people will behave with her and the children ?   A society based on prejudices will not treat them kindly for sure.  That is why this issue is much larger and just does not revolve around poor as being described. We have seen the wives of senior officers and Ministers whose husband were caught and sentenced for ‘murder’ and rape standing with their husbands and accusing the women. This culture of male impunity in society needs a big assault from the right thinking people.

At the end a lot have been spoken about this film and how it failed on many things. Our leaders were ‘saddened’ that Tihar Jail was ‘breached’ and it provided the convict a platform to justify his ‘act’. Lawyers have written that they ‘oppose’ ban but it ‘violate’ Indian law and administration. Arnab Goswami is already angry with it and many other thing.  After watching it, I can say, if the producer director had not used the Tihar footage and instead of added to Sushma Swaraj’s not only ‘Jindalash’ speech in Parliament but also her famous of ‘tonsuring’ her head and living like a ‘widow’ if Sonia was made Prime Minister of India once UPA came to power in 2004, the film would have exposed the mindset and the political class that we have. India have all the great laws in existence but it does not have a will power to fight against this patriarchical brahmanical structure which is the root of violence against women. We live on constant denial and are blaming the people from outside to defame us. Don’t we know that after the Nirbhaya incident countries world over issued particular guidelines for their female citizens regarding safety measures and precautions to be taken in India. Why didn’t we get offended when media was shouting and exposing each thing in 2012. The fact is we are now in 2014 and a different government at the centre whose leaders used all the protest movement and projected as if those problems are created by that particular government. Arvind Kejriwal too used the opportunity to further his political agenda and in the din of righteousness we ignored the bigger issue. It is not that we did not expose the duplicity of the political class when they were shedding crocodile tears while the people from Bhagana, sitting on the protest against the rape committed by upper caste youths, were waiting and waiting but the same political class irrespective of parties did not bother to raise their issues and visit them. BBC’s film failed to expose India’s caste impunity, which rapes women at their whims and fancies to assert its supremacy in India’s villages. It is sad that our activists and human rights ‘champion’ did not have time to narrate things when they critique the film, instead the farce of nationalism and technicalities of the matter are being raised and that shows the hollowness of the protests and the human rights movement itself which keep quiet on the violence against Dalit women and make it just a plain gender issue. India will never answer that. BBC documentary failed us in that but nevertheless it is a milestone as it still exposes Indian society and its hypocrisy in dealing with the issue.

Towards the dictatorship of 'Aam Admi'...

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Delhi has never made many of us proud as yesterday when the results of the local polls gave an entire country and its already frightened people a new hope in the strength of democracy whatsoever bad it might be, that at the end of the day it is people who matter and that the most fascist and dictatorial persons too should be afraid of people and keep their cool even at the time of such occasions. I am not to here to describe this victory of Arvind Kejriwal the eighth wonder of the world but definitely one ca not take away the credit of committed volunteers of AAP and their strategy which worked in Delhi. These elections have given hope to people that if their work on their strategy well people will vote for them. It has given Kejriwal and his team a message that he should work as any further nautanki on his part will create survival problem for the party in future. As far as ‘national’ perspective is concern, we must not come to any conclusion that fast about AAP as an ‘alternative’ to BJP or representing ‘secular’ forces. The results in Delhi only clarify that each state want a dominant leader and elections and democracy is not just ‘power’ to ‘people’, it has different meaning to different communities.

Why is Delhi election so important when it has merely 70 seats? Why Congress got decimated in Delhi and how long will the party’s failure continue? Will AAP replace Congress as a political force in India? These are futile questions for many armchair authors who are fascinated by tricolor wielding ‘Aam Adami’ in the Delhi streets for the past three year. Will Delhi see a new kind of government? Is Aap really an ‘innovative’ and new ‘left’ outfit which is ‘inclusive? It is time for serious introspection of the situation.

As I mentioned earlier, I am not fascinated by those who call it a ‘revolution’ and the fact is most of the ‘political’ ‘changes’ by street smart ‘rebels’ is nothing but pure dictatorial in nature and dominance of the powerful communities. Democracy may be a call for the people, of the people and by the people but it is in fact power of the powerful in India. It is oversimplification of dirty facts that with the ‘advent’ of AAP the ‘caste’ politics will be eliminated and a ‘class’ war has started. Absolutely farcical and out of touch ‘experts’ can attribute such thoughts. When and where was AAP ‘left’? What is the aam admi of AAP? Can the interest of the cash rich marwaris-Banias of whose community Arvind Kejriwal ‘proudly’ belong to, be the same, as of the migrants Dalits from Bihar and Uttar Prades ? Will the Sangh inspired ‘Aam Admi’ leave his caste prejudices and become more inclusive? Is it not a fact that Aap was not ‘fighting’ with Modi but with ‘corruption’ as Kumar Vishwas, whose family lineage goes back to RSS, continued to harp after the victory of AAP? What is the profile of AAP leaders? They do not suffer from day to day survival stints as one of their spouses work or many of them have earn enough money to survive a decent life.

We celebrate their victory because it crushed Modi and his loudspeakers. Most of India celebrated it that way only yet there are powerful message hidden behind this victory. Politics is learning process and perhaps Arvind Kejriwal became much more sober and sensible after becoming a politician. The people in the slums and resettlement colonies realized that he can ‘deliver’ them. These days elections are not just ideological driven but more as developing ‘perception’ and management. AAP’s theatrics can match the RSS propaganda machinery. The reason is clear as most of the AAP volunteers have family background of RSS and BJP and hence they know how to counter the propaganda. Secondly, in the caste war, BJP lost the Bania votes once Harsh Vardhan was clean bowled by the party. Kejriwal has been highly supported by Delhi’s traders and not just Delhi but Haryana, Punjab and even UP traders have found a new ‘icon’ in Kejriwal at the moment. So, the Banais who did not have much political clout aspired that and got it. For years, they have been the backbone of BJP, supporting it wholeheartedly but got nothing in return in terms of leadership. Kejriwal filled that vacuum and it was not without any reason that Kejriwal spoke about BJP ‘insulting’ his ‘community’. But just because trading community supported Kejriwal could not have turned him into such a big victory in Delhi. The real force behind AAP Tsunami in Delhi is the open and unambiguous support of Dalits, Muslims and the poor of Delhi. The question is why should poor of Delhi vote for him ? It is a massive mandate as the party got more than 54% of total votes while the main opposition party BJP got 32%. Congress had nearly 25% vote share last time was totally decimated and became irrelevant with merely 10% votes this time. Congress’s vote of Dalit-Muslims-Poor actually made AAP’s victory important. Will AAP leadership realize it? Will they realize how much the people particularly the Dalit Muslims have trusted them? Why have the Dalit Muslims voted in such a large number to AAP. Is it just ‘Bijali-sadak-pani’ or their support is for the larger cause.

I would like to give one small example of Sohrab, my friend and cab driver who takes me to most of the places when I go out. And from the very beginning he was talking of AAP. With the advent of aggressive Hindutva fanatics, Muslims felt scary and he would talk to me about AAP. Yesterday, he called me and said they are celebrating AAP victory in their locality. We did see BJP during Vajpayee regime but despite differences of opinion everybody knew he was a man anybody could meet and a man of great humor and wit. Today, the whole government seems to be working on a vengeance towards political opponents. Minorities are feeling scary and disturbed. The Dalits who voted to AAP actually were disturbed with regular threat to Constitution and obviously the persistent anti poor stand of the government such as ordinances land acquisition and attempt to throttle anti poverty programmes. The friendship of the current regime with some of the ‘big’ and ‘notorious’ ‘capitalists’ is wellknown to be described here.

The regular attacks on Churches on the eve of elections and attempt to communalise Delhi through ‘Trilokpuri’ ‘experiment’ boomeranged on Amit Shah and company who felt that they can redo a ‘Mujjaffarnagar’ in Delhi and reap the rich harvest later during the elections.  The aggressive campaign, in which BJP spend huge sum violated all forms of decency and poll norms created a contrary impression. The Election Commission sadly remained mute and helpless on all these issues despite media attention. There was fear in the air and the Sangh Parivar and BJP felt that they would bully people further into their way. The regular threat to people was a challenge to the privacy of the individual which people responded in a fitting way. BJP would never have thought the response would have been like this but the fact is that people of Delhi have rejected their polarization bid.

It does not mean that the upper castes have left their caste identities. It does not mean that likes of Kumar Vishwas have a change of heart. Neither it mean that Banais of Sadar would pay handsome salaries to all the migrant workers coming to Delhi. Nor does it means that Chhotoos and Chhottis working in the houses of these caste Hindus will get a fair deal. Will Arvind Kejriwal and his team make some stronger ‘domestic wage’ act for ‘workers’ mainly trafficked from Chhattishgarh and Jharkhand?  Yet, all of the slum dwellers and Jhuggi Jhopad wallahs, resettlement colonies have different issues related to their daily lives and they need to be addressed.

AAP has promised moon. It has promised thousands of CCTV cameras as well as women force, commandos to ‘handle’ crime against women. It is where we see the hypocrisy of the party and its leaders. Can crime against women be reduced by such nonsensical ways? AAP has no economic alternative except that they got promoted in the same corrupt corporate system, which they are opposing. The media projected them as alternative and only when the Ambanis were challenged made the things difficult for them in the media. It is the same media who glorified them converted them into villain and now after their victory making them ‘revolutionary’. It is an opportunist media and AAP is well aware of it that if it did not have an upper caste middle class character none would have ever cared for this party. So upper caste urbanized middle class is the USP of AAP hence it is really not an Aam Adami, which actually AAP represent, but Khas crorpatis. Of course, some of the Dalits and Muslims got tickets in it and have representation in the party. However, the challenge lies ahead in fulfilling the promises and addressing the greater concern of the Dalits, Muslims and other poor. The question of representation will be important in future. Secondly, every state is looking for a dominant and powerful chief minister. Thirdly, most of the Kejriwal’s original supporters are same who talked ‘ooper Modi, Neeche Kejriwal’. In longer term such stretagy will not work as neither the caste equations are same in all the regions nor we have one leaders everywhere. Hence like Mayawati, who could not create a BSP beyond UP because of dearth of leaders, Kejriwal will find it equally difficult to have the leaders elsewhere.

AAP put its spokesperson on TV debate very strategically. In major debates we saw Muslim spokes person on TV screens who were well articulate in both Hindi and English language as well as looked absolutely traditional in their outlook. So they reached their target audience very well. It is clear that Muslims who could have got confused in voting this time was unambiguous from the very beginning. If we compare it with the results last time, it is Congress Party, which got its seats from Muslim majority localities. It clearly reflects how this election was taken as a big challenge for Muslims and they voted in large number and to AAP.

Will AAP to justice to the great faith posed by Muslims and Dalits in it. The coming days will show it. AAP will have to reflect on major policy decisions. It will have to speak on representation, on the issue of reservation, common civil code, violence against Dalits, issues of farmers, OBCs and so on.

The decimation of Congress is not the end of the party as many suggest. The fact is that elections are being fought on perceptions. Kejriwal build a perception against Congress along with Anna on corruption issues converting the entire organization totally corrupt. The entire anti corruption movement was communal with anti dalit anti Muslim tendencies though political formation might have changed Kejriwal a bit but his core constituency and support base comes from powerful upper castes who have got disgruntled with BJP for not being able to address their issues. The fact is that Kejriwal’s Jan Lokpal is nothing but an invitation to chaos over political leadership. Hope Kejriwal will work and act on the issues which are not that easy to solve. Will he take a position against Khap Panchayats as he spoke against BJP for trying to intimidate women and spoke candidly that he want girls to enjoy their freedom. So, perception against Congress Party will change once Kejriwal fail to deliver and come back to his agitational politics. With Modi failing at central level and Kejriwal in Delhi will only give people option to revert back to Congress. In fact, Congress should not have fielded candidate in Delhi elections this time given the huge perceptional issues this time and this could have given them much greater respite than current situation where the party scored a zero.

Rahul Gandhi should continue to focus on young energetic people from diverse communities and try to ensure that Congress does not have dilly dallying approach on important issues. Congress’s Narsimharao approach of ‘no governance is the best governance’ on major policy issues actually was responsible for development of perception regarding the party in recent years. The party did not do anything to these perceptions. It did not fight offensively when Nehru was being maligned by the Sangh Parivar trolls on the web space and questions were being raised about Indira Gandhi. The party need to have a cohesive voice and must look honest in its approach. Even when Sonia Gandhi got Forest Rights Act, Right to Food and Land Bill, the perception did not change. The poor were not very happy. The farmers voted against it because P Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahaluwalia were never considered as pro people. So the socialist approach of Sonia and Rahul was mocked and failed by those in power and the party actually is still paying a price for bad governance or no governance.

Next one year will be important for the country. AAP’s victory shows that the saffron chariot can be stopped and that people are fed up with it but at the same point of time AAP is not the answer as most of its class caste character except for a few actually come from the Sangh thought. Secondly, no single party can rule India and therefore parties will have to develop way to work in mutual interest with common understanding and political ideologies. If Kejriwal says he does not have any ideology then he is lying actually. Can any one say Modi government is not working from an ideological perspective ? It is and signs are clear. Therefore, the Delhi election is a signal that if parties have good management and counter Sangh Parivar on the same wicket with good, committed idealistic volunteers, the things will move. AAP had definitely the louder volunteers even when ideologically they are B copies of Sangh Parivar yet their commitment to their leaders brought the things to this level.

Finally, the election results have thrown a big challenge to ‘democracy’ itself. Are we electing ‘larger’ than life leaders who have no faith in ‘democracy’ ? There was a time when political leaders understood the importance of opposition and it was mutual understanding not to field candidates against good leaders. Today, things are changed and we want to ‘liquidate’ the opponents then and there. It is sad that political discourse has turned to such a level. Is it not a threat when we don’t have an opposition in Parliament and the assemblies? Should the opposition come from the ‘street’ now? Do the people want to see chaos in the street ? Role of opposition leaders are important in shaping our policies and hence it saddened me to say that Ajay Maken got defeated humiliatingly despite the known fact that he could have been a better chief minister than the other too. But it is the same Delhi and its ‘elite’ and ‘educated’ class which defeated Dr Man Mohan Singh and gave it to one nondescript Vijay Kumar Malhotra.

Lawmakers will have to think how can a party with 54% of votes get 95% of seats? Is it not highly disproportionate of their vote percentage? BJP with 32% of votes could manage with 5% while Congress with 9% vote did not get anything.  India will pay a heavy price with this when elections are becoming joke and high ‘personalised’ and personality based and those who have capacity to pay will be able to manage otherwise ordinary activists and workers have no place in such a ‘democracy’. We must shift to Proportionate Electorate System so that diverse groups have representation in our Parliament and Assemblies and we will be saved from such a situation when a ‘democratic’ mandate does not become threat to ‘democracy’ itself. Kejriwal’s victory is no different than Modi which decimated the opposition and it is here that I am signing out this note with a red alert that India will ultimately go to dictators who have no respect for democracy if people continue to give mandate in such a way as if they don’t want to see any opposition.  And how will ‘Aam Admi’ tackle those who will take to street for its ‘failure’ to address the situation ? Will it send their ‘jathas’ to ‘deal’ with their ‘political’ ‘opponents’ ? Delhi will have to patiently wait for the coming days which may bring torturous ‘Aam Admi’ dictatorship in the street. At the moment, we can only wish good to Arvind Kejriwal and his team for five year and hope they will be able to fulfill their promises.

Fascist war against Humanity

Fascist war against Humanity

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The slaughtering of over 140 children by the Pakistani Taliban is a grim reminder of how religious rights have no faith in democracy and its order.  That they can kill any one at their own will and the authorities are left to react once they have done their ‘duty’ shows how powerful have they become so far. Further, this reflects that the war on terror has failed on all account. Just a day before this incident, we saw the infamous Sydney show where a gunman kept hostage to so many visitors of the café keeping the authorities guessing his motives and resulting in killings of a few of the hostages.  The killing spree of the gangs and thugs in the name of religion continues world-over and it is a matter of great concern as at the end of the day it is the common person who is becoming the victim of their hate mission.

Pakistan’s incident is a sad reminder of the existing situation there and the biggest crisis the nation faces after its birth in 1947.  It is true that idea of Pakistan was conceived by those who wanted a political space for Muslims in which a majority including Mohammad Ali Jinnah were secular to their core belief but immediately after the death of the first generational leadership in Pakistan we have witnessed military rule, martial law and anarchy in the street. Still till 1980s, Pakistan had a better economy than India and in many things it was ahead including both our traditional sports of Hockey and Cricket. It produced some of the finest teams. In Hockey it actually replaced India since independence while it was a far better team till 1980s than the Indian cricket team.

The point I want to mention here is that there is no point in discussing whether Pakistan was created rightly or wrongly as we can produce argument to prove both the points. As an Indian passport holder, I cannot preach all the time that it was wrong decision. When you are amidst a political movement, you need to take a decision which all of us discuss years later. For any decision there are no one single situation responsible but a series of events. How can the condition of Muslims, their poverty and marginalization, communal riots not justify partition? Contrary to it, the creation of Bangladesh and continuous killings of innocent Muslims and minorities in Pakistan clearly indicate that as a national state it failed miserably probably because Jinnah never wanted a theocratic Pakistan. He was dreaming for a Pakistan of modern ideas which could provide leadership to Islamic countries like Turkey.

Pakistan today is not of the dreams of Jinnah. The military dictators killed the constitution and vision of Jinnah and handed it over to Islamic fundamentalists. When the people rose up against the martial law regime the military leaders got legitimacy through Islamisation process in the country. The long presence of Soviet forces in Afghanistan gave handle to Pakistan’s military regime to extract maximum in terms of money and arms from United States and other Western countries as each one of them was pitched against Soviet supported Babarak Karamal and Nazibullah governments there. It is ironical how the ‘biggest’ and ‘best’ ‘democracies’ in the world use religious rights to fight against communists, Americans needed ‘religious rights’ and hence creation of Taliban to counter. Zia ul Haq, the vilely dictator found it absolutely useful to fulfill his agenda of ruling the Pakistan through Islamisation process which provided his regime a legitimacy. Pakistan fought in between which constitution should be used to run the government. In less than sixty years of its independence, it reflected pathetically on the political leadership how they virtually created extra-constitutional forces to counter the opponents and legitimized themselves. Zia shamelessly went ahead ignoring international protest by hanging his opponent Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Pakistan slowly slipped into Islamic anarchy. Apostasy became the biggest weapons in the hands of the Islamic fanatics to threaten all those who tried to reason with people politically. Minorities were hounded and threatened for speaking their voices and believing in their faith. Zia’s Islamic goons were up in the street to threaten them most of the time. Blasphemy law was the best way to target them, grab their properties and convert them to Islam.

Zia’s death resulted in forces of democracy gaining ground with Benazir Bhutto becoming the prime minister. Internal fight for power among the political parties always strengthened the army which continues to use Taliban and Kashmiri Militants as the trump card against the opponent. It is a well-known secret that the entire Kargil operation was done by General Parvez Musharraf without even providing any information to his prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Though Musharraf was a ‘forward looking’ general yet he did play different games to compete with political parties. He was forced to retire from Pakistan and political process brought Nawaz Sharif back to the country from his long exile in Saudi Arabia. Asif Ali Zardari who was the president has to pave the way for new Muslim League government which gave lots of hope but soon the entire hopes evaporated. Pakistan is in deep turmoil now and if not things are not brought under control now the dirt might spill beyond its boundaries.

Those who justify Islamisation process of Pakistan did not understand that it would turn the table on them. That initially the entire process actually eliminated the religious minorities and their politics. Later, it claimed Ahmedis who the Islamists said were not Muslims at all and have no right to read Quran and enter into the mosques. The number of Hazaras or Shias killed in terrorist violence in Pakistan is exorbitantly high.  Pakistan today is facing the biggest crisis and it is the creation of its state apparatus which suffered from the ‘power’ of a ‘Hindustan’. We did not call it Hindustan as officially India is called Bharat but Pakistani Muslim leadership in their attempt to justify the creation of a Islamic state always termed India as ‘Hindustan’, a term which is now being used by the Sangh Parivar and its propagated media in high decibel.  They also narrate the similar stories of victimhood in partition that since Muslim got Pakistan, Hindustan must be for Hindus.

Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the champion of a secular society, for whom the problem of Hindus and Muslims is not cultural but political in nature and therefore immediately after independence he talked of a Pakistan which could be owned by everyone irrespective of their faiths but then when you take to a wrong idea, it will create wrong precedence. Pakistan’s successive regimes used the religious thugs for their political purposes and the result is today the state is feeling helpless in front of them. Whether it is Hafiz Sayeed or any one else, Pakistan cannot watch helplessly and allow them to spew venom against India but then we have our own Hafiz Sayed. In democracy, they say, the ultimate judge is the people and hence if people have elected them, hence we will have to listen to them and consider their ‘opinion’ important.

It is good that Indian Prime Minister offered his condolences to victim of Peshawar massacre of children. The gesture of schools moaning was great along with show of solidarity by Indian Parliament but it is time we need to ponder. After the slaughtering of these innocent children in Lahore, Indians are in ‘preaching’ mood. Every channel is ‘guiding’ Pakistan of ‘war against terror’. Unfortunately all of them keep quiet when similar things are happening in India. Pakistan’s extra-constitutional apparatus is a fodder for right-wingers here in India who are also bulldozing our constitution and threatening. There is no difference between a Muzahid leader speaking in Pakistan and spewing venom and the Shiv Sena leader or a Hindutva loudspeaker speaking the same way. After this government came to power these loudspeakers are roaring and have become louder.

Pakistan is paying the price of the flirtations of its leaders and military regimes with the religious rights. India that way was fortunate enough that immediately after independence its leadership understood this and opted for a secular India. Democracy may have lots of follies and we complain about them still people have got that small window to use their right which the theocracies and military regimes do not offer. Theocracies result in fascist tendencies. India and Pakistan opted for political democratic models but without challenging the existing social norms. It would not be possible for political democracy to succeed in environment and culture of theocracy that push for majoritarian tendencies and consider every minority as a ‘dissent’ and dissent as a ‘threat’ to the country. While we grew as political democracy but not really matured as political parties did not have power to sideline the religious rights. We too started appeasing the religious rights and ignoring the dangers of majoritarian communalism. World-over, minorities suffer from identity crisis but in our societies the majorities always believed that minorities are gaining at their cost.  South Asia is suffering from that and each community has to act responsibly because a majority community in Pakistan may be a minority in India or elsewhere and similarly a majority community in India is a minority elsewhere. Whatever we do to our minorities’ impact their psyche elsewhere resulting in deep-rooted prejudices as well as threats of intimidations.

South Asia has to grow by secular democratic process. The imposition of religious values and religion by state is dangerous. Can we imagine a South Asia with common text books, common history books and common social studies ? Is it possible ? It could be possible if we want to make our children better human being and not through religious agendas of our particular thoughts. Yes, a common thread could be humanist principles of calling a spade a spade. We all know that all religion in the world talks of common brotherhood. Obviously none talks of sisterhood but at the same point of time, we should know that all the religions despite their ‘greatness’ also resulted in holocausts and killings of innocents. How can we justify an Islamic nation if we oppose a Hindu Rastra? If we oppose a Buddhist nation, we cannot support a Christian theocracy. For every theocracy the minorities are the biggest obstacles in their long term agenda. Theocratic ideas are nothing but fascist ideas and that is why these days it is not just the state but its tame surrender to extra constitutional forces is giving rise to fascist elements in our countries.

If Pakistan is feeling helpless to Hafiz Sayed then we too do not have a great record. All those who are crying to finish Christianity and Islam from India are roaring and roaming free in the country. It is this tendency of majoritarianism that gives rise to intimidation and threat to minorities and dissent. Such tendencies often hijack the democratic process and put the society to the hands of religious rights who are afraid of modern ideas so they will speak against girls education. They will speak against love marriages. Yes, they will hate everything that is modern which they will term as ‘westernization’ while enjoying everything that the western societies produced. Culture becomes a handle for them to beat the opponents. If we compare these fascists in India and Pakistan, we can find commonality among them. They threaten the minorities with dire consequences.  They justify violence against women and blame the women for violence on them and they use the vulnerability of the state apparatus.

India and Pakistan can learn a lot from their miserable failures. It is not a time for preaching. It is time to act. Promote secular liberal values in your lives. Promote that kind of polity and encourage people to people contact. As long as we support violence in the name of religion, we will not succeed.  Pakistan and India should focus on their poor, on their women and work towards removing those hurdles which are the bane for our society. We must work for a secular Pakistan in the very similar way as I say, we must strengthen a secular India. How great would it be when the polity in the both the countries is secular and children learn common history and culture. Weakening of secular forces in our countries has already harmed our societies a lot and if we wish our children should grow, it is time, we must work for secular humanist societies otherwise the religious fascists are ready to kill you anytime without having any remorse and remember they always have a book to justify their mindless violence.