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.

Building political capital on hate propaganda

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

It is a reminder bell that rings every year which has not changed us to the core. The horrific crimes against humanity perpetrated by the political goons in the dark night of October 31^st till a couple of days of November 1984 after the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was declared officially ‘dead’ and which remain unpunished till date is not just a matter of shame but absolute failure of our democracy. A truly democratic system would have envisaged ways and means to tackle such a situation in future but instead people became ‘football’ in the political games of those who have least concern about loss of human lives and sentiments. Punjab was bleeding when India got partitioned in 1947 and Sikh community felt betrayed as many of their issues remained unsettled politically. Sikh nationalism has to be merged into pan Indian Nationalism dictated and dominated by the brahmanical Hindus.

In the din of Pan Indian nationalism, we refused to understand the Punjab’s hurt psyche and wanted to resolve it through military solution in the very similar way of what we are doing in Kashmir. We want referendum on every conflict but not in those regions but in rest of the country. The people of the state had lost faith in administration and politicians were reaping rich harvest on ‘action’ against ‘terrorism’ in rest of the country. So, you take ‘strong’ ‘action’ against ‘terrorist’ and rest assure, you will get a good crop of votes elsewhere. The farcical first past the post system that we inherited from the British is actually now the best weapon for our political class to use against minorities ‘legitimately’.

Political killing cannot help restore peace and resolve a crisis but we saw how everybody used Indira Gandhi’s killing as a political weapon for their own interest. The Congress Party used her killing as a killing of ‘Bharat Mata’ and Rajiv was using all the good words that emerged from ‘Hindutva’ dictionary that time. Maa, Ganga Maa and everything is same which is being used by Narendra Modi today. Indian sentiments have been very openly and unambiguously have to be brahmanical Hindu sentiments. The Hindutva elements inside Congress used it and hence the mandate that Rajiv got in 1984 was thoroughly communal mandate based on hate propaganda. It does not matter whether BJP was zero or two member strength in the Parliament as the ideology preached by the Hindutva won that time. So, to say that Hindutva politics came just when BJP assumed power is absolutely wrong and does not take into account the brahmanical games of the Congress Party. India’s mainstream political parties have seen systematic Hindutvaisation process which was the agenda of Sangh Parivar. Hinduise the polity they wanted and once that was done political parties were unable to challenge the process ideologically. It seems Hindutva has become the main theme and parties want to stick to it and not to question it.

We did not learn from such a crime against humanity when state became a party to it and abdicated its responsibility to protect its citizens irrespective of their caste, religion, region as promised in our constitution. It is not that Congress only was using Hindutva for its own purposes.  Many of the Sikh groups also praised the killers and some of them celebrated Indira Gandhi’s killing too. Even today there are many such groups in UK and Canada which keep celebrating her death. These unfortunate things come handy for hate monger as a tiny incident become a powerful weapon of propaganda by the political opponents. It is according to our suitability who can fetch us vote hence for Modi it is Godhra victims, for Congress it is Indira’s martyrdom, for Akalis it is the murderers of Indira Gandhi and that reflects the bankruptcy of our political parties and their thought process where they assume people to absolute fool and apolitical.

Rumours have always been used to develop hatred towards minority and the marginalized to ensure a consolidation of so-called ‘majority’ for political purpose. So 1984 and 2002 are may look different to some people but they are complimentary to each other. The mask of dominance has changed but it remained quintessentially Hindu hatred towards Sikh in Delhi and Muslims in Gujarat. The leaders might emerge from different political parties, one ‘so called secular and the other so called communal but the leadership, ideology of these parties remain consolidated in the hands of caste Hindus. So the consolidation of upper caste Hindus towards Hindutva philosophy is not a sudden phenomenon as it is a political weapon for power and minorities of different variety will automatically become the victim of this maneuvering.

Many people suggest that in 1984 it was the Congress leaders who committed the crime against humanity. Yes, Congress found that secular mask would not help them much in elections and hence it trended dangerously towards Hindutva and fact is all the events that led to army operation at the Harminder Saheb need to interrogated and analysed carefully. Right from Kashmir to Punjab, Indira Gandhi was using the Hindu card and Rajiv did the same after her death. You need to create a villain for the greater ‘majority’ consolidation and martial castes become the real tool to ‘act’ on the ground. This is the real functioning of the status quoists that they use the ‘victims’ to victimize others. In the cases of riots everywhere urbanized Dalits, OBCs are used even when the leaders of these groups may hail from the upper caste Hindu background as the ‘leader’ has to fight elections too.

If you are not convinced then I can put a small question. May be ‘experts’ can analyse the trend of 

Trilokpuri incident last week and compare it with what happened on the nights of October 31^st and first week of November 1984. The victims in 1984 were Sikhs and this time Muslims but the perpetrators were political goons of Congress that time and this time of the Hindutva party and I can bet the ‘actors’ may be the same who are ‘professionals’ who have become ‘nationalists’ ensures every different thought and look should be ‘treated’ properly. It is therefore essential to see India’s political trends not in terms of Congress or BJP but in terms of majoritarianism at the cost of minorities. If this trend is not arrested we will see more blood bath. India’s electoral system has actually converted minorities into a sandwich between different authoritarian brahmanical parties and unless our electoral system is not changed completely we will see more communal slaughter to ‘anoint’ so messiahs over us.

The failure of the victim getting justice has given bigger propaganda material to those whose ideology was responsible for the crisis that we face in India today. Just yesterday the government of India decided to ‘increase’ amount of compensation to five lakh rupees to the people killed in ‘communal violence’. Shamelessly, the entire issue has been communalized with a clear agenda of going to polls in Punjab exclusively in the coming years.  One must ask as whether people who have been slaughtered in Gujarat in 2002 and who happened to be Muslims will also get any compensation on account of this? Years after year, we see killings of Dalits by the caste Hindus and yet not a single case has been taken to conclusion. India must ask a question to itself why in the past 60 years, none of those responsible for communal carnage have been given any sentences by the courts. In fact, all those who are responsible for such disturbances and hatred are reaping rich harvest politically. Our judiciary has to introspect as why there is such antipathy on part of our state and the system which claim to be ‘one of the best’.  Riots after riots and there is no lessons. Tragedies are occurring on larger scales and yet state remains mute and in the riots cases if we follow them diligently the ‘professionals’ are caught but the real ‘actors’ behind the crime are roaming free and have political protection and power at their hand. When will we see the day when politicians who reaping this ‘rich harvest of hatred’ get sentences by our courts. Unless that is done, we will continue to see the crop of hatred which will empower a few of our politicians but definitely weaken the whole idea of India.

In 1984, we had still good people around us in the media who raised the issue and have been fighting for the rights of the people who were slaughtered. We cannot imagine that now as the time has changed and media has been converted into the propaganda tool of the ruling party. That over 10000 people were killed all over the country and in the most brutal manner and yet we as a nation could not provide a healing touch to them is a shame. It is double shame when people who themselves butcher another minority and discriminate among different minorities create a deliberate and mischievous misunderstanding of an entire thing which is nothing but majoritarianism and its brutal repercussion on minorities. It is the power of these dominant and powerful majoritarian political classes which has resulted in the massacres of people after independence. They will blame each other but the fact is that they perpetuated it. Unambiguously, it is the idea of majority dominance in democracy where minorities have to just succumb and follow the diktats. We are witnessing it at every level.

India does not need to choose between an Iron man and Iron woman. The Iron man was a Congressman and a Gandhian though with a feudal mind and the iron woman too displayed similar anti-democratic tendencies many time. Ofcourse, if commitment to socialism and India’s marginalized and minorities are concern, iron woman as well as her father would be considered far above the ‘iron man’ of India but at the core of their heart both the Iron woman and Iron Man were ‘dictatorial’ in nature. We need to go beyond the rhetoric of individuals and come back to work according to the spirit of our constitution and international laws. Remembering leaders is good but using them for political purposes must stop now. We do not need messiah as they have done enough damage to us making us absolutely ‘devotees’ without ever thinking and respecting rights of others. There is no doubt that Congress leadership had gone overboard in promoting their Nehru Gandhi family but things were never as awkward and explicit as they are looking today.  With pettiness being visible at the highest level, Indian continue to show how immature as a democracy they are and how we live in bitterness giving full freedom to those who continue to enjoy great harvest of hatred. Whoever be at the helm of affairs in Delhi or state, it is the people who will have to pay price. A country is known from the society it has and event managements will not ensure future of its children, women and men. The attitude to look down upon the minorities in suspicion and giving legitimacy to all forms of accusations and violence against them must stop at all level.

The electoral system which benefitted Congress is now helping the BJP but the victims remain the minorities. The propaganda is mostly based on individual incidents where persons from minority or marginalized communities are involved. Their ‘action’ results in negative portrayal of the entire community and ‘need’ strong ‘reaction’. We have seen such ‘reactions’. Majority symbols too are being supplied for children, young and adults in large quantity these days. 

They mean nothing but everything and have become license to intimidate others who do not look like ‘us’. Every morning we are hearing these heavily loaded slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ not out of our own self but to provoke ‘others’ who may not be having the same idea about this concept. If patriotism and nationalism can be certified just on the basis of a few empty slogans, India would not have had any problem but it is much bigger than this. Gandhi was killed and his killings have been justified so was the killings of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv. Godhra was justified and so was the massacre of Delhi in 1984 and Gujarat in 2002. Hundreds of other riots and pogroms have happened in India and our notoriety is in justifying them. 

Our political system has not yet evolved and may be the political parties do not want that to evolve fully to convert us into a complete democracy where each one of us express our opinion without any fear and each of the communities living in India has enough participation in our power structure. We will not have people crying for justice then when each one of us will feel the pain of them. Why should the victims of pogroms of 1984 and 2002 be referred to with particular political slants? They were Indians and therefore India needs to respond to this that both the massacres at 1984 and 2002 are blot to its face and reflect draconian majority tendencies afraid of minority assertion or dissent. 

Democracies mature from the accidents of history so that such things do not happen again by providing level playing fields and ensuring through speedy justice without any political manipulations. Will our political leaders rise above narrow and petty political interests and allow justice to be done to those who have been used as fodder to reach power structure. People must not allow themselves to be used in such a way as such games are not over and some other day we will see other games where people are killed and justification being provided by those in power.

Love Jihad or Khap Yuddh

Return of Barbarians

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The brutal killing of three person of a Dalit family in Ahmednagar district of Maharastra is a reminder of the power of people who want to govern us through domination.  In democracy they say, it is the choice of the people but in India democracy is conveniently being used as a tool to reinforce the primitive barbaric values on people. As the reports are coming in from Maharashtra that the Dalit family of three who were butchered to death in the village might be the case of honored killing as it is being alleged the young son of the Dalit family who was a student in Mumbai had an affair with a married Maratha woman.

According to reports published in DNA, Mumbai, “the incident took place in Javkhade Khalsa village of Pathardi town. The bodies of the couple - Jayashree and Sanjay Jadhav and their son Sunil were found with body parts chopped in pieces in the nearby well. Sanjay Jadhav, a farmer by profession owned an acre of land. Whereas, his son Sunil, who works in a milk dairy in Mumbai had come to his village a week ago.’

The incident and the brutality with which it has been conducted would definitely disturb and outrage any sensitive person as why such things are happening at the regular intervals in India. Is India love starve and living in sexual frustration or there is plainly a caste angle behind these things since the boy allegedly having a secret relations with a Maratha woman whose 16 years son came to know about it and planned it with his maternal uncle.

Well, how can a Dalit boy have an affair with a Maratha woman is the core issue in caste ridden India where caste means everything including your right to have relationship and sex too. There may be other side  of this story, which is natural that sex has become so sacrosanct for us that once we come to know about any affair in our families or friendship our opinion about the person changes. ‘ Oh! you too kind of attitude. In the cases of women belonging to high caste Hindus having any affair with either Dalit or Muslim community youths, the reprisal is much bigger.  Our children are filled with hatred once they come to know that their parents had sex or if they had seen them having sex. Such is the filth in the minds that any affair outside the traditional framework will find a violent retaliation. Frankly none is happy with their woman to be in relationship with any one else outside their defined frame. A Maratha man with big landholding would enjoy any extra relationship and would find encouragement for his ‘brave’ ‘manly’ act but a woman engaged in a relationship would be met with brutality unparalleled.

A few weeks back, we faced the similar situation and this time the girl was a Muslim who used to come to learn computer education at our Centre opened for girl in a place in Uttar Pradesh. Many days she was not turning up at our centre and one fine morning her brother came to office threatening the colleagues working there that they have ‘abducted’ his sister. He spoke to me and I guided him to file an FIR in the police but his family was not interested in doing so. He put lots of external pressure through police but nothing materialized. After many days, the girl returned home. It was said that she was find at a religious town in a red light area. Now, the girls brother again came back and this time he did not go to the police but to the local politician and complained about our work. We got a call from the politician asking us to immediately close our office and leave the place. It was shocking for us. My colleagues tried to reason with the leader but he was not willing to listen. I asked them to keep their patience and try to meet this person in the evening. Finally, in the evening when they went to meet this man whose family is an authority with generations they have been leading that area with ample members of Parliament and legislative assemblies, informed them that girls at our centre need to be ‘disciplined’ as many of them are too ‘bold’. What was his problem? Some of them don’t wear dupatta and many come with Jeans and tops without any dupatta carrying over their head.

I knew this was a sensitive issue there. The problem of this man was that he was the leader of Muslim community and girl who disappeared was a Muslim and hence he wanted to send a signal to all others to fall in line and behave ‘appropriately’.

The fear of boys and girl meeting and in love has never threatened our societies like today. Parents have become victim of the continuous propaganda of ‘love Jihad’ as if some body is planning his marriage according to numbers of their religion. It is disturbing to see continuous violence and communalization of the process after incidents of love marriages, which are either inter caste or inter religious. Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar and many other revolutionaries’ felt that for India’s unity and integrity, the concept of inter-caste and inter-religious marriages must be encouraged and those who are into it must be provided complete protection.

Unfortunately the last few years’ love has become symbol of our male superiority where women’s sexuality is controlled and confined through arranged marriages. With rapid urbanization the individual’s choices will also increases day-by-day resulting in close interaction between boys and girls.  The numbers of court marriages have grown and girls too are ready to take risk at their own threatening the very edifice of this structure, so laboriously protected by religious rights as their fiefdom.  One has to understand who are the forces opposing and politicizing a very personal issue of choices between the two individuals. Why has the term Love Jihad emerged so powerfully to be politicized and used as a weapon of communalization process, which has created chaos and anarchy in many of the Indian cities just because the state of India has failed to protect its citizen from the thugs pretending to believe the moral guardians of our society.

Several years ago an acquaintance of mine informed her parents that she was in love with a boy and want to marry him. Her parents after much persuasion agreed but when they came to know that the boy was a Muslim they tried everything to stop that marriage but of them were determined and had their way. Neither the boy nor the girl changed their religion or identities and are happily living together. The family of the girl who were determined and had hardcore allegiance to Sangh orientation today feel that their son in law is the best.

The institution of marriage is under pressure and more so because the age old caste hierarchies are crumbling under the power of love but then the forces of status quo will never allow such things to happen.  We must not underestimate the point as where is the Love Jihad term used at the moment? And the answer is simple in the areas where young couples have been lynched to death. Western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have seen maximum violence against inter caste marriages and now to evade the issue of Khap Panchayat they created the term Love Jihad.

We all know that Sangh Parivar has never raised any movement for inter caste marriages. There is no history of any Hindutva organization working against caste system, elimination of untouchability or for the inter caste marriages. They got exposed in Haryana as when the Khap were threatening people with dire consequences BJP kept silent. In fact the current incumbent to the chief minister’s position in Haryana is an open supporter of Khap Panchayats as he feel they work according to the social laws. Yes, girls should ‘dress’ appropriately not get assaulted by the boys he said. So, when the Khap issues exposed you, suddenly the new enemy in the form of ‘Love Jihad’ was created.

In the early 1990s during the Ayodhya movement the RSS and its hate propagandists actually raised loads of slogans of hatred against their political opponents. And the third grade slogans rented in the air.’  Tel lagado dabar ka, naam mita do Babar ka’ (massage yourself with Dabar oil, eliminate the name of Babar).  That time every Muslim was termed as ‘Babar Ki aulad’, son of Babar and slogans were deliberately created to provoke them to react. It is disturbing to see many of the so-called secularists in India still feel that Muslims are responsible for the violence as they ‘initiate’ it.  Many of the leaders having allegiance to Sangh Parivar have their children or that of their relatives, near dear ones have married in Muslim families. These include the most pious of our to day’s leader Subrahmanyam Swamy, Lal Krishna Advani and even relative of Bal Thackrey. I am sure none of them would have ever liked to call their ‘grand children’ as Babar Ki aulad if he or she were born to Muslim father.

Love, sex, marriages have been converted into not just political but thoroughly communal ideology by the religious rights. A matter of choice or what we call as right to choice has become public propaganda material for the Sangh’s hate brigade which in fact help the fanatics among the Muslims who have the ‘similar’ perception of ‘sanctity’ of their ‘religious’ ‘values’. A Muslim girl marrying a Hindu boy is a ‘loss’ and ‘shame’ for the Islamic fanatics in the very similar fashion as the Hindu zealots these days are feeling when a Hindu girl is falling in love with a Muslim boy. The fanatics wants in perpetual war so that we do not have time to question them and the status quo which they wish to maintain with growing assertion on part of the Dalits and other marginalized communities. Hence the whole Love Jihad campaign may look against Islam and Muslims but the fact it has an unambiguous hidden agenda and that is to maintain the Hindu caste order that confine their children to their own castes.  The growth and glitter that post 1990s economic reforms brought them in Western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana is now fizzling out. Land made them ‘industrialists’ with children enjoying ‘ night life’ in Delhi, it became clear that caste citadels were crumbling in sex and marriage.  Once there are more self arranged marriages the shops of the moral guardians will be closed and all the political issues related to Hindus, Muslims also get affected. You cannot emotionally blackmail people then.

It is therefore important to understand that those campaigning hatred in the name of Love Jihad are the same who justified the violence and extra constitutional authority of the Khap Panchayats. And it is not just the problem related to north or Haryana as ugly face of caste exists everywhere in the country. Muslims will be the face of this campaign but the real aim is to stop inter caste marriages as purity of the castes have to be maintained here.  Have we not seen the brutality of the Vanniar community in Dharmapuri in Tamilnadu on Dalits? It is not for unknown reasons that the leaders of PMK in that state called for abrogation of SC-ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The Vanniyar leadership is irked like the Sangh Parivar hate campaigners that the girls from their community are being ‘lured’ by the Dalit boys.  Mujaffarnagar’s riots started from such filthy campaign and they provide great political dividend even when the cost is very high. The whole western Uttar Pradesh was epicenter of this hate campaign and we were just reduced to responding to it.

When the state fails and become one of the party in all this the enormity of the situation has to be understood. Now with a government in power that came on these dividends, the agenda is getting wider and wider day by day and states are unable to fix them as most of our secular leaders too cant go beyond their castes and respect their individual choices. Organisations like Ram Sene are on rampage finding out how many new couples came for registration for marriage. They have enough money and time to put people to find through RTI applications and state like Maharastra provided them this information. It reflects that how dangerous have we turned. How can we provide information about two individuals who are under the threat by these goons?

Those who are impressed with Hitler and his Nazism know it well how to keep people on toes all the time. It give good time to business too. Hitler was afraid of Jew businessmen and here in India such mobilisation also isolate Muslim businessmen and put them endanger. The theory is never remain in peace as it will bring people together and force them come more nearer. Once that is done, all the propaganda fail. It is therefore essential for the hate propagandists to keep spreading lies and deceits so that all their talks look original. If there is no enemy then please construct it. If there is no news please create it. If there are no rumors please bring more and more. Bring the issues that touch people’s heart. Corruption may not touch us that heartily as marriage of our women folk with a man from other community.

Filing of false cases and intimidating couples are direct threat now, which can turn purely an individual affair into a monstrous war between the communities. If matter is investigated properly such cases get exposed as happened to a Meerut girl who was allegedly paid Rs twenty five thousands to accuse the Muslim man of rape who she was working with in the Madarasa, by a local Hindutva leader. Entire Meerut was tense for many days with newspapers coming out with different stories. Soon after we had a story from Jharkhand even when the woman clearly informed that all the charges alleged by her are false.

There was a time when people used to have high opinion of those who wore religious apparel but today they are proving to be more treacherous and dangerous. The shocking tale of a woman from Manglore reflects this who accused how a VHP man kidnapped her and forced her into marrying him. It is not for unknown reason that Shiv Sena declared that it would give Rs 21,000 to those Hindus who will produce 10 or more children. Can we have more frightening and maddening ideas such as this, which violate the fundamental rights of individual to have families of their choice and children accordingly? Shiv Sena has run out of ideas. It shows how disconnected they are from the real issues of livelihood and survival of the people.

Now, we have come to such a situation when we can accuse some one falsely as that will kill the person with more TV studios peeping into our personal lives, there is no space for a person to survive and even prove him or her as innocent unless state fails to bring proof of our being criminal. Today, we are surviving on state’s failure otherwise it won’t allow us to even raise our head and prove our innocence. No mechanism is in place to challenge media or punish it or the state apparatus where if the stories turn out to be false after several days. A person is guilty much before the court verdict is declared and their individual choices becoming ‘threat’ to the nation and its ‘social fabric’. This is the state of affair here, which will strengthen the hate mongers. As they are not involved directly as most of them had actually relations among Muslims too but they want to use our marriages, our love affairs, our private lives for their political survival. An India on this will never be safe and secure for all. It will never move ahead. It will be disastrous for all.

The killings of the Dalit family in Ahmednagar did not become a national issue because it did not have a ‘love-jihad’ angle. For media to become a main story for many days you need a Muslim character in it so that our ‘experts’ can discuss it endlessly for hours and hours. How many time this sick media discussed the carnage committed by upper castes against Dalits and Aadivasis? How many times did we hear discussion on such barbaric incidents that reflects how ‘tolerant’ we are? The show will go on. We will continue to fight ‘Love Jihad’ but the implications are already there. Love threatens status quo maintained by caste forces and it is bound to weaken their foundation. It is a war by the caste forces on the citizens of this country who want to live on their own choice, which has been granted under the constitution of India and all the international covenants and conventions. Why should only Dalit speak on the issue? Where are the Hindu leaders who feel Dalits are Hindus and have been working on their ‘social engineering’ for years? Does our prime minister know how brutal Hindus can be when their caste sanctity is challenged? The religious rights and their organizations are happy. It suits well to all that people remain confined to their caste and religious identities so that they could be used for political purposes and sanctity of the caste remains intact. If the threat of Love Jihad can save our caste system very well and further perpetuate it then what is wrong. It is needed to protect the caste minds who are posing the biggest threat to social change so we will hear more cries of Love Jihad and less on Khap Panchayats and their misdeeds on the warring zones of our TV studios. Meanwhile, life for individuals, who our constitutional forefathers imagined would build a stronger idea beyond the narrow confines of caste, region and religion, would be more threatening, painful and isolated. A secular constitution would not be able to save them from being lynched in the streets, at home or elsewhere as Barbarians rules our streets, our life and media. As a citizen of India, this helplessness is more painful and worrying trend. Such acts are only going to strengthen religious rights and extremists in each society who do not want intermingling of people and are afraid of crumbling of caste and religious barriers.  State must act and do its duty. Will it ?

Ecological Disaster at Polavaram

Destruction Unlimited

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The green mountains on the river Godavari are facing the wrath of human greed in the name of ‘development’. Polavaram, a small town on the bank of beautiful river, is about forty kilometer from historic town of Rajmundry is witness to this mass destruction in the name of ‘nation building’. The aadivasis, dalits and other forest dwelling communities remain uncertain to their future as the big companies, bulldozers, and noise making digging, grilling and penetrating machines runs all over the forests. In the no entry zones there are indirect threats not to enter as ‘blasting’ is a regular affair. Godavari flow serenely between the two green hillock and the aim of the ‘engineers’ is to link one to other and build up this huge dam which will provide water supply to ‘coastal’ Andhra people.

There are no clear estimates available at the moment but the number of people going to be drowned or displaced would be nearly half a million if some activists are to be believed. The submergence area is not just in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana but also Odisha and Chhattishgarh but according to government’s own assessment it will be catastrophic. The entire project is ill conceived point out experts as it threatens displacement at massively level. The government does not have the exact figure of the people but the enormity of displacement would be over two to four lakh people. According to Minister for Environment Mr Prakash Javedkar, “276 villages in Andhra Pradesh, four villages in Chhattisgarh and eight villages in Odisha are likely to be submerged.” He said in a written reply in Lok Sabha that an area of 3427.52 hectares of forest land only in Andhra Pradesh is projected to be inundated according to Deccan Chronical on August 13^th, 2014. Actually, reports are also suggesting that the number of villages being submerged in Chhattishgarh may be much more than merely four as being informed by the minister.

He was replying to a question whether the government has conducted environmental impact assessment of Polavaram Dam project and the villages and forest land which are likely to be submerged and destroyed by it.

A report in  The New Indian Express suggest that the government has actually duped the Dalit Aadivasis and other forest dwelling communities as they have lost their land yet no rehabilitation. Most of the people living in the agency areas will be submerged says the report.

“The multi-purpose project would massively displace people numbering over two lakh (nearly four lakh unofficially) from over 300 villages in nine mandals of Khammam (VR Puram, Kunavaram, Chintur, Bhadrachalam, Velerpadu, Kukunur and Burghampad), Devipatnam mandal (East Godavari) and Polavaram mandal (West Godavari), all of them in the Fifth Scheduled area, besides parts of Konta block in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh and Motu block of Malkangiri district of Odisha, says the New Indian Express Report published on August 28^th, 2014.

The reports suggest that Aadivasi resettlement process under the Forest Right Act has not been completed and they are being displaced from their land in utter violation of the law. The problem is that a majority of them do not even know that there is an act and the officials are duping them on different front by false promises as well.

The fact is that while the Parliament has passed the Polavaram bill terming it as a National Project but those living in the area have a right to ask question as whether they were asked about it or not. The project is designed but do the people know as what the design is and how many villages exactly are being submerged. It is actually a clear violation of  Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act-1996 (mandates the approval of the affected gram Sabhas) and special rights to tribal under the Constitution as well very well defined by the Supreme Court in the Samata Judgment upholding the supremacy of the Gram Sabhas in decision making process falling in their zones. It is not known how many public hearings have been conducted in these regions as three states are losing over 300 villages. The fact is there are not even 20 public hearing on the issues which might have been conducted before 2006.

‘The people are living in uncertainty while the politicians have played caste card very well to dupe them. Today, Polavaram’s Dalit Aadivasis are trapped in vicious nationalism of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state. At the one side the state of Andhra Pradesh got all the areas, which were part of Telangana around Bhadrachalam except the Ram temple. It was a bargain between the ‘temple’ and Aadivasis so that the project does not get affected. The reasons are simple. The ‘fruits’ of Polavaram project will be enjoyed by the people of Andhra Pradesh and it were the Aadivasis of Telangana who would have been submerged the most. There would have been political turmoil and big protests against the dam but with this ‘masterstroke’, the authorities have ‘successfully’ and ‘democratically’ crushed the protest and opposition to the dam. Today, a visit to these areas reflect how people are thoroughly isolated and there are scant voices of protest in the Andhra Pradesh region perhaps because it is assumed that the ‘project’ is going to fetch water to most of the Andhra State. So, for the ‘development’ of one region of people, the nation is ready to slaughter those who nurtured a region. Most of the time, this sacrifice is sought from the Aadivasis who have for years lived in the forest, protected it from being destroyed by the human greed.

For a person in love with greens, it is a depressing scene to visit the region and witness to its destruction.  It is more painful process when you see organized destruction of these serene and peaceful zones where Aadivasis have been living for centuries. As I visit the region after nearly five years when I visited the Polavaram area visiting via Bhadrachalam the scene is more painful. The beautiful and serene Godavari flows along with the lead road to Polavaram town amidst absolute green patches of fertile land. Aadivasis have been duped and there is an estimate of over four lakh people getting displaced due this project for which there is no alternative plan to rehabilitate. Most of them feel that Forest Rights Act has been violated which guarantees that no Adivasi would be dislocated from his location. There are islands of temples where people go and offer their prayers. The landscape makes you fall in love with nature.  Green Paddy field with coconut trees, banana plantations greet you with open arms. They are the natural to this region which is importing Ganesha festival these days with huge hoardings everywhere with youngsters asking for donation for their ‘programmes’.

Forty kilometer away from Rajmandary is a small town of Polavaram with chaos on the streets and absolute rural populace unmindful of the huge catastrophe that this project might bring on them. Yes, with growing immigrant population that come as work force for these projects, the business of liquor, meat and other illicit activities also grow that provide legitimacy to these ‘developmental’ projects. With its dilapidated structures all around, Polavaram is essentially an old and rural town with little facilities for growing urban youth who migrate to either Rajmandry or Vijaywada for higher education leaving older population in the villages. Many of the villagers in the submergence zone have been given small patches of homestead land here in the ‘city’.

There are some of the most beautiful locations here in this area. Papikonda Hills are well-known tourist destinations where tourists go on a cruise through Godavari. It’s a long journey of 9 hours on boat to the aadivasi locations who are now a subject of tourism while all their right to live and an environment is being violated.  As you move out of the tiny Polavaram town, the destruction process is very much visible. The beautiful hills between which Godavari flows are being systematically blown up and blasted. You see big trucks loads of blasted stones are taking up, heavy crushers, bulldozers and other blasting machines are tearing the heart of the forests. It’s a very disturbing scenario to see how heartless any body would be to kill the natures plenty in such a brutal way.  The roads are pathetic with people hanging on both the sides of autos, which they use as commuting from their places to Polavaram town as means of commuting.  Unless you know a little bit about the local areas, you would not be able to visit these villages which would be nowhere in the map of India after some time. You can meet the villagers who live in uncertainty of their lives in the coming days as the government has not done anything consequential to drive away their fears. While in Telangana there was some protest now being part of Andhra the Aadivasis find little support, which is really sad part of the entire story.

Ramaiyyapet is extraordinarily beautiful situated on the bank of river Godavari and surrounded by the greenish mountains. It is a picturesque village which is  the first village going  to be submerged for the ‘development’ of the nation.  Most of the houses and huts show the nature of the village belonging to these working masses. About 500 meters in the beginning of the village is a primary school. This village is a mix up of Dalit, Backward and tribal families but a majority of the affected communities belong to fishermen. As we walk the village some people gathers at the village temple to discuss the issue. Most of them are disturbed at the sudden ‘development’ of the project as initially the project pace was very slow but it has started now. There was a ‘public hearing’ in this village in 2007 in which people were Promised Land to Land and with a price to about 1.85 lakh for agricultural land. All those who have less than 5 acres of land would not be compensated with land. The land-to-land process has rarely implemented as after the public hearing in 2007 nothing has happened. Neither this village was settled nor the authorities came back here. Some of the tribal have been provided housing plot in Polavaram town but there was no source of income for living. According to people, there has been no political and social support and they are living on their own and do not know what to do.  Fact is that politicians have played game here on their caste lines and made false promises so that they remain entrenched in their caste identities. Most of the backward community people feel that Aadivasis and Dalits have been given ‘preference’ in rehabilitation package though none has an absolute data of the situation. It was clear that only those owning land above 5 acres of land would be provided land in lieu of it and all others would be getting a compensation of Rs one lakh eighty thousand per acre.  There was no evaluation for their homes and though the public hearing was done in 2007, nothing happened afterwards. The land prices in cities have soured multiple times. The authorities did not bother to come back to people and now the threat loom large over people. Some of those who got this compensation have finished their money as they could not get even one third of land for that money. There was no planned package for them as to where should all of them be resettled and each one of them was forced to make arrangement for themselves.

A whole living together has been destroyed by this commercial greed. Those who have stayed together for years are now living a life of uncertainty. Rammyapeta is between two beautiful hills where Godavari is majestically flowing. One the one side the destruction process is on while the other side the village waits for submergence. Anywhere in the world, such a blatant violation of the human rights of people would have faced not just stiff resistance from people but from political parties but strangely in India they enjoy on giving false promises to people and behave like middlemen. No political party in India has a clear agenda and understanding of sustainable development, which is non-confronting with nature where development, human being and ecological balance can be created. At least such beautiful forest and great bounty of nature can not be allowed to crushed for providing ‘happiness’ as the destructions caused by it will be equally vociferous in the years to come. We have witnessed the destructions of nature in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh where added with climatic changes nature has brought havocs in the lives of millions.

As we move inside in the region to visit some Aadivasi villages, lush green forestry and equally beautiful meadows welcome you. It’s a perfect combination of human being living with nature in complete conformity of it. Thousands of cows, buffalos and other animals are grazing in absolute freedom in these forest zones. Being an agency area, this has been a protected zone so far but the destruction process has now started.  Chegondapally is a aadivasi village belonging to Koya tribe amidst beautiful green fields surrounded by forests and meadows. Over 350 families of this tribe live here. Under the Rehabilitation policy of the state government nearly 80 families got houses in the Indira Awas Yojna.  A number of them are government employees. Since not many aadivasis have land above 5 acres hence most of them did not get it. No land has been given to people. The problem is that so called public hearing took place in 2006 and things have vastly changed after that. How are people expected cope the situation now with meager money after losing everything.

Interestingly, upon reaching this village, we find a group of young Aadivasi boys watching cinema in the temple complex.  I was surprised to find educated youths who could communicate in English. Padian Durga Prasad is about 25 years of age who played state level cricket, Ranji Trophy for Andhra Pradesh and now retired. Perhaps, did not get much opportunity, as this was not a retiring age as I inform him. He says that his people cannot stay in the urban areas, as they do neither get a house to live nor get any encouragement of the people. He could study because of his mother who is a teacher and his father a landless agricultural worker. He too was looking for a government job as perhaps did not find much support there. It was surprising for me that when in the corporate world cricket players are earning millions, here is an Adivasi boy unable to get sponsors and now back home he look for a government job as a Physical Training Inspector in some college.

Most of them are worried about losing their natural place and unknown to any other place they might be shifted. This breaking up of relationship and families is the biggest cause of worry among people. Many of them may not even have thought as government only use caste and religion card to break their unity and dupe them further for a new ‘dream’.

For many others this is a ‘nation building’ project like Narmada dam but the brutal fact is that this project has many similarities like Sardar Sarovar where the maximum destruction happened with the Aadivasis in Madhya Pradesh while the fruits were reaped by the non Aadivasis of Gujarat. The Polavaram’s pain is that it is inflicting unimaginable damage to not just Dalit Aadivasi lives of Odisha,Chhattishgarh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh but the benefits will be reaped by the people far away from the region. Nowhere in India can one see the positive outcomes of any such projects where affected people have got direct benefit from it.

Polavaram is an example that despite heavy damages due to the destruction of nature, we have not learnt our lessons yet. India will remain one of the biggest ‘democracies’, expert in killing its own environment, and people in the name of development. Hope this destruction does not bring another Tsunami in the following years for which the country is not yet prepared and has no plan of action.