Tolerant’ ‘aberrations’

‘By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Indian Parliament paid glorious tribute to Baba Saheb Ambedkar on his 125^th birth anniversary celebrations and prime minister asked that the values of the constitution be promoted all over the country yet the home minister wanted the ‘Socialist secular’ word to be deleted as they are ‘redundant’ and ‘misused’ in India and not part of the original preamble. Even if these two words were not there and there might have been reasons does not mean that they have no relevance. How could Ambedkar who espoused the cause of socialism giving absolute guidance through directive principles not like ‘socialism’?

The violence and cruelty in this country are not new but the problem is how our media comes out with general reference suggesting these are ‘aberrations’ and then harp on great golden past of ‘tolerance’ and then this country jump out with candle lights and black badges against ‘aberrations’. In Parliament Rajnath Singh said Ambedkar was humiliated and discriminated yet he never felt leaving the country and Congress Party’s leader in Lok Sabha Mr Mallikarjun Khadage retorted by saying as why should he leave the country, he was the ‘moolniwasi’ indigenous habitat of the country, Aryans came from outside to oppress us.  What have we done to address those concern of Dr Ambedkar if we say we genuinely respect him and his thoughts. His concern was for a social democracy but has it been addressed. Will the government outlaw the Khap Panchayats and promote self arrange marriages that transcendent religious, caste boundaries. Will it protect those who do so? Modi’s successor in Gujarat felt that the 22 commandments of Dr Ambedkar to Dalits, can create animosity between the societies and hence withdraw the book on Ambedkar.  Have we seen any country where you want to create temples of man, worship him but refuse to implement his socio cultural thoughts? Will political parties take to Ambedkar’s vision of Prabudha Bharat and it is possible only through a fair implementation of our constitutional values and ensuring they become part of our daily habits culturally too.

When values of liberalism, freedom of thoughts and respect for dissent comes in our heart and become part of our core values then we are capable of even admitting that not everything was ‘golden’ in our past. It is not important to say that all our forefathers were the greatest people on earth and did not commit any atrocity or mistake on any one. When you are surrounded by those who believe more in jargons and high voltage ‘nationalism’ to fulfill their ulterior political motives you start glorifying and justifying everything of the past and that result in distortion of facts and converting many people into heroes and others who disagree to be as villain. The liberal ‘followers’ of these theories actually will condemn these incidents but term them as ‘stray’ or fringe.  But today the situation is not that simple. It is not just the physical violence but academic dishonesty and projecting our past as always ‘golden’ and liberal. We are not a theocracy and the constitution gave us freedom of expression to remind the good and bad of our past so that the current generation could learn from both. Hiding the dirt of the past will only create a highly intolerant society. It is time to remember some of the incidents termed as aberrations and our reactions then after the independence.

1.    

 In 1948, immediately after the independence, a fanatic Brahmin assassinated Gandhi but the nation remained calm. I shudder to think what would have happened if the murderer of Gandhi were a Dalit or a Muslim but then most of the ‘intellectuals’ pointed out that it was a murder carried by a RSS affiliated organization and not really by a Hindu or Brahmin fanatic. We were told that it was an aberration as people of India love tolerance.

2.     In 1982 thousands of innocent Muslims were butchered to death at a place called Nellie in Asam in the name of ‘outsiders’. The government of India failed. There were other ‘communal riots’ engineered in Bijnaur, Moradabad, Bhagalpur and Meerut. The victims did not get any justice and we satisfied with these aberrations. Life was as usual as ever.

3.     

In 1984 Indira Gandhi was assassinated by the two body guards of her who happened to be Sikhs and the ‘people’ decided to teach Sikhs a lesson of their life. For next three days the country saw planned massacre of the worst kind in India in which children were burnt to death and people were chased away simply because they practiced another faith. Human Rights Organisation worked day and in night yet we said it was an aberration. Some said it was ‘emotional’ outburst while the ‘power’ justified it as ‘jab bada ped girta hai to dharati hiltee hai’ when a big tree falls the earth trembles. The movement against the highhandedness of the prime minister had just started but rather than being apologetic he challenged the opponents in the plain Bollywood style, ‘ Unko naani yaad kara denge’.

4.     In 1991 when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the Tamil terrorists the entire country remained calm. Why? There were no accusations and counter accusations. His cremations passed peacefully. There was no aberration as perhaps the killers were not Muslims. I walked through the streets of Delhi that day to see the empty roads but no ‘terror’ unlike the first three days of Indira Gandhi’s assassination when the city was virtually burning.

5.     In 1992 the Hindu fanatics demolished the Babari Masjid proclaiming that it was a temple where Lord Rama was born and that the said temple was demolished by Emperor Babur hence it was a history ‘correction’ project for them. Accordingly, Babari Masjid was the symbol of slavery and must be demolished to pave the way for a grand Ram Temple. It is well known fact how the idols of Lord Rama were installed in the masjid yet even if those factors are not accounted none has given right to street goons masquerading as politicians to become constitution unto themselves. World watched with horror how the lynch mob of Hindutva climbed up to the monument and demolished it. 

F

    From    December 7^th, 1992 onwards we found ‘secular’ people remembering Gandhi and condemning Sangh Parivar and its affiliates with utterings, ‘our age old tradition of tolerance’ is broken. It brought shame to Hinduism. Rather than saying that you cannot correct history and if you try to dig too much you will only find the Buddhist structure underneath and if they want to correct everything then you can imagine what will be left in India? But again demolition of Babari Masjid was described as aberration of the Hindutva fringe.

6.     Immediately in the aftermath of the Babari Masjid riots were engineered in Mumbai in 1993 and state apparatus failed to protect the people of the city as political rivals were raising the issue. Hundreds died and none was punished so far. In fact, the hate mongers became managers of the city and now control the levers of power.  Bombay is the city of tolerance, we were told and this incident was an aberration only.  The case continues in the court and the Tamilnadu government seeks commutation of the death penalty respecting the ‘sentiments’ of the Tamil people and it is so as the murderers are not Muslims.

7.     The thugs burnt a Christian Missionary Graham Stains and his innocent children in the forest of Odisha blaming him for engaging in ‘conversion. We all cried and condemned the incident and called it the work of a ‘fringe’ and mad man influence by the toxic ‘ideology’ of Hindutva. On the other hand, we don’t have much appreciation for his wife who pardoned the barbarians who killed her husbands and children so brutally.

8.     In 2002 hundreds of people died because of the absolute failure of the state. A former member of parliament was burnt to death while begging for protection. We heard many stories of brutality and barbarism. Many attributed to Godhra incident of burning of Hindus in the train who were returning by the Sabarmati Express by the mob incited by the Muslim fanatics. Now, there were two kinds of people who said Godhara accident was not planted by Muslims as if they can’t do it and the other said it was only Muslims who did it and that Hindus have a right to avenge it and therefore all that happened in post Godhara incident in Gujarat was justified. Our position was clear on both the front. State cannot justify tit for tat as it needs to protect people and provide justice to the victims. If the Muslims of Godhra were engaged in certain incident that can’t be a justification for their lynching in rest of the state and in the country. The duty of the state is to provide protection to its citizens irrespective of caste and investigate the matter and bring justice to the people whoever he or she is.

9.     In between we had seen the murders of Dalits in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Maharastra, Gujarat by the upper caste landed communities. None went to jail. We had numerous caste murders, honored killings, khap justice killing innocent lovers who dared to cross caste and religious boundaries, in the most brutal and barbaric way. There was not a tear shed for them. Communities laughed blamed others and went scot free. We the romantics blame a few fringes and said it was an aberration.

10.  Then came the ‘horror’ moment of India. December 16^th Nirbhaya rape put blame on violence against women on the prime minister and the then government. The ‘nation’ burnt and cried. It wanted a new law which was given to it. The ‘nation’ wanted to hang the perpetrators of the crime. We protested and wanted our streets, markets, home become ‘secure’ for our girls but when a British woman make a documentary and ‘reveal’ the dirty reality of the society in India, we all wanted a ban on the film. We said that the ‘nation’ is against the culture of ban yet if somebody exposes its culture then that must be banned. The film on Nirbhaya was banned because the upper caste lawyer was seen saying that if his daughter would come late and had a boyfriend he would not hesitate to burn her. We saw the statement in deep dismay and utter disgust yet we decided to shoot the messenger and said such episode do not ‘reflect’ our society which is very tolerant.

11.  A Christian professor’s hands were chopped off by the Muslim fanatics for allegedly ‘insulting’ prophet Mohammad. The Hindu communal became liberals asking for the human rights of the professor while the ‘secularists’ ignored the ghastly incident. We all said Muslims are not like that and these are fringe.

12.  In district Kannur, Kerala a Dalit woman Chitralekha was hounded, named and humiliated by the people including that of those belonging to ruling left front leaders that time because she became an auto driver much to discomfort of many drivers who wanted to throw her out because she belong to the Dalit community. She fought for her battle for nearly 11 years yet our national conscience did not wake up.

13.  In 2013 Western Uttar Pradesh saw the communal flashpoint. How the Mujaffarnagar violence killed people. Blame game started. The goons got political legitimacy and finally went to their political parties and became ministers. Those who were killed, raped and left homeless still suffer. The helpless People came in the street, protested with candlelight suggesting that such ‘aberrations’ don’t  takes place next time if we follow Gandhiji.

14.  Now people are being killed for their food menu inside the home. Akhlaq was killed for no fault of his as it was alleged that his family was cooking beef. We felt outraged at it and said the Hindutva fringe do not represent India. Hindus and Muslims have lived together and have been very tolerant. Several years’ back two dalits were killed for tanning the skin of a dead cow in Jhajjar town of Haryana. The hypocrisy is ‘liberalism’ that in this country killing a cow is punishment and raise so much of ‘passion’ while killing a Dalit does not attract that much of passion and condemnation.

15.  Hundreds of Dalit families faced tyranny of the caste Hindus in Harayana and none came to support them. When they converted to Islam after all option failed they were threatened. Now two Dalit children were burnt in Harayana and the nation woke up to protest,’ the killers of these brutalities don’t represent us as these are aberrations’. The minister compared them to dogs and get away with it only to show how much are we ‘tolerant’ towards those who spit venom every day.

16.  When rationalists like Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Kalburgi and Govind Pansare were killed no remorse was shown. In fact people were threatened with dire consequences. None of them were part of any mainstream political party. They had been speaking against prevailing superstition in the society an issue none of the political parties dare to question hence not much botheration about their killings. But today when the world watch us in horror and our culture of ‘tolerance’ stand exposed then we have started singing again that ‘they’ do not ‘represent’ our society.

17.  Amir Khan and Shahrukh Khan are actually the ‘brand’ ‘ambassadors’ of ‘Indian tolerance’ and ‘inclusive’ democracy world over. We don’t realize that this country could not convince Maqbool Fida Hussain to return as the Hindutva’s lunatics continue to threaten him with diverse cases in different courts. Sad that there is no mechanism from saving people from such kind of ‘legal’ ‘terror’ where you don’t know who and where can file a case against you. The local courts are ready to take such frivolous petitions and failing to respond could place you in jail. With all this, we have shown remarkable ‘tolerance’ for those who are spitting venom on social media against the opponents, threatening them with murders and exporting people to Pakistan as if they have an agreement with the latter.

18.  In the past fifty years, we have ‘tolerantly’ witnessed the silence annihilation of Aadivasi culture in the name of development. Millions have been uprooted from their native land to make India a ‘world power’. We have land for big corporate but no land for the honorable and dignified settlements of Aadivasis. Every big dam can narrate you story of slaughtering of aadivasis from their land.

19.  Even after 68 years of our ‘independence’ people clean filth, go deep into pit to pick up garbage, millions are still engaged in picking human excreta. Prime Minister’s Swachch Bharat cannot eradicate it as it attempt to hide the dirty reality of manual scavenging. As a society, don’t we think that we should have been highly ‘intolerant’ towards such discrimination but then what to do we are a ‘tolerant’ society.

20.  That we have tolerated so much to see women’s are disallowed in the temples along with Dalits. Girls are being killed in the womb, sold in the market in many places. Going out without a male aid is a challenge and we witness this with great tolerance.

21.  Haven’t we ‘tolerated’ too much the discrimination to people in North East that AFSPA still remain in force despite protests by the people there. We will ‘glorify’ Irom Sharmila as ‘greatest’ but not ready to listen to her voice.

These are just a few ‘aberrations’ in a society where it is happening at a regular stretch. You need to just go deep into communal violence, massacre of Dalits, violence against women, untouchability, manual scavenging, anti land grabbing protests, encroachment of big corporations in the forests, big dams etc to see the level of ‘tolerance’ that India has towards its own people.

The tolerance-intolerance debate reminds me of a great word of wisdom by Sardar Hukum Singh in the Constituent Assembly related to minority-majority issues. He warned against majority communalism as soon the thin line disappear and criminal communalism become war cries of ‘nationalism’. If the minorities who always are threatened react by asserting as well as displaying their cultural identity then it is easily termed as ‘communalism’. Minority’s assertion to their identity therefore become a dissent and must be dealt with harshly.

But in the current phase India is passing through that kind of tolerance where a ‘Muslim’ cannot express anything against the ‘popular’ notions and he must be proud of our ‘great’ heritage at the same point of time Hindus can speak anything without getting noticed. So there is no doubt that we were never tolerant towards dissent. Muslims may be becoming victim of this ‘intolerance’ now but we have history of celebrating killings right from the mythological text. Don’t we celebrate burning of ‘Holika’ during the Holy festival ? Haven’t we seen celebration of killings of Ravana, Meghnath, Kumbhkaran, Suparnkha, Tadka at such a huge level ? How can our children think of tolerance and Dharma. How you define it. Rama who exiled his pregnant wife and left her, spied her and doubted her chastity while Ravana who did not even touch her despite abducting her just to avenge his sisters humiliation. How will our children become rational when they are told do just follow the ‘symbolism’ and not to think as why should we celebrate killing. Don’t we celebrate killing of Mahishasura. No body wants to know as why these people were killed. The only arguments for them as that they were ‘asuras’. So it means you can kill any one who is ‘asura’ which was their identity. It means your rights and wrongs are judged by your identity. That is the crux which most of our historians refused to accept. Muslims-Christians face it today. Dalits-aadivasis faced it life long not just from the caste Hindus but also from the upper caste Muslims and Christians too.  You cannot be tolerant, civilized when you justify killings in the name of identities. It is important we start scrutinizing these religious texts and historical text as what is wrong. The wrong is in our thinking process and social attitude where your identity and display of identity is a ‘dissent’ and that has to be crushed. History is a tool of the power elite to intimidate others through distorting and corrupting the knowledge system. So Amir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali are good as Rahul, Vijay, Shankar or so on but not as Mohammad, Aslam or Naushad. They cant speak anything on Muslim issues as that would prompt reaction from the ‘trolls’ who will abuse you, intimidate later and kill you finally. Isn’t it the biggest sign of  ‘tolerance’ that we as a society continue to legitimize them and justify their acts to which ‘liberals’ would again throw their ‘jumla’ of ‘aberration’.

Europe, Canada, Australia and Newzealands Parliaments have apologised for what they have done to indigenous people. It was a great gesture. Our Parliament is discussing so many things during the 125 years of Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar, the father of our modern republic yet none in the Parliament ever spoke of the historic injustice done towards the Dalits, Aadivasis and the shudras in 2000 years of history of brahmanical brutalities and cruelties. It is time Parliament show some intolerance towards this tolerance of barbaric culture to our own people by our own forefathers. Are we ready to apologise for what the Manusmriti and its masters did to India's Bahujan masses and that would be the real tribute to Baba Saheb Ambedkar if we accept the fact that we were brutal, barbaric and maltreated to our own people and now time has come to undo those historical wrongs.

Lalu revive VPs Mandal legacy in Bihar to decimate Hindutva's juggernaut

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The historical verdict of the Bihar 2015 has send shock waves in the Hindutva camp while gladdening the heart of every Indian who believed in inclusive secularism and protecting the idea of India as enshrined in our republican constitution and the hero of this verdict is Lalu Prasad Yadav, a man mocked by the urban elite, even of the ‘secular’ variety and news channels even today did not feel ashamed of commenting on him as ‘thug’, a word which they will never dare to describe those in power in Delhi. The nation remain thankful to this earthy man for what he has done in Bihar by repeating what he did on October 23rd 1990 at Samastipur where  Lal Krishna Advani was arrested during  his (w)rath yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya. Today, Advani’s charioteer is the prime minister of India and Lalu and his ‘Mahagathbandhan’ has given an unforgettable ‘gift’ to Lal Krishna Advani on his birthday. One does not know whether Advani is happy with the verdict in Bihar or remembering the happening of the things exactly 25 years ago. There are so many similarities here 25 years later and lesson learnt politically. Mulayam ditched the grand alliance exactly showing the same traits as he did betraying the forces of Mandal and allying with those who had no interest in protecting the political and social interest of the Dalits and marginalised. Lalu put a break to the great designs of Lal Krishna Advani and standing rock like with the then prime minister V P Singh whose government was voted out in Parliament for protecting India’s constitution and providing rights to India’s Bahujan masses. It is for the first time in political history that a government fell for fulfilling its constitution obligation to the nation that time when the entire nation faced the worst ever threat from the exclusivism of Hindutva which thrive for a theocratic state.

The importance of this victory of the secular alliance is enormous for the country and need replications. Lalu and Nitish showed greater statesmanship by coming together ignoring all their minor differences and egos. Adding Congress to their side was another important factor which gave them strength to widened their base and the grand old party of India also need to Mandalised if it want to strengthen its base. The message from Bihar is clear that forces of social justice will reject all kind of religious fanaticism and would want their share in power structure. Ironically, none remembered VP Singh during this campaign not even his old friends including Lalu and Nitish even when they lost know time in ‘claiming’ the ‘legacy’ of Jai Prakash Narayan. It was not shocking to hear because none wanted to antagonize the ‘upper caste’ votes and therefore V P Singh remained unwanted during the ‘campaign’.  The caste media would immediately tag all these people as Mandalites and casteists and therefore Jai Prakash became the most uttered word by not just Nitish and other Samajwadi leaders but by the BJP. Bihar’s result show that it is VP Singh whose Mandal legacy work and will remain more relevant than ever despite our aversion to the man. The forces of Social Justice must revive his legacy to make their presence felt everywhere and JP’s legacy would not work as it only strengthend the Sangh Parivar.

Bihar showed that secularism is essentially inclusive and has to include the most marginalized. It cannot be merely discussed philosophically but in pure terms of participation and representation of communities. These elections clearly showed that BJP can only fight with Congress using Communal-secular divide but can not really take on when the question of social justice and caste identities emerge. Everywhere BJP’s track record has been using the caste identities and then imposing a leadership of different community. Example of Chhattishgarh, Jharkhand and Haryana are well known and people feel deceived of it.

Bihar’s victory is the revival of Mandal forces who were definitely feeling isolated and outdated. During the elections Lalu Yadav raised issues of caste discrimination, reservation of the Dalits and OBCs, issue of beef and communalism. Narendra Modi and his team tried to polarize the elections in different way by unleashing lies everywhere. Never in the history of India, we had seen a prime minister stooping so low in debate when he said that Lalu and Nitish were trying to ‘steal’ quota of SC-OBCs and give it to Muslims. How can a Prime Minister speak such a language which has blatantly communal tone? It is not surprising for Narendra Modi as has used ‘Pakistan’ to polarize the voters and presenting him and his party as the sole champion of Hindus and Hindu India and any one voting others means celebration in Pakistan. And such shameless rhetoric did not stop as Amit Shah, the chief commander of Narendra Modi spoke same language suggesting that if BJP lost there will be celebrations in Pakistan.

There is no denial of fact that BJP used money, media and mafia power to influence the voters. The enormous finance it has in its disposal is threatening democracy and it has emboldened those forces who feel they can buy people and circumvent democracy.  During the last general elections we have seen the power of money, media and mafia as late Kanshiram would always warn his cadres to be vary off, as they are engaged in distorting and misinterpreting information. It is also true that people may be illiterate but know well as that ‘king’ can ‘do’ ‘wrong’ and therefore need to be punished severely. ‘Yeh public hai sab janati hai’. People know everything about their leaders.

The country is watching regularly how the Hindutva’s rabble-rousers abusing the ordinary citizens, dictating us how we should live, eat and behave. Everywhere we see their moral policing and worst kind of violent behavior. It was wonderful when Lalu countered them vociferously that Hindus too eat beef and that the Sangh Parivar was anti Dalit and anti poor. A number of cases have been filed against Lalu Yadav and we know it well how the Hindutva’s trolls have been threatening secular human rights activists everywhere from social media to public life. It is not just threat of physical intimidation but also ‘legal action’.

BJP tried to break the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ of Lalu with taking away Mulayam Singh Yadav. It is the defeat of Mulayam’s opportunistic politics which he always did and remained on the wrong side of history. In 1990, Mulayam sided with anti mandal forces led by Chandrashekhar and this time he tried to hobnob with the BJP even speaking openly that it was  BJP wave  everywhere. History has repeated itself. Modi and all the samajwadis spoke of Jai Prakash Naraian but none of them uttered a word in the name of VP Singh. Frankly speaking Nitish and Lalu are not the product of JP but of VP. They might have been there during JP’s movement but who cared for them? When did JP raise the issue of the most marginalized, Pasmandas and aadivasis? It is the Mandal revolution that brought leaders like Lalu Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan to the fore and their voices became heavier and powerful. Ofcourse, there was party like BSP and Ambedkarites who had been fighting this battle for long but not stronger that time to influence the parliamentary politics. So VP Singh’s Mandal decision is the most historical action of a political leader in independent India and it created a huge lot of talented leader from the hitherto unrepresented sections. VP Singh put his life to risk fighting against Hindutva forces and perhaps it is time for the leaders of Mandal movement to carry forward that legacy and spread it across the country.

The massive mandate to Lalu-Nitish show that Mandal will always remain more powerful than Kamandal if used properly and educatively. If the secular forces try to become B or A team of BJP they will be wiped out. This is a warning to Mualayam Singh to mend his ways and stop flirting with the Hindutva. There is a message for Mayawati too to make proper alliance in UP and any attempt to hobnob with the Hindutva will throw her permanently out of state.

For Congress it is time to revisit those events exactly 25 years ago when they brought down a government for fulfilling its constitutional mandate to protect a religious place in Ayodhya. Yes, on November 7^th, 1990, VP Singh government was brought down by the combine strength of BJP and Congress just because it stopped Advani’s hate yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya. Advani was requested to stop the yatra as it had unleashed a death train everywhere and Lalu Yadav, the then chief minister of Bihar stopped it and got Advani arrested in Samastipur on October 23^rd, 1990. Interestingly, the District Magistrate that time who arrested Advani was R.K Singh, who is now the Member of Parliament of the BJP. On 7^th November 1990 Congress played the dirtiest card in its history by allowing the fall of the VP Singh government as BJP has withdrawn the support. Congress betrayed not just Muslims but also the OBCs as it clandestinely supported anti Mandal forces. This time too Congress tried to dissociate with Lalu in the name of his being ‘tainted’ ignoring his full-fledged support to  Manmohan Singh government in Delhi.

Congress paid heavy price since 1990. It is not BJP but VP Singh who brought the congress to this level but the fact is Congress can not blame him for this unless it changes its party structure and current leadership of the caste Hindus and soft Hindutva people and create new young leaders of Dalits, OBCs, Muslims and AAdivasis. We acknowledge its wide base all over the country but it need strong ideological strength and dedication to social justice and secularism which unfortunately is questionable as it always played the brahmanical secularism or purely  ‘multiculturalism’ strengthening the soft Hindutva line and got decimated. They made right choices in Bihar and now looking for revival in the state now but if they still look for the same social space as earlier the party will remain on the periphery in both Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Bihar has given a huge sigh of relief to all of us. It has also taught a lesson to those Dalit leaders who shifted their loyalties so easily. People like Jeetan Ram Manjhi have no future as they betrayed the cause. Sitting with corporate Hindutva these discredited people cant do justice to their own communities who are suffering because of the government politics. Ram Vilas Paswan will be used in Uttar Pradesh against Mayawati and so will be other leaders.

Lalu Yadav’s stoppage of rath yatra of Advani was responsible for the fall of VP Singh government but with this massive victory in Bihar he has avenged that defeat 25 years ago and given Lal Krishna Advani his ‘best’ ‘birthday’ gift as well as thrown a challenge to his ‘charioteer Narendra Modi who had benefitted that time.

There will be efforts by the corrupt casteist media to deviate from the real issues of Bihar but the fact is that Mandal has shown its strength now and it is time to unleash those forces all over the country. Secondly, need to challenge Hindutva at all level by exposing them thoroughly as Lalu could do quoting extensively from Golwalkar’s ‘Bunch of thoughts’ and ‘we and our nationhood’.

Frankly more than BJP, it is the Indian corporate thugs who got defeated today. If you had watched the elections analysis and prior to that the exit polls etc, you will realize how media played different games. In IBN-CNN exit polls actually JDU lead Mahagathbandhan was given over 175 seats but that poll was not broadcasted for the fear of antagonizing Amit Shah and other leaders of the party. Times Now’s C voter had predicted a massive victory for BJP. Arnab Goswami was actually behaving as lynchman in the studio on behalf of the Sangh Parivar.  NDTV did not lag behind in showing its ‘impartiality’ when Pranoy Roy, the guru of psephology in India declared at 9 am in the morning that BJP and the allies are going to get absolute majority.

One need to ask basic question as why all the TV channels create such ruckus during the counting of votes this time. Why was it that every channel was reporting differently and the gap was too high ? How can channel be so wrong on the actual thing was happening? These are important aspect and thought for others. Was it because paid media was trying to hide facts from people? Was it because it was creating ground for BJP to come to power and in case there is a coalition government, it could use division of perception and impose its own agenda?

Bihar has given its verdict and the nation remain thankful to people of Bihar that they have protected our constitution but the threat is not over yet. It will be foolish to think that Hindutva is over and hate propaganda does not work. Mujaffarnagar worked and paid heavy dividend.  Learning from Bihar, it is time all secular parties must learn that their time has come to Mandalise themselves and provide representations to all the Dalit, aadivasis, OBCs, Padmandas at all level. It is equally important to expose the corporate Hindutva nexus and that the Muslims are being made scapegoat but the real target of these regressive forces is to stop the rising assertion of the Bahujan Samaj.

The secular polity will only succeed if they include all the pasmanda communities in its network and provide them space and representation. If they fail, the Hindutva will rise again. VP Singh’s government fell for this purpose when Congress BJP joined hand but 25 years later Lalu-Nitish-Congress combine have defeated BJP in Bihar and they must confess that it is Mandal who brought them biggest mandate in Bihar. It is Mandal alone, which will defeat the Kamandal forces and bring social justice secularism in India. Mandal forces had bitten dust during the past 10 years because of the egos of politicians and division among them giving rise to Hindutva’s brahmanical forces hence it is time for celebration for the revival of Mandal which decimated Hindutva’s agenda in Bihar and has potential to do so in the entire country.

The communal war for secular space

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

There is a spurt in the ‘events’ of ‘blackening’ of faces of ‘dissenters’ of Hindutva thoughts in India. While the Hindutva protagonists are thumping their chest and becoming louder each passing day the Hindu ‘liberals’ have a difficult job to do at the moment protecting ‘Hinduism’ from the likes of violent and regressive brahmanical organisations and hence they term these ‘incidents’ as stray and not reflective of the ‘tolerant’ Hindu Dharma.

The war in religion between the ‘liberals’ and ‘radicals’ is growing everywhere in India and both attempt to ‘interpret’ religion and its ‘philosophies’ according to their convenience. However in their claim to ‘control’ religion, it is the ‘radicals’ who are actually ‘winning’ the battles particularly in multi-cultural societies and the result is the loss of the democratization of societies and usage of violent methods to curb freedom and dissent. But the ironies world over is that the religious rights too need to masquerade as ‘secular’ to get their viewpoint legitimized. Hindutva protagonists despite their avowed disinterest in secular discourse are using the ‘democratic differences’ for their own purposes. It is like General Zia-ul-Haq suggesting that everything in Pakistan was ‘unanimous’ unlike India where government has to ‘respect’ political opposition or the opposition voices are getting space at the Parliament or in public places.

India is passing through a very dangerous phase when the Hindutva chest-thumpers under protection from the state powers have taken it on themselves to crush the dissent and violently oppose those who are creating ‘obstacles’ in their attempt to attain the Hindu Rastra. The problem is multifaceted because of diverse ranges of prejudices that have kept people away from coming together much to the glee of these forces who want to demolish India’s republican democratic constitution. In the battle cry of secularism, it needs to be seen how various communities perceive the issue from their own angles. The ‘Hindu’ liberals who have been wrongly portrayed as ‘secular’ liberals because of their ‘concern’ for Muslims are the biggest target of one and all. It is this segments which actually dominate the ‘secular’ discourse and it is clear that its fight with Hindu radical and hardliner is purely the ‘power’ battle and not really an ‘ideological’ one.

For years, the Congress’s brahmanical establishment pampered this ‘Hindu liberal’ seculars who were predominantly upper castes led by Brahmins through various positions in all the ‘institutions’. They are the crop who claims that ‘Hindutva’ and Sangh Parivar do not represent Hindus and that Hindu dharma was never violent and it is a unique and tolerant religion of the world. This stream of ‘writers’ are ‘influenced’ through Gandhian philosophy who feel we have suddenly become ‘intolerant’ and that India or Hindus had a ‘golden’ past of ‘respecting’ ‘dissent’ and acknowledging ‘diversity’.

The Sangh Parivar and its ‘writers’ who are not in ‘large’ number feel that this ‘darbari’ literati do not speak on the violence against Hindus by the Muslim fanatics in Kashmir as well as in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Sanghis charge this ‘secular’ brigade is pro Muslim and is offended immediately when we speak of Beef but keep quiet when Muslims eat it. Shouldn’t the Muslims ‘respect’ the ‘sentiments’ of Hindus, they ask and add that Pakistan is continuously killing our soldiers and innocent people and these writers have no time to condemn the Pakistan sponsored terrorism. Loudspeaker Giriraj Kishore says that can Lalu tell Muslims to eat pork. There are hundreds of other example where the expert ‘distortionists’ working overtime to polarize the society.  One wonders as who is asking any one including Hindus or Muslims or for that matter any one to eat a particular kind of food. We stand for the rights of Hindus to eat Pork as we are against banning of beef. The problem is how they are trying to create stories to befool the masses. Unfortunately, the Sangh is not alone in its assault on ‘sickulars’ as many ‘corporate Muslim seculars’ have jumped the Sangh Bandwagon to demonise all those who disagree with the culture of banning. They accuse that we do not speak when Muslims commit mistakes or do wrongs.

This breed of corporate Muslim ‘intellectuals’ who are ‘journalists’, ‘opinion makers’ and members of American sponsored Muslim ‘think-tanks’ who have blamed the ‘sickulars’ as pampering Muslims in India. Their articles and opinions are being portrayed in all the ‘Sanghified’ papers where they justify even killings in Gujarat in 2002. Taslima Nasrin said that none of the ‘secularists’ came in her defense when the West Bengal government banned her book.  The ‘Muslim’ ‘intellectuals’ even questioned why a paper like ‘The Indian Express’ gave a ‘communal’ headline ‘And they hanged Yaqub’. One commentator questioned this blaming the Express which remain one of the finest newspapers today in India just for its reporting and taking on the Hindu fascists. The other ‘intellectual’ sitting in Canada regularly abuse Muslims for their faith suggested to remove the name of all the Mughal kings from the Delhi roads and rename these roads for some ‘better’ people. On their ‘advice’ the government of India agreed and renamed Aurangzeb road as APJ Abdul Kalam Road.

As a person devoted to secular thoughts and rationalism, it is well known to me the growing Islamophobia in United States, Canada and Europe. I am well acquaint with the ‘intellectual dishonesty’ that the ‘mainstream’ Hindu ‘seculars’ in India have and their patronage by the Congress Party and various left parties. There is no denial of fact that these caste seculars have rarely raised the issue of the violence on Dalits and shudras in India. Even if some of them spoke most of them kept themselves out of the whole discourse.  Hindu Seculars excluded the most marginalized from their discourse and deliberations and therefore Gandhi remained the icons of secularism in India and the Hindu seculars refused to take notes from Ambedkar, Periyar, Phule, Bhagat Singh and Rahul Sankrityayan.

The ‘corporate Muslim seculars’ have become the biggest ‘support’ of the Sangh Parivar at the moment when they target the whole concept of ‘secularism’ in India. The problem with these Muslim seculars is that their ‘world’ begin and ends with theocratic Islamic countries and Pakistan, a complete replica of the Sangh Parivar’s thoughts. These ‘seculars’ actually blame Indian state for being too soft on Muslims and engaged in appeasing them. One does not know what exactly is appeasement but for them Hindu seculars have not condemned the Bombay blast, don’t ask for hanging of the ‘terrorists’, never support the Uniform Civil Code and never questions as why government provide ‘subsidy’ for the Haj-Yatris as being accused by these ‘Corporate Muslim seculars’. I can say with firm conviction that as a humanist and rationalist we have questioned all kind of fundamentalism including Muslim as well as Christian fundamentalism yet there is a difference between majoritarian communalism and minority communalism. Most of these corporatized seculars blame Muslims for their conditions ignoring the important factor why Muslim Dalits and Pasmanda face constitutional discrimination to get a government job. None of them ever bothered to speak for them or write about the issues that Halalkhors, Nuts, Kalandars, Helas and many others like them face because of their caste despite being Muslims. The problem with these high society secularists is that they too consider Muslims a monolith block like the Sangh Parivar and hence easy to lecture and demonise.

These are interesting points. Some more complaints are that Madrasas breed terrorists, Hinduism is ‘tolerant’, why India should be secular when none of the ‘Islamic’ countries are ‘seculars’, that Muslim refuses to mix up with the secular society and never believe in ‘democratic’ values. My problem with the Hindu secular is that they get their ‘ideological’ strength with the same school and religious scriptures which the Hindutva-wallahs are getting and both interpreting it according to their own convenience very much such as late Asghar Ali Engineer did but found little support from the Muslim intelligentsia.  How on earth can any one claim that Hinduism or Brahmanism is a ‘tolerant’ religion when a majority of India suffers under their discriminatory laws and social practices such as caste system and untouchability. With such a criminal and barbaric culture terming it as tolerant is gross intellectual dishonesty. As far as Madarsas are concern, I can only say they do not create any radical Muslims but deeply religious person unable to fight a political battle for their community.

Interestingly our corporate Muslim seculars friends are very similar to Hindu seculars who have never raised caste class issues with in their own societies. When did these corporate Muslim seculars turn RSS sympathizers ever-raise the issue of Pasmanda Muslims in their articles and opinions? How has it never come to their minds that RSS is purely a brahmanical organization representing the interest of the caste Hindus and not Hindu society as a whole?  These ‘corporate Muslim seculars’ never sided with the issue of marginalized in India similarly like the Hindu seculars for not feeling the pains of dalits and aadivasis who face not just physical violence but spiritual violence for years. So secularism becomes a brahmanical dummy wrestling like BJP and the Congress Party. Perhaps the war between these ‘self-styled’ ‘liberals’ among Muslims and Hindus reflect the same mindset.

But then one will have to decide which side of the battle you are. Blaming Hindu seculars will do no justice to these corporate Muslim seculars. Their siding with Sangh Parivar cannot justify their positions how much they wish to abuse Pakistan or Islam. To be candid, I knew some of them who happen to be leading the campaign. Once in London there was an accidental meeting with two of them who actually were upset with us for our support to campaign against war on Iraq and Afghanistan. What disturbed me most was their open support to the brutal killings of Muslims in 2002 Gujarat pogrom. ‘These Mullah need to be taught a lesson’, they said. Now, it is pitiable and painful to see blindfolded ‘seculars’ sitting in London, Ottawa and Washington decrying the whole western protest against invasion on Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of ‘War on terror’ ? I witnessed some of these protests there which suggest how people went out against their own regimes and supported human rights of the people. Today, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is trying to ‘apologize’ anticipating that a parliamentary committee could castigate him for his role on the issue. How do you think that ‘War on Iraq” has tamed ‘Islam’ as these people would have thoughts? In fact, the American and British regimes are responsible for the growth of hard core Islamic zealots who are a threat to democracy and freedom in Middle East. These fanatics are not a threat to United States or Europe but to their own societies and people. Who can ignore the dark reality that both the IS and Taliban are a product of war on terror and prior to that their war on communism. In their zeal to eliminate communism from middle-east the Americans and Europeans actually flirted with Islamic Jehadis and the outcome is the balkanization of the entire region.

Islamophobia in Europe has helped many of the corporate Muslim secularists to adjust to the power elite in condemning Islam out rightly. While we are well aware of the fact that Islamic zealots and fanatics being supported by the Wahabi groups in Saudi Arabia have definitely created a very disturbing situation for Muslims in societies where they are a minority as they face all kind of discriminations and isolation. Same kind of hysteria related to Muslims is being created here in India by these ‘secularist Muslims’ who are now openly siding with the Hindutva fanatics. Muslims are victim of theocratic ideas and putting Islam in everything but it is not that they are not changing and voices are not there challenging the dominance of Mullah and religious leadership. My problem with these Muslim secularists is how come they appreciate the Sangh Parivar and its brahmanical dominance over the vast non Brahmin Hindus?  If you reject priestly classes everywhere, you must stick to that ideological ground. We condemn all kind of priestly classes and their control over masses in each sects and religion and call people not to surrender before them.

In their zeal to look more modern they dangerously make ‘secularism’ and Congress party easily exchangeable terms much to the pleasure of their friends in the Sangh Parivar  as well as of the Congress Party. We have not forgotten when Francois Gautier, a French writer based in Delhi in his regular fulminations against Islam and seculars in India got huge publicity in the newspapers. All the crap that he produced got big space in the edit pages of the corporate communalized media which gladden the heart of the Sangh Parivar to use those ‘fulminations’ as quotable quotes to denigrate the activists fighting against them. Gautier once blamed Buddhism for the decline of India and wanted Hindus to militarise as envisioned by the Sangh parivar. The corporate secular Muslims stand together with the corporate communal Hindus in asking for ‘strong’ action against ‘Mullah’ Pakistan and ‘Islamic’ zealots.

The corporate secular Muslims got irritated When Prof Irfan Habib suggested the ‘ideological’ ‘similarities’ between the RSS and IS. They laughed and termed him old jholawallah communists who used to seek vote for communists.  What is wrong if Prof Habib questioned the motive of the changing names of the roads named after Mughals? Why is there a road named after Raja Man Singh who actually betrayed Maharana Pratap and joined hand with Akbar, he asked. If Akbar is wrong then how come Man Singh is an honorary person said Prof Habib but then in these times of deep communalization everything is good provided you are a caste Hindu.

Irfan Habib is not being trolled by the Sangh promoted element but decried by these corporate secular Muslims who preach about ‘western liberalism’ but wont question their misdeeds and imperialism. For them everybody who question west have no right to put his feet in these countries and that we all were just primitive people unless the west came and gave us great ideas. I accept many of the ideas and enlightenment. We definitely got philosophy, freedom, liberalism and socialism from the west but to be very frank not from the Americans and Canadians. We refuse to accept them as models as Americans represent the most obscene corporate culture and a majority of them have their mindset very much similar to India’s upper castes.  Imperialism and exploitation of people was a reality and that west gained from it can’t be ignored.

Many of our friends wrote that Hindu seculars are not really seculars. Yes our problem is that we have actually made liberalism and secularism as synonymous term. The Hindu liberals are worried about Hinduism and hence they have every right to speak against the Sangh Parivar and its nefarious agenda of converting India into a Hindu Talibanised state. The Muslim liberals are unhappy and blame on Hindu seculars that ‘seculars’ don’t speak against Islam. This is the dangerous game to get adjusted in the power circle and edit pages of the Brahmin-Bania media. We have no issues with those who make such compromises with their identity as it sales better and useful in the globalized world. Identity is a burden for the rural poor but a great institution of marketing yourself once you have entered into the drawing rooms of the power elite. Hindu liberalism wants to maintain the status quo and worried about the Sangh parivar’s control over Hindus but where have these corporate secular Muslims spoken for the Dalits, Aadivasis and Pasmandas ?  Where have they shown their concern that our natural resources are under the attack from the western corporate and our people are suffering? Tony Blair want to apologise as his lies are now got exposed but our ‘liberals’ want to support it simply because they feel it will teach ‘Islamists’ a lesson. Yes, these corporate Muslim seculars were the allies of George Bush who termed the word Islamic Fascism. We want to add that religious thugs will bring catastrophe, death and darkness, which ultimately will lead to fascism everywhere. Pakistan and Islamic societies have destroyed the common men and suppressed their voices for freedom because they allowed the extra constitutional religious thugs masquerading as political leaders who used blasphemy laws to control people. Since in India whatever was the reason, Hindu fundamentalism did not have the fullest support in the past of the masses hence it was difficult for them. For the first time in independent India’s history they have a field day and therefore they are coming to their ‘normal’ self. During the other regime they remain as fringe but today they are roaming free and can target any one.

I am disappointed many of the ‘corporate secular Muslims’ who feel like any RSS sympathizer as nothing happened in India. Their problem is that they don’t feel anything is happening in India unless we turn like the Talibanis or IS. It is our duty to save India from those who were once ‘fringe’ but today trying to become ‘mainstream’. Pakistan and theocratic Islamic nations cannot be our role model and therefore we will have to fight back to protect our constitution and rights of all. It would have been good if these ‘secular Muslims’ had the strength to condemn the polarization happening in India and siding with secular groups in India. If they hate brahmanical secular, I would ask them to raise the issue of Pasmanda Muslims or all those like us who do not support that religion has to be led by the priestly classes. I would have supported them and their efforts to liberate Islam but that cannot be done through sitting in the West and gladdening the hearts of chitpawan Brahmins of the Sangh Parivar. A fight for secular ideals will need secular alliances and need secularization of society. To convert Muslims into secularism you need to work among the community and not abuse it sitting with those who have no faith either in constitution or secularism. Long back I wrote that unity of poor people is possible if Mandalisation of Muslims, Christians societies and the leadership comes in the hands of common political people. Politicisation of communities is important to fight battle for dignity and rights. We must understand that Sangh Parivar is not a religious organization but purely political one guiding the current regime at the centre.. Those who feel that Sangh is a Hindu organization are actually denying voice to India’s majority Dalit Bahujans who feel the only agenda of the Sangh Parivar is to maintain the status quo strengthening brahmanical system in India and Muslims are just the target but the real agenda is to keep vast Bahujan masses subjugated. Anyone who is supporting one kind of fanaticism to get rid of his brand of fanaticism is only strengthening the regressive forces and we must be careful of it. In the coming days we will have more writings by these ‘seculars,  who will call all those who want India to remain safe for all and our fight for rule of law and constitutionalism as ‘sickulars’ but then we can not keep quiet when our rights are trampled with and ideas from Manusmriti are being imposed on us in the name of ‘sanskriti’ and ‘parampara’  violating the ethics of our democratic secular republican constitution.