Dontha Prashanth, Ambedkarite student leader and a Human Rights activist, speaking in Kerala on #JusticeforRohith and how Dr. Ambedkar rejected the term anti-national in the constitutional assembly debates and how the term anti-national itself is a menace for any society.
Prashanth is a genuine voice in the movement for years now. He was President of the HCU Students’ Union 2011-12 and is currently a PhD scholar in the University of Hyderabad. Prashanth was one of the five Dalit PhD Scholars, including Rohith Vemula, suspended in the case where false allegations were leveled against them by the ABVP student leader in August 2015.
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has strongly condemned the arrest of Debaranjan Sarangi, an active member of Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakyaa Sangathan (GASS), who was arrested by the plain‐clothed policemen in the morning hours on March 18, 2016 from the village Kucheipadar in Kashipur Block of Raygada district in Odisha. PUCL learnt from the villagers of Kucheipadar that at the time of arrest the policemen had given them the impression that they were from Malkanagiri police station and Sarangi would be taken to Malkanagiri. However, till 4 pm in the afternoon, neither the local villagers nor the legal counsel of Sarangi nor members of his family had any idea of his whereabout. Subsequently, PUCL got to know from his lawyer Kanhei that he had been arrested on some cases dating back to the year 2005 relating to the movement against the setting up of aluminium plant and bauxite mining in the area, and was produced in the Kashipur court and been remanded to judicial custody at Rayagada.
In a statement issued yesterday, the PUCL has stated that that the Kucheipadar village had played a crucial role in the anti‐bauxite mining movement and Sarangi was closely associated with the movement for many years supporting the community in their struggle against displacement. The movement had to suffer tremendous state repression. In the year 2000, three Adivasis were killed in police firing. During 2005‐2006, hundreds of people were picked up by police and put in jail on false cases of which people had no knowledge. Even today, people are being arrested for cases registered ten years ago. Added to this is the unstated policy of the government of labeling every struggle of the Adivasis as ‘Maoists’ and then in the name of containing ‘Maoists menace’ indiscriminately arrest and kill innocent Adivasis. So it was in January 2011 the security forces had brutally killed 9 people in Basangamali, in Kashipur Block, which included five young Adivasi girls.
Not surprisingly, the same policy is being pursued to suppress the anti‐mining struggle of Adivasis in Niyamgiri hills. Only a few days ago one Adivasi, Mando Kadraka, was killed by the security forces, and he was branded as a Maoist. In December 2015, the DVF (a special wing of the Odisha police formed to tackle the Maoists) had killed three Adivasis in the Karlapat sanctuary area (in the adjacent district of Kalahandi) and declared them as Maoists. What is common to all these areas is the rich bauxite deposits and the sinister design of the state to handover these resources to the corporates by silencing the voice of opposition. The arrest of Debaranjan is just an example of it.PUCL demands that the government of Odisha withdraw all the old cases falsely foisted on local people and activists and unconditionally release those who have been arrested.
The statement was issued by Pramodini Pradhan, convenor, PUCL‐Odisha.
Press Trust of India reports that a Delhi court on Saturday, March 19 granted bail to former Delhi University lecturer SAR Gilani, who had been arrested on sedition charges in connection with an event on February 10 at the Delhi Press Club . Police had opposed the bail plea saying the event was “an attack on the soul of India” and it was “contempt of court.”
Additional sessions Judge Deepak Garg announced the bail after hearing the police and Gilani’s counsel, who said there was no evidence that Gilani had raised anti-India slogans at the event. Gilani had to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and one surety of like amount. Satish Tamta, counsel for Gilani, had aruged that criticising Supreme Court judgments was not contempt of court.
Delhi Police said Gilani and others were eulogising as martyrs Maqbool Bhat who was hanged in 1984 and Afzal Guru who was hanged three years ago after being convicted in the 2001 Parliament attack case.
”If he had not liked the SC judgement, he could have thought in his mind and within the four walls of the his house. But he had assembled people for the meeting in the heart of the Capital for that purpose which was an attack on the soul of India,” police had said while opposing the bail plea. Gilani's counsel, however, pointed out that the first information report (FIR) states that people raising slogans at the venue had been told to desist by the office-bearers of the Press Club and asked to leave, which they did.
”There is nothing on record that Gilani shouted anti-India slogans or asked others to do so. It was a meeting of intellectuals to discuss the Kashmir issue,” counsel for Gilani said. He pointed out that Gilani, who was arrested on February 16, has been in jail for last around one month and is not required for the probe any further.
Former professor of Delhi University, Gilani was arrested on February 16, and had filed his bail applications before the Patiala House Court. On February 19, a magisterial court had dismissed his bail application after the police alleged that "hatred" was being generated against the government. Meanwhile, Gilani's judicial custody was also extended by two weeks by a Delhi court.
Police had earlier told the court that an event was held on February 10 in which banners were placed showing Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat as martyrs.It had also said the hall in the Press Club was booked by Gilani through one Ali Javed by using his credit card and another person Mudassar was also involved. At the Press Club event, a group had allegedly shouted slogans hailing Guru, following which the police had lodged a case under sections 124 A (sedition), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the IPC against Gilani and other unnamed persons. The police had claimed to have registered the FIR taking suo motu cognisance of media clips of the incident.
Following registration of the FIR, the police questioned professor Gilani and Ali Javed, a Press Club member who had booked the hall for the event, for two days. Earlier, Gilani was arrested in connection with the 2001 Parliament attack case but was acquitted for "need of evidence" by Delhi High Court in October 2003, a decision later upheld by the Supreme Court in August 2005.
Reuters reported around midnight on March 19 that the police have arrested five suspects in the hanging to death of two Muslims herding cattle in India, in an incident that led to violent protests in the eastern state of Jharkhand amid reports the attackers were Hindu vigilantes.
"Police have arrested five persons and are looking for others involved in the incident," Latehar police chief Anoop Birtharay said by telephone.
"So far we have not found any affiliation of these persons with any Hindu radical group. We are still examining," he said.
Opponents have accused Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of seeking to stoke religious tensions in order to polarise voters ahead of crucial state assembly elections in five states in next two months.
EARLIER REPORT
In an incident shockingly reminiscent of the Dadri lynching, a 12-year-old Muslim boy and a Muslim man herding eight buffaloes on their way to a Friday market were beaten up and hanged to death from a tree by suspected cattle-protection vigilantes. The initial report and photographers were pasted on facebook by Ashif Nawaz. The double murders of the two Muslims [Mazlum Ansari, 32, and Imteyaz Khan] took place in Balumath, Latehar district of Jharkhand yesterday.
Reportedly, these young men were cattle traders and were on their way to a market when they were killed. The incident happened within 100 kms of the state capital of Ranchi and is closely reminiscent of the Dadri lynching in early September 2015. It is reported that it is not the first time that Muslim cattle traders in the area have been targeted. Despite several by the local people, the police and the BJP state government have failed in protecting the minorities engaged in this trade.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued a statement condemning the incident. This horrible incident is a result of the sustained communal campaign conducted by the Hindutva outfits, the statement says. It demanded that the Jharkhand police must immediately arrest the culprits and bring them to book. The BJP government in Jharkhand is duty bound to crack down against all those indulging in such criminal activities and also ensure protection of the minorities, the statement added.
The Times of India reports that, "The manner of their hanging showed that the assailants were led by extreme hatred," said Latehar SP Anoop Birthary. Local MLA from the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik), Prakash Ram claimed that Hindu radicals were behind the killings. Reports said villagers who protested the deaths claimed the victims were targeted as they were cattle traders. Birthary, however, did not identify the assailants. "We are gathering leads to verify whether personal or business enmity led to the murder or it was due to some other motive. The buffaloes were freed. It is yet to be known if the buffaloes were taken away by the assailants or they strayed into the forest," Birthary said.
The hanging sparked protests by people in Jhabbar village that turned violent when police tried to take down the bodies. The situation poses a serious political and law and order challenge for the BJP government in Jharkhand. In the case of Dadri case when a Muslim man was killed over rumours of beef eating, BJP had said law and order was under the SP government.
But in the Jharkhand incident, the buck stops with the state and central leadership. SDO Kamleshwar Narayan and six cops were injured when villagers threw stones at officials who arrived in the morning to manage the situation and ensure that it did not take a communal turn. Injuries to senior officials forced police to fire in the air and lathi charge the villagers.
Sources said protesting villagers have periodically claimed that assailants have targeted them in the past because they are engaged in cattle trade. "Four months ago, a group of men tried to kill a cattle trader in Gomia village of Balumath. The man managed to escape," Latehar MLA Prakash Ram said.
Local MLA Prakash Ram from the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) party led by former BJP member Babulal Marandi alleged a group of Hindu radicals was responsible for the attack on the cattle traders. "They are supported by the police who do not act against them," Ram said.
The MLA's claims appeared to tally with statements of villagers who blocked Latehar-Chatra National Highway after the killings. An FIR was lodged against unknown persons for the murder and another FIR was lodged against unknown persons.
I have come home a little while ago from Jawaharlal Nehru University after listening to Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya take back the night. As I drove home through the quiet streets of Delhi after midnight it occurred to me that somebody should whisper into Narendra Modi’s ear that he should now start stocking up on sleeping pills. (Maybe Baba Ramdev’s enterprise makes some that he could prescribe to the Prime Minister, unadulterated). With young people like Umar and Anirban as his adversaries, the Prime Minister can only have sleepless nights ahead of him. It is perhaps fortunate for him that the team from Madame Tussaud’s came by and did their job yesterday. Because from now on, his real skin tone will only envy the lustre of his wax work. Umar and Anirban, and their friends, took away the little remaining shine that Modi had left at midnight.
The matter of the continuing detention of Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharjee, two students of Jawahar Lal Nehru University, was heard in a Delhi sessions court this afternoon. The arguments in Umar and Anirban’s defence, made, systematically, methodically, with adroit attention to legal detail, by their advocates, Jawahar Raja and Trideeb Pius, convinced the honorable judge that not only do Umar and Anirban deserve bail, but that no offense under Section124A (the law of sedition) can be made out against the two accused at this stage. The bail order read, without rhetorical flourishes, without references to film songs or medical theories, like a bail order should, attentive to points of law, sensitive to questions of justice and judicial propriety. The combined might of large sections of the media, the state apparatus, and a vicious public witch-hunt – all of which were bent on painting Umar and Anirban as nothing short of ‘terrorists’ buckled against the weight of their steadfast refusal to implicate themselves or anyone else in complicity with cooked up charges, the solidarity of all those, students, faculty and others who stood by them, and the clear, reasonable arguments of their advocates. The very heartiest of congratulations are in order, to Umar, Anirban and their families, comrades and friends, to the legal team that represented them, and to the thousands of students, teachers and others who have stood by them, in JNU, in Delhi, across India, and indeed all over the world.
Students in Solidarity with Umar Khalid and Anirban. Image, Courtesy, Samim Asgor Ali
And regardless of whether or not News X, Zee News and Times Now once again predictably fail in their journalistic responsibilities by not giving an accurate report to their viewers about what actually went down at the Admin Block (rechristened ‘Freedom Square’) last night, by the time the sun rises, video uploads of Umar’s and Anirban’s speeches will have already gone viral down the alleys, eddies and wind-swept sands of social media. Millions of people will know, by listening to two exceptionally intelligent, brave and humorous young men as they sip their morning tea, that this regime’s days are numbered. We can start counting days till the Modi regime falls like the badly sculpted statue of a mediocre dictator of a banana republic after a peoples’ uprising.
The challenge that Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of JNUSU, had thrown to this evil regime in his post-bail speech a few days ago came bouncing back when Umar and Anirban spoke a few hours ago, like a storm returning to the shore bearing the memory of a wave. When they spoke, Umar and Anirban put their shoulder to the wheel. They made history take a crazy, beautiful new turn. Everyone who was there at JNU listening to them, watched and felt things turn. We were all transformed.
Will the spooks in plain clothes who must have been lurking behind trees and pillars, conspicuous with their shoes, bush shirts and safari suits be writing worried notes through the night to their superiors, even as those like me sit through the night taking stock of what we just witnessed? I imagine them whispering into the crackle of their walkie talkies – “Boss mamla bigad gaya hai. Yeh Umar, Anirban, Kanhaiya, Shehla, Naga aur Asutosh, aur yeh Rohith Vemula ki rooh, aur na jane, aur kaun, yeh sab sarkar ko mazaak bana diye hain. Modi ji ki to khilli ud gayi hai. Aur sangh to bilkul expoje ho gaya, unki to half pant hi utar gayi. Isliye ab full pant par aye hain. Aur boss, kai jagah to ham bhi hans padhey, in baaghi cchatron ko sunte-sunte, kai jagah to ham bhi ro padhey. Bahut dam hai is Umar aur Anirban ki baton mein. Man mein ajeeb si deshdrohi gud-gudi ho rahi thi boss, apne aap. Yun hi. Karein to cya karin”
[ “Boss things have gone all wrong. This Umar, Anirban, Kanhaiya, Shehla, Naga and Asutosh, this haunting spirit of Rohith Vemula, and who knows how many more – they have all made a joke out of the government. Modiji has been made into a laughing stock. And the Sangh (RSS) is totally exposed, they have dropped their half pants (thats why they are thinking of trousers). And boss, in some places these rebel students made me laugh, they even made me cry. There’s substance in what Umar and Anirban are saying. It makes for a a crazy seditious tickling feeling under my skin, just like that.So what the hell should I do?” ]
The air crackled more than the walkie-talkies of plain clothes policemen do. It crackled with an infectious electricity. I saw faces bright with the infection of ‘azaadi’. I saw a nocturnal bouquet of gleaming blue Ambedkarite and red Communist flags fluttering together in the cool breeze like the festoons of some primeval rite of spring. I heard laughter, slogans and songs. I saw dancing. I saw tears of joy. I saw a sea of luminous eyes and smiles. I saw a young woman cradle a sleeping feral puppy and raise the loudest of slogans next to me. The puppy slept blissfully, knowing it was safe. The students were as awake as they could possibly be, and they too knew that tonight, they were safe, that Umar and Anirban were safe, and safe home. No one looked tired or exhausted, not even Umar or Anirban, who had just come back from a month in jail.
Earlier in the afternoon, Anupam Kher, Modi’s court jester, had come to JNU on a ‘pest control’ mission, to show a bad film and attempt to feed his hungry narcissism. I do not think he went away satisfied. After all, he had to face a gathering of mostly empty chairs. I hope he comes again, and listens, for a change. Picture flop nikli. But no one stopped him. No one was rude to him. He tried to squeeze some milage out of what he thought was the absurdity of giving a heroes welcome to people out on bail. He forgot, that the BJP president, Amit Shah was out on bail when he was elected president of his party.
Courtesy, India Resists
Celebrations at JNU began early, as soon as the news of Umar and Anirban’s bail order became public. Image, courtesy, Pankhuri Zaheer
Meanwhile, by late afternoon, everyone had heard the news of the bail order, and JNU began celebrating. Holi, the festival of vibrant colours, began a few days earlier than usual. The spring whose arrival I had first noticed on the 13th and 14h of February, when the campus had just begun to find its language of solidarity for Kanhayia (who had just been detained) and the other students who had gone underground (including Umar and Anirban) had become by now a heady, strong, intoxication in the air. Aaj masti thi. Rang tha. And like the song says, aaj fir jeene ki tamanna thi, aaj fir marne ka irada tha.
Umar spoke about everything. About the things that worried Anirban and him in jail. About the barbs he was thrown about having a Muslim name. Umar spoke again with great feeling about being reduced (like Rohith Vemula had said) to his ‘immediate identity’. But he gave this declaration a very profound depth this time. He said “what if I were, in fact, a believing Muslim, a bearded, skull cap wearing young man from Azamgarh, what would have happened to me, and what would I have experienced”, he underlined the need for all of us to stand with solidarity with any person unjustly confined against their will, regardless of their identity, regardless of whether or not they were believers, agnostics or atheists, regardless of whether they held opinions that we might disagree with.
He spoke condemning the slogans of ‘bharat ki barbaadi tak jang rahegi, jang rahegi’ that had been raised by some people on the 9th of February at the fringes of the programme ‘Country without a Post Office’, that he, Anirban and their friends had organized. But then he said, that the real reason why the RSS must be so mad at the airing of this slogan is because it amounted to a momentary distraction away from the fact that if anyone can take this country towards ‘barbaadi’ (‘destruction’) it can only be the RSS and its ‘parivar’ (family), and so, they are really cut up about having to share the credit for ‘barbaadi’ with any competitor. This had the audience roar with approval. And then Umar said, if a battle has to continue, it will do so until the RSS is destroyed. Because RSS ki Barbaadi mein hi Bharat ki Aabadi hai. The word Aabadi means both population as well as prosperity. We could say it suggests the ‘well being’ that lets a people be themselves, realize themselves. It is in this sense that Umar held out to his listeners the clear vision of a society free of the fascist, casteist, communal and hierarchical stain of the RSS. The ‘Aabadi’ of JNU, the assembled mass of students, had no problem understanding what Umar meant.
Umar ended his speech by taking Narendra Modi head on. He referred to the prime minister’s speech yesterday in a forum of so-called Sufis calling for peace. Umar said “Modi’s peace is the peace of the graveyard, a state of being bereft of justice”. He asked us all to disrupt this false peace, this unjust stable tranquility. He reminded us, paraphrasing Bhagat Singh, that a state of war already exists – the war of those in power against those without power, a war by the state against students in JNU, against workers in the Maruti factory, against adivasis (indigenous people) being driven out of jal-jangal-jameen (water-forest-land) by big capital, against soldiers made to fight unjust wars and battles, and against women, against dalits, against minorities, even against animals (he was referring to the violence unleashed by BJP politicians against a horse in Uttarakhand) and against everyone who questions the brute force of power and money.
A special round of applause broke out when Umar’s little sister, Sarah Fatima, made her own impromptu speech, saluting her brother, his friend, Anirban, Kanhaiya and the brave students of JNU. She reminded everyone that the struggle will not end until every person gets justice, until Prof. S.A.R Geelani, Saibaba and all other political prisoners are released. Her immense confidence, her pluck, her total faith in the love of all the young people around her made this twelve year old girl the mistress of her moment. I have seen her before, in rallies and marches, carrying flowers and signs in support of Umar and all the detained students, and what has always struck me is her beaming smile. She never looked the part of the suffering family member of a person in prison. She looked like a kid full of beans, eager to take on the world. Her optimism, her courage and her gentle, beautiful audacity will remain an inspiration. It will help us find ways to keep our spirits high whenever things look down.
When Anirban’s turn to speak came he started by leading the crowd through a whole host of slogans. His slight, frail frame, and quiet voice took sprung into a high octane, high velocity string of words that curved spiraled as they rose like the flight-path of some magnificent bird. Once the slogans were done, Anirban came back to his down-to-earth, friendly, resolute self. He spoke about how a lot of policemen had asked him, “Yeh Umar Khalid ka mamla to samajh mein aata hai, par Bhattacharjee, aap ?”, “We can see what makes Umar Khalid involved in all of this, but what dragged you into this mess” proving, as Umar had said earlier, that they were actually far more annoyed with his three fold treason – from his assumed religious identity, nationality and caste. Interspersed with anecdotes about the strange interplay between the real and the surreal aspects of their experiences in the last days, Anirban built up to a rousing set of rhetorical challenges – “If the taking away of the mid day meal from the starving, drought stricken peasants of bundelkhand is nationalism, then, yes, we are anti-national”, “if the suppression of the rights of maruti workers is nationalism, then, yes, we are anti-national”, “if the farce of ‘Make in India’ that sells a phone that doesn’t work with a tricolor screen made in China is nationalism, then we are anti-national”, “if the screaming of the cries of ‘bharat mata ki jai’ by VHP goons while raping Christian nuns in Odisha is nationalism, then we are anti-national”, and so on.
Anirban and Umar reminded their audience that the real reason why the Modi regime and the RSS-BJP-ABVP hate them is because they think. As Umar said, quoting a poem by Brecht, (and obliquely referring to the proposal to station tanks in universities to install ‘patriotic’ feelings) the real problem with JNU, and with all the universities and public education that the BJP government is trying to destroy (by slashing UGC support to the tune of 55%) is that they are all places in which young people think.
General, Your Tank is a Powerful Vehicle It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men. But it has one defect: It needs a driver. General, your bomber is powerful. It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant. But it has one defect: It needs a mechanic. General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.
Bertolt Brecht
Anirban ended by asking us to keep that ‘criticality’, that power of questioning alive. The night ended as every night must, with questions and song.
And so, a day of great expectations has ended in a night of celebration. And now its almost dawn.
Perhaps the morning that comes after this night will bring with it a new set of challenges. Perhaps the regime will ratchet up its venality. Perhaps it will go after teachers. Perhaps it will find new targets, other places of learning to march into. Or, perhaps it will realize that there is some wisdom in just letting things be. Perhaps it will rein in the dogs of war and viciousness it has unleashed. Perhaps it will build more statues, plant more flagpoles, destroy more flood-plains and forests to please cults and clients. Perhaps it will continue to waste our time. Whatever it does, it will know, that we, the people, have tasted the sweetness of a small but significant victory. And we are hungry for more.
Umar and Anirban are home. I hope they are sleeping well. I hope their comrades have resisted the temptation to keep them up through the night to tell them one more story about Tihar Jail. They need rest, and all the energy they can gather. because this is just the beginning.
Abhi to bas angrai hai… (this is just a flexing of muscle) You know the rest of the slogan, don’t you?
Wouldn’t it be appropriate to end a great day and a happy night with a song. This one goes out to Umar and Anirban. From all of us. [Thank you Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.]
The Hindutva camp led by RSS despite its anti-national, anti-egalitarian and de-humanised world view and ideological commitments survives and thrives due to idiotic and devoid of common sense statements of characters like the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader from Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi.
The RSS knows it very well that Hindutva flag-bearers betrayed India’s glorious freedom struggle against British rule and its credentials about loyalty to a democratic-secular Indian polity are highly questionable. It keeps on trying to raise issues like singing of Vande Mataram song which neither the RSS nor the Hindu Maha Sabha led by Hindutva icon, VD Savarkar ever sang against the British rule. Recently Mohan Bhagwat, RSS chief has come out with yet another issue to remain a contender for nationalist tag.
While speaking at RSS headquarter, Resham Bagh, Nagpur on March 3 he declared: “Now the time has come when we have to tell the new generation to chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' (Hail Mother India). It should be real, spontaneous and part of all-round development of the youth”.[i] Bhagwat while demanding chanting of 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' also stated that this was necessitated as some forces are telling the youth not to say 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'.
Asaduddin Owaisi, true to his and the AIMIM’s historic role in keeping Hindutva organisations like RSS/Shiv Sena in the news and help them in their polarising game instead of challenging their credentials about loyalty to our democratic-secular polity in a speech at Latur, Maharashtra, reacted by declaring, he will not chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ even if a knife is put to his throat.[ii] In a prompt response, Shiv Sena and other Hindutva organisations told Owaisi to go to Pakistan.
Owaisi raised a pertinent point: “Nowhere in the Constitution it says that one should say, ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’”. But instead of challenging the Hindutva credentials of commitment to a democratic-secular Indian polity, he fell into the Hindutva trap.
It is true that the RSS which is inimical towards a secular polity has been adding more and more conditions for Indian nationality. It was not long ago that beef eating was made a condition for denying Indian nationality. Owaisi’s genuine reaction should have been to demand proof from the RSS about its loyalty towards a secular- democratic India. But he chose to be as illogical as Bhagwat and, in fact, facilitated RSS in turning a debate between Hindutva and secular India into a Hindu vs. Muslim issue.
It is as true as daylight that the ‘Bharat Mata’ which the RSS dreams of did not came into being on August 15, 1947. ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ in fact, is the slogan with which the RSS oath (pratigya) ends. It is mandatory for all members of RSS to take this oath once a year.
It is to be noted that in the functioning of the RSS this oath and its prayer (prarthana) are the two texts which express total commitment to the building and nurturing a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation). As we will see in the following original texts of both, ‘Motherland’ is referred to as the ‘Land of Hindus’ and it is for building a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ that RSS members have ‘girded up our loins’. Moreover, one becomes a member of RSS “to achieve all round greatness of Bharatvarsha by fostering the growth of my sacred Hindu religion, Hindu society, and Hindu culture.”
RSS Prayer: “Affectionate Motherland, I eternally bow to you/O Land of Hindus, you have reared me in comfort/O Sacred Land, the Great Creator of Good, may this body of mine be dedicated to you/I again and again bow before You/O God Almighty, we the integral part of the Hindu Rashtra salute you in reverence/For Your cause have we girded up our loins/Give us Your Blessings for its accomplishment”.[iii]
RSS Oath: “Before the all powerful God and my ancestors, I most solemnly take this oath, that I become a member of the RSS in order to achieve all round greatness of Bharatvarsha by fostering the growth of my sacred Hindu religion, Hindu society, and Hindu culture. I shall perform the work of the Sangh honestly, disinterestedly, with my heart and soul, and I shall adhere to this goal all my life. Bharat Mata ki Jai”.[iv]
Thus according to RSS sacred documents all members are committed not to a democratic-secular Indian polity created by the Constituent Assembly but building a Hindu Rashtra like Muslim Rashtra of Pakistan. RSS has always been steadfast in its opposition to India which came into being on August 15, 1947. When Indians were celebrating Independence of a democratic-secular nation, it was RSS which denigrated it and all other symbols defining it.
Just a day before the Independence of India, the English organ of the RSS, Organiser (August 14, 1947) openly denigrated the choice of the Tri-colour as the National Flag in the following words:
"The people who have come to power by the kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour but it will never be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country."
The same issue of Organiser went on to reject in totality, a composite and democratic India using following harsh words in an editorial, ‘Whither India’:
“Let us no longer allow ourselves to be influenced by false notions of nationhood. Much of the mental confusion and the present and future troubles can be removed by the ready recognition of the simple fact that in Hindusthan only the Hindus form the nation and the national structure must be built on that safe and sound foundation […] the nation itself must be built up of Hindus, on Hindu traditions, culture, ideas and aspirations”.
Democracy and egalitarianism are the two important pillars of Indian polity. Both have always been on the firing line of the RSS. Guru MS Golwalkar, the most prominent ideologue and second RSS supremo after founder Hedgewar decreed as early as 1940 debunked democracy. While addressing 1350 top level cadres of the RSS at its headquarters at Nagpur in 1940, he declared:
“The RSS inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land.”[v] This slogan of one flag, one leader and one ideology was directly borrowed from the programmes of the Nazi and Fascist parties of Europe.
RSS and other Hindutva organisations make no mistake in equating Hinduism with casteism. They oppose an egalitarian India which promises to provide social, political and economic equality and discard casteism. For them the Manusmriti – which condemns lower castes and women to a sub-human life – should be the constitution of Hindu Rashtra instead of the democratic-secular Constitution. When the Indian Constituent Assembly adopted a democratic-secular Constitution under the guidance of Dr. BR Ambedkar. Savarkar the icon of Hindutva politics declared: “Manusmriti is that scripture which is most worship-able after Vedas for our Hindu Nation and which from ancient times has become the basis of our culture – customs, thought and practice. This book for centuries has codified the spiritual and divine march of our nation. Even today the rules which are followed by crores of Hindus in their lives and practice are based on Manusmriti. Today Manusmriti is Hindu Law”.[vi]
When the democratic-secular Indian Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949, the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, complained in an editorial on November 30, 1949:
“But in our constitution there is no mention of the unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat. Manu’s Laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing”.
Opposition by the RSS to an egalitarian Constitution of India was the outcome of its eternal belief in casteism. Golwalkar, the highly revered RSS chief declared that casteism was synonymous with Hindu nation. According to him, the Hindu people are none else but:
"the Virat Purusha, the Almighty manifesting himself… [according to purusha sukta] sun and moon are his eyes, the stars and the skies are created from his nabhi [navel] and Brahmin is the head, Kshatriya the hands, Vaishya the thighs and Shudra the feet. This means that the people who have this fourfold arrangement, i.e., the Hindu People, is [sic] our God. This supreme vision of Godhead is the very core of our concept of ‘nation’ and has permeated our thinking and given rise to various unique concepts of our cultural heritage.[Italics as in the original][vii]
It is to be noted that according to Manusmriti (chapter 1 and verse 91), “One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Sudras, to serve meekly even these (other) three castes.”[viii]
It is unfortunate that our ignorance (specially the ignorance of the parliamentary parties opposed to Hindutva) about the anti-national, anti-egalitarian and dehumanised ideological moorings of the RSS has provided RSS and its supporters enough space to confuse the nationalist and patriotic Indian discourse. An organisation which is fully committed to overthrow a democratic-secular polity is allowed to rule India.
It presents the most lethal danger to our nation and unless patriotic Indians rise up to unmask and challenge its criminal designs we will not need any foreign criminal gang to undo India. Hindutva organisations are surely working over-time to fulfil this unholy task but patriotic people of India, loyal to a democratic-secular polity and with sound knowledge of the nefarious designs of RSS will not let them succeed.
[v]MS Golwalkar, Shri Guruji Samagra Darshan (collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), Bhartiya Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd, vol. I, p. 11 .[vi]VD Savarkar, 'Women in Manusmriti' in Savarkar Samagra (collection of Savarkar's writings in Hindi), vol. 4, Prabhat, Delhi, p. 416. [vii] MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996, pp. 36-37. [viii] This selection of Manu Code is from F. Max Muller, Laws of Manu (Delhi: LP Publications, 1996; first published in 1886).
Captains of industry at a FICCI budget-watching session in New Delhi: Photo Courtesy 'Outlook'
Someone’s income will surely double by 2022. But, contrary to the crazy claim, it won’t be the farmer but India’s new dollar billionaires.
So that’s it, then. From this year, there will no more be a ‘Statement of Revenue Foregone’ in the Union budget. There is indeed Rs 5,51,000 crore written off in corporate income tax, excise and customs duties. As always, mainly to the benefit of the rich. That’s even higher than last year’s Rs 5,00,823 crore in these same giveaways. But you are no longer allowed to say this is revenue foregone. Call it that and this government could actually dub you an anti-national. The word ‘foregone’, the regime’s little spin-doctors found, was damaging. It gave the game away by revealing huge corporate freebies to the public. So with this budget, ‘foregone’ is forever gone. We now have ‘The Statement of Revenue Impact of Tax Incentives under the Central Tax System’.
Gee! That sounds more sophisticated. But it’s still the same thing. The corporate karza maafi continues. The amounts are higher. And the total since 2005-06 is well over Rs 42 trillion. A stench by any other name smells just the same.
The revenue ‘impact’ in terms of direct corporate income tax write-offs, for instance, is Rs 68,711 crore. That’s Rs 3,644 crore more than it was last year. Not much less than the ‘massive increase’ in NREGA (Rs 3,801 crore). The latter involves the survival of millions, the former of a few corporations. This direct corporate income tax write-off is also 91 per cent higher than the Rs 35,984 crore given to ‘agriculture and farmers’ welfare’.
The government falsely claims that the Rs 38,500 crore given to NREGA in this budget is the highest ever. Truth: the allocation was roughly Rs 40,000 crore in 2006 when it was, in fact, a smaller programme. It kept close to that for a while, before P. Chidambaram worked hard at undermining it. The ‘increase’ shrinks pretty fast if you adjust it for inflation. Also, in a year when even the government speaks of high rural distress, an upward blip in spending is natural. Even in Maharashtra with its wretched NREGA performance, more and more people are seeking work under the programme. In any case, over Rs 6,000 crore of this ‘record’ sum will go in meeting pending liabilities.
Alongside this fiddle comes the crazy claim of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022. Does the finance minister mean real income after adjusting for price rise? And how? At the heart of their crisis is how unviable farming is being rendered—by policy. Will he honour his party’s promise and boost the MSP? Will he reduce the burden of farmers locked into a high-cost economy—give them access to better credit and cheaper seed, fertiliser and other inputs? There is not a hint in the budget. The lion’s share of ‘agricultural credit’ goes to urban and metro-based businesses. And the promised irrigated land—will that be done by renovation of tank systems and the like (that can be linked to the NREGA)? Or through the river-linking delusions that promise a giant bonanza for contractors but little irrigation?
Yet, dozens of anchors and editorials blather on about this being a pro-farmer, pro-rural budget. As they have every second or third year for two decades. ‘Pro-farmer’ budget should ring a warning bell. It is usually followed by further handing over of agriculture to agri-business. And terrible times for farmers. Somebody’s incomes will indeed double by 2022. It won’t be the farmers, betrayed on the increased MSP that the BJP promised them in its 2014 poll campaign. It could be India’s 111 dollar billionaires listed in the latest Hurun report. Their wealth grew by 25 per cent in a single year, the report says. And of 99 new dollar billionaires across the world added to the list since last year, 27, or nearly a third, are Indians.
The combined wealth of these 111 rose by $62 billion in 12 months to arrive at $308 billion in Hurun’s reckoning. Now, if just that increase was taxed at 30 per cent (which would be standard practice in Europe), it would come to a bit over $18 billion. Or about Rs 1,22,774 crore. Still less than a fourth of the ‘impact’ write-offs for the better-off this year. But enough to expand the rural employment programme by more than threefold in a year of great distress.
Gold, diamonds and jewellery write-offs are Rs 61,126 crore. That’s 58 per cent more than the greatest allocation ‘ever’ for the NREGA. And nearly 70 per cent higher than the sum for ‘agriculture and farmers’ welfare’. Since 2005-06, the amount written off as duties on gold, diamonds and jewellery comes to over 4.6 trillion rupees. More than 13 times this year’s allocation for ‘agriculture and farmers’ welfare’. If this is a pro-farmer budget, you’d hate to see what they call an anti-farmer one.
And remember these are not billed as ‘subsidies’, though that is very much what they are. When the government attacks ‘subsidies’, those are the ones going mainly to the poor. Food, employment, health and more. Those shilling for such a heartless assault call these “wasteful subsidies”. The ‘revenue impact’ rubbish they call “incentives”. Subsidies are what you give the poor. What they’re trying is to replace universal systems with ‘targeting’, which excludes tens of millions in need. On the other hand, ‘impact’ subsidies (aka Godzilla write-offs), those keep rising each year. The total revenue ‘impact’ write-offs this year are 140 per cent higher than revenue forgone in 2005-06, the first year for which such data is available.
In the total amount foregone to the better-off under corporate income tax, excise and customs duty since 2005-06, you could run the NREGA for about 109 years on present levels. You could transform tens of millions of lives for the better. Dropping ‘foregone’ and hiding behind the fig leaf of ‘revenue impact’ adds more than insult to injury. (In the first place, it ought to have been ‘forgone’ and not ‘foregone’. But that’s another story).It introduces a Kafkaesque idiocy to the process. Decades ago, when the US military needed to make its many wars more acceptable, or at least less shocking, they came up with the words “collateral damage”. A euphemism for countless thousands of civilians they killed in their wars. The slaughter continued, but sounded so much nicer. The authors of the budget’s sleazy semantics do something similar in their wordplay. The loot of public money, where it’s going, and the intense misery of millions in need—that drowns in collateral cliches.
Saying “Bharat Mata ki jai” is not the same as capitulating to the demand to do so by Hindu nationalists who had nothing to do with India’s Freedom Struggle
Image: PTI
So we know now, in case we did not know it already: Bollywood celebrity and outgoing Rajya Sabha MP, Javed Akhtar is a “Good Muslim”, and so are the Sufis who invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grace the World Sufi Forum in Delhi. Asaduddin Owaisi of the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) on the other hand, as all of us always knew, is a “Bad Muslim”.
Actor and Modi-bhakt Anupam Kher says it just like it is: “Bharat Mata ki jai!” is the “only real test” of who is a desh premi and who is not. Self-proclaimed atheist Akhtar and the Sufis have passed the test with flying colours. In his last speech in the Rajya Sabha, Akhtar theatrically recited the magic mantra not once but thrice. At the World Sufi Conference, Modi’s elaborate “Islam means peace” homily was greeted with repeated chants of “Bharat Mata ki Jai”. (Thankfully, no one offered a “Muslim cap” to Modi, a man otherwise known to don every other head gear when it suits him).
Video: Rajyasabha TV
Owaisi, on the other hand, has declared in a speech that while he has no issues with “Jai Hind”, he will not put himself through Hindutva’s nationalism-test even if someone held a knife to his throat. Taking a cue from his party chief, on March 16 an MIM MLA, Waris Pathan, refused to say “Bharat Mata ki jai!” in the Maharashtra Assembly. The refusal created a huge furore wherein along with the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena coalition, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) joined the chorus against Pathan. He was suspended from the Assembly for the entire budget session.
Video: ANI
No one however seemed in the least concerned over Shiv Sena MLA Gulabrao Patil hurling the following at Pathan: “Is desh mein rehna hai, kutto, to Vande Mataram bolna hoga” (If you want to stay in this country, dogs, you will have to sing Vande Mataram). Having spoken in the plural, it is anybody’s guess whether Patil was referring to the MIM in particular or Indian Muslims in general. As an afterthought a day later, on the demand raised by the Congress party’s leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, the Speaker agreed to delete the Sena MLA’s obnoxious remark from the Assembly’ record.
Everyone must be patriotic, and patriotism will be defined by the bully, those who can shout the loudest, have their way. You will be tested on not just the slogans you raise but on those you do not raise. Patriotism will be forced by the BJP and its parivar, but not just by them. If you are deemed to be not patriotic enough, be very afraid, also, of the Congress. (Indian Express, lead editorial)
The Sufis assembled at the Delhi meet will no doubt maintain, as many other Muslims do, that “Bharat Mata ki jai!” has nothing to do with religion; it’s about love for the nation. They argue moreover that Muslims who oppose the slogan are falling into a trap set by the sangh parivar. The Congress general secretary, Digvijay Singh, has expressed the same opinion. Such reasoning is problematic as it skirts several critical questions.
From the Hyderabad Central University, to Jawaharlal Nehru University, to everywhere else, the sanghis who to their eternal shame had nothing to do with India’s freedom struggle, have now delegated to themselves the sole supreme authority to judge who is a patriot and who is not using a simple 4-word-test.
Why is “Jai Hind”, “Jai Bharat” or “Hindustan Zindabad” not enough? Why is the singing of the national anthem not enough? Which Constitutional principle, which law of the land is violated if some Muslims genuinely believe that saying “Bharat Mata ki Jai” is against the teachings of Islam? Why is it that Muslims who have no difficulty in saying the same words, at a Kejriwal rally for example, have a problem with Hindutva’s diktat? Is the nationalism bogey not simply an insidious ploy to push secular-democratic India towards Hindu Rashtra?
Why can’t the Congress Party, the NCP see what’s amply clear not only to the Left parties (“A single slogan cannot ever become the sole patriotism test of citizens”: CPI-M general secretary, Sitaram Yechuri) but also sections of the media?
Take, for example, the lead editorial in the March 18 edition of The Indian Express under the headline: “Hand of the bully: Congress must take responsibility for its role in the disgraceful suspension from the Maharashtra Assembly of Paris Pathan”: And the copy starts with: “Everyone must be patriotic, and patriotism will be defined by the bully, those who can shout the loudest, have their way. You will be tested on not just the slogans you raise but on those you do not raise. Patriotism will be forced by the BJP and its parivar, but not just by them. If you are deemed to be not patriotic enough, be very afraid, also, of the Congress.”
And the lead editorial in The Asian Age warns: “Were the Maharashtra Assembly mood to gain force… we would be going astray as a people and bringing upon ourselves every curse that wakes in the wake of the wilful distortion of the historical record.”
Through their unsolicited ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ chant in Parliament and at the Sufi Forum, Javed Akhtar and the Sufis have built their distance not only from “Bad Muslims” but also from millions of Hindus who refuse to endorse the claim of Hindu Nationalists that this, and this slogan alone, is the real test of every Indians’ love for and loyalty to his country.
At an informal gathering of Kanhaiya Kumar and a few JNU students on the campus about a week ago, one of them asked: we students at JNU, Hyderabad University and elsewhere have been fighting Hindutva’s fascist menace; why are Muslim leaders and organisations so silent when they too should be concerned about the same thing?
About Owaisi and his party with a blatantly Muslim-communal agenda, the less said the better. If anything, the MIM’s politics is rich material for a case study on how not to combat Hindutva’s designs. For many Muslims across the country, it is an article of faith that the MIM is in cahoots with the BJP-RSS as both benefit from spreading the poison of communalism. Some even talk of crores changing hands.
But what might Javed Akhtar and the Sufis have to say in response to the query by the JNU student?
If not as a Muslim, what stopped Akhtar from speaking out against the growing witch-hunt, doctored videos by TV channels, takeover of not just educational campuses but even court premises by lynch mobs with state connivance? Not earlier, when academics, writers and artists (many of them atheists, though not communists) returned awards in protest, nor in his speech in the Rajya Sabha?
His speech said nothing more than what could be expected from a detached sage having descended from some ashram in the Himalayas for a brief glance at the state of the nation. Words of wisdom totally bereft of any reference, except obliquely, to the ugly climate being built up in the country with active encouragement from the RSS-directed, Modi-led, BJP-dominated, NDA government at the Centre.
As for the Sufis who took pains to ingratiate themselves with the prime minister, here’s some interesting bit of history. Among the main players in the All India Ulama and Mashaikh Board (AIUMB) who organised the World Sufi Forum are the management and direct beneficiaries of the dargahs of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya (Delhi) and Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti (Ajmer). Anyone familiar with the life and times of these saints will tell you that keeping a distance, never cosying up or currying favours, from the powers that be was almost an obsession with the Sufis.
During his lifetime, Hazrat Nizamuddin was witness to the rise and fall of eight different sultans who occupied the throne. It is well-known that the saint strongly disapproved of, actively discouraged, any of these sultans even from paying a royal visit to his abode. Amir Khusro, the most renowned disciple of the saint was also an officer in the court of Jalaluddin Khilji. Khusro came to know that eager to somehow seek the Hazrat Nizamuddin’s blessings, the sultan was planning on visiting the saint in disguise. Khusro leaked the news to Hazrat Nizamuddin who promptly left the city to foil the sultan’s surreptitious plan.
Furious with such “treachery” and “disclosure of state secret”, Khilji demanded an explanation from Khusro. This is what the latter said in his defense: “I had to choose between betraying my peer and betraying you. In betraying my peer I would have lost my imaan (faith); in betraying you I stand to lose only my jaan (life). I would sooner lose my jaan than my imaan”. An impressed Khilji forgave Khusro his great betrayal.
Recounting this incident from history, a devout Sufi practitioner told SabrangIndia: “You could say that in hosting the prime minister, the organisers of the World Sufi Forum have betrayed their Chisti tradition (the silsala to which most of the Sufis in India belonged), if not their imaan.
Among the many Sufi silsilas (orders) there were some who stood aloof from power, even spoke truth to power. Others provided legitimacy to the ruler of the day. While Hazrat Nizamuddin and Khwaja Moinuddin belonged to the former category, the organisers of the Delhi meet who otherwise swear by these very saints have chosen a contrary path.
Through their unsolicited ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ chant in Parliament and at the Sufi Forum, Javed Akhtar and the Sufis have built their distance not only from “Bad Muslims” but also from millions of Hindus who refuse to endorse the claim of Hindu Nationalists that this, and this slogan alone, is the real test of every Indians’ love for and loyalty to his country.
The growing influence of Saudi Arabia-fuelled rigid and intolerant version of Islam should be a matter of concern for all Indians, Muslims particularly. The AIUMB could have played a very positive role in preserving India’s syncretic tradition, stemming the Wahhabi tide. But from the brand of Sufism on display at the Delhi meet, it is seems that the answer for Indian Muslims lies elsewhere. Perhaps they should give some thought to what Omid Safi, an American professor of Islamic studies wrote some years ago in the American context, but which is equally relevant in our present context: “If our public discourse about religion and politics is to evolve to a more subtle, and accurate, space, it must get to the point where religious voices that speak from the depths and heights of all spiritual traditions can do more than simply acquiesce in the face of the Empire. They can, and should, speak for the weak, and give voice to the voiceless”.
Or, closer home, they could pay heed to two liberation theologists from Pakistan, Junaid S Ahmed and Sania Sufi: “Muslims must dig through the Islamic canon for a discourse far more liberating than merely the negation of beheadings or senseless violence or intolerance”.
RSS Prayer:
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Alongside this fiddle comes the crazy claim of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022. Does the finance minister mean real income after adjusting for price rise? And how? At the heart of their crisis is how unviable farming is being rendered—by policy. Will he honour his party’s promise and boost the MSP? Will he reduce the burden of farmers locked into a high-cost economy—give them access to better credit and cheaper seed, fertiliser and other inputs? There is not a hint in the budget. The lion’s share of ‘agricultural credit’ goes to urban and metro-based businesses. And the promised irrigated land—will that be done by renovation of tank systems and the like (that can be linked to the NREGA)? Or through the river-linking delusions that promise a giant bonanza for contractors but little irrigation?