The aftermath of the Ayodhya judgment not only redefined the boundaries between history, religion, and legality but also paved the way for a series of challenges against other mosques, including the Gyanvapi Mosque. This article delves into these complex layers, dissecting the impact of court decisions on religious structures and the broader implications for a nation striving to achieve social harmony and sustainable growth.

The Ayodhya judgement: Legitimising illegal actions

The Supreme Court’s Ayodhya judgement was not a mere property dispute as embedded it was an act of religious and political violence: the destruction of the Babri Masjid. By holding in favour of the Hindus, the court ignored the basic principles of restitution that parties must be restored to their original positions, where possible.

The court could have ordered a status quo that prevailed before the demolition and then adjudicated the dispute, but it failed to do so. This (in)action by the court fueled the ‘temple reclamation’ movement and its consequences can still be felt today. The first stage of temple reclamation has become filing cases before the courts. Therefore, this article will look at the role of the courts in controversies of conversion of religious places.

It was expected that the judgment in the Babri Masjid would settle the law, and no new claims and disputes would arise in the future. However, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has never backed down on its demand for the construction of Hindu temples in Varanasi, Mathura and several others.

Arundhati Roy writes in her book “Azadi- Freedom, Fascism Fiction” that ‘‘the VHP has refused to back down on its past statements that it will turn its attention to other mosques. Theirs can be an endless campaign- after all, everybody came from somewhere, and everything is built over something.’’

The Gyanvapi row

The Supreme Court is already hearing upon the Constitutionality of The Places of Worship [Special Provisions] Act, 1991, which was a law passed during the heat of the Babri Masjid dispute in 1991 that bans the conversion of any place of worship and preserving its character which was during the time of independence of India.

However, the Act, though being challenged before the Supreme Court, still exists and is in force. Yet, a petition was filed by five Hindu women in April 2022 before a Varanasi court claiming their right to worship since they believed there exists a Shivling under the Gyanvapi Mosque, which was constructed by Aurangzeb post destroying the temple. An archaeological survey of the Mosque in May 2022 was ordered, which led to the finding of an object resembling Shivling inside the mosque in the Wazukhana.

Consequently, an order was passed that Namaz would not be allowed in the Mosque; however, the Supreme Court ordered to restore Namaz and preserve the Wazukhana, and the court directed the District Judge, Varanasi to hear the matter.

The petition of those five women was challenged by the Masjid Intazamia on the grounds of its maintainability itself that The Places of Worship Act, 1991 is in force, and such a petition cannot be entertained that seeks to convert any religious place of worship as barred by Section 3 of the Act.

The District Judge [DJ] rejected this argument as he ruled that the law prevents the conversion of the place of worship, whereas, in this petition, the question is about the determination and ascertainment of the character of the place of worship, which is not barred by the Act.

Furthermore, the State of Uttar Pradesh had enacted a legislation, namely, the Uttar Pradesh Sri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Act, 1983, which defines a temple under Sec. 4[9], and that means the Temple of Adi Vishweshwar, popularly known as Sri Kashi Vishwanath Temple, situated in the City of Varanasi. Hence the Gyanvapi Mosque was held to be a temple as per this law.

While a frenzied mob can demolish the mosque, it would not have been possible to construct the temple without the help of court and state

The Supreme Court will also determine the Constitutionality of the Places of Worship Act, but for the time being, it is still valid; the law and its essence should be followed. The interpretation that the DJ has provided to the Section 3 is enough to open a floodgate of litigation before the courts of law for determining the nature of the place of worship.

Similar trajectory in the Mathura Case

The Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura is the subject of more than a dozen cases. The first of these cases was filed in the aftermath of the Ayodhya judgement. Based on the Court’s order in the Gyanvapi case, the petitioners requested a similar video survey of the mosque and the local court in Mathura agreed to hear the plea.

As seen from the above cases, the courts seem to be developing a jurisprudence on religious conversions that is not grounded in the laws.

Why are the courts acting in the manner in which they are acting?

A possible reson why courts seem to be sympathetic to the Hindu cause may be that they want to respect the matter of faith of the majority. They may also hold the opinion that even if they rule according to the law, like in the case of judgement in favour of temple entry of women of menstruating age in Sabrimala, ultimately the women had to bow down to the social pressure of tradition and only two women could enter in the middle of the night with government help.

But while a frenzied mob can demolish the mosque on the spur of the moment, it would not have been possible to construct the temple without the help of court and state.

Babri Masjid demolition imported terrorism to India

Babri Masjid demolition was soon followed by what was then called serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in early 1993 and which after the 2001 attack on twin towers in New York began to be called terrorists attacks. India witnessed many terrorist attacks after the Babri Masjid demolition including the most outrageous one in 2008 on Mumbai.

Radicalisation of Islam and Muslim youth was an outcome of Babri Masjid demolition and more such injustices are likely to create more reaction in the Muslim community. This is something that the judiciary must keep in mind when deciding the fate of Islamic historical religious structures.

Conclusion

The Supreme Court in the Babri Masjid Case stated that the non-retrogression principle should be followed as the courts of law will not undo the historical injustices by the previous rulers of the country or its parts thereof. It had stated:

‘‘This court cannot entertain claims that stem from the actions of the Mughal rulers against Hindu places of worship in a court of law today. For any person who seeks solace or recourse against the actions of any number of ancient rulers, the law is not the answer. Our history is replete with actions that have been judged to be morally incorrect and even today are liable to trigger vociferous ideological debate.’’

It is unfortunate that this part of the judgement is ignored by the lower courts which are encouraging litigations such as Gyanvapi and Mathura through favourable orders to the petitioners and thereby encouraging them to file more such cases that browbeat religious interests of the minority communities.

The courts are supposed to be the custodian of the Constitution. If they start giving in to the majority sentiment, the distinction between the judiciary and legislature will be lost. The legislature can still overrule the court like in the case of Shah Bano but the judiciary has to stand its ground.

*Vishnu Bandarupalli and Ayush Bajpai are students of law at NALSAR, Hyderabad; Sandeep Pandey, a Magsaysay award winning social activist-academic, is general secretary, Socialist Party (India)

Courtesy: Counterview

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It is a matter of shame for us as a society that Bilkis Bano’s rapists have been released by a District level committee of Gujarat Government. Some people in the Hindutva family are also justifying the act by claiming that a few of the rapists are Sanskari Brahmans.

If rapists and murderers will be called Sanskari, then we as a society have to rethink about the moral values and ethical standards necessary to be upheld for us to be called a civilised society. Besides Biliks Bano feeling cheated by the act of Gujarat government, what would be the feelings of women of family of convicts?

We’re sure no woman would feel that men of their family are sanskari if they indulge in violating the modesty of other women, irrespective of which caste or religion they belong to. We take pride that India is known in the world over for its spirituality. India is identified by Mahatma Gandhi who himself is a symbol of values and virtues.

It is a shame that Gujarat which produced a global spiritual stalwart like Mahatma Gandhi today is silent on people who have committed heinous crimes. Are we as a humanity going to defend the victims of violence and hate or not? Are we going to silently suffer the injustice being done to innocent people? What kind of society do we aspire to build and live in?

All 11 rapists and murderers who have been released are associated with the Hindutva ideology. Godhra based Advocate Narendra Parmar asks why the committee in Panchmahal district, of which the District Magistrate is also a part, chose to release only these 11 and not any other convicts serving sentences in Godhra jail for crimes much less heinous than these men?

The proceedings of the meeting in which decision was taken to release the rapists and murderers is not being provided under the Right to Information Act, in spite of the one month stipulated time being over in response to an application filed by journalist Rajjak Mansuri.

It is interesting to note that only one out of the 11 convicts had asked for remission of sentence from the court but all 11 were released by the district committee in a rare gesture of goodwill on the Independence Day soon after the Prime Minister made an appeal from the Red Fort that we must change our attitude towards women and must treat them with respect.

By releasing them just before the Gujarat elections the Bhartiya Janta Party government intends to send out a message that all its cadres will be protected in spite of the graveness of crime committed by them so long as it serves the purpose of Hindutva ideology.

We are one step closer to the establishment of Hindu Rashtra of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh by this decision of Gujarat government. The BJP and RSS may gain politically from this decision but anybody can predict that they are setting a dangerous precedent but letting out the culprit convicts, putting the victim and witnesses in a precarious position.

A Sorry Bilkis padyatra from her village Randhikpur, Dahod district, to Ahmedabad will held from 26 September to 4 October

The devious design for the purpose of communal polarisation is distorting or numbing the conscience of people. We are not being able to decide on the basis of merit of the case but our view is being coloured by caste and communal considerations. Slowly, this process will render us incapable of having a sense of empathy and we’ll become human beings without any feelings.

This phenomenon has already started affecting families where relationships are getting soured between those who support this Hindutva narrative and those who don’t. The scenario is becoming further murkier because the strident Hindutva is being confused with assertive nationalism by a section of population including people in positions of influence in bureaucracy and judiciary.

Some people feel that supporting BJP or RSS is in the interest of the country without realising that the sectarian politics espoused by these organisations is taking the society apart, alienating people even among close circles of friends and relatives, condoning hatred and violence which they would have otherwise not done and ignoring the socio-economic reality of the country intoxicated by some obscure notion of Hindu rashtra.

They are so blinded by this narrative that they don’t even realise that they are being misled purely for the political gain of a virulent ideology. This process has to be arrested at some point otherwise our slide down the hill of moral values and ethical standards or merely even civilised behaviour will continue unabated. We have to say enough is enough somewhere.
Let us speak out so that humanity survives, so that moral values and ethical standards are respected, so that innocent people feel safe and criminals are discouraged. We have to decide whether we owe any responsibility towards making our society more humane?

Until then we can only say we’re sorry Bilkis. We only hope that what has happened with you will not happen with any innocent human being. The society actually needs to undertake a penance for what she has had to suffer.
—
*Magsaysay award winning academic and social activist, general secretary of Socialist Party (India), is taking out a padyatra from Bilkis Bano’s village Randhikpur in Dahod district to Ahmedabad during 26 September to 4 October, 2022

Courtesy: https://www.counterview.net

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Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathu Ram Godse. There are some people subscribing to Hindutva ideology who idolize Godse. Various leaders, activists associated with the Hindutva ideology from time to time have portrayed Godse as a patriot. Question is Gandhi was the tallest leader of India’s freedom movement and even before India achieved independence Godse was making an attempt to kill Gandhi, so, how could Godse be a patriot? But by describing Godse as patriot Mahatma Gandhi’s sacrifice is belittled. A school in Gujarat in 2019 asked its class 9 students in a question paper as to how Mahatma Gandhi committed suicide? If Hindutva ideology had its way, it may even convince people of the country one day that Gandhi committed suicide and was not murdered just as students in present day China do not learn anything about the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Also, the Sangh Parivar would like to wash this taint as Mahatma Gandhi is globally the most respected Indian. This is the reason Narendra Modi chose him as icon for the Swachcha Bharat Mission and at least pays him token respect abroad whenever it suits him.

When Babri Masjid was going to be demolished on 6 December, 1992, both the Prime Minister P.V. Narsimha Rao and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Kalyan Singh swore allegiance to the Constitution and vowed to protect the mosque. However, after the mosque was demolished Kalyan Singh claimed that he was a member of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh first and a Chief Minister later. A number of leading politicians of Bhartiya Janata Party including Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, etc., were made accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case. In 2019, Supreme Court of India while admitting that demolition of Babri Masjid was a criminal act awarded the land on which mosque stood for construction of a Ram temple there. As expected, the accused in Babri Masjid demolition were also let off by a court in UP. Hence a criminal act was justified and now it is made to appear as if there is a consensus in the country on building a Ram temple in Ayodhya where the mosque stood once with even politicians of opposition parties like Congress contributing towards the construction of temple.

More recently, Teesta Setalvad, R.B. Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt, who were trying to get justice for the victims of 2002 communal violence in Gujarat and bring to book the culprits are being made to appear as conspirers. Narendra Modi, the then CM, has been given so called ‘clean chit’ by the SC about whom Sanjiv Bhatt, in an affidavit submitted to the court, has said that in a meeting on the evening of Godhra train burning incident, Narendra Modi had told senior police officers to let the Hindus vent their anger for some time. Even if this meeting did not take place senior IAS officer Harsh Mander and IPS officer Vibhuti Narain Rai have claimed that any riot cannot go on beyond a few hours without the complicity of the government. The same SC which has pronounced judgment in 2019 in Bilkis Bano case asking the Gujarat government to pay Rs. 50 lakhs and provide a government job to the gangrape victim of 2002 violence has now come down so heavily on activist and former police officers who were helping the courts earlier so as to suggest that action should be taken against them. Question is, is Zakia Jafri wrong in seeking justice for the murder of her husband and former Congress Member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri and is Teesta Setalvad wrong in helping Zakia Jafri? Are we to forget that communal violence took place in Gujarat in 2002, are we to forget that Maya Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi were convicted for having participated in the Naroda Patiya massacre during the 2002 communal violence, even though the former was acquitted later and the latter given a bail, are we to forget that Narendra Modi was denied visa by United States and some European countries for 9 years for his complicity in the 2002 violence?

Are we to forget that several police officers and Amit Shah was arrested in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kausar Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case and the case had to be transferred from Gujarat to Bombay High Court, even though all accused were acquitted when BJP came to power at the centre, are we to forget the Justice B.H. Loya who wanted Amit Shah to appear in court died under mysterious circumstances?

A case has now also been registered against Medha Patkar for financial embezzlement in a trust Narmada Nav Nirman Abhiyan by a Hindutva office bearer. One V.K. Saxena, about whose background very little is known, published an advertisement against Medha Patkar and Narmada Bachao Andolan and since then has been embroiled in legal cases. V.K. Saxena’s affiliations became clear when he was elevated first as Chairperson of Khadi Village and Industries Commission and then as Lieutenant Governor of Delhi by the BJP government and Medha Patkar, who has committed her life to the struggle of marginalized sections of society facing any injustice, is facing a First Information Report and legal cases.

Latest is SC has asked activist Himanshu Kumar to pay a fine of Rs. 5 lakh for filing a petition seeking probe by Central Bureau of Investigation into an alleged killing of 16 tribals by police and security forces in 2009 at Gompad in Chhattisgarh. Himanshu Kumar has stated that seeking justice is not a crime and therefore he will not pay the fine.

Welcome to the new India where accused will be made to appear as innocent and the system will try to protect them and the innocent will be portrayed in bad light. Activism, fighting for human rights, speaking the truth have become liabilities.

Sandeep Pandey is General Secretary of Socialist Party (India). E-mail: ashaashram@yahoo.com

This article was first published on https://countercurrents.org

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In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic threat, there is a raging debate is going on regarding the holding of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains, the preliminary examination required to be cleared for admission to prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and other engineering and technology institutions, from September 1-6, 2020, by the National Testing Agency (NTA), in which 8,58,273 candidates are to appear. Subsequently a JEE Advanced will be held for 2-2.5 lakhs candidates selected from the above mentioned, for final admission to IITs and other institutions. Some students approached the court with an objective to get the JEE Mains postponed but the court has decided to support the NTA’s decision to conduct the examination. Now there is pressure being exerted through various channels including leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies for the postponement of this examination.

Some IIT professors think the examination should be postponed in view of the imminent threat of Covid-19, some think only one round of examination should be conducted and some are suggesting innovative alternatives. For example, Professor Kannan M. Moudgalya of IIT Bombay, through an article in Indian Express, has suggested postponing the examination by two years and allowing the students to enroll in a branch of their choice in any engineering college during the interim and use NPTEL/SWAYAM video courses to study. Professor P.R.K. Rao, formerly of IIT Kanpur, has suggested an admission process without entrance examinations in which students seeking admission to IITs would not be eligible for non-IIT engineering institutions and vice-versa. Students seeking admission to IITs will be allowed to specify a maximum preference order of 2-3 IITs with a maximum preference order of 2 branches. Students admitted to IITs will give an undertaking that they will withdraw from the programme if their performance falls below a specified level. Admission process will follow a first-come-first-served rule in a fixed time frame. 

There are 23 IITs now in the country, one in each state in mainland India except for Uttar Pradesh which has two, and for the entire Northeast and Sikkim there is only one in Guwahati. There are total of 15,53,809 seats available in 3,289 engineering colleges of India which are recognized by All India Council for Technical Education. The ideal situation is one where nobody who has an aspiration to study engineering is denied admission. The number of students appearing in JEE Mains held twice a year is about the same as number of seat available in all engineering colleges. Hence, it is physically possible to accommodate each aspirant without conducting any examination for elimination.

Each of the 23 IITs should take responsibility for assigning seats available in their state (region, in the case of Northeast and Sikkim) to the students from their state (region). For example IITs at Kanpur and Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi will take responsibility for allotting 1,42,972 seats available in 296 colleges of UP to students from UP. Of course, any excess students in any state will have an opportunity to fill vacant seats in a state of their choice.

Considering that 15,53,809 (equal to number of seats available) students have to be offered admission, each IIT’s burden will be about 67,557 students. Assuming that there are an average of 200 faculty members at each IIT, each faculty member over a 15 minutes one-on-one interview during 8 hours a day on an online platform, after verifying the identity of the student, can interview all the 338 students in his/her share in ten and a half days evaluation process. This evaluation process will essentially determine capability of the student and accordingly allot him/her to an institution whose rigour can be matched by student’s capability. The choice of branch of study should be left to the student. The selection process should be mindful of allotment of appropriate number of reserved seats to students from that category in each institution. A good proportion of girl students should also be allotted to each institution to maintain the gender balance to the extent possible. This one online interview will replace the JEE Mains, JEE Advanced and the counseling which decides the Institute and Branch choice for admission.

This seat allotment process will be subjective, as different faculty members at different IITs interview different set of students and individual inclinations will come into play. A deterrent to selecting an undeserving candidate for a seat will the public knowledge about who selected whom displayed on the particular IIT’s website. To exclude the possibility of individual biases panels can be formed, which will obviously be interviewing a larger number of students. But it is important that all faculty members are involved to share the load. As a correction mechanism, just as there is provision for branch change within an institution at the end of first year depending on the performance of initial year, an opportunity can be given to the students to change their institute based on their performance. Hence a student who was not allotted an IIT in the first year can by his/her hard work move from a private college or state engineering college or a National Institute of Technology to an IIT in the second year. For a student not sufficiently prepared a reverse process can also be adopted.

The entire seat allotment process will save time, resources and bureaucracy invested in conducting the JEE. Additionally, the students will be attending an institution close to their home akin to the idea of neighbourhood school. This will correct the regional imbalance in representation among student community at IITs and also that created because of coaching institutions.

The biggest gain will be making the selection process free from extortionist and grueling coaching institutions, which is one of the stated aims of New Education Policy (NEP) recently delivered to the country. There will be simply no need of them. Every desirous student will be able to study engineering. This is akin to universalisation of education, a long cherished dream of every educationist.

It is also likely that a major complaint of faculty members at IITs that students coming through the coaching institutions are not interested in engineering but they just need the IIT brand to move on to something more lucrative, like a career in finance, will also be addressed to some extent. It is high time we encourage students with an interest in particular subject to which s(he) is seeking admission, like in other countries to which Indian students migrate for undergraduate or graduate education.

The suggested seat allotment process could be studied for a few years. If it appears to be advantageous over the current selection process than it could be adopted in long term too.

*The writer has taught at IITs at Kanpur, Gandhinagar and BHU, Varanasi and has conducted examination free evaluations of students in all his courses.

Related:

PM Modi says the NEP hasn’t raised concerns of any bias
21st century brand of India’s Language Policy – NEP 2020
Modi and Sangh shape education in their own mould

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Even though Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the ideological parent of ruling Bhartiya Janata Party, abhors Gandhi’s ideology, yet Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to use Gandhi as a symbol for his drive for cleanliness.

First, he knows that Gandhi is the only truly mass leader that India has produced in recent times who holds national as well as international appeal. Second, he would probably not want people to remember Gandhi for his other ideas like truth, non-violence, Swadeshi or communal harmony because they are antithetical to his and his organisation’s thinking. It would be much convenient for his brand of politics if future generations of Indian were to associate Gandhi only with sanitation programme and none of this other ideals.

For Gandhi sanitation was not just picking up a broom and cleaning for photo opportunity, which is what the Swachha Bharat Abhiyan  has been reduced to. When a new person would come to Gandhi’s ashrams with a desire to work with him, the first thing s(he) would be required to do was to clean a toilet. This was Gandhi’s way of testing people’s resolve and commitment to social or public cause. Gandhi would identify with community of sanitation workers and even said that in future birth he would like to be born in that community.

The people who are engaged in cleaning of human excreta are called manual scavengers. This practice is a blot on the name of humanity. According to Socio Economic Caste Census 1,80,657 households earn their livelihood through manual scavenging. However, this number in reality is much higher because the government’s definition of manual scavengers doesn’t include sanitation workers cleaning sewer lines, septic tanks or railway tracks.
 

The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 did not see a single registration of case and therefore The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 was promulgated twenty years later. But the result is no better.
 

 

Under the Swachha Bharat Abhiyan Gramin 9.16 crore toilets have been constructed during the last five years which has increased the sanitation coverage from 38.7% to 98% during this period. India’s 601 districts out of 752 and 5,50,151 villages out of 6,40,867 have been declared open defecation free. The above statistics would have created a real problem for us if it were true.

Firstly, we would require an equally huge number of manual scavengers to clean the soak pits in which the human excreta gets stored underground when they are filled. Secondly, the soak pit design in areas of the country like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where the water table is very high, especially in rural areas where these toilets got built, would have posed a threat of contamination of ground water.

 

Fortunately, the corruption in construction of toilets and mis-reporting is for now a blessing in disguise as the abovementioned problems are not as exhaustive or comprehensive as the data seems to indicate. The reality is that most toilets constructed as part of SBAG are not being used because of faulty or incomplete construction.

 

Not once during the Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan we find a mention of manual scavengers or their problems, all of whom incidentally come from a particular caste called Valmiki in North India belonging to the dalit community.

Modi famously washed the feet of five sanitation workers on February 24, 2019 during the Ardh Kumbh at Prayagraj as a mark of respect to their contribution to ensuring cleanliness during the month and a half long event. However, the need to undertake this exercise arose probably because there was a protest going on of sanitation workers during the event itself demanding minimum wages and better working conditions.

A well known activist-poet from Allahabad Anshu Malviya was arrested on February 8 by Crime Branch of Police and threatened with imposition of National Security Act on him because he was at the forefront of organising the sanitation workers. After a protest by activists and sanitation workers he was finally released after midnight from a local police station. Sanitation workers were getting Rs 295 per day as daily wages whereas they desired Rs 600, according to a minimum monthly honorarium of Rs 18,000, which is being demanded by national level trade unions.

Meanwhile, sanitation workers continue to die while inside sewer lines and septic tanks. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment informed the Lok Sabha in 2017 that 300 deaths by asphyxiation had taken place when workers were involved in underground cleaning operations that year. On November 10, 2018 Dinesh Paswan and Vikas Paswan died in an accident inside a sewer line in Chowkaghat locality of Varanasi while Satyendra Paswan suffered a leg fracture.
 

 

The district administration or the government did not take responsibility and instead the contractor Pankaj Srivastava was made to pay the compensation. The case was registered at Chetganj Police Station of an accident but not under the 2013 Act. On June 15, 2019 seven workers died inside a septic tank of a hotel, 30 kms from Vadodara in Gujarat, but again no case was registered under the 2013 Act. If the cases were registered under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, family members of the deceased or the survivor would have been rehabilitated in an alternative occupation.

The act of Modi washing the feet of sanitation workers helped to overwhelm the basic demands of workers — a respectable income, safe working conditions, education for their children, health care for their families, an insurance against accident and solution to health hazards faced by manual scavengers.

Mahatma Gandhi was opposed to machinery. But one machine he would not have opposed would be machine to clean sewer lines and septic tanks as it would have liberated the manual scavengers from an ignominious plight. It is a shame that we’ve machines in the modern world which can perform surgery without opening the human body but we don’t have machines which are readily available to clean the sewers and septic tanks.
—
*Magsaysay award winning academic, social and political activist. Contact: ashaashram@yahoo.com

Courtesy: Counter View

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Farooq Abdullah

 

Farooq Abdullah had claimed that he was under house arrest. When Rajya Sabha member Vaiko, who wanted to invite Farooq Abdullah to a programme in Tamil Nadu, moved a habeas corpus petition seeking production of Farooq Abdullah before the court to set him free, the government imposed Public Safety Act on the 81 years old politician on 16 September finally formally detaining him.

This implies that Farooq Abdullah was under illegal detention for over a month and the Home Minister lied to Parliament. Two other former chief ministers of state Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti are also under similar house arrest.

Amit Shah has also claimed that three families have looted J&K implying that the act of abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A was in effect freeing the people from the clutches of these families. If what the government claims about situation being in J&K being normal and everybody there being happy with its decision, such behaviour of the government only betrays its insecurity about its inability to handle the situation once the restrictions are lifted.

Farooq Abdullah happens to be the son of Sheikh Abdullah, easily the most popular mass leader of J&K till date. Even though Sheikh Abdullah was fighting against the Maharaja of J&K to free the people from his autocratic rule and was sentenced for imprisonment by the Maharaja, when the Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession with Governor General Lord Mountbatten he informed the Governor General that he intended to set up an interim government and sought Sheikh Abdullah’s help in assisting his Prime Minister in the emergency situation.

Lord Mountbatten also expressed satisfaction that the Maharaja had invited Sheikh Abdullah to be part of the interim government. Sheikh Abdullah was appointed as the head of emergency administration with the consent of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru and the Maharaja and his Prime Minister left for Jammu virtually leaving it to Sheikh Abdullah to defend Srinagar.

The series of events highlights the important role of Sheikh Abdullah in accession of J&K to India. Sheikh Abdullah having received his education in different parts of India, was inspired by the progressive values of freedom struggle and played an important role in aligning J&K with the leaders of Indian freedom struggle rather than with Pakistan. Mohammad Ali Jinnah had laid a claim on J&K because of its majority Muslim population.

By subjecting Farooq Abdullah to humiliation the historical role played by Sheikh Abdullah and Jawaharlal Nehru is bringing J&K to India’s fold is being sought to be negated by the Bhartiya Janata Party government at the centre. This humiliation of people of J&K can never be understood unless the people of India who support the Narendra Modi government’s decision on J&K place themselves in the position of people of J&K.

Imaginary scenario

Let us imagine that in a meeting of the Security Council of United Nations, United States and England decide that the Government of India is unable to administer the country on the count of having lost control over law and order or the economy going bankrupt and an administrator needed to be sent to govern it.
An administrator arrives from England to India purportedly to help the Indian government administer the country. Along with him also arrives UN Peacekeeping force. Security personnel belonging to different nationalities comprise this force. As they are not familiar with the citizens of India they enforce a regime where they require every citizen to produce an identity card to identify themselves when out in open.

Citizens of India are subjected to routine questioning and examination. The security forces also enter houses for search. At times there are human rights violations by the security forces. When the local population resists pellet guns are used on it in which sometimes even children caught in the crossfire lose their eyes.

Some idealistic youth inspired by historical characters of Bhagat Singh or Chandrashekhar Azad, when try to counter the forces through militant means, are declared as terrorists. They are arrested and tried or sometimes even summarily executed which are described as encounter deaths. The elected government feels helpless in the presence of an outside administrator and the security forces.
 

By subjecting Farooq Abdullah to humiliation, historical role played by Sheikh Abdullah and Nehru in bringing J&K to India’s fold is being negated

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Ravish is Gandhian in his thought process. He holds the value of truth very highly, like Gandhi. And he has the courage to speak the truth, however inconvenient, with complete humility, a quality which Gandhi had mastered very well but where most of us falter. This is what makes him different and also may be a reason why he still keeps his job and has won the admiration of even his opponents.

The Magsaysay Award will definitely bring more credibility to his work and hopefully some of the opposition from right wing forces, who are known to troll in an organised manner any sane voice in support of human rights, democracy, justice, communal harmony, peace and friendship, especially with Pakistan, and who’ve targeted Ravish in the past, will subside. He has received life threats, his number has been made public to cause him more harassment, to the extent that he had to write an open letter to the Prime Minister highlighting the names of people threatening him, just in case they came good with their threats. One can imagine the insecurity of his family under such circumstances.

However, the aura of Magsaysay is quite exaggerated in India than other countries of Asia, and outside of Asia very few people have heard of it, probably because there are many well known Indians who have won it. Part of the reason for its popularity in India is that it and its winners feature prominently in most General Knowledge books which are used by students preparing for competitive examinations. But the Magsaysay Foundation itself is not infallible, unlike its reputation.

I went to Manila in 2002 to receive the Magsaysay Award as well as participate in a Peace conference organised at the University there in the wake of impending US attack on Iraq. It was a mere coincidence that both events were happening on same dates. There was a demonstration outside the US Embassy the day after the Award ceremony. The chairperson of the Foundation asked me not to participate in the demonstration as it could tarnish its image. When I mentioned to her that my Magsaysay citation referred to my global peace march for nuclear disarmament from Pokaran to Sarnath in 1999 and my stand against wars and armament was well known, she said I was free to oppose my government but I should not oppose the US government in Manila. I argued that US was a bigger culprit in the game of warfare and I considered it part of my activism to oppose the US policy. Before landing in Manila I had little idea that the Foundation was completely US funded – by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations. Obviously the Magsaysay foundation was quite uncomfortable with my stand.

The fears of Magsaysay Foundation came true. Even the Hindi Indian media back home covered the demonstration outside US Embassy in Manila highlighting my participation. An editorial in a Manila newspaper asked me to return the $50,000 Award money to the US Embassy before I returned to India if I was the principled man I wanted them to believe. I returned the cheque from the airport to the Magsaysay Foundation before embarking the plane out of Manila. I wanted to preserve my freedom to participate in the anti-Pepsi and Coca Cola movements going on in India on the issue of water table depletion which was a threat for farmers and not be questioned by the Magsaysay Foundation every time I took a stand contradictory to the US government, its policies or associated interests. Ironically, the same newspaper which raised a question on my stand, published an editorial after my departure lauding me for returning the money and saying that they too are opposed to US government policies. Copy of this editorial was sent to me by the Indian Ambassador in Philippines.

But the Award is prestigious and definitely is a protection against autocratic tendencies of the state and its cronies in India, especially for human rights defenders and upright journalists like Ravish Kumar. We hope that the right wing fundamentalists will take his view point more seriously and the media fraternity will start considering him as an ideal rather than an exception. He has now emerged as the hope for a free media in India and by extension a democratic polity. This is a victory of progressive forces, sanity and humanity and we must celebrate it. Most of all it is a victory for truth which has become a casualty in the era of post-truth. The post-truth has created only strife and conflicts. If we have to return to the human endeavour of making this world a better place for everybody, there is no option but to go back to recognizing truth as the most important values. In spite of Nathuram Godse having become a hero for a fringe group in this country, the universal ideal continues to be Mahatma Gandhi.

Sandeep Pandey is a social activist and Magsaysay award winner

Courtesy: Counter Current

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