In recent years, India’s democracy and Constitution have faced an unprecedented crisis. Democratic institutions have collapsed, and the independence of the judiciary and oversight bodies has been severely compromised. The functioning of Parliament has been gravely impaired. The government has institutionalized corruption and lack of transparency in election funding through the Electoral Bonds system, allowing corporations to secretly divert black money to the ruling party’s coffers. The dilution of the Right to Information Act has undermined citizens’ fundamental democratic right to question the government and hold it accountable.

Neo-liberal economic policies and growing crony capitalism have adversely impacted women in general, but especially those who belong to the Dalit, Adivasi and other marginalized communities. Their fragile economic base has been devastated.

Attacks on minorities have created an atmosphere of fear and insecurity, with Muslims and Christians facing targeted discrimination. The country has witnessed a systematic attempt to spread communal hatred and divide people along religious lines. This communal agenda is being implemented with vengeance, resulting in large-scale violence, such as in Manipur, and daily attacks on individuals, groups, and residential colonies of minorities. Lynching, killing, and demolishing houses, localities, mosques, and churches have become commonplace. Members of minority communities are being implicated in false cases, tortured, arrested, and languishing in jails without trial.

The criminal justice system in India has virtually collapsed, particularly with regards to minority rights, especially for Muslims and Christians. There has been a steady deterioration in the rule of law with alarming cases of police excesses, including custodial deaths.

To address this crisis, Anhad, in collaboration with United Christian Forum, organized a convention titled “The Quest for Equality and Justice: Status of Muslims & Christians in Contemporary India” on September 14, 2024, from 3-7 pm at Jawahar Bhawan, New Delhi. The convention aimed to take stock of the situation and plan future strategies to safeguard secular values.

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Intellectuals, former civil servants, historians, economists, and academicians came together on the 20th anniversary of the formation of Anhad, a civil society group, at Constitution Club in New Delhi on Saturday to discuss the attacks on democratic institutions and defend the idea of India.

Addressing the gathering, Aditya Mukherjee, a renowned historian, said that the idea of India may have formed in the mid-nineteenth century, but it was very distinct from ideas of nationhood in Western countries. “Our leaders in the freedom struggle talked about sovereignty and democracy from the beginning. By sovereignty, they were referring to a state where people will be free from colonial slavery as well as be taking their own decisions,” he said.

“Mind you, Bal Gangadhar Tilak was talking about the adult franchise in the 1890s. Western democracies like America were discussing in the 1960s if black people will have civil rights. So, it was a quite revolutionary idea in the nineteenth century to envision democracy. […] Gandhi famously said that freedom of speech and civil liberties are the water of life and have you ever heard about water being diluted? So, it remained non-negotiable for Gandhi in independent India. For him, the right of association was simultaneously important,” added Mukherjee.

He pointed to the threat looming over civil liberties today and observed that even members of parliament are finding it difficult to organise a protest with the hurdle of Section 144 among other things.

“Respect for the opposition was equally important. But today, we see all versions of history where Nehru is posed against Gandhi, Patel against Nehru, and Bose against Nehru. However, in reality, they did differ in views but never disrespected each other. Secularism and inclusivity were equally relevant,” he said.

Mukherjee added that we should be proud of the fact we could envision diverse societies culminating into a nation. “The European Nation States emerged on the foundations of one language, one nation. If I go ahead, it was one nation, one sect. Look at France, catholic France, not even Christian. It was a multi-lingual society, but the French Revolution flattened it. Protestant England. They failed to recognise our diversity and rebuked us by saying that we are just a geographical expression between longitude and latitude called South Asia,” he said.

According to him, the second big differentiator that stood out for India was that nationalism here was “humane”. “As European nation-states developed, they became imperial powers. The only people who differed were nationalists and loyalists. […] It is these loyalists and communalists who are in power today and they are borrowing the idea of one nation one language from personalities. It is well documented how Hindu Mahasabha leaders sought an audience with Mussolini and came back to implement his ideas,” he said.

“We are getting clarifications from the NCERT director that the syllabus and text in the books have been revised to lessen the load on students but it is an open secret that Mughals have been erased to demonise the Muslim community, to push them into ghettos in order to prevent them from sharing their pain with rest of the Indians,” said Mukherjee.

Ashok Vajpayee, a noted poet and former ambassador to Poland, said that the leaders of the BJP are using the text of epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata to justify their crimes. However, a reading of these texts suggests otherwise.

Citing an example of Van Parv in Mahabharat, Vajpayee said that Vyas argued against enmity between religions. “A religion loses its meaning if it hates the followers of other religions. Similarly, A religion’s existence is in danger if its followers question others,” he said.

He said that the essence of the text suggests a very long journey of religious philosophies in the country. It is in this discourse Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism emerged in this country. “If everything was right with the Hindu religion, why would have these religions appeared? Second, Hindutva is the illegitimate version of Hinduism and has completely distorted the latter’s meaning. Thus, the fight is to protect the religion from opportunistic tendencies,” said Vajpayee.

Anjali Bharadwaj, an RTI activist, said that idea of India also represents a nation where people have the right to ask for information to ensure less corruption and transparent administration.

She said that the anxiety of ruling party members can be understood from the sentence of a national minister who had said that “people’s responsibility to ask questions ends with elections”. He was addressing the mediapersons after an encounter in Bhopal.

“If people are exercising their right to information for better governance, they are being killed. As per available data, 90 RTI activists have been killed. I fail to understand the fear in the ruling party that there is no permission to protest at a designated place like Jantar Mantar where we saw people converging in thousands to express their anguish. The NREGA workers are sitting for 50 days, and the permission is denied if the participants are more than 50 whereas we saw a meeting of Hindu extremist groups with swords and batons,” she said.

She added that institutions which were responsible for ensuring a smooth flow of information are being attacked. “We had to go to Supreme Court every time to seek the appointment of information commissioners. In nine years of this rule, not a single commissioner was appointed without a court battle. It came into power with the promise of Jan Lokpal but did not appoint them until 2019 before the elections. So, it has been a difficult struggle though it must be fought to defend the idea of India.”

Among other speakers who addressed the conference were historian Mridula Mukherjee, economist Santosh Mehrotra, political scientist Zoya Hasan, journalist Pamela Philipose, and lawyer Vrinda Grover.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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Human rights activists came together on December 24, 2021 and strongly condemned the hate speeches and call for a genocide during the ‘Dharma sansad’ organised by Swami Yati Narsinghanand a week ago. Reacting to the inciteful speeches made at the December 17-19 event, activists demanded immediate legal action and arrest of Narsinghanand and other accomplices Swami Prabodhanand Giri, Annapurna Maa, Dharam Das Maharaj , Anand Swarup Maharaj and all who organized this event, indulging in hate mongering.

Senior rights lawyer, Prashant Bhushan called upon civil society organisations and personalities to speak against such instances of hate speech. “The judiciary should have taken suo moto cognisance of this. Our duty is to activate action against incidents from the judiciary,” he said.

During the Dharma Sansad, Narsinghanand targeted Muslims and said that on top of an economic boycott, the right-wing community should pick up arms against them. He even promised Rs.1 crore to anyone who agreed to become a “Prabhakaran or a Bhindranwale for Muslims”. Narsinghanand gave a clarion call for Shastra Mev Jayate.

Academic activist, Syeda Hameed called the statements “repugnant” and asked all organisations to ally against such hate-mongering taking inspiration from the farmers and Shaheen Bagh protesters. “Who gave these people the right to make India a source of hate? People are worried about what is happening in India,” she said.

“We demand an immediate stop to such gatherings which are organized to vitiate the atmosphere and polarize the people of India,” added Shabnam Hashmi on Friday. 

A total of six speakers at the press conference condemned the Haridwar event wherein several “Hindutva” religious leaders and Hindutva extremist organisations called upon Hindus to arm themselves and eliminate Muslims from India. During this time, Hindu Mahasabha General Secretary Sadhvi Annapurna called upon “100 soldiers who can kill 20 lakh of them [Muslims]”.

Questioning that such a statement was made openly during the BJP-led state government’s watch, Hashmi said, “It is important to tell these right-wing threats that secularism, humanity, fraternity is still alive in India. The coming elections will show this tyrannical regime, the power of democracy.”

Hameed also decried the willful manner in which the police filed a vague FIR a day after the event, naming a Wasim Rizvi, who had no connection with the event. Taking this further, Anjali Bharadwaj too demanded accountability from the police, judiciary and state administration for allowing such an event to take place. Calling the event “an assault on the Constitution”, she questioned the police spokesman statement that “We are keeping an eye, will take suitable steps.” She said that such FIRs only encouraged hate-ridden actions.

“Who asked for this Dharma Sansad? And who allowed it? Even national media channels covered the incident, so what is the police investigating? These actions close to elections must be stopped. We can no longer afford to stay silent,” she asked.

Dev Desai said that his words were shameful for the Hindu community as well. He asked people to unitedly reject the “Gujarat model” and the “clean-chit committee” that only observed such violent events rather than curbing the spread of hate.

Another speaker Gauhar Raza expressed shock that a statement alleging the murder of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was ignored by the government. Anand Swarup Maharaj threatened to wage a war “scarier” than 1857 if the government failed to create a Hindu Rashtra through violence against minorities. He spoke of barring Christians from celebrating Christmas or Muslims from celebrating their festivals in Uttarakhand because the state supposedly belongs only to Hindus.

Further, BJP spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay in October presented a “Bhagwa Constitution” to Narsinghanand. Hindu Raksha Sena President Swami Prabodhanand Giri encouraged people to “get ready to kill,” And to all this, the speakers condemned the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh for remaining silent and even for paying his respects to Yati Maharaj.

“These people are playing our future and our next generations. If no one else, then we citizens must stand against such forces,” said Raza.

Senior activist Ram Puniyani called for communal harmony groups in India to allow people to consider whether the present regime will uphold the Constitution or allow the “Bhagwa Constitution” to be forced on them.

The group said in its press statement that the Sansad, held on the eve of elections in several states including Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, smashes the ‘Idea of India’ held by our freedom fighters. They warned that when a state remains silent while hate speech is used against citizens, it bodes ill for the people. “A Hindu Sarkar will not be difficult if this regime remains in power,” said Puniyani referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Related:

‘India must be declared a Hindu nation’, says controversial ex-cop, DG Vanzara
Uttarakhand: Will Jitendra Narayan Singh Tyagi nee Wasim Rizvi benefit from the FIR against him, or will he be the scapegoat?
Hate Watch: Did VHP head call Indian Muslims “4th stage cancer”?
Carry swords to protect cows: Sadhvi Saraswati 

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An Insaaf Yatra was organized by ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) on 31^st March 2018 to Muzaffarnagar and Shamli to:
 

1. Express solidarity with the families and children in Khatauli who had been arrested and jailed unlawfully.
2. Protest the state government’s move to erase 131 cases against those accused of 2003 Muzaffarnagar pogrom.
3. And to protest the spate of extra judicial killings in the State.

The delegation first met with multiple Muslim residents of Khatauli and heard about incidents to provoke lawlessness. The residents narrated that processions with weapons were being taken out on Hindu religious holidays to intimidate them and provoke riots. The residents also complained of an indifferent administration which turned a blind eye to such provocation, and the arrest of many Muslim including journalists had been arrested by the police on flimsy charges. The members also discussed detailed facts on the case of 4 minor children being arrested and jailed with adults since December 2017.

The Insaaf Yatra went on to Muzaffarnagar to express solidarity with the protests being organized by the Uttar Pradesh National Alliance for People’s Movements and other civil society organizations against erasure of the criminal cases of Muzaffarnagar pogrom accused. They also met residents of Muzaffarnagar and discussed the local law and order issues. The members of the Insaaf Yatra gave the representatives of the government a memorandum and went on to Kandhla to meet the residents and evaluate the situation post the 2013 pogrom.

The delegation was shocked by the tales of lawlessness, intimidation of Muslim residents, and shocking flouting of law and order by the police. The Insaaf Yatra strongly condemns the arrest of the minor children in Khatauli and being jailed with adults instead of juvenile homes and calls for strict action to be taken against the police and the judge who has abused the rights of children.

The delegation also expressed a strong protest on the state government’s move of withdrawing 131 criminal cases against those accused of riots, murders and dacoity. These are heinous crimes and the guilt, or the innocence of the accused should be decided by the judicial process only. Letting them free without the due process of law is an insult to the Indian judiciary and Constitution as well as the rights of the victims. The members of the delegation have decided to further carry out rallies, protests at local and national level too.

It was specially horrifying hearing about the fake encounters and that pressure being exerted by the police on the families of the victims to withdraw their demands for judicial inquiry. Extra judicial murders have no space in a lawful democracy and we demand independent judicial inquiries into all such encounters. In case of them being proved as murders, the policemen who have been involved in such encounters should be arrested and punished by a court of law. The delegation calls for a strong civil society response against these illegal acts by the police and a national and international campaign to stop the misuse of the law and order machinery.

The Insaaf Yatra included Ovais Sultan Khan, human rights activist and the Managing Trustee of ANHAD, AC Michael, former member Delhi Minorities Commission, Md. Faizan Alam, social activist, Meha Khanduri, human rights activist, Syed Ravish Alam and other social and human rights activists from Delhi, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli.

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