When, as is our want, as chroniclers of the times, we are pressed to pen our words, our tribute to this special man, leader, father, partner, comrade, thoughts crowd in, yet words refuse to flow in cohesion. Exactly seven days on, after September 12 when we were numbed and chilled to the core as the 3.03 p.m. news crept in, I attempt this piece. Cringing in the knowledge that so much of meaning has already been written.

What more, then, will I have to say?

I will begin this homage, or tribute with this then, sharing (s) from last Friday and Saturday when we collectively bent our heads and grieved first at Seema-Sita’s Vasant Kunj home laced and lined with gracious scented white blooms dotted with the defiant communist red and then, the next day at the Gol Market party office, AKG Bhavan where we had spent so many hours with Sita and other comrades, over the years. I did not just meet Sita there though, over decades. It was most often at the Sahmat daftar, first the one at Vithalbhai Patel house (8 VP house), then at 29 Ferozeshah Road and the last several times at 36, Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla lane, adjoining the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) office. His visits for lunch and pow-wows with close comrades were intimate and friendly and those of us who could get a few minutes –often more—of his time—chatting with him on issues of grave importance, one on one, were lucky. The depth of his understanding of the ever morphing forms of ugly communalism-translated into a bitter abdication by the state and violence and misery for hundreds of thousands of our own, Muslims, made common cause with the work that we– Javed and I –have dedicated large parts of our working lives to robustly counter. His unwavering support of this work, through thick and thin, through better times and bad, was and is special yet part of the support that the party he joined in 1975 (he had joined SFI a year earlier) always offered and has given us. Deep bows and Lal Salaam Comrade!

Sita’s was an unwavering commitment to socialism and communism, his sharp reading of history matched his dedication to the soil of this land, the many layered and many flavoured freedom struggle that ousted the British. More than anything else it was his  nuanced layered and complex understanding of India’s agrarian crisis, the issues of labour organised and unorganised and for me especially, social justice that must come with a critique of communalism and a stand against caste that were fascinating. His admission, somewhat reluctant, of the urgent need of the party and left theorists to really factor in caste and issues of social justice to a class analysis goes back to 2001 or more. I was privileged to be among those who, with support from Sahmat, drew in all parliamentarians to support the cause of Dalits at the Durban UN Conference. That year, on August 31– September 4, when the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Intolerance, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances (WCAR) met in Durban, the first time since the discriminatory and centuries old regime of apartheid was overturned (in South Africa, early 1990s, formation of the first democratic government in 1994) through much sacrifice and struggle in that country, another group of subordinated peoples, discriminated by descent and occupation, forcibly segregated by tradition and religion from access to common resources, Dalits from South Asia, made their voice heard before the international community. The demands, sharply contested by the right and also other “mainstream intellectuals who rebutted claims on the matrix of sociological definitions” was clearly that that caste-based discrimination, which amounts to descent and occupation based oppression, segregation and exclusion be recognised as a distinct form of racism. A distinct form of racism, because it amounts (and has for centuries amounted to) to the denial of basic human rights based on prejudice, discrimination or antagonism and is justified by well–entrenched beliefs about high and low, superior and inferior.

The contrasting stance of India and Nepal are illuminating. As I wrote in Communalism Combat (April 2001, Hidden Apartheid). At the preparatory meeting for the WCAR, on February 19 in Tehran, the Indian government (NDA-I under Atal Bihari Vajpayee) made its stand clear — introducing caste into the ambit of the WCAR at Durban would amount to diluting the concept of racism. The government delegation was represented, among others, by then attorney general, Soli Sorabjee. More significantly perhaps, government spokesmen stressed that the problem of caste was an ‘internal’ one and therefore out of the purview of the UN. In stark and sharp contrast to the Indian government’s position was the Nepal government’s candour on the same issue, confronted as it was, then, with assertions of Nepali Dalits who account for not less than 15 per cent of the total population. The government of the only Hindu kingdom in the world openly admitted that caste is the source of acute discrimination and segregation within Nepal. This, it held, was a serious issue that falls under the theme of the forthcoming conference and should, therefore, form part of the official deliberations at the WCAR at Durban.

The idea of this recollection is not to lay down the rich nuances of that debate, that –given the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh’s (RSS’) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stance on caste even turned nasty for some of us supporting the Dalit demand – but to emphasise the readiness of a man of Sitaram’s intellectual and political acumen to engage with the challenge. A challenge that the demand posed, even to the organised left, the CPI-M, that has been accused of, historically and to date, ignoring the issues of caste oppression and inclusion.

Sita participated in the pre-Durban conference deliberations and lent his voice and support to the Dalit movements’ demand that was essentially attempting to take the issue of caste–based discrimination to a global forum; to solicit international condemnation of caste–based discriminatory practices and support for the struggle against it. Let’s not forget that caste based discrimination, legitimised for centuries through scripture and followed in practice by notions of high and low, superior and inferior, pure an impure. Even 77 years after independence, the problem persists. The Dalit condition, which was the result of such a pernicious theory, is the outcome of a narrow and hierarchically powerful assertion of race by perpetrators of this condition and not the other way around. It is not the metaphor of race that was being invoked but the metaphor of racism, which was the outcome of the misplaced metaphor of race. This Sita understood and as late as five months back, in early 2024, publicly articulated. The need for the organised left to be really seen as a serious political party that regards class as much as caste (and communalism) as the root of Indian oppression. For us at Communalism Combat, too this (journalistic) journey has meant deepening our understanding of how communalism (and majoritarian proto-fascism too) cannot be theoretically understood nor soundly countered or overcome without factoring in, or also battling caste.

The core of our conversations and parleys –Sita and mine–of course always dealt with the work we had undertaken, at great risk and challenge since 1992-93. First in the publishing (in book form) of the Srikrishna Commission Report on the Bombay communal riots of 1992-1993 (copies of which we sold at Rs 60 and 90 to ensure wide readability and availability). This journalist-activist action was born of our realisation that, most judicial commission reports that dissected the causes, build up and fallout of targeted communal violence post-Independence, are documents of legal-political importance that need to influence institutional memory to build in preventive and other measures to ensure that such violence does not periodically – and with more vicious intensity-repeat. For the past 32 years since then, a major personal academic and journalistic endeavour of mine has been to continually engage with these documents, ensure wider reach and availability, a task I am still currently engaged in. As editor of the CPI-M’s People’s Democracy, he was the first one, instrumental in ensuring that independent voices like us contribute to the party organ. Sita needed to fight numerous internal battles to allow me and other contributors the space to write what we wanted in PD in the manner we wanted to. But, in his own inimitable way, persuasive yet dogged, he got his way. This relationship has paved the way for a unique equation between me, a journalist activist academic and the CPI-M that is rare, precious and unique. Sita and Rajen (Rajendra Prasad) first, and then of course comrade Brinda and so many others have ensured that this relationship has been enduring. Communalism Combat (published from August 1993 to November 2012) and most particularly in the work of Citizens for Justice and Peace, post Gujarat 2002 is something that was more than close to Sita’s heart. It was an engagement that he saw as vital for the reassertion of the Constitution, a visionary document that arose out of India’s struggle for freedom. Not a day or month passed in that rich yet fractious battle (that still continues!) with a rogue state and its unaccountable functionaries, that Sita did not have his ear out for us, watchful of our predicament, support unconditional, during vilification and even incarceration. With Rajen and Sahmat in the tiny vibrant office spaces, often, and then at his Gol market office too, long elaborate discussions on the intricacies of our legal battle for accountability and reparation took place. The fact that we at CJP, always centred Survivor Voices in this battle, ensuring that the names of those who had loved, lived and lost their closest ones in the brute perpetrated violence is something that Sita deeply understood and empathised with. He met and interacted with the Survivors who bravely shared their tales and his words, his presence, renewed their faith. In not just their battle for Justice (that has remained only part fulfilled) but in the idea of India itself and the Indian Constitution too. How else can a mother who has lost her only son, another who has seen her sister and daughter raped before her eyes, a wife who lives sleepless with guilt of her dear husband’s death, a former parliamentarian not just hacked to pieces but his reputation smeared too, dare to live on? It was the warm, firm support of a man like Sita – among so many others – who met them, had the patience to listen, who spoke of the issue boldly, even when it became politically non-expedient, that meant we were not completely alone. Post September 3, 2022 when I visited Delhi after my release from jail, one of the most memorable moments of my life – one that I cherish close to me – was the lunch Rajen and colleagues organised at Sahmat – when, within minutes of my reaching, the general secretary of the CPI-M, Sitaram Yechury came by to hug and salute, with partner and fellow journalist, Seema, and soon, another Polit Bureau member, Brinda Karat, followed. Unflinching has been the support and personal respect and affection that I have been fortunate enough to receive. Hundreds of letters that I received from women activists and comrades of the AIUWFP (All India Union of Forest Working Peoples) and AIDWA (All India Democratic Women’s Association) while interned at barrack 6 of the Sabarmati Mahila Jail, Ahmedabad were an immense source of succour and strength.

Yes, it was the minor details and sheer expanse, Sitaram’s grasp on constitutionalism and parliamentary procedure, the irreverence of authority and most of all Sita’s playful charm and chuckle, all of this, that made the time spent with him, something you (silently) tuck away. To savour for another day. For the way Sitaram matched words with ideas, wove in culture and history, shared this with the ease of complete camaraderie made the conversations special.

Words often desert us when a near one passes. There is shock, disillusion, need to collectively grieve and share and then the inevitable clichés. So let me share more of some and all of these with you from September 13-14 in New Delhi.

The elegance and beauty of the flower malas and garlands strewn on the staircase up to the first floor home matched the fragrance of goodwill, care and grief within. They had been handpicked by Kanishka and Vertika (of the Prasad-Chopra-Chaturvedi clan) from the flower market at Seema’s special request. Sita lay before the beautiful, large poster of the original blockbuster, 1949 film, Andaaz with the triangular cast of Dilip Kapoor, Nargis and Raj Kapoor, directed by Mahboob Khan and the songs by Majrooh Sultanpuri. This larger than life poster adorned a bright red wall painted for Sita as a special gift by partner Seema to and for her communist humsafar and love, Sitaram. Kahwa and then tea was served graciously to all (daughter Akhila, son Danish and daughter-in law Swati) as we sat and shared the moments of loss as Pinarayi Vijayan, chief minister of Kerala, much later Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh (remember Sita was the Andhra boy who entered Jawaharlal Nehru University-JNU and became the student union president in 1978) and so many other political figures (even from the ruling dispensation) paid homage. Comrade Brinda Karat was staunchly by the family’s side both last Friday and through the weeks of care at AIMS, Delhi where he had been admitted on August 19 with a pneumonia like infection. There was disbelief and loss and as always a shared camaraderie and many precious conversations.

The next day at the party office was different, yet similar. Here was a different homage, formal, rich with the presence of so many special names from the political and intellectual firmament but it was also one large family. A large, large gathering from the morning till 3 p.m. when the final march began from AKG Bhavan to 14 Ashoka Road, the CPI-M office and finally to AIMS where Sita said goodbye must have touched 25,000. Young people, party affiliated and not, were there in significant numbers. It was not the numbers however but the shared common emotion of loss and belonging that were tangible. District committee members of the party from states across the country recounted how this man, who represented this party and organisation to the world (Sita headed the International Department of the CPI-M) and within India, across regions who spoke Bengali as much as his mother tongue Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi-Urdu apart from fine English was one of them, a comrade who had no airs, who was not just accessible but understood the value of each woman and man in this giant structure. To feel this tangible quality of what Sita was that day in the hot and sweaty mandap outside Gol Market is something I do not think one will see too often, again. His close colleagues Muralidhar, SN, yaar NK Sharma stood some distance away bewildered, unable to face the loss. Danish his second adored son quietly went up and paid homage to his father in the office, the office of the general secretary of the party, where Sita had sat, after some tussle and pulls, since 2015.

Sita’s personal life with Seema in their home and beyond reflected the openness and flexibility of him as a person, the staunch communist ideologue with a generous and practical pragmatic bent that deeply believed that the rich nuances and diversity of India’s coalition politics was not just a pragmatic necessity but possibly, the best way for an inclusive and representative government. His mentor, the wily Sardar of the party, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, groomed Sita well in the dos and don’ts of building consensus. We are too vast, diverse, bonded yet different for any structural rigidity to successfully bind us. The bonds that bind must be – like at the time of India’s struggle for freedom – bows of common cause with arrows that focus on all kinds of oppression, gender, caste and communal driven. These too must evolve with the times and technologies of the day. Language of the young laced with the rich learnings of our positive past is something that Sita respected and we must too.

Not a day has passed since that day, September 12 that I have not thought of Seema, and Sita often. It is a bruising sort of pain. Especially when I think back to that day, April 22, 2021 when the family lost their elder son, Ashish (Bhiku) Yechury to Covid-19. The grace and stoic courage with which he, Swati, Indrani Mazumdar, Seema, Akhila and Danish bore that loss is rare to see. It was the same grace that was evident on September 13-14. Bonded again in quiet and dignified grief, one heart-breaking moment was when Indrani said to me, “how tragically similar the way both Sitaram and Bhiku left us; now they are both gone.”

His dear wife and life partner Seema, a professional colleague and friend will bear the loss with her customary courage and shrugging, biting humour even as she tears up in unbearable grief. The loss will remain a constant void. The dignified threads of love and sharing with all three children will mitigate the difficult passing. Apologies for this additional dose of sobriety and sadness but it is impossible to pen this piece without reflecting and sharing how unfair it has been, for the Chisti-Yechury-Mazumdars to live through this twice. The loss and pain of a loved one’s aching departure.

For Bhiku, at Delhi’s Sunder Nursery, loved ones have dedicated benches to their beloved and lost ones (benches trigger nostalgia, anticipation and also, an inscription becomes an epitaph of belonging). Here we have, this family who has dedicated two benches to “beloved Bhiku” (Ashish Yechury). One of the inscription reads: You left us bereft but with much to discover of the season and the times captured by your camera…And the quirky touch that remains forever you. The second one, also dedicated to Ashish Yechury, ends with a poem by Nigerian poet Ijeoma Umebinyuo: “So, here you are too foreign for home, too foreign for here. Never enough for both.” Both are, as I said before, in the loving memory of Ashish Yechury.

And then I think, in how many Indian and world cities, Delhi first of course, will benches be dedicated and inscribed to Comrade Sitaram Yechury? His footprints left imprints near and far, and in each of these locales, to that bench that will inscribe, deep affection, loss and love at his too early parting.

Fare thee well comrade Sita, Au Revoir.

Teesta

[1] Sitaram Yechury’s writings and speeches figured regularly and often in both Communalism Combat and Sabrangindia.For example https://sabrangindia.in/ban-private-armies-of-gau-rakshaks-by-govt-order-central-state-sitaram-yechury/; https://sabrangindia.in/a-multi-religious-multi-cultural-nation-state-like-india-must-stay-aloof-from-religion-sitaram-yechury/

Related:

‘You left us a decade too soon, when India needed its body healed and soul rejuvenated’: a farewell to comrade Sitaram Yechury

A life dedicated to idealism of inclusive anti caste India

How Do I Say Goodbye to a Comrade I Have Known For 50 Years?

The post When looks embody the soul: Sitaram Yechury appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Left politics in India has been active at the grassroots for years but unfortunately rigidity at different levels forced its demise in numerous places. The traditional parties were being replaced by others who were able to understand the quest for representation among the most marginalized. The futile intellectual debate of ‘class-caste’ only proved the point of their opponent that the party is the biggest protector of the Brahmanical caste interests. Parties like CPI(ML) were spreading their base in Bihar and Jharkhand just because they understood this identity aspiration of the most marginalized and provided space to the communities. It is also a fact that you can’t really blame one individual for the policies of the party particularly in the left parties where their state units are more powerful in many states than the central secretariat of the party. Even with all criticism, left parties are not a one man show and there is more democracy and discussion among them in comparison to any other political party claiming to represent the marginalized. There is still no messiah cult in the left politics, a need and demand for the colonial democracy that we are in.

Sitaram Yechury was definitely not a mass leader but his impact on political opinion making was enormous. The power of the left despite shrinking still remain in our social cultural lives apart from various trade unions, academia and the political sphere. In the last one decade, efforts have been made by not only the ruling party but many vilifying the left activists and leaders. As I said, there might be differences of opinion, their failure to include people from the margin in their decision-making bodies as well as failure of West Bengal model, democratic left was still the need of the hour. Sitaram Yechury’s writings were sharp and well explained. Frankly speaking, he was the face of the left politics in the last two decade who was articulate and much more comfortable in the north Indian politics of social justice in particular. Even when he hailed from the South, the ease with which he spoke Hindi was remarkable. While it is not my point that one must learn Hindi, the thing is, for a party leader who plans to work in the Hindi heartland, it is always great to be bilingual. That way, Yechury had command like Comrade A B Bardhan in Hindi which made his writing and speeches understood by a very large audience in the Hindi heartland.

Whatever may be differences about individual opinion but Sitaram Yechury proved that he did not have many faces who private beliefs were the same as his political ideology unlike most of the Indian political as well as ‘intellectual’ class who are ‘revolutionary’ in public life but ‘reactionary’ and rigid in their private lives. He was the President of Jawaharlal Nehru University three times and one is sure that whenever the history of student movement and truly democratic characteristics of student politics would ever be discussed in India, Yechury’s contribution to student politics can never be omitted or discounted.

One of the most vilified things in today’s India by the right-wing trolls on social media as well as Bania channels is the interfaith marriages. Yechury spoke about his personal life for the first time in his last speech in Parliament in 2017, which could simply be termed as one of the finest speeches.

‘I was born in the Madras General hospital now called Chennai General Hospital to a Telugu speaking Brahmin family. My grandfather being a judge, after the state reorganization the Andhra Bench of the state High Court went to Guntur (formation of Andhra Pradesh), so we shifted there in 1954, I was born in 1952. Shift to Hyderabad in 1956. My school education is in an Islamic culture that was prevalent in Hyderabad under Nizam rule in the early days of independence in 1956. I got my education there then come to Delhi, study here. I married to a person whose father is a Sufi of the Islamic order whose surname is a Chistie, whose mother is a Mysorian Rajput who migrated there in the 8^th century AD. We are now in the 21^st century. She is the daughter of these two, father and mother. A South Indian Brahmin born family married to this lady what will my son be known as sir. What is he? Is he a Brahmin? Is he a Muslim? Is he a Hindu? What? There is nothing that can describe my son rather than being an Indian.’

These last sentences in the Parliament actually relate to those who are victimized and vilified simply because they are challenging the traditional system of marriages, moving beyond their castes and faiths and building up their dream based purely on the idealism of Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Periyar and Bhagat Singh. Unfortunately, anti-caste movement would have promoted this kind of idealism but today in the age of deepening caste identities any alliance beyond your community might not be a politically fertile idea for all. Yes, for some, it might fetch bumper crops but not for all particularly when one partner is a Muslim. You suffer on a daily basis but Sitaram Yechury spoke from the heart and for those who have made their dreams as per this idealism.

It is important to understand that whether it is Marxism or Ambedkarism or any other idealism, dogmas take you nowhere. Ultimately, it is your way of life which matters more than anything. Even when we criticize Marxists in India for being Brahmanical in nature, by his own behaviour and life that he lived, Sitaram Yechury actually was following the anti-caste idealism of Dr Ambedkar or Periyar. Frankly speaking, inter-caste marriages are still rare among Ambedkarites who should have been in the forefront of carrying out the mission of Baba Saheb. That way, Sitaram Yechury might not have brought votes and seats to his party but he definitely enriched our political idealism as well as civic spaces. Such voices are always required to remind us of our moral duties. It is also true that political activism is not always for power politics but also meant to exert pressure on the ruling elite. Sometimes, you need the conscious keepers for our society, otherwise the so called representatives of the people would act on the whims and fancies of the powerful corporate to protect their business interests.

As a true comrade dedicated to scientific rational thinking who lived a secular way of life. He donated his body for medical research. Again, despite all political differences, left leaders lived a life dedicated to scientific temperament and relatively simple and honest than most of the political parties in today’s time. Sitaram Yechury’s last wish was honoured by his wife Seema Chistie and daughter which need kudos and appreciation. Most of the time, the families decide against the wishes of the deceased and place their own personal values in dealing with the dead body which end up in exactly the opposite to the idealism of the individual passed away. It happened to many people because after the death their families performed all religious rituals, they stood against all through their lives. At least, in his death, Sitaram Yechury as well as his family did not allow the death of his idealism dedicated to secularism, rationalist scientific thinking and humanist values.

The post A life dedicated to idealism of inclusive anti caste India appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Not one to be cowed down after his name was mentioned by the Delhi Police, indirectly, of being somehow an alleged influence into instigating the North East Delhi communal riots, veteran Parliamentarian Sitaram Yechury in an exclusive interview spoke to SabrangIndia’s Teesta Setalvad, called out the repeated targeting of activists who spoke up against the CAA-NPR-NRC. He said he will not be cowed down by such targeting, and will continue fulfilling his duty to speak up against things he sees as anti-Constitutional, just like he, and other activists did when the national Emergency was declared in 1975.

On the current scenario, which is widely being seen as an ‘undeclared Emergency’ Yechury also drew parallels and said “investigative agencies are being used against dissenters who are speaking up”. The only way to combat this, according to the verteran leaders, was to build up “people’s resistance”, which is how the Emergency was fought in the 1970s. However, he did point out a crucial difference that ,“At that time, there was still some semblance of the Parliament and institutions,” but now, “the manner in which institutions are being destroyed is disturbing.” He said that to undermine Constitutional order, and replace it with a “rabidly intolerant and fascist Hindutva Rastra” was the real agenda now.

A case in point is the naming of academics, activists, students, opposition leaders, including Yechury in the “official investigations” on grounds that seem to warrant a double check on the investigation itself. “What they are charging me with is, based on unsigned statements, in garbled language. They said I made a speech in Jafrabad to instigate the Muslims into going for actions that caused the riots. I continue to defend the Constitution. It is not just my right to speak, it is my duty,” said the veteran leader.

He minced no words and said that the Delhi Police were “acting under directions of the Home Ministry” and a “political agenda” was being pursued. The latest statements that name the eminent citizens are “unsigned statements” in identical language, including typos and other errors, as reported. “These are educated young women. I can’t believe they write in such language,” said Yechury, as the statements are being attributed to the scholars currently under arrest, “they base this on  unsigned statements and there is doubt on the authenticity. This is their methodology. All these people are named. Then this will be taken to court,” he said adding it is yet to be seen if the court accepts these “statements”.

This is what happened in the Bhima Koregaon case too, added Yechiury, and what is happening to other activists such as Harsh Mander, who has been named in the Delhi riots investigations, and questioned earlier. “The message is that if you do not accept the regime’s agenda, you are an enemy of the state. But if they think we can be cowed down, they are mistaken. It is not only my right, but my duty to protect the Indian Constitution,” reiterated Yechury.

While the current session of the Parliament has been truncated, Yechury said the matter has been raised already, especially by the Left leaders. Even in Parliament, the ruling dispensation may “further their agenda,” he warned, adding that “Notices have been given in both the Houses to discuss this issue. Whether the Chairman or Speaker will accept it, remains to be seen.” He said what is being seen in India today is a form of “Phantom Democracy,” as seen in other totalitarian regimes across the world, “It is just the pretence of a democracy.”

When SabrangIndia editor Teesta Setalvad, pointed out that stringent laws such as the UAPA are being increasingly misused to target young Muslim women and men, Yechiry said that, the “The Delhi Police are acting under directions of the Home Ministry. It is a political agenda that is being pursued.” He said attempts were to “destroy the democracy, Parliament, Judiciary, Election commission. Using law and order machinery as a political arm… Undermining the Constitution.”

“The ideologues of the RSS have identified Muslims, Christians and communists as three internal enemies. They see August 5, 2019, when article 370 was abrogated, and August 5, 2020, when the foundation stone was laid for the Ram Temple are the real Independence days for India according to the Hindutva regime. The message is very clear…  If you are opposing me, you will face the music. If you support me, you will be protected,” said Yechury.

Yechury added that we are living in surreal times asking, “What is the ground reality and what is propaganda?” He gave examples of how the “unfortunate suicide by a promising Bllywood actor is being used to make political gains in Bihar. The Prime Minister is feeding peacocks. Privatisation is unbridled loot of national resources.What is the meaning of handing over profitable airports to your cronies?” He pointed out that “Indian agriculture is being handed over to private players. Agriculture and the public sector are being destroyed for private profit. And Adivasis and forest dwellers who nurture our forests are being uprooted. All this is happening when the Covid pandemic is raging!”  He said the government was “paralysing people and their protests. People are being left to fend for themselves as the government is furthering their own agenda.”

All that has to be resisted, he said, like the 1975 Emergency was resisted by the people. “My generation fought against the Emergency,” he said that there was a need to continue resisting and fighting against the current scenario. Though even he agreed that politically a “a lot more needs to be done. The Left is together, we had protest actions, but this has to be much larger and wider,” he added the effort must now be on bringing the Opposition together, even though the current Parliament session is truncated, and due to the Covid-19 protocol many members are likely to give it a miss. He added that around  “11 ‘anti-people’ ordinances may be converted to Laws”, in this session. “We have already given notices in both Houses to suspend business and raise the issue.”

“What is the way forward,” asked Setalvad. “Only to strengthen popular resistance. At all levels. Use all available forums. Build people’s protest,” said Yechury. He warned that, the targeting was “much larger” now, “and the Prime Minister in his speech even said the agenda was to ‘to liberate India from bondage of 1200 years,’ a clear reference and a deliberate attempt to talk as far back as the Delhi sultanate”, and now the targeting he said was “of every single patriot” and “those who believe in Constitutional values”. He added that institutions that have to upload law are themselves compromised with no checks and balances. A “move towards more totalitarian regimes.” 

On being asked if he was worried about his name now being attacked by Delhi police, Yechury was candid, “I am not worried. If I was worried I would not have been where I am now.” However, he warned, “If you do not resist, much worse is yet to come. If you resist you can put brakes, hopefully reverse it…”

The full interview may be viewed here: 

Related:

More activists named in riots case: Delhi Police getting desperate?
The State has no religion
Constitutional order collapses if Parliament is paralysed: Sitaram Yechury

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In a key development in India’s democratic process, that is also a major change brought about in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is allowing postal ballots for infected voters. The move is also a strong indicator that elections to the Bihar Assembly will be held as scheduled in November 2020. The Bihar elections will be the first assembly elections held anywhere in India after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic earlier this year. 

The post Postal ballots will potentially favour the ruling party: Sitaram Yechury appeared first on SabrangIndia.

During a recent session of Parliament, held to commemorate the Constitution and pay homage to Dr. Ambedkar; and again, during the Parliamentary debate on ‘Growing Intolerance’, Babasaheb’s name was mentioned repeatedly.  It was recognized by all that he had made the greatest contribution to enshrine the principles of Democracy, Equality and Fraternity in the Constitution and fulsome praise and accolades were bestowed upon him, speciallyby members of the NDA II (read BJP) Government.  No one, however, except for Sitaram Yechury (CPIM, General Secretary) referred to his conversion to Buddhism or the reasons for this.

Despite the enormous and significant role he played in drafting the Constitution, Babasaheb had to, eventually abandon the religion of his forefathers.  Throughout his life he made untiring and valiant efforts to bring about a change in the attitude and thinking of high caste Hindus through argument, writings, historical research and continuous appeals to reason, humanity and compassion. The drafting of the Constitution and Hindu Code Bill were, of course, the most important of these efforts. 

Unfortunately, the bill did not bring about any real change of heart, mind and outlook.  Every one of his efforts had aroused the most vicious opposition and calumny.  Every promise that the Constitution made to bring about equality between all citizens was opposed tooth and nail during the Constituent Assembly debates by conservative elements determined to thwart all efforts to legislate equality into the existing unequal social hierarchies that they were determined to preserve.

The Hindu Code Bill was met by such howls of protest both inside the Constituent Assembly and outside on the streets that it had to be abandoned. Babasaheb resigned as Law Minister saying in protest that, “The Hindu Code was the greatest social reform measure ever undertaken by the legislature in this country. No law passed by the Indian Legislature in the past or likely to be passed in the future can be compared to it in point of its significance.

To leave inequality between class and class, between sex and sex, which is the soul of Hindu Society untouched and to go on passing legislation relating to economic problems is to make a farce of our Constitution and to build a palace on a dung heap.  This is the significance I attached to the Hindu Code.” (quoted from Dr. Ambedkar’s speech when he resigned from the first Indian cabinet of ministers).

The failure of his repeated and untiring efforts to bring about a change in the hearts and minds of his opponents was not unforeseen as far as Dr. Ambedkar was concerned.  As early as 1935, he had announced to his followers that although he had been born a Hindu he would not die as one because he was determined to abandon a belief system that refused to accept the principle of equality.  Finally, on the October 2, 1956, he embraced Buddhism along with many hundreds of thousands.  Tragically, within two months, on December 6, l956, he was no more.

On the same day, 36 years later, the Babri Masjid was destroyed by members of the Sangh Parivar.  This event is also commemorated, across the country, by some as “Shaurya (Valour) Diwas” and by others as a day of mourning.

There are also those, however, who feel that the choice of the date for the destruction of the mosque was no co-incidence.  They believe that it was Dr. Ambedkar’s Constitution that was the real target of the attack by the Sangh.  This is based not only on the choice of date but on the fact that the Sangh Parivar members who destroyed the mosque owed allegiance to the same RSS that had been in the forefront of the opposition to both the Constitution and the Hindu Code Bill.

The most uncompromising opposition both to the Constitution and the Hindu Code Bill came from Shri Golwalkar, head of the RSS.  Along with his supporters, he held fast to the view even after the Constitution was passed, that it was the Laws of Manu, the Manusmriti, alone that could be accepted as Law by Hindus.

As far as the Hindu Code Bill is concerned, Golwalkar castigated it by saying that it would reduce Hindu men to puny weaklings.  His views have never been repudiated by the Sangh Parivar. Today, Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s speech in Parliament is significant because while he heaped praise on the Constitution and Dr. Ambedkar, he also sharply criticized the later inclusion of the work ‘secular’ to describe the Republic that brought the Constitution into existence.

The reasons he gave for this criticism should be examined seriously by all Indian citizens.  He said “‘Secularism’ is the most misused word in the country… India’s religion itself is dharma nirpeksh. ..”Does the Constitution permit India to have a religion?  If India has a religion then can it continue to abide by its Constitution? Is it a co-incidence that the Home Minister who has now made known his commitment to a Religious State or a Hindu Rashtra was present at the site of the demolition of the mosque (Babri Masjid) on December 6, 1992?

Even at the time of its passage, Dr. Ambedkar feared for the future of the Constitution because he did not believe that the soil of India which had given birth to the worst forms of inequality would readily accept the seeds of democracy and fraternity.  Those who had opposed him then have given notice, time and again, that they continue to challenge the writ of this foundational doctrine.
 

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