On August 23, 2021 conscientious Indian citizens across India came together to express solidarity with the people of Afghanistan in response to a nationwide call for demonstrations and meetings given by rights groups demanding freedom, democracy and justice for Afghanistan. Responding to this call, SabrangIndia too co-organised a solidarity meet at the Mumbai Press Club, in association with the Forum Against Oppression of Women, Bebaak Collective, Awaz-E-Niswaan and Communalism Combat (a sister publication that preceded SabrangIndia).

The meeting saw activists, including several noted intersectional feminists, come together to focus the attention of the impending fate of women and children in Afghanistan, and possible repercussions for the Muslim community in India, given the vast proliferation of Islamaphobia.

Not letting US off the hook

SabrangIndia Co-Founder and Editor Teesta Setalvad, who had covered the human rights violations in the aftermath of the first Taliban regime’s coming to power in the 90s in Communalism Combat, reminded people of the role of superpowers like Russia and the United States in ravaging the nation and leaving its people hapless. “Suddenly, after 20 years, the US has left. The country has played a major role in supporting the Mujahideen and Taliban. These groups never represented Afghani culture. Now, years later, after appeasing your people for 9/11, you have left without any transfer of people,” said Setalvad. 

Forum Against Oppression of Women representative Sandhya Gokhale concurred, and asked, “What did the US do in the 20 years it was there?” Gokhale added, “During this time, the military received huge investment. It is in the military-industrial complex’s benefit to continue war. Capitalism won, humanity lost.”

She also read out two solidarity statements by activists Ulka Mahajan and Pragya Daya Thakur.

Don’t conflate Indian Muslims with Taliban

Gokhale also stressed the need for the Indian government to accept Afghani citizens without the criteria of religion. Building further upon this, feminist and queer rights activist Chayanika Shah said it is a humanitarian duty to speak about the suffering in Afghanistan. “All these countries in the world should question, what responsibility do we have? After World War 2, people discussed how to solve issues without war. That effort is nil today as countries are even siding with the Taliban. Everyone in this world should consider what Afghani people want. Taliban is not the voice of the people,” said Shah. Further, she warned against the hate narrative weaving the Taliban and Islamophobia in India. She condemned rumours stating ‘Muslims are safe under Taliban rule’ and stressed that minority folk and Muslims have the right to be in India. “Taliban is doing things in the name of religion not for following religion. This will now fuel the targeting of Islamic groups in India. People need to speak against this because the government won’t,” she said.

Meanwhile, Setalvad voiced concerns about the videos circulated on social media including the death of the 17-year-old Afghani sportsperson. Moreover, she talked about the danger faced by Afghani women journalists, leaders and teachers and expressed solidarity to sanction their space of protest. “Wherever Afghani students are present in India, we need to support them. As for refugees, we condemn the narrative that only non-Muslim individuals. This mindset is a violation of the Indian Constitution,” she said. Setalvad also urged media houses to desist from manipulating this crisis into an opportunity for Islam bashing. She asked news agencies not to conflate the Taliban with Indian Muslims. She cited other countries like Indonesia and Sudan that have Muslims as a majority of their population. However, none of them supported terrorist groups like the Taliban.

Don’t let regimes use women as political pawns

Awaz-E-Niswaan leader Saira Wazim – whose organisation voiced the concerns of many economically disadvantaged Muslim communities in India – expressed her solidarity with the people of Afghanistan. “We support the women there. We condemn the violence against women in Afghanistan. They too have the right to continue jobs, attain education. They have the right to assert their right,” said Wazim.

Bebaak Collective representative Hasina Khan condemned the oppression on women and children by the Taliban, a well armed extremist group that aims to enforce hardline ideals that trample upon civil rights. But, she also pointed out that right-wing regimes used the excuse of ‘defending women’s bodies and honour’ to impose a hardline agenda, while countries like the US saw this as an opportunity to militarise the region. “The US never really helped Afghanis gain freedom. RAWA’s [Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan] Founder Meena Keshwa was the first among many women’s rights activists in Afghanistan in ‘80s and ‘90s. But they were killed. We need to realise that Afghani people have also tried to dissent against the Taliban,” said Khan.

Khan appealed to all to look at similar regimes and identify parallels across the world. In India, Khan said, “Right wing groups used the ‘beti padhao beti bachao’ (educate girl child) initiative, but alienated the Muslim community.” She encouraged people to look for similar examples of right-wing groups. “We need to understand the similarities between Afghan’s Taliban and India’s Taliban. Both ideologies engaged in dirty politics using women’s bodies. Our government says they are talking to officials. To whom? There is no official government there,” she said. Khan emphasised that Muslims world-over are speaking against Taliban. “They are saying we don’t want Taliban nations in Afghanistan or anywhere in the world,” she said.

Creative and peaceful protests in Delhi

Meanwhile, over two dozen groups in Delhi led a street protest at Jantar Mantar in the capital expressing their solidarity with the people of Afghanistan. They held placards saying, “We do not acknowledge Taliban as leader of Afghanistan.” This is significant because many world leaders, including global superpowers are yet to issue statements rejecting the Taliban. 

Women’s groups and human rights organisations also staged silent street protests at Delhi and Bengaluru today in response to the National call. In Delhi.ver 279 individuals have signed the National Solidarity Statement from all parts of the country. The signatories include academics, activists, film makers, writers apart from others. While in Delhi, women protesters, young and older stood in silent protest with placards and banners, the protest at Bengaluru (Bangalore) was held at Mysore Bank Circle in Bangalore demanding freedom and protection for Afghani women and demanding that the Indian Government provide refuge to all persons and not discriminate on the basis of religion.Phoograhs from Delhi and Bangalore can be seen here.

Some images of the demonstrations in Delhi and Bangalore may be viewed here: 

Related:

Indian Muslims must reject the ‘Islamic Emirate’ in Afghanistan: IMSD
Remembering Meena
Oppressed but not beaten: Afghani accounts on social media
Journalists are targeted by all hardliner regimes, this time in Afghanistan

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I find it hard to believe, so I rub my eyes. So many frontline leaders of my profession (journalism) have been implicated under serious charges in cases. In disbelief, I look at the big names again. They would all be at the top of any guide on distinguished media personalities of India. Is this just a bad dream? Or has the emergency been declared again? No, it is neither. So, I again start wondering at what is happening and why?

I start recalling memories of those so implicated. Mrinal Pande, the former Chairperson of Prasar Bharati, the official apex body of Indian broadcast media. Also, former editor-in-chief of Hindustan, one of the most important and highly circulated newspapers in Hindi.  A distinguished author who has contributed to several genres of Hindi literature (incidentally also the daughter of a very prominent Hindi writer Shivani who has millions of admiring readers). A feminist in her own right. A distinguished contributor also to English media. As much at home in print media as on TV. A gentle, kind senior citizen always willing to help a good cause. Involved in several relevant and useful social activities. In recent times, she has been involved with Navjivan/National Herald. Chief editor of this group’s Qaumi Awaz and another distinguished media personality, Zafar Agha, too has been similarly implicated.

Rajdeep Sardesai, long regarded as one of the brightest journalists of India, with contributions in print as well as TV journalism. Served in senior-most positions in leading media organisations including India Today TV and Global Broadcast News.

Siddharth Varadarajan, a top award-winning journalist of India. Having distinguished himself in very senior positions in the biggest and the most prestigious newspapers like The Times of India and The Hindu, he then played a leading role in the establishment and progress of the Wire.in, and is involved in several highly relevant social activities.

Paresh Nath, Anant Nath, Jose Verghese—distinguished personalities of the profession who reworked the Caravan into a leading narrative magazine of Asia which has been praised by many distinguished persons from several walks of life.

Now all these are persons with strong views and you may agree or disagree with them, but what one cannot deny is that they have done enough in professional life to establish themselves as leaders of profession, in the way that P. Sainath, Sumit Chakravartty ,G.G.Parikh, Binu Mathew , Sheetla Singh, Seema Mustafa,  Ravish,  etc. who have established themselves as leaders of profession, due to their long-time contributions to media, following the distinguished example set earlier by (to pay our respect to those who are no more) Nikhil Chakravartty, Ajit Bhattacharjea ,Kuldip Nayyar, Krishna Raj, Romesh Thapar, Prem Bhatia, Rajendra Mathur, Prabhash Joshi, Samar Sen etc.

Of course this list of distinguished media personalities can be easily extended, but what I am trying to say is that  when some journalists distinguish themselves by the sheer amount and quality of the professional work done by them, then they must get due recognition as leaders of their profession, and this recognition must be accepted by those who do not necessarily agree with their views.

When I look around for more distinguished journalists facing intimidation and cases, not so much from the leading authorities as from billionaires, I find names of such leading investigative journalists as Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, and when I look at what his defense says I find that he is being singled out relentlessly. Why should a leading journalist, who has done work of high standard in TV, print and documentary filmmaking, be singled out for relentless pursuit? Earlier he was one of the most admired TV personalities for his highly regarded programs on Lok Sabha TV. Today he is being relentlessly pursued. Why? It is bad for a democracy if professional achievements of journalists are disregarded and they are hounded for their views.

I look around for persons from other walks of life who contribute to media from time to time and I find that even someone like Shashi Tharoor, who was once in line for the top job in the United Nations and is now a Member of Parliament, has not been spared, and I shudder to think of what may happen to less influential writers or commentators who make an important contribution to media with their diverse expertise and talents.

Now I look around to search whether victimisation and intimidation is confined to only well-known national figures, and a quick search reveals that no, the list of such journalists is much longer. Dhaval Patel, Rahul Kulkarni, Kishore Chandra Wangkhem, Siddique Kappan, Mandeep Punia—these are only a few of the journalists whose names I encounter in my search for those journalists who have been badly victimised in recent times, and there are several more. My quick search reveals that we have to think of not just a few of the more famous journalists, the problem of victimisation is much wider and often the district or village level reporter suffers even more than national level journalists.

Various journalists are only too likely to have different views. They may have very different perceptions about how a government is performing, and the good or bad role of some very powerful and rich persons. Despite this, there is a clear and strong need for solidarity among journalists cutting across various narrow dividing lines. During the emergency very good resistance was offered by Nikhil Chakravartty, Kuldip Nayyar,Romesh Thapar and Ajit Bhattacharjea, who did not agree on many issues but were united in their defense of press freedom. We need similar unity today in the wake of growing intimidation of journalists at all levels, national and local. Whenever we see that journalists are being victimised and intimidated for their professional work, we should come to their support in various ways. Organisations of various journalists should consider ways of organising this support.

What is important is that those who are facing arrest, victimisation and intimidation should not feel that they are alone, the country’s journalists and others committed to press freedom and democracy stand with them. We should also create solidarity and support at international level.

In addition, I would like to also appeal to the Sangh Parivar to come forward to help so that emergency like conditions are not created regarding intimidation of journalists.

I would like to appeal to the judiciary at all levels to be more active in defending press freedom. To the government, I will like to say that if you find anything objectionable please first try to sort out through professional bodies or by sending a notice to apologize for a mistake committed without any intention to cause any harm. After all, so many factual mistakes are made by ruling regime leaders also in their speeches. So please be more tolerant, keeping in view also the great significance of a free press and independent views in a democracy. Also, please never hurriedly and arbitrarily clamp charges like sedition on journalists, please do not misuse your power and position. To the opposition parties also I will like to appeal to give more attention to press freedom related issues.

*The writer is a veteran journalist and author, having contributed well over 9000 articles/reports and over 400 books/ booklets in English and Hindi, including collections of poems, short stories and novellas.

Other articles by Bharat Dogra:

Hindi literature and journalism will always remember the rich contributions of Manglesh Dabral

Why inter-faith harmony is today more important than ever before

Scrapping of Five-Year Plans was a bad idea

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