Why ‘Hate Speech’?
Ram Puniyani
Varun Gandhi in his election speeches (March 2009) has been pouring vitriol against minority community. He presented the usual prejudices and biases in a very hateful manner. He associated minority community with being aggressive and violent. He pointed out that arms are being smuggled into ghettoes (i.e. Muslim localities), Hindus are being targeted, cow slaughter ‘remains’ have been found but no action has been taken. This is part of his speech, which he accepted as being part of his talk. At the same time he disowned the CD, which shows him talking of cutting hands of those attacking Hindus, that Muslims have frightening name etc. Any way, this taped speech came to the notice of election commission. Election Commission sent him a notice about violation of code of conduct. Meanwhile, he first apologized and then disowned the tape. Election Commission rejected his plea of CD being doctored, and also advised BJP not to field him s a candidate for elections. BJP spokesman said it is their prerogative to decide as to whom to field or not. Meanwhile Varun Gandhi is being more sought after as a speaker in BJP rallies. The Muslim members of the BJP first were appalled by all this, condemned it but later they took ambiguous position about the same. The top leadership of the party kept mum initially and now and now seem to stand firm to field him as BJP candidate.
Apparently Varun Gandhi got the advice not to apologize as his speech has given a ‘correct’ signal to the core constituency of BJP. Watching part of the video on TV show was an experience of total disgust, the language, the content, the way such hateful things have been talked about against minorities in such a hateful manner.
One realizes that ‘Hate speech’ is the outcome of the politics of divisiveness, it is the concentrated expression of the ‘social common sense’ prevailing in the society, it is the forthright and blunt way of putting things, which communal parties propagate anyway. It is not out of the blue that these formulations suddenly crop up, their infrastructure, the base of these has already been made by a section of political outfits.
Also ‘Hate Speech’ is generally an accompaniment of the politics in the name of religion and language, and also many times it precedes the violence. The communal-sectarian parties decide when and in what proportions to use it. One recalls two major examples in the recent times. One was Sadhvi Ritambhara, who was propped up for pravachans (religious discourses) by RSS combine. She was talking blunt anti minority things, duly endorsed by communal political organizations. This took place around the Babri demolition. Later she was packed off to some Ashram as their politics needed a change of Hate language.
One has been hearing similar things from many a sadhus of VHP, small and sundry members of communal gang, some Muslim communalists and the ilk of Togadia. There has been a more sophisticated presentation of the similar formulations by many others. Modi, all through talked of divisive language, but kept changing the form in a very subtle way to suit the changing needs of his political strategy. When he said that post Gujarat refugee camps should be shut down as they have become factories of production of children, he was reinforcing the propaganda about Muslims having more number of children. The effect on minority community was the intensification of the atmosphere of fear and intimidation. When intermittently these types of politicians are not talking Hate language, it is not because they have a change of heart but because at that moment it may not be needed as per their calculations. Away from the gaze of the media many of communalists have been spreading hate against minorities in equal measure.
In the wake of Mumbai riots Bal Thackeray, who currently is praising Varun Gandhi, indulged in Hate speech, inciting his Shiv Sainiks to undertake violence. He also got away with it due to clever way of putting his vitriol and due to the lack of adequate laws which can distinguish the Hate speech from freedom of expression, which can distinguish between one’s political opinion and painting the ‘other’ community in a negative light. Incidentally it is important to distinguish between criticizing a community and criticizing a political organization. While political organizations can and must be criticized, communities should not be humiliated or insulted. Also no political organization can be synonymous with the religious community, whatever its claims.
It is not only disturbing but totally against the values of our democratic society that such ‘hate other’ ideology and speeches have become the weapon in the hands of a type of politics, which thrives on exclusion, which identifies a particular religious community as synonymous with the nation state. Again this ‘hate speech’ is the language of section of those who thrive on identity politics far away from the real issues of the society.
As such Hate speech in India entered the political arena with the rise of communal streams in politics, like Muslim League on one side and Hindu Mahasabha +RSS on the other. These streams believed in the nation based on one religious community. These streams came from the sections of earlier rulers, landlords, Nawabas and Rajas etc. The ideology of religion based nationalism is narrow and it excludes ‘other’ from its notion of nationhood. These beliefs then get converted into Hate other, and later turn in to ‘Hate speech’. This did form the basis of many a communal violence in pre independence era and also during the last two decades. Varun Gandhi, as a BJP follower may not have undergone the total indoctrination in RSS shakhas, where the Hate Ideology is instilled in the minds of young recruits, but he must have been exposed enough to those formulations, through his personal interaction. Hate ideology as seen above is the prelude of hate speech.
The CD of Varun Gandhi rally not only showed a very liberal sprinkling of the saffron, it also shows the hysterical approval of violence from section of those participating in the rally. Ironically Varun Gandhi is eager to cut some hands while protecting the Mother Cow! This Hate ideology first creates a social common sense, which becomes the mind set of large sections of society. From here it goes on to form the base on which communal violence may be triggered. Communal violence in turn leads to polarization of communities and later to ghettoization in due course as one is now witnessing in Gujarat to a great extent, and in other states in different degrees.
This Hate Speech can be understood in two ways. On one hand it is just a concentrated expression of sectarian-communal ideology. By now lot of communal ideology has become overt part of social common sense. We need to introspect as to from where these divisive ideas take root. Second it is based on the politics of exclusion. Most of those who have at one or the other point of time resorted to it do come from a sectarian political stream The exclusionary one’s can also be based on linguistic considerations, as in l Thackeray was earlier debarred from vswitched to Anti Muslims and now his nephew Raj Thackeray is pursuing the same divisive politics in the name of language, and region.
Where does Hate speech lead in the short run and long run? In the short run some of the gullible, weak sections of society may see some hope in this language of bravado, away from the serious existence related issues, they may feel empowered temporarily by Hating other, feeling that their problems will get mitigated. Those against whom Hate is being propagated, out of fear start erecting a physical and emotional cordon around them. This is when ghettoisationn, not just physical but more importantly psychological takes over. And the bonding of fraternity, the essential values of our democracy starts feeling immense strain. Its ‘final destination’ is Germany like situation, where the community against whom Hate is spread, becomes an easy target of the social discrimination to the extent of physical elimination, as was witnessed in the case of Jews.
The biggest challenge we face today is to propagate the inclusive ideas at social political and cultural level, the ideas and values which united Indians, cutting across religion, region and language. These values have been challenged by the practitioners of regional and communal politics. The debate needs to be broadened to reach the positive values to all the people. Then we also need laws which can ensure that the likes of Varun Gandhi, Bal-Raj Thackeray etc. do not get away despite their anti national politics and utterances. As Bal Thackeray was earlier debarred from voting, same way Varun Gandhi should be punished and not permitted to contest the elections.
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Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Indian Pluralism -Jai Ho!
Indian Pluralism: Jai Ho!
Ram Puniyani
India’s political and cultural mosaic has been a matter of multiple volumes by social scientists. In a very simple by profound way aspects of this fascinating phenomenon of Indian society also gets reflected in most of the expressions of Indian cultural phenomenon, including films. The currently popular Slumdog Millionaire is no exception. The film and the aspects associated with its making display the rich cultural canvass of our society. While the apologetic critics have been talking about the film showcasing India’s poverty to the World, the other interesting aspect of the film relates to on screen and behind the screen aspects of the film showing India’s plural heritage and its continuation today.
The film bagged three Oscars. And they have a lot of tale to tell. All the three recipients of the Oscars have Muslim names; one of them is a Sikh (Gulzar) who has assumed Muslim name to keep him reminded of the partition carnage of 1947, which he witnessed with great anguish and pain. The second one is a born Muslim, Resul Pokkuty and third one, Alla Rakhah Rahman, was a Hindu Dilip Kumar, who changed to Islam under the influence of a Sufi saint, a Pir. When Resul accepted the award he said it is a Shiv Ratri gift for him and that he is accepting it for his country, India.
Allah Rakha Rehman converted to Islam when he came in contact with a Muslim Pir, during the period of sickness of his father. Rahman is not alone in this as in India most of the Muslims converted to Islam due to the humanistic teachings of Sufi Pirs. There is a popular perception that Islam spread in India due to the threat of Muslim Kings, who came with Koran in one hand and sword in the other. The best counter to this was put by none other than Swami Vivekananda, who points out that Islam was embraced by Shudras to escape the tyranny of Landlord-Brahmin combine. Interestingly same Rahman has composed one of the most beautiful tunes on the song, Vande Matram.
There must have been many other reasons for conversions to Islam, apart from this major reason of the caste oppression, but this anyway remained the major one. A good number adopted Islam due to social interaction, like Navayats in Malabar Coast in Kerala and Mewats in Rajasthan region. As such in religious tradition there are many interactive ones’. There have been Bhakti saints who had following amongst Muslims and Hindus both, and there have been Sufi Pirs who had followers amongst Hindus and Muslims in equal measure. The saints like Ram Deo Baba Pir are amongst the most popular one’s amongst the poor and low caste, cutting across the religions.
Contrary to the present perceptions that Hindus and Muslims were two hostile communities, there has been a natural amity and harmony amongst the religious communities. This gets reflected in all the aspects of our social lives, be it the arena of literature, music, architecture or any other, one can clearly see the influence of each on other. The culture was hardly dictated by religion alone, within same religion there are many cultures and in most of the cultures in India one can see the influence of different religions. Many a regional aspects of the culture have been thickly intertwined. While for Ustad Bismillah Khan life was unthinkable without the river Ganges and the Kashi Temples, Munshi Premchand could think only of Urdu as the medium of his writing when he began his career as a writer. Rahi Masum Raza can write the script for the most popular Hindi mega serial Mahabharata with effortless brilliance, and the likes of Javed Akhtar can write the best of Bhajans for the Hindi films.
Even amongst kings the enmity was not around religious issues. We see the Hindu kings in the court of Muslim kings, Raja Todarmal and Birbal being the part of Akbar’s nine jewels, while Raja Mansing being his commander in chief. Aurangzeb, supposedly the most fanatic Muslim ruler had 33% of his officials from amongst Hindus and one of his important Generals was none other than Raja Jaisingh. Shivaji, the highly revered Maratha King had Maulana Haider Ali as his confidential secretary, Siddi Sambal as his commander and Rutam-e-Jaman as his body guard-spy. He was the one who built the Dargah in honor of slain Muslim King Afzal Khan, whom he had killed for political reasons.
The food habits also got mixed up, beef eating which was prevalent in Vedic times, had become a taboo later, as Cow came to be revered as mother. To defer to the sentiments of Hindus, to respect the feeling of their Hindu subjects, many a Muslim Emperors advised against the killing of Cows. It’s due to all this that, Dara Shikoh, wrote a book Majma ul Bahrain, elaborating in the book that India is a vast ocean made of two seas, Hinduism and Islam. One of the highlights of 1857 rebellion against the East India company rule was the coming together of Hindus and Muslims, at the level of Kings, soldiers and peasants. It was this intercommunity unity which gave a warning signal to the British and they intensified their policy of divide and rule, introducing communal historiography, which even to the day remains as a part of social common sense. It led to those policies which encouraged communal politics in the form of Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS.
Indian pluralism has been unique in more sense than one. There has been a heavy interaction of religious communities, at the level of power (Kings-Landlords), at the level of culture (Music, literature, customs, food, attire) and at the level of religion (Bhakti and Sufi traditions) It is the rise of communal politics post 1980 that the British initiated project of divisiveness has resurfaced, and has tried to narrow down all the politics at identity level and made the religious identities firm and deep. The fundamentalists of both religions are now looking down at the mixed traditions and pluralism, saying they are against ‘our’ religion. Slumdog while portraying the social reality, the impact of communal violence on society also highlights the deeper and most worthy interactive traditions.
Tragically from last two decades the voices opposing the syncretism and plural cultural and life in India have become stronger, opposing Gazal concerts, destroying paintings, opposing those celebrating festivals like Valentine day, opposing inter-religious marriages and what have you. Hope we are at the end of the phase during which the communal politics created a hostile atmosphere against the plural ethos of our society.
Ram Puniyani
India’s political and cultural mosaic has been a matter of multiple volumes by social scientists. In a very simple by profound way aspects of this fascinating phenomenon of Indian society also gets reflected in most of the expressions of Indian cultural phenomenon, including films. The currently popular Slumdog Millionaire is no exception. The film and the aspects associated with its making display the rich cultural canvass of our society. While the apologetic critics have been talking about the film showcasing India’s poverty to the World, the other interesting aspect of the film relates to on screen and behind the screen aspects of the film showing India’s plural heritage and its continuation today.
The film bagged three Oscars. And they have a lot of tale to tell. All the three recipients of the Oscars have Muslim names; one of them is a Sikh (Gulzar) who has assumed Muslim name to keep him reminded of the partition carnage of 1947, which he witnessed with great anguish and pain. The second one is a born Muslim, Resul Pokkuty and third one, Alla Rakhah Rahman, was a Hindu Dilip Kumar, who changed to Islam under the influence of a Sufi saint, a Pir. When Resul accepted the award he said it is a Shiv Ratri gift for him and that he is accepting it for his country, India.
Allah Rakha Rehman converted to Islam when he came in contact with a Muslim Pir, during the period of sickness of his father. Rahman is not alone in this as in India most of the Muslims converted to Islam due to the humanistic teachings of Sufi Pirs. There is a popular perception that Islam spread in India due to the threat of Muslim Kings, who came with Koran in one hand and sword in the other. The best counter to this was put by none other than Swami Vivekananda, who points out that Islam was embraced by Shudras to escape the tyranny of Landlord-Brahmin combine. Interestingly same Rahman has composed one of the most beautiful tunes on the song, Vande Matram.
There must have been many other reasons for conversions to Islam, apart from this major reason of the caste oppression, but this anyway remained the major one. A good number adopted Islam due to social interaction, like Navayats in Malabar Coast in Kerala and Mewats in Rajasthan region. As such in religious tradition there are many interactive ones’. There have been Bhakti saints who had following amongst Muslims and Hindus both, and there have been Sufi Pirs who had followers amongst Hindus and Muslims in equal measure. The saints like Ram Deo Baba Pir are amongst the most popular one’s amongst the poor and low caste, cutting across the religions.
Contrary to the present perceptions that Hindus and Muslims were two hostile communities, there has been a natural amity and harmony amongst the religious communities. This gets reflected in all the aspects of our social lives, be it the arena of literature, music, architecture or any other, one can clearly see the influence of each on other. The culture was hardly dictated by religion alone, within same religion there are many cultures and in most of the cultures in India one can see the influence of different religions. Many a regional aspects of the culture have been thickly intertwined. While for Ustad Bismillah Khan life was unthinkable without the river Ganges and the Kashi Temples, Munshi Premchand could think only of Urdu as the medium of his writing when he began his career as a writer. Rahi Masum Raza can write the script for the most popular Hindi mega serial Mahabharata with effortless brilliance, and the likes of Javed Akhtar can write the best of Bhajans for the Hindi films.
Even amongst kings the enmity was not around religious issues. We see the Hindu kings in the court of Muslim kings, Raja Todarmal and Birbal being the part of Akbar’s nine jewels, while Raja Mansing being his commander in chief. Aurangzeb, supposedly the most fanatic Muslim ruler had 33% of his officials from amongst Hindus and one of his important Generals was none other than Raja Jaisingh. Shivaji, the highly revered Maratha King had Maulana Haider Ali as his confidential secretary, Siddi Sambal as his commander and Rutam-e-Jaman as his body guard-spy. He was the one who built the Dargah in honor of slain Muslim King Afzal Khan, whom he had killed for political reasons.
The food habits also got mixed up, beef eating which was prevalent in Vedic times, had become a taboo later, as Cow came to be revered as mother. To defer to the sentiments of Hindus, to respect the feeling of their Hindu subjects, many a Muslim Emperors advised against the killing of Cows. It’s due to all this that, Dara Shikoh, wrote a book Majma ul Bahrain, elaborating in the book that India is a vast ocean made of two seas, Hinduism and Islam. One of the highlights of 1857 rebellion against the East India company rule was the coming together of Hindus and Muslims, at the level of Kings, soldiers and peasants. It was this intercommunity unity which gave a warning signal to the British and they intensified their policy of divide and rule, introducing communal historiography, which even to the day remains as a part of social common sense. It led to those policies which encouraged communal politics in the form of Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS.
Indian pluralism has been unique in more sense than one. There has been a heavy interaction of religious communities, at the level of power (Kings-Landlords), at the level of culture (Music, literature, customs, food, attire) and at the level of religion (Bhakti and Sufi traditions) It is the rise of communal politics post 1980 that the British initiated project of divisiveness has resurfaced, and has tried to narrow down all the politics at identity level and made the religious identities firm and deep. The fundamentalists of both religions are now looking down at the mixed traditions and pluralism, saying they are against ‘our’ religion. Slumdog while portraying the social reality, the impact of communal violence on society also highlights the deeper and most worthy interactive traditions.
Tragically from last two decades the voices opposing the syncretism and plural cultural and life in India have become stronger, opposing Gazal concerts, destroying paintings, opposing those celebrating festivals like Valentine day, opposing inter-religious marriages and what have you. Hope we are at the end of the phase during which the communal politics created a hostile atmosphere against the plural ethos of our society.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Holy Garb Profane Goals
Holy Garb: Profane Agenda
Seers Demand Dropping of Word Secular from Indian Constitution!
Ram Puniyani
What do spiritual leaders talk when they meet? One thought it may be the matters pertaining to the ‘other world’ that is the focus of their attention, away from the profane World, which is the matter of concern for ordinary people. One thought they may be deliberating on the issues of moral values of the religion. But it seems that is not the case. Recently when many of them met in Mumbai they showed that the saffron garb is the mere exterior, this color of renunciation and piety, is no representative of their political core. On the top of that they use saffron color to hide their sectarian ideas and narrow politics in the name of religion. The only difference in their case being that their politics is couched in the language of religion. That their ideas are full ‘Hate’ for others, unlike the values Hinduism which teaches us Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (whole World is my family). This got revealed once more.
Recently many a chiefs of Akharas and other assorted Saints came together at the First Conference of Dharma Raksha Manch (29th Jan 2009) in Mumbai. They were brought together by Vishwa Hindu Parishad, apparently for the agenda was Combating terrorism. They called for dropping the word secular from Indian constitution and replacing it with word religious. They Ram Temple, Malegaon blasts, terrorism, and amongst other things and demanded that they need Manu’s parliament and not Christ’s. They drew attention to terrorism breeding in Madrassa, and hit out at media for using the term Hindu terrorism. Finally Beginning Mid Feb. (2009) they plan to take out series of yatras (religious marches) covering large parts of the country, with the call for ending Jihad.
Who are these assorted Holy seers, coming together on the call of Vishwa Hindu Parishad? VHP itself is the creation of RSS in the mid sixties. Initiative was taken by RSS chief and his close lieutenant to get different established mutt’s to form VHP. It primarily became a religious wing of RSS, involving the Hindu achrayas etc, and attracted especially traders, affluent processionals and those who did not want to openly associate with RSS, as at that time RSS stood fully discredited in people’s eyes due to its association with Nathuram Godse, who killed Mahatma Gandhi.
VHP got involved in the identity issues strengthening the conservative politics and Ram temple became its central rallying point. Along with this it called for Dharma Sansad (religious parliament) where they stated that in the matters religious, in this case Ram Temple, the decision of saints is above the judgement of the courts. Place of Lord’s birth became a matter not of History but of faith, and who else can decide these issues than these custodians of faith.
This congregation of holy seers has taken place long after their earlier meetings around Ram Temple issue. It seems it is their next innings where the focus is also on terrorism apart from its earlier concerns. At the same time they are reiterating that Indian Constitution is not welcome; let’s go back to Manu Smriti. In a way there is nothing new in this. The RSS politics has always been against the Indian Constitution, against the values of secularism, democracy as these stand by Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Right from the time Constituent Assembly was formed, RSS opposed the same, saying that ‘we’ already have the best of Constitutions in the form of Manu Smirit so why a new Constitution. It was backed by eulogies for Lord Manu by the RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalkar, who also at the same time has heaped immense praise on the methods of Hitler. Later K.Surshan also openly called for scrapping of Indian constitution and bringing Manu Smriti instead.
While the saints are overtly for the subjugation of Muslims and Christians, at the same time their agenda is to push back the concept of equality for dalit, Adivasis and women. Interestingly RSS came up as a reaction to social changes of caste and gender during the freedom movement. Our national movement stood not only for freedom but also for the transformation of caste and gender towards equality. Barring some exceptions the concept of democracy and secularism go hand in hand. Freedom movement was the epitome of these political and social processes, leading to the emergence of secular India. Today RSS has many mouths to speak and many fora to articulate its agenda. VHP is the crude version of expressing its agenda while BJP, due to electoral compulsions, puts the same agenda in more subtle ways.
The VHP agenda is quite striking in combing the Holy language with profane goals. It will totally ignore the problems of ‘this World’; the problems related to survival and Human rights and will harp on identity issues. This brings in a politics which targets the ‘external enemies’, Muslims; Christians, and intimidates internal sectors, dalits; Adivasis and women, of society. Its call for doing away with the word secular is nothing new in that sense. Its demand to do away with secular word and secular ethos shows that their Holiness is restricted to the appearance, while they want to maintain their social hegemony through political means. Secularism is not against religion. The best of religious people like Maulana Abul Kalam and Mahatma Gandhi had been secular to the core. They knew the boundary line very well. Also they used the moral values of religion to create bonds of fraternity (community) amongst the people of different religions. There were others who created Hate against the other community, and that too in the name of religion. One can cite the parallel and opposite roles of Muslim League on one side and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS on the other.
The seers, respected because of their Holy garb are misusing their appearance at the service of sectarian politics, they are playing the role of handmaidens of the divisive politics. Secularism precisely means that secular, this-worldly, issues should be the base of politics. So the genuine religious person like Gandhi could distinguish between the moral values of religion which should be adopted in life while shunning the identity related issues from political life, "In India, for whose fashioning I have worked all my life, every man enjoys equality of status, whatever his religion is. The state is bound to be wholly secular." It is a matter of shame and disgust the identity of a religion is being used to pursue the political goals of an organization, supplementing the goals a communal political party by appealing in the name of religion.
At the same time to further demonize the Muslims it is taking up the issue of terrorism in lop sided manner. The slogan end of Jihad is a way to hide the anti Muslim agenda. There is an attempt to put the blame on Islam and Muslims for terrorism, which is totally false. A political phenomenon is being presented as the one related to religion. So Islamic terrorism word is acceptable to them! All terrorist are Muslims formulation is acceptable to them. But how dare you use the word Hindu terrorism if Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pande and their ilk is involved in acts of terror? In this meet, overseen by RSS representatives, lot of anger was expressed for the Maharashtra ATS for starting investigations against Sadhvi and Company.
The timing of the meet and the planned Yatras is more then striking. As we await elections, the VHP is trying to revive Ram Temple as an issue and will also be talking of terrorism; about Afzal Guru and will be reprimanding the state for ‘torturing’ Pragya Thakur. As a matter of fact VHP and this motley crowd of saints is an adjunct to the electoral goals of BJP. It articulates emotive things which BJP will not be able to do because of election commission and the media watch.
Of all the techniques evolved by RSS, the use of these Holy men for political goals may be the worst insult of the Hindu religion. While these Holy seers infinite in number, many of them have succeeded in building up their own five star Empires, there are others who are sitting on the top of already established mutts. What unites them through VHP is the politics of status quo, the opposition to democracy. We had saints, who talked against caste system and social evils. We had Kabir, Chokha Mela, Tukaram and the lot who stood for the problems of the poor, and now we have a breed, whose agenda is to undermine the prevalent social evils of dowry, female infanticide, bride burning, atrocities on dalits and Adivasis. Their goal is to keep talking about the spirituality and religiosity which is so different from the concerns taken up by the likes of Gandhi and the whole the genre of Saints of Bhakti tradition in India. One hope the people of India can see this clever game of communal politics and differentiate the grain from the chaff.
Seers Demand Dropping of Word Secular from Indian Constitution!
Ram Puniyani
What do spiritual leaders talk when they meet? One thought it may be the matters pertaining to the ‘other world’ that is the focus of their attention, away from the profane World, which is the matter of concern for ordinary people. One thought they may be deliberating on the issues of moral values of the religion. But it seems that is not the case. Recently when many of them met in Mumbai they showed that the saffron garb is the mere exterior, this color of renunciation and piety, is no representative of their political core. On the top of that they use saffron color to hide their sectarian ideas and narrow politics in the name of religion. The only difference in their case being that their politics is couched in the language of religion. That their ideas are full ‘Hate’ for others, unlike the values Hinduism which teaches us Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (whole World is my family). This got revealed once more.
Recently many a chiefs of Akharas and other assorted Saints came together at the First Conference of Dharma Raksha Manch (29th Jan 2009) in Mumbai. They were brought together by Vishwa Hindu Parishad, apparently for the agenda was Combating terrorism. They called for dropping the word secular from Indian constitution and replacing it with word religious. They Ram Temple, Malegaon blasts, terrorism, and amongst other things and demanded that they need Manu’s parliament and not Christ’s. They drew attention to terrorism breeding in Madrassa, and hit out at media for using the term Hindu terrorism. Finally Beginning Mid Feb. (2009) they plan to take out series of yatras (religious marches) covering large parts of the country, with the call for ending Jihad.
Who are these assorted Holy seers, coming together on the call of Vishwa Hindu Parishad? VHP itself is the creation of RSS in the mid sixties. Initiative was taken by RSS chief and his close lieutenant to get different established mutt’s to form VHP. It primarily became a religious wing of RSS, involving the Hindu achrayas etc, and attracted especially traders, affluent processionals and those who did not want to openly associate with RSS, as at that time RSS stood fully discredited in people’s eyes due to its association with Nathuram Godse, who killed Mahatma Gandhi.
VHP got involved in the identity issues strengthening the conservative politics and Ram temple became its central rallying point. Along with this it called for Dharma Sansad (religious parliament) where they stated that in the matters religious, in this case Ram Temple, the decision of saints is above the judgement of the courts. Place of Lord’s birth became a matter not of History but of faith, and who else can decide these issues than these custodians of faith.
This congregation of holy seers has taken place long after their earlier meetings around Ram Temple issue. It seems it is their next innings where the focus is also on terrorism apart from its earlier concerns. At the same time they are reiterating that Indian Constitution is not welcome; let’s go back to Manu Smriti. In a way there is nothing new in this. The RSS politics has always been against the Indian Constitution, against the values of secularism, democracy as these stand by Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Right from the time Constituent Assembly was formed, RSS opposed the same, saying that ‘we’ already have the best of Constitutions in the form of Manu Smirit so why a new Constitution. It was backed by eulogies for Lord Manu by the RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalkar, who also at the same time has heaped immense praise on the methods of Hitler. Later K.Surshan also openly called for scrapping of Indian constitution and bringing Manu Smriti instead.
While the saints are overtly for the subjugation of Muslims and Christians, at the same time their agenda is to push back the concept of equality for dalit, Adivasis and women. Interestingly RSS came up as a reaction to social changes of caste and gender during the freedom movement. Our national movement stood not only for freedom but also for the transformation of caste and gender towards equality. Barring some exceptions the concept of democracy and secularism go hand in hand. Freedom movement was the epitome of these political and social processes, leading to the emergence of secular India. Today RSS has many mouths to speak and many fora to articulate its agenda. VHP is the crude version of expressing its agenda while BJP, due to electoral compulsions, puts the same agenda in more subtle ways.
The VHP agenda is quite striking in combing the Holy language with profane goals. It will totally ignore the problems of ‘this World’; the problems related to survival and Human rights and will harp on identity issues. This brings in a politics which targets the ‘external enemies’, Muslims; Christians, and intimidates internal sectors, dalits; Adivasis and women, of society. Its call for doing away with the word secular is nothing new in that sense. Its demand to do away with secular word and secular ethos shows that their Holiness is restricted to the appearance, while they want to maintain their social hegemony through political means. Secularism is not against religion. The best of religious people like Maulana Abul Kalam and Mahatma Gandhi had been secular to the core. They knew the boundary line very well. Also they used the moral values of religion to create bonds of fraternity (community) amongst the people of different religions. There were others who created Hate against the other community, and that too in the name of religion. One can cite the parallel and opposite roles of Muslim League on one side and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS on the other.
The seers, respected because of their Holy garb are misusing their appearance at the service of sectarian politics, they are playing the role of handmaidens of the divisive politics. Secularism precisely means that secular, this-worldly, issues should be the base of politics. So the genuine religious person like Gandhi could distinguish between the moral values of religion which should be adopted in life while shunning the identity related issues from political life, "In India, for whose fashioning I have worked all my life, every man enjoys equality of status, whatever his religion is. The state is bound to be wholly secular." It is a matter of shame and disgust the identity of a religion is being used to pursue the political goals of an organization, supplementing the goals a communal political party by appealing in the name of religion.
At the same time to further demonize the Muslims it is taking up the issue of terrorism in lop sided manner. The slogan end of Jihad is a way to hide the anti Muslim agenda. There is an attempt to put the blame on Islam and Muslims for terrorism, which is totally false. A political phenomenon is being presented as the one related to religion. So Islamic terrorism word is acceptable to them! All terrorist are Muslims formulation is acceptable to them. But how dare you use the word Hindu terrorism if Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pande and their ilk is involved in acts of terror? In this meet, overseen by RSS representatives, lot of anger was expressed for the Maharashtra ATS for starting investigations against Sadhvi and Company.
The timing of the meet and the planned Yatras is more then striking. As we await elections, the VHP is trying to revive Ram Temple as an issue and will also be talking of terrorism; about Afzal Guru and will be reprimanding the state for ‘torturing’ Pragya Thakur. As a matter of fact VHP and this motley crowd of saints is an adjunct to the electoral goals of BJP. It articulates emotive things which BJP will not be able to do because of election commission and the media watch.
Of all the techniques evolved by RSS, the use of these Holy men for political goals may be the worst insult of the Hindu religion. While these Holy seers infinite in number, many of them have succeeded in building up their own five star Empires, there are others who are sitting on the top of already established mutts. What unites them through VHP is the politics of status quo, the opposition to democracy. We had saints, who talked against caste system and social evils. We had Kabir, Chokha Mela, Tukaram and the lot who stood for the problems of the poor, and now we have a breed, whose agenda is to undermine the prevalent social evils of dowry, female infanticide, bride burning, atrocities on dalits and Adivasis. Their goal is to keep talking about the spirituality and religiosity which is so different from the concerns taken up by the likes of Gandhi and the whole the genre of Saints of Bhakti tradition in India. One hope the people of India can see this clever game of communal politics and differentiate the grain from the chaff.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Shri Ram Sene Beats up Girls in Mangalore
Kitchen, Church and Children
Shri Ram Sene Beats up Girls in a Pub
Ram Puniyani
Hitler, the epitome of sectarian politics had set many a norms, practices, which underlined his agenda of Fascism. He targeted the ‘outsiders’ (Jews, Communists) and suppressed the ‘insiders’ (workers, women). While what is most visible of his crimes is the genocide of Jews, what was also very damaging was that he suppressed the rights of women and workers. About women, he famously went on to pontificate that German women, love to be mothers and that their sphere of activity should be around Kitchen, Church and Children.
Another sectarian outfit, the Taliban after capturing power banned the women from public sphere, asking them to be in the confines of home; else severe punishment will be waiting for them. The fundamentalist groups like Dukhtarane Millat in Kashmir went on to throw acid on the face of the girls refusing to accept the Burqua. Controlling the lives, dress of women, to relegate them to subordinate position, is the common agenda of fundamentalist, fascist politics, irrespective of their religion or race to which they belong. Apart from other things this politics overall imposes the patriarchal norms in most aggressive way.
Nothing could have brought to our notice these facts more than the act of Shri Ram Sene, in Mangalore, when they beat up girls in a pub in Mangalore (25th Jan 09). Their argument, as articulated by their Chief, Pramod Mutalik is that this is against our Hindu culture. Since the time the BJP government has come to power, these groups have got a message that they can get away with their criminal activities due to the patronage of their ideological-political mentors. Earlier the same groups have vandalized churches few months ago. Now, while the hooligans attacked and took liberties with the girls their chief, Mutalik, was arrested initially on some other charges not for this crime by his outfit, Shri Ram Sene. It’s only later that due to the pressure from media and the pressure of social opinion that he was also charged for this attack on girls. Not all the sainiks were arrested and even from amongst those who were arrested many were released on bail, such was the attitude of the BJP government.
It’s a further matter of shame that the member of National Women’s Commission who thought of investigating the case turned out to be the ‘Bar Inspector’ rather then a person concerned with women’s issues. Her focus was the security at bar and the ‘plight’ of those who assaulted the girls. Accordingly she did not think it necessary to talks to the girls who were humiliated and beaten up, instead she gave a report with the help of which the criminals got the bail. So much about the fairness of this member of Commission! Fortunately the Women’s welfare ministry team did a good job to give the truth version of the incident.
The trajectory of the ‘career of Mutalik, the chief of Sene, shows the deeper connections of RSS and other organizations, who are active in vandalism. Mutalik is a RSS trained swaymasevak, who later joined Bajrang Dal, and then Shiv Sena before floating this Shri Ram Sene.
BJP and RSS spokesmen criticized the action of the hooligans taking the law into their hands, but at the same time upheld the ‘cause’ of protection of Indian culture. Women should not go to the pub, they must ‘behave’. They also justified Mutalik’s ideology, while distancing them from the acts of violence and organizationally from the Shri Ram Sene. Same Mutalik who has been the aspirant of BJP ticket, might now become persona non grata for RSS-BJP, irrespective of the fact that he is a RSS trained swayam sevak. RSS operates for its goal of Hindu nation through a clever mechanism. It trains volunteers into the ideology of ‘Hate Other’, for creation of Hindu nation, and then these volunteers in turn go and set up different organizations to fulfill the goal of RSS.
The advantage in this technique is that if some progeny of RSS does a thing which is against law, against which public opinion is strong, they will quietly disown the person. Beginning with Nathuram Godse, the killer of Mahatma Gandhi, this has been their method. Even Dara Singh of Bajrang Dal, who burnt Pastor Graham Stains, was disowned by RSS-BJP combine once the outrage against the crime became strong in the air. It is a ‘brilliant’ and shrewd strategy. One of their warriors, Babu Bajrangi, who played a major role in Gujarat carnage, has also been very active in attacking the couples in Gujarat. This mechanism, where by RSS trains them to impose the elements of Hindu nation by playing different roles, helps it spreading the tentacles of its sectarian politics without facing the consequences of the criminal acts.
As such the ideological clones of RSS have been vandalizing and attacking cultural activities, gazal programs, painting exhibitions and film shows on regular basis. Girls, women have also been facing the brunt of this offensive. There have been the attacks on couples involved in inter-caste, inter-religious marriages. They have been creating ruckus on Valentine day, and against girls wearing jeans. It is not that the RSS affiliates have been very active in violence against Muslims and Christians, alone. Having intimidated those communities severely, now atrocities against women may become the major focus of their activities. The aim of, such crimes is to browbeat women into receding from social space. What role this intimidation of girls plays? It is clear that with such attacks, the girls will feel intimidated to freely move out; their parents will put more restrictions on them curtailing their freedom.
All this is being done in the name of Hindu traditions. These self appointed custodians of Hindu culture neither know Hinduism, nor do they have any idea of Hindu traditions. They are projecting their political agenda of Fundamentalism, the agenda of subjugation of women through these actions. One may ask do these attackers identify the practices of female infanticide, wife beating, and bride burning as practiced by many Hindus as the culture of Hinduism! Is it due to this that they have never taken up campaigns against these ills of Hindu society? Is it because of this, that we never hear the protest against these evils from these self proclaimed custodians of Hindu culture.
The agenda of ‘politics in the name of Religion’, aims to suppress the rights of women. Vijaya Raje Schindia, the BJP Vice President had upheld Sati, Mridula Sinha of BJP Mahila Morcha had upheld wife beating, dowry, and had advised women not to work outside unless it is a must. The RSS subordinate organization for women is Rashtra Sevika Samiti, where the word Swyam (self) is missing in contrast to the male organization, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh. The clear indication of patriarchal values which the Hindu Right-wing up hold. Those concerned with women’s welfare need to stand against the evil practices of dowry, bride burning, and female infanticide, while these attacks aim to abolish women’s freedom, whatever little they have managed to get through their struggles. These attacks are meant to curb their right to choose their way of life and to impose controls of all sorts over them.
The ‘institution of religion’ stood for subordinate position for women. Fundamentalism, coming from any religion has the similar social-political agenda. The nitty gritties of disowning apart, the superficial differences of Mutalik and BJP apart, they are guided by same ideology of Hindutva. No wonder the same Mutalik had links with the Malegaon blast accused Lt Col. Prasad Purohit, who holds Mutalik in high esteem. Unfortunately as the present matters stand, situation may create some furor in the country, which will die down over a period of time as BJP govt. will ensure that their foot soldiers, storm troopers of its ideology, get away without any serious punishments. After all they are ideological brothers; they are children of single father, the RSS, the ideological parent of the agenda of Hindu Rashtra.
-
Shri Ram Sene Beats up Girls in a Pub
Ram Puniyani
Hitler, the epitome of sectarian politics had set many a norms, practices, which underlined his agenda of Fascism. He targeted the ‘outsiders’ (Jews, Communists) and suppressed the ‘insiders’ (workers, women). While what is most visible of his crimes is the genocide of Jews, what was also very damaging was that he suppressed the rights of women and workers. About women, he famously went on to pontificate that German women, love to be mothers and that their sphere of activity should be around Kitchen, Church and Children.
Another sectarian outfit, the Taliban after capturing power banned the women from public sphere, asking them to be in the confines of home; else severe punishment will be waiting for them. The fundamentalist groups like Dukhtarane Millat in Kashmir went on to throw acid on the face of the girls refusing to accept the Burqua. Controlling the lives, dress of women, to relegate them to subordinate position, is the common agenda of fundamentalist, fascist politics, irrespective of their religion or race to which they belong. Apart from other things this politics overall imposes the patriarchal norms in most aggressive way.
Nothing could have brought to our notice these facts more than the act of Shri Ram Sene, in Mangalore, when they beat up girls in a pub in Mangalore (25th Jan 09). Their argument, as articulated by their Chief, Pramod Mutalik is that this is against our Hindu culture. Since the time the BJP government has come to power, these groups have got a message that they can get away with their criminal activities due to the patronage of their ideological-political mentors. Earlier the same groups have vandalized churches few months ago. Now, while the hooligans attacked and took liberties with the girls their chief, Mutalik, was arrested initially on some other charges not for this crime by his outfit, Shri Ram Sene. It’s only later that due to the pressure from media and the pressure of social opinion that he was also charged for this attack on girls. Not all the sainiks were arrested and even from amongst those who were arrested many were released on bail, such was the attitude of the BJP government.
It’s a further matter of shame that the member of National Women’s Commission who thought of investigating the case turned out to be the ‘Bar Inspector’ rather then a person concerned with women’s issues. Her focus was the security at bar and the ‘plight’ of those who assaulted the girls. Accordingly she did not think it necessary to talks to the girls who were humiliated and beaten up, instead she gave a report with the help of which the criminals got the bail. So much about the fairness of this member of Commission! Fortunately the Women’s welfare ministry team did a good job to give the truth version of the incident.
The trajectory of the ‘career of Mutalik, the chief of Sene, shows the deeper connections of RSS and other organizations, who are active in vandalism. Mutalik is a RSS trained swaymasevak, who later joined Bajrang Dal, and then Shiv Sena before floating this Shri Ram Sene.
BJP and RSS spokesmen criticized the action of the hooligans taking the law into their hands, but at the same time upheld the ‘cause’ of protection of Indian culture. Women should not go to the pub, they must ‘behave’. They also justified Mutalik’s ideology, while distancing them from the acts of violence and organizationally from the Shri Ram Sene. Same Mutalik who has been the aspirant of BJP ticket, might now become persona non grata for RSS-BJP, irrespective of the fact that he is a RSS trained swayam sevak. RSS operates for its goal of Hindu nation through a clever mechanism. It trains volunteers into the ideology of ‘Hate Other’, for creation of Hindu nation, and then these volunteers in turn go and set up different organizations to fulfill the goal of RSS.
The advantage in this technique is that if some progeny of RSS does a thing which is against law, against which public opinion is strong, they will quietly disown the person. Beginning with Nathuram Godse, the killer of Mahatma Gandhi, this has been their method. Even Dara Singh of Bajrang Dal, who burnt Pastor Graham Stains, was disowned by RSS-BJP combine once the outrage against the crime became strong in the air. It is a ‘brilliant’ and shrewd strategy. One of their warriors, Babu Bajrangi, who played a major role in Gujarat carnage, has also been very active in attacking the couples in Gujarat. This mechanism, where by RSS trains them to impose the elements of Hindu nation by playing different roles, helps it spreading the tentacles of its sectarian politics without facing the consequences of the criminal acts.
As such the ideological clones of RSS have been vandalizing and attacking cultural activities, gazal programs, painting exhibitions and film shows on regular basis. Girls, women have also been facing the brunt of this offensive. There have been the attacks on couples involved in inter-caste, inter-religious marriages. They have been creating ruckus on Valentine day, and against girls wearing jeans. It is not that the RSS affiliates have been very active in violence against Muslims and Christians, alone. Having intimidated those communities severely, now atrocities against women may become the major focus of their activities. The aim of, such crimes is to browbeat women into receding from social space. What role this intimidation of girls plays? It is clear that with such attacks, the girls will feel intimidated to freely move out; their parents will put more restrictions on them curtailing their freedom.
All this is being done in the name of Hindu traditions. These self appointed custodians of Hindu culture neither know Hinduism, nor do they have any idea of Hindu traditions. They are projecting their political agenda of Fundamentalism, the agenda of subjugation of women through these actions. One may ask do these attackers identify the practices of female infanticide, wife beating, and bride burning as practiced by many Hindus as the culture of Hinduism! Is it due to this that they have never taken up campaigns against these ills of Hindu society? Is it because of this, that we never hear the protest against these evils from these self proclaimed custodians of Hindu culture.
The agenda of ‘politics in the name of Religion’, aims to suppress the rights of women. Vijaya Raje Schindia, the BJP Vice President had upheld Sati, Mridula Sinha of BJP Mahila Morcha had upheld wife beating, dowry, and had advised women not to work outside unless it is a must. The RSS subordinate organization for women is Rashtra Sevika Samiti, where the word Swyam (self) is missing in contrast to the male organization, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh. The clear indication of patriarchal values which the Hindu Right-wing up hold. Those concerned with women’s welfare need to stand against the evil practices of dowry, bride burning, and female infanticide, while these attacks aim to abolish women’s freedom, whatever little they have managed to get through their struggles. These attacks are meant to curb their right to choose their way of life and to impose controls of all sorts over them.
The ‘institution of religion’ stood for subordinate position for women. Fundamentalism, coming from any religion has the similar social-political agenda. The nitty gritties of disowning apart, the superficial differences of Mutalik and BJP apart, they are guided by same ideology of Hindutva. No wonder the same Mutalik had links with the Malegaon blast accused Lt Col. Prasad Purohit, who holds Mutalik in high esteem. Unfortunately as the present matters stand, situation may create some furor in the country, which will die down over a period of time as BJP govt. will ensure that their foot soldiers, storm troopers of its ideology, get away without any serious punishments. After all they are ideological brothers; they are children of single father, the RSS, the ideological parent of the agenda of Hindu Rashtra.
-
Friday, January 30, 2009
Eradicating terrorism
Eradicating Terrorism: Groping in the Dark
Ram Puniyani
November 26 terror attack on Mumbai shook the whole nation like never before. The society and state have been putting in their best to see that measures are taken where by the terror acts don’t repeat. So traumatized has been the nation that every conceivable measure is being given a serious thought for the safety and security of society.
To begin with the condolence for the dead was expressed through number of events, candle light march, human chains, all religion prayer meetings and area networking has come up in a very visible fashion. In many of these protests the anger against politicians had a free for all expression, at places sometimes overtly and sometimes covertly the fear of Pakistan and ‘Jehadi’ terrorists has been the running thread of the protests. The misplaced call for war against Pakistan is the part of this phenomenon only. The state, the central Government in order to show that something is being done, passed a law, empowering the state as if that will deter the terrorists, who generally come with the full readiness to die. The state is blowing hot and cold, sometimes threatening war and at others talking tough and less often also saying that war is no option.
State is also reviewing the quality of bullet proof jackets, increasing airport security and the security of coast line. Civic society groups have been undertaking workshops for disaster management, a university went on to declare a two year course against terrorism. The best amongst these have been the mohalla committee initiative to cement peace between different communities.
One recalls that after most of the severe phenomenon of violence the civic society has responded with great concern earlier also. Be it the post Babri demolition Mumbai riots or the Gujarat carnage 2003, for a good bit of time socially oriented and concerned individuals and groups sprang into the relief, rehabilitation and intercommunity amity work. This time there is a lot of ferment and a part of it does hold Pakistan as the culprit of the attacks of terror. The measures taken by state though some of them welcome, the measures of civic society groups, related to intercommunity amity are very valuable. But how far will they go?
It seems that the knee jerk reaction after the phenomenon is more focused on the symptoms of the phenomenon. Tighten security, have better bullet jackets and have stringent laws. There is not much attempt to go beyond the obvious to unravel the truth of sectarian and terrorist violence. Surely sectarian violence is due to some political groups baking their bread in the divisive politics, the ground for which is prepared by the hate ideology, spread of misconceptions and distorted view of the minorities, their history, their present. So, as lot of groups and individuals correctly talk about peace, about need for amity, their attempts do not reach to the core issue of fighting against divisive politics, the attempt to unravel the truth about minorities, their present, their’ past.
The communal violence and emotive issues give more strength to the communal parties, who in turn give bigger space to their affiliates who work at cultural and religious level to increase the communal divides and weaken national integration, further paving way to still worse violence in times to come. Not only that, their intensity has been worsening every next time they are staged. Gujarat was worse than Mumbai and Orissa has been more horrific than Dangs. The trajectory of communal violence has clearly shown that all the efforts by state to curb it have been misdirected; the social initiatives have been serious but probably not hitting the target in the effective way. One means the communal congruence of right wing ideology during last three decades.
As far as terrorist attacks are concerned, the formulation that All Terrorists are Muslims has been the understanding on which policies are made and implemented. With the result that the real causes of terror are not taken up for treatment of the disease of terrorism. From 1993 onwards terror attacks have been occurring, stringent laws or other wise. The deeper injustice has been giving raison de tre' to the repetition of these attacks. Here also the attacks have been worsening, the Mumbai one being worst so far.
If we see a bit more seriously, the real causes of terrorism have not taken up for fighting against. The popular perceptions stops at Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba being the real cause obviates the need to see beyond Al Qaeda etc. It prevents us from seeing the role of US imperialism in bring them up and using these groups for US’ political-economic gains. So all anger, protest against Pakistan and accompanying factors gets major importance. One misses the point that terrorism of AL Qaeda variety has roots in US policies of control over oil resources. It is due to those policies that these groups were propped up to fight Russian armies occupying Afghanistan. One has to see beyond the obvious to realize that this type terrorism has its genesis from the deeper political designs. The indoctrination of the radical groups which began due to this policy of US can not be fought against merely by strengthening some more laws and by new set of weapons.
Pakistani society is as much a victim of this dastardly phenomenon as India is. Terrorists always are looking for the holes in security through which they operate and their biggest advantage is that they are indoctrinated to the extent that they are willing to stake their all, including their lives to do what they have been doing. On similar wave length operates the terror attacks by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and other of her group. These Hindutva warriors have also been indoctrinated into hating others for the sake of their avowed goal of Hindu Rashtra. So where do we go, what direction we give to our concerns to ensure that terror attacks do not occur.
First and foremost, all places where injustice prevails, where democracy is stifled in a shortsighted way, those places become a rich fertile ground for breeding of terrorism. The one planted by US, Al Qaeda type, needs to be fought at global level. US is to be made accountable for much of this cancer which has spread in the area. While firmly dealing with the present terror set ups, democracy also needs to be made strong in Pakistan itself. One sees the subtle difference in the utterances of democratic elements in Pakistan and the Army-ISI-Mullah combine. The global peace movement has to ensure that the United Nations comes to the fore and stops the hegemony, the imperial behavior of US in particular. No measure short of restoring UN, making US follow the wishes of global community, a more democratized United Nations will suffice. This rejuvenated UN has to take up the global issue of terrorism, and put a brake on one sided, arbitrary US policies. US war on terror, and those who go by that, need to be put on the margins and entire charge of global interventions taken up by UN.
While draconian laws are no solution to the problem, it is likely they create and intensify the problem. The mantra of ‘tighten the security’ has not yielded any success in preventing it. The core point is to see that the concerned civic society makes its stand clear, that terrorism’s roots lie in injustice on one hand and US policies on the other. We need to raise our voices against injustice and US hegemony both to see that over a period of time the terror menace is eliminated by and by.
--
Ram Puniyani
November 26 terror attack on Mumbai shook the whole nation like never before. The society and state have been putting in their best to see that measures are taken where by the terror acts don’t repeat. So traumatized has been the nation that every conceivable measure is being given a serious thought for the safety and security of society.
To begin with the condolence for the dead was expressed through number of events, candle light march, human chains, all religion prayer meetings and area networking has come up in a very visible fashion. In many of these protests the anger against politicians had a free for all expression, at places sometimes overtly and sometimes covertly the fear of Pakistan and ‘Jehadi’ terrorists has been the running thread of the protests. The misplaced call for war against Pakistan is the part of this phenomenon only. The state, the central Government in order to show that something is being done, passed a law, empowering the state as if that will deter the terrorists, who generally come with the full readiness to die. The state is blowing hot and cold, sometimes threatening war and at others talking tough and less often also saying that war is no option.
State is also reviewing the quality of bullet proof jackets, increasing airport security and the security of coast line. Civic society groups have been undertaking workshops for disaster management, a university went on to declare a two year course against terrorism. The best amongst these have been the mohalla committee initiative to cement peace between different communities.
One recalls that after most of the severe phenomenon of violence the civic society has responded with great concern earlier also. Be it the post Babri demolition Mumbai riots or the Gujarat carnage 2003, for a good bit of time socially oriented and concerned individuals and groups sprang into the relief, rehabilitation and intercommunity amity work. This time there is a lot of ferment and a part of it does hold Pakistan as the culprit of the attacks of terror. The measures taken by state though some of them welcome, the measures of civic society groups, related to intercommunity amity are very valuable. But how far will they go?
It seems that the knee jerk reaction after the phenomenon is more focused on the symptoms of the phenomenon. Tighten security, have better bullet jackets and have stringent laws. There is not much attempt to go beyond the obvious to unravel the truth of sectarian and terrorist violence. Surely sectarian violence is due to some political groups baking their bread in the divisive politics, the ground for which is prepared by the hate ideology, spread of misconceptions and distorted view of the minorities, their history, their present. So, as lot of groups and individuals correctly talk about peace, about need for amity, their attempts do not reach to the core issue of fighting against divisive politics, the attempt to unravel the truth about minorities, their present, their’ past.
The communal violence and emotive issues give more strength to the communal parties, who in turn give bigger space to their affiliates who work at cultural and religious level to increase the communal divides and weaken national integration, further paving way to still worse violence in times to come. Not only that, their intensity has been worsening every next time they are staged. Gujarat was worse than Mumbai and Orissa has been more horrific than Dangs. The trajectory of communal violence has clearly shown that all the efforts by state to curb it have been misdirected; the social initiatives have been serious but probably not hitting the target in the effective way. One means the communal congruence of right wing ideology during last three decades.
As far as terrorist attacks are concerned, the formulation that All Terrorists are Muslims has been the understanding on which policies are made and implemented. With the result that the real causes of terror are not taken up for treatment of the disease of terrorism. From 1993 onwards terror attacks have been occurring, stringent laws or other wise. The deeper injustice has been giving raison de tre' to the repetition of these attacks. Here also the attacks have been worsening, the Mumbai one being worst so far.
If we see a bit more seriously, the real causes of terrorism have not taken up for fighting against. The popular perceptions stops at Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba being the real cause obviates the need to see beyond Al Qaeda etc. It prevents us from seeing the role of US imperialism in bring them up and using these groups for US’ political-economic gains. So all anger, protest against Pakistan and accompanying factors gets major importance. One misses the point that terrorism of AL Qaeda variety has roots in US policies of control over oil resources. It is due to those policies that these groups were propped up to fight Russian armies occupying Afghanistan. One has to see beyond the obvious to realize that this type terrorism has its genesis from the deeper political designs. The indoctrination of the radical groups which began due to this policy of US can not be fought against merely by strengthening some more laws and by new set of weapons.
Pakistani society is as much a victim of this dastardly phenomenon as India is. Terrorists always are looking for the holes in security through which they operate and their biggest advantage is that they are indoctrinated to the extent that they are willing to stake their all, including their lives to do what they have been doing. On similar wave length operates the terror attacks by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and other of her group. These Hindutva warriors have also been indoctrinated into hating others for the sake of their avowed goal of Hindu Rashtra. So where do we go, what direction we give to our concerns to ensure that terror attacks do not occur.
First and foremost, all places where injustice prevails, where democracy is stifled in a shortsighted way, those places become a rich fertile ground for breeding of terrorism. The one planted by US, Al Qaeda type, needs to be fought at global level. US is to be made accountable for much of this cancer which has spread in the area. While firmly dealing with the present terror set ups, democracy also needs to be made strong in Pakistan itself. One sees the subtle difference in the utterances of democratic elements in Pakistan and the Army-ISI-Mullah combine. The global peace movement has to ensure that the United Nations comes to the fore and stops the hegemony, the imperial behavior of US in particular. No measure short of restoring UN, making US follow the wishes of global community, a more democratized United Nations will suffice. This rejuvenated UN has to take up the global issue of terrorism, and put a brake on one sided, arbitrary US policies. US war on terror, and those who go by that, need to be put on the margins and entire charge of global interventions taken up by UN.
While draconian laws are no solution to the problem, it is likely they create and intensify the problem. The mantra of ‘tighten the security’ has not yielded any success in preventing it. The core point is to see that the concerned civic society makes its stand clear, that terrorism’s roots lie in injustice on one hand and US policies on the other. We need to raise our voices against injustice and US hegemony both to see that over a period of time the terror menace is eliminated by and by.
--
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Invoking India's Fuhrer
Invoking India’s Fuhrer
Industrialists call for Modi to be the Prime Minister
Ram Puniyani
During the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investment summit (December 2008), the top industrialists cheered their fellow captains of industries calling for Narendra bhai to be next Prime Minister. It is claimed by the organizers of this glittering function that it could solicit an investment of 12 Lakh Crores in Gujarat. It is another matter that the analysts point out that this data is a make believe fiction. A Right to Information, RTI, filed to find the actual investment in Gujarat shows that out of the committed investment of previous summit only 23% materialized, and the current data has been fudged to include the existing ongoing projects and some projects which fall in the kitty of central Government. While some investment has taken place and some has been committed a deliberate hype has been created in the figures to create an image of Gujarat as being number one state of India due to the leadership of Modi.
Why the industrialists are going gung ho about Modi needs to be understood as it has dangerous portents for the country. Gujarat is a state which has been ruled by BJP from last over a decade. It was already amongst the more developed states of India, even before BJP came to power and even before Modi took over as Chief Minister. What has happened during this last decade?
Two major processes have been observed. One relates to the issues of human rights and other to the indices of socio economic progress. Gujarat’s human-rights record is abysmal and shameful to say the least. It is a state where complicity of the state in the communal violence, under the leadership of the chief minister, has been most blatant. The Post Godhra Gujarat violence has been a new low in the arena of atrocities in this century. Even before the truth of Godhra incident came to surface Modi gave signals for anti Muslim pogroms and the RSS affiliates co-opted the poorer sections to butcher the Muslim minorities. The same was followed up by attacks on Christians. The tiny Christian minority of the state faced unprecedented riots on the eve of many a Christmas celebrations, especially in the Dangs district.
The victims of Gujarat violence are wandering even now and the studies show that over five Lakh Muslims, who have been affected by the violence, have been helplessly readjusting to lack of facilities and proper rehabilitation. At another level state has been slipping in its record of condition of weaker sections of society. It now stands behind Orissa and Bihar in children’s education (Annual Status of Education Report, 2008, IE Jan 15). On the hunger index it is again amongst the ‘critical’ areas of the World, the hemoglobin levels of women of child bearing age women has fallen badly (Third round of National Family Health survey report 2006). Overall the large section of Gujarat society has been faring badly.
There are regular reports in the newspapers about farmers’ suicides and increasing atrocities on dalits in Gujarat. As far as women are concerned it is during last 15 years or so that sex ratio is declining and Gujarat has joined the infamous low sex ratio states-Haryana, Punjab etc. The atrocities against women are reflected by the cases of gang rape and mass rapes as came to light in Patan. And this is being projected as number one state in the country!
Industrially also after the total shutdown of textile industry now the diamond industry is declining, thousands of small industrial units have shut their shops, and employment levels are falling. One can safely conclude that in Gujarat, a small section of ‘Shining India’ is progressing at the cost of large sea of Gujarat people who are suffering.
The case of Nano factory in Gujarat will make the matters clear. The tax payer’s money has been siphoned off to this factory, huge loan at the rate of 0.01%, continuous free water supply has been provided and the vast chunk of 1100 acres of land has been given to this factory, no stamp duty, no registration fee! In economic terms analysts have calculated that each car rolling out from Tata factory will have the subsidy of 60000 rupees. This pattern of memorandums of understanding (MoU) make it clear that Big capital is fond of Modi as he is acting as their agent to siphon off public money into their coffers, all in the name of development. Robin Hood used to rob the rich to distribute it to poor, here is a leader robbing average tax payer to feed the rich.
Do the industrialists not see the worsening plight of the state under Modi’s leadership? They know as much about the state of affairs of Gujarat as is known, but they are not bothered about worsening plight of school education, violence against women, dalits and issues of this type. For the Capital, the likes of Tata, Ambani and Mittals, the World is there so that they can make their profits, can live the life of luxury and affluence, and this luxury can also be there for a small circuit. As BJP slogan went in the last general elections, they ape to create a small shining island around which sea of misery and deprivation should survive to serve the interests of the industrialists and their cohorts. The current state of affairs for big industrialists is similar to what existed in Germany. The worsening economic crisis, gradually needed that they repress the human rights, the weaker sections of society with ruthlessness so that their so called ‘development’ can persist. And Hitler’s call to eliminate Jews gave them that message that here is the right horse to back. If you are repressive for ‘outsiders’, you will repress the ‘insider’, the labor, the dalit, and the marginalized with equal ferocity.
Modi’s terror against minorities has given the signal to Industrialists that here is a man who can bloat his chest with pride while maiming and butchering the weak. Here is the man who has ‘clear politics’, politics in the service of affluent, who can cleverly flaunt the label of ‘development’ while internal rot sets in and the Human rights are trampled mercilessly. It serves them right. So they are all ga ga about Modi. Ashish Nandy, the reputed social scientist, after meeting Narnedra Modi said that Modi has a classic fascist persona. That did come to light for every body to see during Gujarat carnage. And his facilitating the path for Industrialists has reinforced the message that this man is capable of trampling democracy and preserve the interests of the Big Capital.
It may sound a bit far fetched to compare this RSS pracharak turned chief minister with the greatest tyrant in the contemporary history. But similarities are staring in our face. Hitler adorned the ideology of German Nationalism to oppress the Jews, Trade Unionists, communists on one hand and workers on the other. In the process he did abolish democracy and adopted a militarism which was a prelude to the destruction of the German state. Modi already has been indoctrinated in the Hate ideology of RSS, in the concept of Hindu Rashtra and militaristic, aggressive attitudes towards neighbors. History can be a big teacher if we want to learn.
In the long term Hitler, Modi, German Nationalism and RSS ideology may sound solutions to Big Capitalists and section of affluent middle class, but surely nation is not just these big guns and not just aggressive attitude towards neighboring states. This is sure recipe for disaster in the long run. Modi’s problems with BJP, Advani, Shekhavat apart, he has shown the worst of fascist mind set, that’s why the ilk of Ambani and Mittlas are trying to promote him as the next Prime Minster.
What is needed is that we revive with all vigor the values of freedom movement, the equality of all religious communities, the liberal space for struggle for democratic and human rights. The Industrialists’ tubular vision does not permit them to have a look at society as a whole and that’s why a section of them promoted Hitler in Germany and a section of them is invoking the Indian version of Hitler, Narendra Modi.
Industrialists call for Modi to be the Prime Minister
Ram Puniyani
During the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investment summit (December 2008), the top industrialists cheered their fellow captains of industries calling for Narendra bhai to be next Prime Minister. It is claimed by the organizers of this glittering function that it could solicit an investment of 12 Lakh Crores in Gujarat. It is another matter that the analysts point out that this data is a make believe fiction. A Right to Information, RTI, filed to find the actual investment in Gujarat shows that out of the committed investment of previous summit only 23% materialized, and the current data has been fudged to include the existing ongoing projects and some projects which fall in the kitty of central Government. While some investment has taken place and some has been committed a deliberate hype has been created in the figures to create an image of Gujarat as being number one state of India due to the leadership of Modi.
Why the industrialists are going gung ho about Modi needs to be understood as it has dangerous portents for the country. Gujarat is a state which has been ruled by BJP from last over a decade. It was already amongst the more developed states of India, even before BJP came to power and even before Modi took over as Chief Minister. What has happened during this last decade?
Two major processes have been observed. One relates to the issues of human rights and other to the indices of socio economic progress. Gujarat’s human-rights record is abysmal and shameful to say the least. It is a state where complicity of the state in the communal violence, under the leadership of the chief minister, has been most blatant. The Post Godhra Gujarat violence has been a new low in the arena of atrocities in this century. Even before the truth of Godhra incident came to surface Modi gave signals for anti Muslim pogroms and the RSS affiliates co-opted the poorer sections to butcher the Muslim minorities. The same was followed up by attacks on Christians. The tiny Christian minority of the state faced unprecedented riots on the eve of many a Christmas celebrations, especially in the Dangs district.
The victims of Gujarat violence are wandering even now and the studies show that over five Lakh Muslims, who have been affected by the violence, have been helplessly readjusting to lack of facilities and proper rehabilitation. At another level state has been slipping in its record of condition of weaker sections of society. It now stands behind Orissa and Bihar in children’s education (Annual Status of Education Report, 2008, IE Jan 15). On the hunger index it is again amongst the ‘critical’ areas of the World, the hemoglobin levels of women of child bearing age women has fallen badly (Third round of National Family Health survey report 2006). Overall the large section of Gujarat society has been faring badly.
There are regular reports in the newspapers about farmers’ suicides and increasing atrocities on dalits in Gujarat. As far as women are concerned it is during last 15 years or so that sex ratio is declining and Gujarat has joined the infamous low sex ratio states-Haryana, Punjab etc. The atrocities against women are reflected by the cases of gang rape and mass rapes as came to light in Patan. And this is being projected as number one state in the country!
Industrially also after the total shutdown of textile industry now the diamond industry is declining, thousands of small industrial units have shut their shops, and employment levels are falling. One can safely conclude that in Gujarat, a small section of ‘Shining India’ is progressing at the cost of large sea of Gujarat people who are suffering.
The case of Nano factory in Gujarat will make the matters clear. The tax payer’s money has been siphoned off to this factory, huge loan at the rate of 0.01%, continuous free water supply has been provided and the vast chunk of 1100 acres of land has been given to this factory, no stamp duty, no registration fee! In economic terms analysts have calculated that each car rolling out from Tata factory will have the subsidy of 60000 rupees. This pattern of memorandums of understanding (MoU) make it clear that Big capital is fond of Modi as he is acting as their agent to siphon off public money into their coffers, all in the name of development. Robin Hood used to rob the rich to distribute it to poor, here is a leader robbing average tax payer to feed the rich.
Do the industrialists not see the worsening plight of the state under Modi’s leadership? They know as much about the state of affairs of Gujarat as is known, but they are not bothered about worsening plight of school education, violence against women, dalits and issues of this type. For the Capital, the likes of Tata, Ambani and Mittals, the World is there so that they can make their profits, can live the life of luxury and affluence, and this luxury can also be there for a small circuit. As BJP slogan went in the last general elections, they ape to create a small shining island around which sea of misery and deprivation should survive to serve the interests of the industrialists and their cohorts. The current state of affairs for big industrialists is similar to what existed in Germany. The worsening economic crisis, gradually needed that they repress the human rights, the weaker sections of society with ruthlessness so that their so called ‘development’ can persist. And Hitler’s call to eliminate Jews gave them that message that here is the right horse to back. If you are repressive for ‘outsiders’, you will repress the ‘insider’, the labor, the dalit, and the marginalized with equal ferocity.
Modi’s terror against minorities has given the signal to Industrialists that here is a man who can bloat his chest with pride while maiming and butchering the weak. Here is the man who has ‘clear politics’, politics in the service of affluent, who can cleverly flaunt the label of ‘development’ while internal rot sets in and the Human rights are trampled mercilessly. It serves them right. So they are all ga ga about Modi. Ashish Nandy, the reputed social scientist, after meeting Narnedra Modi said that Modi has a classic fascist persona. That did come to light for every body to see during Gujarat carnage. And his facilitating the path for Industrialists has reinforced the message that this man is capable of trampling democracy and preserve the interests of the Big Capital.
It may sound a bit far fetched to compare this RSS pracharak turned chief minister with the greatest tyrant in the contemporary history. But similarities are staring in our face. Hitler adorned the ideology of German Nationalism to oppress the Jews, Trade Unionists, communists on one hand and workers on the other. In the process he did abolish democracy and adopted a militarism which was a prelude to the destruction of the German state. Modi already has been indoctrinated in the Hate ideology of RSS, in the concept of Hindu Rashtra and militaristic, aggressive attitudes towards neighbors. History can be a big teacher if we want to learn.
In the long term Hitler, Modi, German Nationalism and RSS ideology may sound solutions to Big Capitalists and section of affluent middle class, but surely nation is not just these big guns and not just aggressive attitude towards neighboring states. This is sure recipe for disaster in the long run. Modi’s problems with BJP, Advani, Shekhavat apart, he has shown the worst of fascist mind set, that’s why the ilk of Ambani and Mittlas are trying to promote him as the next Prime Minster.
What is needed is that we revive with all vigor the values of freedom movement, the equality of all religious communities, the liberal space for struggle for democratic and human rights. The Industrialists’ tubular vision does not permit them to have a look at society as a whole and that’s why a section of them promoted Hitler in Germany and a section of them is invoking the Indian version of Hitler, Narendra Modi.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Bouquets, Boots and Bush
Bouquets, Boots and Bush
Ram Puniyani
During the press conference in Iraq a Iraqi journalist, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, in an act of
protest, hurled his shoes at George Bush. (December 2008) One does not know how the American President took it but one knows that the Iraqi people, were very elated at this insult hurled on their aggressor. Since the second Gulf War, 2003 the condition in Iraq has been worsening rapidly to disastrous proportions. By the way, one must introspect and correct the terminology, war. It was not a war; it was an invasion by the US on Iraq.
Just to recapitulate US, in its dreaded role as the global imperial power has been attacking country after country in a reckless manner. After the collapse of USSR, the other super power, the US has pursued its ambition of controlling and exploiting oil of the gulf region nakedly, apart from its overall hegemonic behavior all around. The US governments irrespective of their being Republican or Democrat, have been keeping the US war machinery on the boil. Many a countries in the gulf region have been the victims of US designs. Iraq in particular has come under the chopping block since the Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait. Iraq as such had been supported strongly by US during its war against Iran. During that time Saddam Hussein not only waged the war with Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime but also committed atrocities on the helpless Kurds in Iraq. These deeds of Iraq were staunchly and materially supported by US, as at that time for US, Iran was supposed to be the major problem in the region. This more so after the Ayatollah overthrew the US puppet regime of Raza Shah Pehlvi.
After the Iran-Iraq war ended in1988, US felt that the large army it had helped build in Iraq will be a threat to its domination in the gulf region and should be demolished. Iraq foolishly walked into the trap laid by the US. Through its allies in the region Saudi Arab and Kuwait, it put severe economic pressure on Iraq, which made Iraq think of invading Kuwait. When Saddam Hussein talked about his plans to US ambassador April Glaspie, she categorically stated that ‘we have no opinion on your border dispute’, meaning there by, you are free to go ahead, we won’t interfere.
As soon as Iraq invaded Kuwait and declared that Kuwait is the 24th state of Iraq, US jumped to shout that Kuwait Sheikh’s sovereignty has been violated and that Iraq will be taught a lesson. Iraq pledged to withdraw its troops. Ignoring that, US went for a decisive strike, blockading Iraqi soldieries, who were willing to withdraw, and stopping supplies to Iraq. Betraying the worst of imperialist greed Iraq was bombed by US, its electrical systems and sewerage plants were destroyed, with the result that millions of Iraqis perished due to war, the accompanying sanctions and spread of diseases. Blinded by its greed the US secretary of state Madeleine Albright affirmed that all this destruction was worth to save the Sovereignty of Sheikh of Kuwait.
After the 9/11 2001 and the consequent attack on Afghanistan, US came back to old goal of expanding its hold on oil zone by occupying Iraq. It decided to build up its case of attacking Iraq by declaring that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction. UN, though not a political force any more, deputed its inspectors to find if Iraq had such weapons. None could be found. That was not to deter the tyrannical empire. It went ahead with its preparations of the war. It went on to add the excuse that Iraq is supporting Al Qaeda. It was a common knowledge that Saddam had no link with this organization, which any way was the creation of US itself. As a prelude to war US leaders started saying that Iraqi people are fed up of the tyrannies of Saddam and they need to be liberated. Dick Cheney, the US Vice President went on to say that US troops will be welcomed as the liberating forces by Iraqis and will be greeted with bouquets. A good pretext was laid; a sense of mission was put on as the mask.
The invading US armies were resisted but the resistance fell through against the might of the formidable army. Still resistance was on through various forms till the total occupation took place. The occupying army unleashed a reign of terror for which the US leaders need to face the court of human conscience. The tip of iceberg of atrocities was displayed to the horrified world when it saw the US army torturing Iraqi soldiers. In Abu Ghraib prison they were stripped naked and made to form a human pyramid! Arrogance of the occupying army of the most democratic and civilized state of US! An international jury, disturbed by the goings on in Iraq, put together a tribunal, International tribunal on War crimes in Iraq (2005). This Jury of Conscience from 10 different countries heard the testimonies of 54 members of the panel of Advocates who came from across the world, including Iraq, the United States and the United Kingdom. This global civil initiative came to an end with a press conference at the Hotel Armada where the Chair of the Jury of Conscience, Arundathi Roy, announced the Jury’s conclusions, “The attack on Iraq is an attack on justice, on liberty, on our safety, on our future, on us all.”(http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=93)
Why is the world witnessing such a massive erosion of human values, the trampling of international norms, conventions? US after its humiliation in Vietnam had decided not to send its armies to outside countries for some time and during that time, to counter the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, it propped up Al Qaeda type terrorists. From last three decades its aggressive designs are rampaging not only the countries of the world but also the spirit of humanism as a whole. The undermining of United Nations by US arrogance has been a major reason contributing to miseries of the World today. US actions to couch its politics in the language of religion, to prop up the theory of Clash of Civilizations, to demonize Islam and Muslims can be regarded as one of the worst sins against humanity in contemporary times.
As per US claims that wherever it intervenes it brings in democracy, lesser said the better. Earlier when the Colonial powers came to plunder the colonies they wore the mask of ‘civilizing mission’, of carrying the burden of civilizing the colonies. Now US while pursuing its role of plundering the oil resources of the world is putting on the mask of ‘exporting democracy’. Let’s remember democracy or for that matter no social system can be exported. USSR in it’s hey days was claiming to export socialism. Social systems can nurture themselves if they develop from within. What British colonial powers did in India was to plant the poisonous seeds of communalism and what US is doing in countries it invades is to bring in sectarianism. It has, during its occupation, promoted ethnic and tribal cliques. It has heightened the divides on the lines of Shia-Sunni, and other narrow identities. The economic condition of Iraq has worsened and the number of lives lost due to US misdeeds runs over millions.
It’s a shame that in the name of civilizing missions, exporting democracy etc., few powerful nations have brought in misery to these victim states in particular and human society in general. It is high time the world wakes up to the threat of this barbarism, the brute force trampling and causing miseries all over the World. The need for democracy amongst the nations, the concept of non alignment at global level and strengthening of United Nations through World Peace movement is the need for the hour. Bush rightly deserved the humiliation for what his/US policies have brought in to Iraq. Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who threw his boots, is rightly being hailed as a hero by Iraqis and many others. What US administration wanted to believe that it will get bouquets, was a make believe to invade. The boot it is getting now is what these invasions deserve. The crime against Iraq and humanity as a whole, is one of the serious tragedies of our times.
--
Issues in Secular Politics
Jan 2008 I
For Circulation/Distribution
Ram Puniyani
During the press conference in Iraq a Iraqi journalist, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, in an act of
protest, hurled his shoes at George Bush. (December 2008) One does not know how the American President took it but one knows that the Iraqi people, were very elated at this insult hurled on their aggressor. Since the second Gulf War, 2003 the condition in Iraq has been worsening rapidly to disastrous proportions. By the way, one must introspect and correct the terminology, war. It was not a war; it was an invasion by the US on Iraq.
Just to recapitulate US, in its dreaded role as the global imperial power has been attacking country after country in a reckless manner. After the collapse of USSR, the other super power, the US has pursued its ambition of controlling and exploiting oil of the gulf region nakedly, apart from its overall hegemonic behavior all around. The US governments irrespective of their being Republican or Democrat, have been keeping the US war machinery on the boil. Many a countries in the gulf region have been the victims of US designs. Iraq in particular has come under the chopping block since the Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait. Iraq as such had been supported strongly by US during its war against Iran. During that time Saddam Hussein not only waged the war with Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime but also committed atrocities on the helpless Kurds in Iraq. These deeds of Iraq were staunchly and materially supported by US, as at that time for US, Iran was supposed to be the major problem in the region. This more so after the Ayatollah overthrew the US puppet regime of Raza Shah Pehlvi.
After the Iran-Iraq war ended in1988, US felt that the large army it had helped build in Iraq will be a threat to its domination in the gulf region and should be demolished. Iraq foolishly walked into the trap laid by the US. Through its allies in the region Saudi Arab and Kuwait, it put severe economic pressure on Iraq, which made Iraq think of invading Kuwait. When Saddam Hussein talked about his plans to US ambassador April Glaspie, she categorically stated that ‘we have no opinion on your border dispute’, meaning there by, you are free to go ahead, we won’t interfere.
As soon as Iraq invaded Kuwait and declared that Kuwait is the 24th state of Iraq, US jumped to shout that Kuwait Sheikh’s sovereignty has been violated and that Iraq will be taught a lesson. Iraq pledged to withdraw its troops. Ignoring that, US went for a decisive strike, blockading Iraqi soldieries, who were willing to withdraw, and stopping supplies to Iraq. Betraying the worst of imperialist greed Iraq was bombed by US, its electrical systems and sewerage plants were destroyed, with the result that millions of Iraqis perished due to war, the accompanying sanctions and spread of diseases. Blinded by its greed the US secretary of state Madeleine Albright affirmed that all this destruction was worth to save the Sovereignty of Sheikh of Kuwait.
After the 9/11 2001 and the consequent attack on Afghanistan, US came back to old goal of expanding its hold on oil zone by occupying Iraq. It decided to build up its case of attacking Iraq by declaring that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction. UN, though not a political force any more, deputed its inspectors to find if Iraq had such weapons. None could be found. That was not to deter the tyrannical empire. It went ahead with its preparations of the war. It went on to add the excuse that Iraq is supporting Al Qaeda. It was a common knowledge that Saddam had no link with this organization, which any way was the creation of US itself. As a prelude to war US leaders started saying that Iraqi people are fed up of the tyrannies of Saddam and they need to be liberated. Dick Cheney, the US Vice President went on to say that US troops will be welcomed as the liberating forces by Iraqis and will be greeted with bouquets. A good pretext was laid; a sense of mission was put on as the mask.
The invading US armies were resisted but the resistance fell through against the might of the formidable army. Still resistance was on through various forms till the total occupation took place. The occupying army unleashed a reign of terror for which the US leaders need to face the court of human conscience. The tip of iceberg of atrocities was displayed to the horrified world when it saw the US army torturing Iraqi soldiers. In Abu Ghraib prison they were stripped naked and made to form a human pyramid! Arrogance of the occupying army of the most democratic and civilized state of US! An international jury, disturbed by the goings on in Iraq, put together a tribunal, International tribunal on War crimes in Iraq (2005). This Jury of Conscience from 10 different countries heard the testimonies of 54 members of the panel of Advocates who came from across the world, including Iraq, the United States and the United Kingdom. This global civil initiative came to an end with a press conference at the Hotel Armada where the Chair of the Jury of Conscience, Arundathi Roy, announced the Jury’s conclusions, “The attack on Iraq is an attack on justice, on liberty, on our safety, on our future, on us all.”(http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=93)
Why is the world witnessing such a massive erosion of human values, the trampling of international norms, conventions? US after its humiliation in Vietnam had decided not to send its armies to outside countries for some time and during that time, to counter the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, it propped up Al Qaeda type terrorists. From last three decades its aggressive designs are rampaging not only the countries of the world but also the spirit of humanism as a whole. The undermining of United Nations by US arrogance has been a major reason contributing to miseries of the World today. US actions to couch its politics in the language of religion, to prop up the theory of Clash of Civilizations, to demonize Islam and Muslims can be regarded as one of the worst sins against humanity in contemporary times.
As per US claims that wherever it intervenes it brings in democracy, lesser said the better. Earlier when the Colonial powers came to plunder the colonies they wore the mask of ‘civilizing mission’, of carrying the burden of civilizing the colonies. Now US while pursuing its role of plundering the oil resources of the world is putting on the mask of ‘exporting democracy’. Let’s remember democracy or for that matter no social system can be exported. USSR in it’s hey days was claiming to export socialism. Social systems can nurture themselves if they develop from within. What British colonial powers did in India was to plant the poisonous seeds of communalism and what US is doing in countries it invades is to bring in sectarianism. It has, during its occupation, promoted ethnic and tribal cliques. It has heightened the divides on the lines of Shia-Sunni, and other narrow identities. The economic condition of Iraq has worsened and the number of lives lost due to US misdeeds runs over millions.
It’s a shame that in the name of civilizing missions, exporting democracy etc., few powerful nations have brought in misery to these victim states in particular and human society in general. It is high time the world wakes up to the threat of this barbarism, the brute force trampling and causing miseries all over the World. The need for democracy amongst the nations, the concept of non alignment at global level and strengthening of United Nations through World Peace movement is the need for the hour. Bush rightly deserved the humiliation for what his/US policies have brought in to Iraq. Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who threw his boots, is rightly being hailed as a hero by Iraqis and many others. What US administration wanted to believe that it will get bouquets, was a make believe to invade. The boot it is getting now is what these invasions deserve. The crime against Iraq and humanity as a whole, is one of the serious tragedies of our times.
--
Issues in Secular Politics
Jan 2008 I
For Circulation/Distribution
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