सेक्युलर रिपब्लिक और उसकी चुनौतियाँ : सुभाष गाताड़े

इस `सेक्युलर रिपब्लिक` में साम्प्रदायिकता से लड़ने की चुनौती बहुत बड़ी है। उस समय (१९४७ में) बंटवारा हुआ, कत्लेआम हुआ पर फिर भी सेक्युलरिज्म को इस मुल्क की आत्मा से अलग नहीं किया जा सका था। तब लोगों में इतनी दूरियां पैदा नहीं की जा सकी थीं जितनी कि आज हैं। सही मायने में सेक्युलर रिपब्लिक कैसे बनेगा और इसके लिए कौन लडेगा, यह बड़ी चुनौती है।

डॉ. आंबेडकर ने कुछ ऐसा कहा था कि यह संविधान सही काम न करे तो इस जला देना चाहिए। संविधान बनाने के काम में आंबेडकर के योगदान को देखें तो साफ़ है कि जिस प्रगतिशील और न्यायपूर्ण समाज के सपने के साथ उन्होंने इस प्रक्रिया में शामिल होना स्वीकार किया था, वह पूरा नहीं हो सका है. संविधान के प्रगतिशील और न्यायपूर्ण मूल्यों पर लगातार फासिस्ट हमले हुए हैं. सच्चे आंबेडकरवादियों का फ़र्ज़ है कि वे आंबेडकर को पूजा की तस्वीर बनाये जाने की निरंतर साजिशों के बरक्स उनके मूल्यों को लेकर लड़ाई को आगे बढ़ाएं. दुनिया भर में जो हालात हैं और अपने यहाँ भी जो हो रहा है, उसके मद्देनजर हिन्दुस्तान में वामपंथ और दलित आन्दोलन को मिलकर लड़ाई लड़नी होगी. मुख्यधारा के दलित आन्दोलन और मुख्यधारा के वामपंथ की बात मैं नहीं कह रहा लेकिन रेडिकल वाम और रेडिकल दलित आन्दोलन से इस एकता की उम्मीद की जा सकती है.

मुझे लगता है कि फिलहाल संघर्ष के टूल के तौर पर इसी सिस्टम के अधिकारों का ज्यादा से ज्यादा इस्तेमाल करना होगा. देश में विभिन्न हिस्सों में संघर्ष चल रहे हैं. जहाँ तक नक्सलवाद के नाम पर सरकारी दमन का सवाल है, उसका विरोध किया जाना चाहिए। लेकिन इस संघर्ष की अहमियत स्वीकार करते हुए यह कहना भी जरूरी है कि यह संघर्ष एक ख़ास तरह के गतिरोध का शिकार हुआ है. देश भर में कैसे परिवर्तन होगा, उनके पास इसका कोई नक्शा नहीं है. दिशाहीन हिंसा भी ठीक नहीं है.

मौजूदा हालात में दिक्कत यह है कि आम लोगों में भी पूंजीवाद का वर्चस्व बढ़ा है. पूंजीवाद की मार झेल रहे किसी गरीब को भी लगता है कि वह अम्बानी बन सकता है.

समाजवाद को लेकर मायूसी है पर नाउम्मीदी नहीं है. पूंजीवाद का नंगा नाच है, बदलाव तो होगा ही. एक रास्ता यह हो सकता है कि फासीवाद आए. समाजवाद तुरंत न आए तो हो सकता है कुछ अधिक जनपक्षीय व्यवस्था आए. हो सकता है समाजवाद को आने में समय लगे और लम्बा संघर्ष करना पड़े. पहली बार ऐसी चुनौती दरपेश है कि किसी पूंजीवादी जनतांत्रिक मुल्क में समाजवाद के लिए संघर्ष करना है.

देश का बुद्धिजीवी वर्ग तो खुश है। उसके छोटे-छोटे स्वार्थ पूरे हो रहे हैं। वेतन और सुविधाएं बढ़ गए हैं। उसका मुख्य स्वर संतोष ही है। लेखक भी संतुष्ट दिखाई देता है. फासीवादियों से पेक्ट भी होने लगे हैं. हालत यह कि दो-चार पुरस्कार दे दो तो लेखक खुश रहेगा वर्ना व्यवस्था का विरोध करेगा.

(लेखक-एक्टिविस्ट सुभाष गाताड़े साम्प्रदायिकता और दलित उत्पीड़न के सवालों पर प्रमाणिक और धारदार स्वर के रूप में जाने जाते हैं। आज `गणतंत्र दिवस` की सुबह उनसे फोन पर हुई बातचीत के कुछ टुकड़े यहाँ दिए गए हैं। )

Who Would Wipe Professor Sanaullah Radoo's Tears ?

Professor Sanaullah Radoo, Principal of a Degree College in Sopore, Jammu-Kashmir still remembers the day when his youngest son Pervez had reached the airport in Srinagar in a hurry to catch the next Spice Jet flight to Delhi.(12 September 2006). The moment the flight landed in Delhi, he had even made a call to his Abboo ( father in colloquial terms - as he used to fondly call him) informing him that he is rushing to get the boarding pass to the next connecting flight for Pune. Little did he could have any prenomition then that what was in store for him.
It has been more than nineteen months that Pervez is in detention and right now lodged in Jail no 01, Ward no 01, Barrack no. 02, Tihar, Delhi. And as of now all his dreams to undertake research on the variety of rice found in Kashmir stands suspended. Young Pervez Ahmad Radoo, who had already finished his post-graduation in Zoology from Modern College in Pune was seeking admission to Ph.D. for which he was going to Pune.
In fact, the moment Pervez approached the airline staff to get his boarding pass at Delhi airport, he experienced that he has been surrounded by seven-eight people who held him firmly and took away his luggage and straightaway drove him to Lodhi Colony Special Cell office. In a letter (Combat Law, March-April 2008) he provides details of the manner in which he was 'tortured and interrogated severly' and how he was 'beaten up ruthlessly' and was given 'electric shocks'.
If one were to believe Special Cell of the Delhi Police, Pervez was arrested on October 15, 2006 from Azadpur Mandi in the city with "three kgs of RDX and Rs 10 lakh as hawala money along with other incriminating evidence" proving him to be a "Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist".
Professor Sanaullah has been running from pillar to post for the last around eighteen months so that his youngest son gets a 'fair trial' and comes out of jail unscathed and is able to resume his research work. The fact is that for around one month Professor did not know that Pervez has not landed in Pune rather he was in detention. He has also presented a memorandum to the National Commission on Minorities ( NCM) to press harder for their intervention. Mohammad Shafi Qureshi, Chairperson of NCM, who has looked into the case and has also written to the Delhi police was candid enough to share his views on the subject with a reporter ('Mail Today' , Delhi, March 6, 2008 - NCM fights for release of J & K youth in Tihar) :
"It is hard to believe the police version when one sees the clean chits given by the police superintendent and additional district magistrate of Sopore, his native town, and from the local resident welfare association (RWA)। Most importantly, the certificate given by Spicejet for the same day shows him as boarding the plane for Delhi from Srinagar and then also bound to travel further to Pune. These facts have been completely ignored by the Special Cell.'

Trying to control his tears Professor Sanaullah Radoo tells the reporter the manner in which police have turned a promising young scientiest into a 'bomb-man' 'He should be completing his research on a rice species in Kashmir valley, instead he is inside prison facing charges of terrorism.' He clearly says the police 'are lying'. He is also not sure whether his son would receive a fair trial or not and whether he has been provided an able prosecution to defend his case or not.
Pervez's jail diary, which has appeared in a section of the media, puts further light on his plight. In his letter asking to 'Save My Career, As I Am Innocent' he poignantly asks 'Am I not Indian, if I am Kashmiri. Why this discrimination. When tall claims are being made by the govt of India, by media, that before law all citizens are equal.'
Of course it would not be cliche to state that the story of the metamorphosis of a student of Zoology into a 'bomb-man' is not the only one of its kind. In fact not a day passes when one does not hear about the illegal detention of a youth from the minority community on some frivolous charges.
Just a day before 'Mail Today' carried the above mentioned story about Pervez, it had provided details of a case involving a 'terrorist' gutkha manufacturer getting bail ( Mail Today, March 5, 2008). According to the report filed by Piyush Srivastava, ' Barely six months ago, 35 year old Imran Ismail Memon was termed as a terrorist, gangster, a hawala racketeer, a smuggler and a manufacturer of adulterated Gutkha.' Imran Ismail Memon, a resident of Thane in Maharashtra was arrested by the Rae Bareli police on August 25, 2007. Police said he was part of a "terrorist module" and had started a "illegal and adulterated gutkha factory" as a cover-up to stay in the district. Lucknow bench of the Allahabad highcourt granted bail to him because of lack of evidence. It also added that ' the police could not even prove the power theft charge against him.'
May it be the case of Aftab Alam Ansari, an employee of the Calcutta Electricity Supply Corporation who was arrested on 27 th December 2007 as 'main accused behind the serial blasts in no of courts in UP' or for that matter the case of a poor fruit vendor from Kashmir who was presented before the media as a 'prize catch' responsible for blasts on the eve of Diwali in Delhi two years back, it is clear to any layperson that with the ascendance of the Hindu right forces in the Indian polity and in the ambience which has been created the world over post 9/11 such targetting of innocents from the minority community has become all the more common.
All of us were witness to the travails of Aftab Alam Ansari who was tortured for 22 days that he spent in police custory after his arrest on December 27, 2007 in order to make him confess that he was Mukhtar alias Raju, resident of Malda district in West Bengal and had Rs. 6 crores in his bank account.
A biggest irony of the whole situation is that while terrorist acts committed by Hindutva organisations are not even reported or all attempts are done to cover them up, innocents from the minority community are apprehended claiming them to be associates of this or that dreaded terrorist organisation. The media which is supposed to be a watchdog of democracy also joins the malicious campaign where it has no qualms in calling all such people as terrorists rather than accused awaiting trial in court. It does not bother it that such trial by media is not only unethical but also violates the basic ethics of responsible and fair journalism.
To be very frank, this is not to condone any of such terrorist acts if they occur in any part of the country, rather one would want that the law of the land should be equally applicable in all such cases and it should not appear that it is favouring/targetting a particular community.
Things have reached such a pass that it would not be an exaggeration to say that it is a new trend where 'terrorisation' and 'stigmatisation' of the minority community is reaching menacing proportions. The pattern of mindless arrests for the sake of branding innocent persons as terrorists and resorting to relentless torture is coming under increasing scrutiny. And it is quite natural that it is giving rise to perceptible anger all across the country.
Perhaps the recent decision of the UP government asking a retired judge to ascertain whether two persons arrested for the court blasts in state are indeed terrorists or not, is an indicator of the pressure governments are facing over repeated complaints that the state police is implicating Muslims as terrorists. The case involves the arrest of Khalid Mujahid and Tariq, claiming them to be members of Harkat-Ul-Jehadi (HUJI) who were implicated for executing the serial blasts that left 14 people dead. If one searches the record of the Jamia Tul-Salahat Madarsa in Jaunpur where Khalid use to teach, it tells us that not only he was present on the day (23 Nov) in the Madarsa but had also checked the copies of the students.The judge has been asked to cross-check the UP police story which says that Khalid landed in Lucknow in a bus on November 23 morning, met other accomplices, bought new cycles, planted bombs in Lucknow court premises and returned immediately to Jaunpur.
One can just go on narrating instances of the highhandedness of the police and the callousness of the polity in turning a blind eye towards continuous stigmatisation of a particular community.As already mentioned this is an understanding which has received a new boost in the aftermath of 9/11 and the ‘war against terror’ unleashed by the US regime, to further its imperialist ambitions.
Any impartial enquiry into the state of affairs would make it clear that the need of the hour is to understand that ‘terrorism’ cannot be the monopoly of a particular community. It is a product of the typical circumstances which societies encounter or find themselves in and the nature of the dominant or dominated forces in operation in those societies and their larger worldview.
There is no denying the fact that civil society at large at some level has accorded legitimacy to all such actions by the police. If that would not have been the case there would have a uproar at the national level when it was revealed that how 'intelligence bureau operatives colluded with Delhi police to brand two of its own informers as dreaded terrorists'. It was sheer coincidence that the matter reached CBI which exposed the dark machinations of the dirty tricks brigade.
A writeup in Times of India 'IB, cops in murky frame-up' (By Sachin Parashar, New Delhi, 13 September 2007) had presented all relevant details of the case.
New Delhi: The CBI has found that Intelligence Bureau operatives colluded with Delhi Police special cell sleuths to ‘plant’ RDX on two youths who were arrested as ‘Al Badr terrorists’, TOI has learnt. The shocking conclusion comes a month after the agency told the Delhi High Court that the special cell’s probe into the murky affair “didn’t inspire confidence”.
Top CBI sources told TOI on Wednesday that the seized RDX appeared to have been planted on the two ‘terrorists’ Mohd Moarif Qamar and Irshad Ali. The agency will submit its report, which indicts officers of IB and Delhi Police special cell, to the court on October 24.
While similar episodes in the past have hurt the credibility of the anti-terror agencies, this one stands out because it marks a rare instance where Intelligence Bureau operatives collaborated in the plot hatched by Delhi Police’s special cell against its former informers.
Few months back one was witness to a furore over the violation of human rights and dignity of Dr Haneef in Australia. Thanks to the support provided by international media and human rights organisations and the concern expressed in the polity here, it did not take much time for either the Australian judiciary and executive to release Dr Haneef. We were also told then that our honourable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh personally felt disturbed over the plight of Dr Haneef and could not sleep that night.
Perhaps it is high time that the honourable Prime Minister is told that 'Dr Haneef' is not just the name of doctor who was wrongly apprehended in Australia rather it is another name for a phenomenon which is quite rampant in this part of the earth.
And the case of Pervez Ahmad Radoo is one such important case which demands his immediate intervention. Such a move only can bring back the smile on Professor Sanaullah's face !
-subhash gatade, H 4 Pusa Apts, Rohini Sector 15, Delhi 110085. Ph - 01127876523

Ignoramuses of the Hindutva Brigade ?

Well, how much time does it take to read a lesson meant for a textbook. Let us suppose a few minutes... may be an hour or so ! And how much time does one need to comprehend the same. ...Well, for lesser mortals like us, it does not need any extra time ; but when it comes to some special people with special agendas then perhaps it can take 4-5 years.
If you find this to be an exaggeration, then perhaps you are not reading the newspapers properly. Perhaps it is high time that you get to know the recent controversy around a textbook brought out by the NDA government in Orissa. One can just imagine that if it would have been any other state ruled by the 'pseudo secularists' then by now a full scale violent agitation would have seen the light of the day with all the affiliated organisations of the Sangh Parivar, lending their support. Unfortunately it is not the case. And the person in charge of education department is none other than Mr Samir Dey, a hardcore RSS pracharak from his early days.
A leading mainstream daily recently gave an insight into the matter. In its report on its front page captioned 'In NDA Orissa, a textbook equates BJP with Lashkar' (Indian Express, Delhi, 2 nd February 2007) it tells us about the manner in which a textbook on 'Indian Polity' for second-year degree students in Orissa clubbs Lashkar-e-Toiba with BJP. According to the report
The chapter on the 'Existence of Terrorist Organisation' says : "Terrorist organisations create tension in the country. Communal parties like the BJP, RSS, Bajrang Dal, Hurriyat Conference and Lashkar-e-Toiba are responsible for fomenting violence..leading to the killing of hundreds in the country and especially Kashmir."
It is worth noting that the said textbook - which is written by Amarendra Mohanty and Shyama Charan Mohanty, teachers of political science has been taught since 2003. The matter could come to light only after a BJP worker in Salepur, about 60 KM from the state capital, noticed it and lodged a FIR. As of now an embarrased government immediately announced a monitoring commitee to screen all textbooks and BJP workers took to the streets and burnt copies of the book.
Looking at the fact that the Sangh Parivar - which is hell bent upon making Orissa the second Hindutva Laboratory - has egg on its face a la this episode, it can be presumed that the whole matter would be hushed up. But the issue does throw light on the mental abilities of the plethora of activists of the Hindutva brigade who needed around five years to notice this 'discrepancy' in the textbook.
Of course it is not for the first time that Sangh Parivar or one of its affiliated organisation was forced to withdraw a book published under its own supervision. A look at one of their own publications brought out on the occasion of the silver jubilee celebrations of the BJP illustrate this in no uncertain terms. As reported in a national daily (Indian Express, 9 th May 2006) :
Mystery surrounds the sudden withdrawal of one of the 16 volumes of an official account of the Jana Sangh-BJP history, four months after it was released as part of the silver jubilee celebrations in Mumbai. The series, written by historian Makhan Lal under the supervision of senior BJP leader J P Mathur, carry a foreword by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani.
While the sudden withdrawal of one volume titled RSS Aur Bharatiya Jana Sangh Ki Sthapana Ka Itihas (The History of Creation of the RSS and Bharatiya Jana Sangh) appears bizarre, till date one has yet to get any official explanation from the BJP about its action. Looking at what Ram Madhav, the ex spokesperson of the RSS had to say, it can be inferred that the Parivar people felt agitated over the admission in the book that both RSS and the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the predecessor of BJP, were set up as anti Muslim forces.

Apart from the genesis of the RSS (and Bharatiya Jan Sangh) the Sangh bosses seem to be annoyed with references which according to another report (The Telegraph, May 10, 2006) 'contains references that are too anti-Muslim even for the RSS.' The references to Mahatma Gandhi where the book peddles the conventional wisdom in the Hindutva Brigade that 'the origin of "minority-appeasement" was in Gandhi's attitude towards the Muslims' has also been found unpalatable to the Sangh fraternity. It is clear to everyone that of late it seems to be cosying up to the Mahatma, including him even as one of its Pratahsmaraniya (worth remembering in the morning).
May it be the case of the Oriya textbook or for that matter the withdrawal of a volume four months after release such foolish attempts by the Hindutva brigade people pale in significance if one gets to know the manner in which a whole book by its second supremo, M.S. Golwalkar was surreptiously withdrawn.
It is common knowledge that the first of Golwalkar's theoretical contributions for the cause of Hindutva had appeared in the form of a pamphlette called 'We or Our Nationhood Defined' ( 1938) which was so straightforward in his appreciation of the 'ethnic cleansing' of Jews undertaken by Hitler and such an unashamed proponent of the submergence of 'foreign races' in the Hindu race that later day RSS leaders have tried to create an impression that the said book was not written by Golwalkar but it was merely a translation of a book 'Rashtra Meemansa' by Babarao Savarkar.
A quote from the 77 paged book would be opportune at this moment.
"The foreign races in Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must loose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment — not even citizen's rights. There is, at least, should be, no other course for them to adopt. We are an old nation; let us deal, as old nations ought to and do deal, with the foreign races, who have chosen to live in our country".
It is a different matter that in his Preface to We or Our Nationhood Defined dated March 22, 1939, Golwalkar himself described Rashtra Meemansa as 'one of my chief sources of inspiration and help. The American scholar Jean A. Curran who did a full length study on RSS in early fifties, in his sympathetic book, Militant Hinduism in Indian Politics: A Study of the RSS (1951) confirms that Golwalkar's 77-page book was written in 1938 when he was appointed RSS General Secretary by Hedgewar and he calls it as RSS's 'Bible'.
Coming back to the Oriya textbook it is being learnt that the said committee formed by the Chief Minister would look into the legal aspects and act against the publishers. A spokesperson of the BJP has even demanded arrest of its authors.
All empty words.
Perhaps they learn that instead of following their agenda of hate and targetting their ire on innocents they learn the essence of harmony. Only then it would be possible for them to read as well as comprehend in a better manner, at least they would be saved from the disgraceful revealation that they need around five years to understand an article.
--subhash gatade
H 4 Pusa Apartments, Rohini Sector 15, Delhi 110085 Ph : 011-27872835 email : subhash.gatade@gmail.com

Condemn the Assault on Freedom of Expression

Bhopal : Shubhradeep Chakravorty's documentary Not Allowed to be screened

The growing intolerance of the saffron outfits towards anything which does
not meet their distorted worldview was on display once again. This time the
target of their assault was Shubhradeep Chakravorty's recent documentary on
encounter killings in Gujarat titled ' Encountered on Saffron Agenda'.

Shubhradeep, who is a New Delhi based documentary filmmaker, has made the
much discussed 'Godhra Tak : The Terror Trail'. The recent documentary which
was shot in seven states, is based on investigative documentation of few
encounter killings in Gujarat in recent times. A significant commonality
between all these encounters was that those killed in these encounters were
said to have on a mission to kill the Chief Minister Narendra Modi who had
allegedly organised the 2002 genocide of Muslims in the state after Godhra
train burning incident.

Yuva Samvad, an organisation of Youth had organised the screeing of the
documentary on 7 th February at AICUF Ashram, Bhopal. Shubhradeep was also
present on the occasion to participate in the ensuing
discussion.Thescreeing of the documentary was supposed to start at 7
p.m. but before it could happen a horde of Bajrand Dal activists numbering
around 70 came to the venue and disrupted the show.

Police also refused to give any protection to the programme and in fact took
the Delhi based director of the film along with an activist of Yuva Samvad
to their control room. It compelled the organisers of the programme to call
off the screening despite the fact that the film does not come under the
'banned' category. The Bajrang Dal activists also entered the office of the
Ashram and threatened the authorities there. Police remained a mute
spectator to the whole developments.

It is for everyone to see that this assault on freedom of expression was
another sign of the growing fascist dominance in the state of Madhya Pradesh
where unruly saffron crowd is calling all the shots and administration is
acting as a mere spectator.

It is high time that every peace, justice loving person raise their voice in
unison to condemn such acts and express our total solidarity with people who
are struggling against such forces.


(For any further details about the incident contact yuvasamvad@gmail.com )
Note- I received this matter from Subhash Gatade