Communalism, Centrestage

By Shabnam Hashmi

01 October, 2008
Tehelka

Life and liberty are not the gift of society, state or Constitution
but inalienable rights of every individual. The flame of liberty will
glow so long as there are persons who have guts, grit, and vision to
expose and disprove those nibbling away liberty in the name of
expedients.


A journalist of a well-known television channel recently asked me why
the community to which I belong (of human rights activists) always
takes stands which are opposed to the stand of the whole nation. Can
the shrill voices of the electronic media replace our whole being? Can
they replace the Indian Constitution and the rule of law? The strong
judgements passed by the media after every terror attack, every
encounter and every arrest of a ‘mastermind’, can sway the middle
classes and the executives working in the multinational companies. But
can they stop a nation from questioning?

Even at the height of Hitler’s rule in Germany, when benches on the
roadside had signs saying, ‘Not for Jews’, someone had the guts to put
a black cross on them, establishing that such politics of genocide was
not acceptable.

Though India is being transformed at a fast pace where all minorities
are being forced to realise that they are second-class citizens, the
difference is that there are many more people in India who are
challenging the fascist agenda of those who are in power and others,
who are desperately trying to capture power in the coming election.

The ascent of these forces has been systematic and well planned.
Twenty years ago, most of the secular forces believed that the
communal fascist forces were on the fringe of society and laughed at
the possibility of their ever moving centerstage. Today the situation
has reversed — the communal forces are so centrestage, it is difficult
to differentiate between what is right and what is centre. They have
invaded all spaces and areas including the minds of our secular
politicians.

Among the plenty of weapons that they have used in this journey — from
the peripheral to the Centre — fake encounters occupy a fairly
important position. They have cleverly used different weapons at
different stages. Beginning from ordinary bhajan mandalis, they moved
to more organised kathas, to new age gurus. Working at different
levels over 15 years — shishu mandirs, shakhas, ekal vidyalayas, sant
samagams, television serials, the rath yatras, leaflets, videos, CDs —
they have slowly entered the consciousness of an entire society with
targeted messages against minorities. Only those sections of society
who strongly and consciously contested this ideology could retain
their sanity. After the seeds of hatred were sowed successfully and
the harvest was being reaped, started the more decisive phase — the
physical attacks and largescale genocide. Most of the experiments were
done in Gujarat and the remote areas of other states. For example, the
experiment within the tribal belts started in the late 1960s and early
1970s.Almost simultaneously, the VHP swamis then moved into these
areas.

Today, we have reached a stage when an innocent person can be killed
in a fake encounter, and declared a terrorist. A large number of
innocent young Muslim boys are being victimised by the police on
charges of terrorism. In most cases, they are not shown to be arrested
by the police until many days after their arrest in gross violation of
the law. Their families are also not informed about their arrest and
while in police custody, they are made to ‘confess’ and sign blank
papers. The courts routinely deny them bail. When the police
charge*** them, the trials go on almost endlessly during which the
poor victims are virtually defenceless. GUJCOC, MCOCA, POTA and many
other such draconian laws are required only so that the statements
which the police force out of the victims can be considered as
evidence.

After years of torture and confinement, when the case against the
victims is found to be baseless, no action is taken to hold police
officials accountable. The young patriotic journalists, of course, are
then not around to report the horrors of all those years lost in the
dark cells of a jail. Stopping the victimisation of the innocents will
be the first step towards finding a solution against terrorism.

(Hashmi is a social activist with Anhad)

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 39, Dated Oct 04, 2008

source : http://www.countercurrents.org/hashmi011008.htm
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