The Challenge to the Republic

If the demolition of the Babri Masjid was a turning point in the history of the Republic, the re-emergence of vicious, divisive politics of Hindutva forces that we are witnessing now is a serious challenge to the very survival of the Republic.

Narendra Modi embodies that challenge.

Twenty one years ago it was a wave generated on the emotive issue of the temple which gave an unprecedented push to the political forces of Hindutva. The soft Hindutva of the ruling party only helped the process. But like all waves, it too had its eventual flattening.

Today, what is new is Hindutva’s camouflage of “development” and “governance” which has gripped sections of urban, vocal, “aspirational”, upwardly mobile youth. Their views are being amplified beyond all proportion by the sections of electronic media and the corporate capital. The ruling party’s response is confused and pathetic. It wants to cover up its record of unparalleled venality and incompetence. It is showing misplaced “efficiency” and “decisiveness” where it ought to have taken more mature, political decision as in the case of sordid hanging of Afzal Guru. It does not seem averse to playing “ real politick” of welcoming the polarization that Narendra Modi is inevitably bringing about. It seems unmindful that this short- sightedness would prove even more damaging to the Republic than the soft Hindutva politics of yesteryears.

Recent happenings have shown how the cancer of majoritarian communalism has seeped into the sensitive wings of the government. The exposure of the right wing terrorism by the late Karkare has been upheld by subsequent investigations by NIA. There have been earlier cases of fake encounters by police in the name of fighting terrorism. The latest expose by CBI of the fake encounter in which Isharat Jahan was murdered in cold blood along with three others shows to what extent the police and intelligence machinery can go in a political environment which has been systematically poisoned by majoritarian communalism over long years. Ascent to power at the Centre of such politics is the beginning of the end of the idea of India as enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic.

The challenge to the survival of the Republic needs to be faced upfront and unambiguously.

First, we must put an end to the apparently innocent and well-meaning but ultimately dangerous politics of seeking “apology” from Narendra Modi for what was perpetrated adroitly by his henchmen in 2002 under the benign eye of his administration. It costs little at this point in time for Narendra Modi to tender such an apology, although he is too arrogant to do even that. Perhaps his cold calculation is to allow the demand to grow to a crescendo such that conceding it at the right time just before elections would make him appear an angel. Whatever the compulsions of some of his stooges in Gujerat, such an apology is not going to wash off even one single spec of blood of the innocent that has smeared his hands. Apologies are hardly the stuff that serve the ends of justice, nor do they constitute the closure of the political process.

Second, the camouflage of “development” and “governance” must be ripped off. Both in terms of what has actually happened in Gujarat in the last ten years and the inexorable logic of this path of development. It should be remembered that there is convergence in Modi’s party and the ruling party at the centre on these two issues. Both will find it inconvenient to raise the questions of whose development and whose subjugation. The illusion that has gripped the urban, well- off youth has to be countered by mobilizing the disillusioned millions of unemployed youth and those in the rural and tribal areas whose very livelihood has been endangered and whose resistance is being treated as rebellion.

Third, a strong movement must be built around the demand that all cases where muslim youth have been arrested in large numbers under black laws and have been in police custody for long periods must be investigated on a priority basis and tried in special courts so that the innocent are not made to suffer any longer. Those who have been or would be let off because of failure to prove the leveled charges must be duly compensated for the years spent in police custody/jail and rehabilitated with dignity and honour. Moreover, the police who clamped such cases and were responsible for abrogation of human rights and the misery and indignity of the innocent youth must be prosecuted in courts of law so that such atrocities are not repeated.

Particularly stringent and exemplary action must be taken against the culprits who have been found responsible for cold blooded murder committed under cover of “encounter”.

Fourth, a special debate must take place in the Parliament to consider specific measures to prevent such abuse of law and authority at the hands of political executive and the intelligence and police machinery.

And last, the challenge to the Republic is political. It has to be fought politically. A mass movement must be built against the new, camouflaged manifestation of majoritarian communalism. Years ago in France, the Socialist Party under the leadership of Mitterand had given a challenge to the right-wing fascistic politics of hatred and violence of La Pen’s party encouraging physical violence against the French youth of Algerian origin. “Do Not Touch My Pal” was the slogan which mobilized the French youth in support of their Algerian origin brothers. We need a mass movement to mobilize the Indian youth to openly come in support of their Muslim brothers in every locality. Local committees should be formed of the resident youth to protect the life and property of the Muslim youth at all times. Such committees should extend all legal and material support to the Muslim youth to ensure that the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution are actually available to them in trying times. It should be remembered that denial of these rights and freedoms to one section is tantamount to end of such rights and freedoms for all.

Disclaimer:The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick