Bad ideas, Government, Politics, Right watch

Then They Came For ..

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Tree Wants to be Calm
But Wind Will Not Stop !
-Jose Maria Sison
( Filipino Revolutionary and Poet)

Whether all the leading public intellectuals of our times have suddenly decided to go for a break – now that Kanhaiya Kumar is out of jail – or are thinking that the impending storm would peter away on its own. Anyone who has closely followed the public hounding of two of the finest human beings of our times – Prof Nivedita Menon and Gauhar Raza – and the silence which has followed with it ( barring a statement signed by many and few articles here and there on some webmagazines ) would understand what does that mean. While Prof Menon is being targetted because of airing of selective quotes from one of her lectures, Gauhar has been put under the scanner because of his participation in Indo-Pak mushaira. It is clear that one of his poems – focussing on the dangerous cocktail of religion and politics – which he recited there, has infuriated them. Continue reading Then They Came For .. →

Culture, Feminism, Media politics, Politics, Right watch, Sex, Violence/Conflict

The Nation’s Orgiastic Fantasy and the Politics of ‘Nationalist’ Anger

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The Mise en Scene

The Nationalist is angry. He wants to kill, maim and rape for his Mother’s honour. From the lawyer criminal who has a Rs 45 lakh fraud case against him to the extortionist television anchor – all are bellowing with rage. Another anchor, Mr Nation himself, whose publicly declared annual salary is Rs 5 crores, is suddenly choking with emotion at the death of the hapless army jawan, Hanumanthappa (who earned less than 120th of Mr Nation’s monthly salary and for whom the Nation never shed a tear till this collective arousal). Blood lust has taken over the land. In this scenario, the hysterical television anchor takes on the role of a lynch mob instigator and the cheer leader combined into one. He exhorts while the lynch-mob runs amok threatening, attacking and  demanding that all anti-nationals – students, teachers and intellectuals in general –  be shot, killed or sent to Pakistan. We have seen, as a consequence, all manner of angry nationalists offering prize money – Rs 5 lakhs for cutting Kanhaiya Kumar’s tongue and Rs 11 lakhs for killing him. More recently, he has been issued another death threat along with an ultimatum to leave Delhi by the end of March. Fellow Kafila-ite and feminist scholar Nivedita Menon has, for the last few weeks, been openly threatened with nationalist rape and more.

The Nation’s collective fantasy is orgiastic. And the current object of this collective fantasy is Jawaharlal Nehru University. Witness the BJP MLA who spends his free time (which is perhaps most of his time), not  only showering money on  dancing  girls, but even more, fantasizing about the orgy that he believes is JNU. According to The Indian Express:

In perhaps the most bizarre comments on the JNU controversy so far, BJP MLA from Ramgarh in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, Gyandev Ahuja, on Monday said that daily 50,000 pieces of bones, 3,000 used condoms, 500 used abortion injections, 10,000 cigarette “pieces”, among other things, are found at JNU, where girls and boys dance naked at cultural programmes.

Continue reading The Nation’s Orgiastic Fantasy and the Politics of ‘Nationalist’ Anger →

Culture, Left watch

Am I Doing Enough? Crisis, Activism and the Search for Meaning: Lata Mani

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This is a guest post by LATA MANI

In the past fifteen years I have been developing what I describe as “contemplative cultural critique.” Such an effort at transcoding between secular and meditative understandings is not without difficulty and not without its limits. But it has led me to pose questions I might not otherwise have asked, and to think through them in ways that I would not have previously considered.

How might this approach contribute to reflecting on the political turmoil of the past eight weeks in India? This period has been marked by national focus on the penalization and criminalization of student dissent at Hyderabad Central University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. In the former case prolonged institutional harassment drove Rohith Vemula to take his life and in the latter it has led to the imprisonment of Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirbhan Bhattacharya on charges of sedition. In both instances a witch-hunt led by the media and the right-wing BJP government has created a hostile environment conducive neither to dialogue nor to a calm consideration of facts. These events, as P. Sainath has argued, extend to university campuses ideological, legal and political tactics long used against communities resisting “development” in rural India.[1] Continue reading Am I Doing Enough? Crisis, Activism and the Search for Meaning: Lata Mani →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Centre watch, Government, Images, Language, Law, Media politics, Politics, Right watch, Scams, Violence/Conflict

When Crime Becomes Ordinary, Ordinary Life Will be Criminalised

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  1. Zee News Anchor Sudhir Chaudhary whose heart beats for India tried to extort 100 crores from the Jindals, remember? No, no, please, kindly, take a few minutes to watch this, at least until 3.55.

 

 

  1. This is a photo comparing Chaudhary with that the whistleblower in the Vyapam scam, who exposed a long-running case of serious corruption by the state and political parties which has involved the murders of over 45 individuals! The current government is providing Chaudhary X category security while with this cycle-borne ‘security’ the Vyapam whistleblower has survived 14 attacks on his life.
main-qimg-ce1f1542701c71d0da51f68ad43ecab8
Courtesy: Quora.com

Continue reading When Crime Becomes Ordinary, Ordinary Life Will be Criminalised →

Bad ideas

सी पी एम की हिंसा भी हिंसा ही है,आर एस एस कार्यकर्ता की हत्या कोई न्याय नहीं है

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दो रोज़ पहले केरल के कन्नूर में सुबह-सुबह पहली और दूसरी क्लास के बच्चों को स्कूल ले जाते हुए ऑटो-ड्राईवर ए वी बीजू को कुछ लोगों ने ऑटो से खींच लिया और उनपर चाकुओं और तलवारों  से हमला किया. बच्चे खौफ में देखते रहे कि उन्हें रोज़ सुबह स्कूल ले जाने बीजू को कैसे बेरहमी से काटा जा रहा है.बाद में खून के छीटों वाली पोशाक में आतंकित बच्चों को वापस घर ले जाया गया.

सौभाग्य से बीजू को हस्पताल ले जाया गया और वे बच गए. लेकिन यह भाग्य पिछले महीने अपने माँ-पिता के सामने काट डाले गए सताईस साल के राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ और भारतीय जनता पार्टी के सदस्य पी. वी. सुजीत का नहीं था.वह बच नहीं सका. उस समय इसकी रिपोर्ट करते हुए स्क्रोल  और सत्याग्रह ने चेतावनी दी थी कि कन्नूर में होने वाली यह आख़िरी राजनीतिक ह्त्या नहीं है. बीजू भी राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ के सदस्य हैं. Continue reading सी पी एम की हिंसा भी हिंसा ही है,आर एस एस कार्यकर्ता की हत्या कोई न्याय नहीं है →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Education, Identities, Law, Left watch, Media politics

Of False Binaries and ‘Dirty’ Politics: Divya Kannan

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This is a guest post by DIVYA KANNAN

Manu Joseph’s latest commentary regarding the ongoing crisis in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the larger debate on Indian ‘nationalism’ smacks of crass elitism, as a journalist pithily pointed out online. If one were to use a ‘different term’, as Joseph himself keeps venturing to do in his writing, it is simply nauseating. This is for several reasons. To begin with, he harbours a convoluted understanding of what research in higher educational institutes entails, the nature of student politics, the lasting dangers of right wing assaults, and the pathetic misrepresentation carried out by the media, including himself, of the pressing issues in this country. Continue reading Of False Binaries and ‘Dirty’ Politics: Divya Kannan →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Culture, Debates, Everyday Life

Appreciating Diversity, Corporate Style – Guest Post by Anonymous

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Guest Post by Anonymous

A senior leader of India’s leading IT Services Company took a moment on March 8th to send a note to his colleagues wishing them on International Women’s Day.  In the mailer, he also exhorted his colleagues, among other things, to strive towards building an environment that appreciates variety. The variety of Race, Ethnicity, Gender or Generation! He did not stop there, but went on to talk about drawing strength from these differences. Caste, quite evidently, is conspicuous by its absence in the corporate discourse on diversity (or variety as they also like to call it).

What is it that makes Corporate India, or a part of it, sensitive towards race issues/matters on one hand but allows them ignore caste on the other? Is it reflective of what a social activist friend once mentioned to me in a private conversation – Caste is only visible from “down below” and not “up above”? Continue reading Appreciating Diversity, Corporate Style – Guest Post by Anonymous →

Debates, Education, Right watch

Look who’s calling us anti-national! The pleasant antecedents of Sudhir Chaudhary and journalistic ethics of IBN 7

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[An edited version of this post has been published in Scroll.in with a more extensive set of links. I recommend reading it here.]

Sudhir Chaudhary of Zee News has been spewing venom at students and teachers of JNU for some time now, and I have been informed by concerned friends that over the last two days there has been a concerted campaign against me personally. Since I do not watch “news” on a channel that brazenly doctors videos and seems ignorant of minimum levels of journalistic ethics, I am relying on links sent to me by well wishers.

Last evening I believe a clip from a video made in 2014 was circulated, in which I am heard saying that Hinduism is the world’s most violent religion, because its very foundation is the caste system.

I am told that Sudhir Chaudhary challenged me to prove the video was doctored. I am certainly not going to engage with an alleged criminal extortionist (more about his pleasant antecedents in a bit), but here let me say that the clip I have seen circulating on twitter which I assume is the one on Zee, is not doctored, but it is massively decontextualized. I post below the link to the entire event – which was not a classroom lecture, but a political meeting organized by a student group in 2014 after the Kiss of Love protest was attacked in Delhi by Sanghis.

In Part I of this post I will deal with that video, and in Part II with Sudhir Chaudhury and IBN7. Continue reading Look who’s calling us anti-national! The pleasant antecedents of Sudhir Chaudhary and journalistic ethics of IBN 7 →

Bad ideas, Government, Identities, Right watch

हममें से देशद्रोही कौन नहीं है?

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P

राष्ट्रवाद या यूं कहें कि ऑफिशियल राष्ट्रवाद इन दिनों सुर्खियों में है. एक तरफ ‘भारत माता की जय’ का नारा लगाते हुए और दूसरे ही सुर में मां-बहनों के नाम अपशब्दों की बौछार करते हुए लंपटों के गिरोह हर स्वतंत्रमना व्यक्ति को लातों-मुक्कों से, या जैसा कि बीते दिनों इलाहाबाद की कचहरी में देखने को मिला, लोग लाठियों की मार से राष्ट्रवाद का असली मतलब समझा रहे हैं. शांतिपूर्ण प्रदर्शनकारियों पर टूट पड़ते दिख रहे इन निक्करधारी गिरोहों के साथ जगह-जगह खाकी वर्दीधारियों की भी मौन सहमति नजर आ रही है. और दिख रहा है कि आप अगर किसी को मार भी डालें और सफाई में यह कह दें कि वह पाकिस्तान जिंदाबाद कह रहा था तो उसे माफ कर दिया जाएगा.

विडंबना ही है कि इन दिनों देश की किस्मत के आका कहे जाने वाले लोग नकली ट्वीट की बैसाखी के सहारे ऐसे तमाम उत्पातों, उपद्रवों और उद्दंडता को वैधता का जामा पहनाते नजर आ रहे हैं. आए दिन हो रही संविधान की इस खुल्लमखुल्ला अनदेखी को लेकर संविधान को सबसे पवित्र किताब का दर्जा देने वाले वजीर-ए-आजम मोदी भी अपना मौन बनाए हुए हैं. अंधराष्ट्रवाद की आंधी चलाने की तेज होती कोशिशों को देखते हुए बरबस राजेश जोशी की बहुचर्चित कविता की पंक्तियां साकार होती दिख रही हैं कि ‘जो इस कोलाहल में शामिल नहीं होंगे मारे जाएंगे.’

(Read the rest of the article here : http://tehelkahindi.com/who-is-not-anti-national-among-us-opinion-by-social-scientist-subhash-gatade/?singlepage=1)

Debates, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India: Simar Singh

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Guest Post by SIMAR SINGH

Honourable Prime Minister of India,

I am fifteen years old, and I’m not an anti-nationalist, but I believe that having an opinion that differs from that of the state isn’t a crime.

I’m not an anti-nationalist, but I believe that physical and verbal abuse by lawyers against the accused in a courtroom in the presence of the police is a defamation of our legal system and violation of the Right to Fair Trial as stated in the Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I’m not an anti-nationalist, but I believe that verbal harassment of an accused on National Television in the name of Media Trial is unjustified. I don’t know journalism or media better than those running the news provision system of our country but what I do know is that each journalist or media personnel or any human being for the matter of fact is subjected to converse or debate with another human being with a certain decency and a sense of respect towards other’s opinion. Defamation of an accused by a journalist by labelling him/her as an anti-nationalist and calling them a shame to the nation is a violation of the article 41 of the Norms of Journalism Conduct published by the Press Council of India in 2010 and a threat to one’s dignity and public image. Continue reading Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India: Simar Singh →

Capitalism, Countryside

The ‘Non-Science’ Of Grabbing Grasslands And Promoting A Futuristic ‘Science City’: A.R.Vasavi

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Guest Post by AR VASAVI

January, 26th, 2016, the 66th year of celebrating the declaration of India as a ‘Republic’ and the passage of the Indian Constitution, witnessed an unusual gathering at an auditorium at Challakere town (Chitradurga District, Karnataka). Local residents, farmers, shepherds and a number of environmentalists, academics, reporters, and students from various towns and cities of Karnataka participated at a public hearing on the appropriation by the governments of India and Karnataka of more than ten thousand acres of a common grazing land called the Amrut Mahal Kaval which had been allocated to various public and private sectors for the construction of a futuristic ‘science city’. Organised by Amrit Mahal Kaval Hitarakshana Haagu Horata Samithi [Amrit Mahal Kaval Conservation and Struggle Committee] the public hearing was to assess the pros and cons of such land allocation.  Local shepherds and farmers from the surrounding villages highlighted the impact of the loss of their grasslands (kavals). In their eloquent and well-thought-out statements, the local residents sought to retain their rights to the grassland (a collectively maintained resource) and to the livelihoods and life that it enabled. They questioned the undemocratic process by which their land had been appropriated and commented on  the nature of the nation’s institutions. Although they had all been invited, none of the representatives of the government departments and the organisations which had received land deemed it worthy to attend this public hearing. This meet and the visit to the Kavals (now cordoned off with a double boundary; an outer wire fence and an inner stone, concrete and steel meshed 15 feet high fence, reminiscent of high-security prisons) were testimony to the unusual trajectory of the Indian Republic where the voices of common people are increasingly silenced and the state, and its institutions of the military, the science establishment, and some private players have gained ascendency.

Continue reading The ‘Non-Science’ Of Grabbing Grasslands And Promoting A Futuristic ‘Science City’: A.R.Vasavi →

Everyday Life, Feminism

How JNU Taught Me To Celebrate My Womanhood: Shalini Dixit

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Guest Post by SHALINI DIXIT

I was an average student in JNU with not much political involvement. There are a large number of students in JNU who do not participate in protests and marches. Still it is said that ‘once in JNU always an activist’. It is because politics in JNU is more about applying your knowledge to society rather than losing our academic track. This comes to happen as a part of academic process that we go through at JNU. The readings that we do are about social structures, political happenings, historical events and economical arrangements. These readings are about things outside the campus. When we do these readings we take them seriously. We start questioning the existing realities, including the reading themselves.  Unlike most of the other universities we are encouraged to do that.

I came to JNU as a small town girl from a religious background from eastern UP. Like most of the girls from my region, I had a baggage of being a ‘good girl’ which reflected in my conduct and thought. I underwent a little bit of culture-shock but thanks to the upbringing of a ‘good girl’ ready for uncertain future, acceptance came naturally. I was in a marriage which my parents had arranged for me and later had a child. Obviously with all the rigorous academic requirements and a child to look after, singlehandedly, I always had some personal responsibility to look after. Goes without saying that since I got a campus accommodation and a 24 hours open library, despite struggling with my personal life, I could do a piece of research which was later conferred with a national award. And yes, I got all these facilities for almost free. JNU allowed me to go out of my residence during nights so that I could study when time allowed me to.  We could meet our teachers anytime, as they were on campus, available for us. All this happened mostly because of the taxpayers money  that JNU enjoys. Continue reading How JNU Taught Me To Celebrate My Womanhood: Shalini Dixit →

Feminism

To feminist solidarities across barbed wires!

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International Women’s Day greetings to feminists of all genders struggling against all forms of injustice!

Darar (1)

Poster: Words by Kamla Bhasin, poster design by Jagori

We Sinful Women

Kishwar Naheed

It is we sinful women
who are not awed by the grandeur of those who wear gowns

who don’t sell our lives
who don’t bow our heads
who don’t fold our hands together.

It is we sinful women
while those who sell the harvests of our bodies
become exalted
become distinguished
become the just princes of the material world.

It is we sinful women
who come out raising the banner of truth
up against barricades of lies on the highways
who find stories of persecution piled on each threshold
who find that tongues which could speak have been severed.

It is we sinful women.
Now, even if the night gives chase
these eyes shall not be put out.
For the wall which has been razed
don’t insist now on raising it again.

It is we sinful women
who are not awed by the grandeur of those who wear gowns

who don’t sell our bodies
who don’t bow our heads
who don’t fold our hands together.

[Translated from Urdu to English by Rukhsana Ahmed]

Kishwar Naheed is a feminist Urdu poet from Pakistan

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Debates, Education, Government, Law, Right watch

Several Counts of Anti-Nationalism and Zero Counts of Sedition! Kanad Bagchi

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This is a guest post by KANAD BAGCHI

The Supreme Court has time and again emphasized the significance of adducing reasons while rendering administrative and judicial orders. Indeed, a reasoned opinion is arguably the fullest expression of the principle of audialterampartem and is a sine quo non in the dispensation of justice. It appears, one might argue, that the Delhi High Court (hereinafter ‘Court’) in its order granting interim bail to Kanhaiya seems to have taken the dictate of the Supreme Court rather earnestly in what was, needless to say, a very ‘detailed’ and ‘incisive’ analysis of the bail application.

While poetic prose is neither repugnant nor unknown to our Court’s jurisprudence, and the present order is yet another captivating addition to that, it is when prose and poesy subsumes legal reasoning, one begins to wonder whether the rule of law would be better served without it. It is more worrisome however, when the judiciary sidesteps its role from enforcing a strict interpretation of criminal law in an attempt at articulating its own perceived sense of nationalism, loyalty and allegiance, wholly divorced from the Constitution and the laws.

Continue reading Several Counts of Anti-Nationalism and Zero Counts of Sedition! Kanad Bagchi →

Culture, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Images, Language, Metropolis, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Politics

Long Nights of Revolution, Dancing, Music and Poetry are Ahead: Veer Vikram

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[ Here are five joyous excerpts of recordings from a recent night on the JNU campus – after Kanhaiya Kumar came back –  recorded by a young person called Veer Vikram. We do not know who Veer Vikram is, but came across his Youtube Channel, and were struck by the raw freshness of the voices and of the footage. So we are sharing them with you, saluting the generosity of Veer Vikram, who recorded these and uploaded them on to Youtube for everyone to enjoy. May there be many long nights of joy, music, dancing and poetry – in campuses, factories and neighborhoods – everywhere  Think so what a beautiful sight a ‘vishaal jan jagaran’ (as distinct from a ‘bhagawati’ jagaran) can make in different corners of Delhi, and in every city and town where young people can no longer take the rubbish offered by TV channels and the Modi regime. The revolution will be danced, sang, dreamt, recorded, uploaded, downloaded, shared and enjoyed. No more words necessary ]

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Debates, Education, Identities, Law, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Encounters With the State and Other Comedies: Asmit Pathare

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This is a guest post by ASMIT PATHARE

In response to JNUSU’s call for observing 2nd March as International Day of Protest and to demand justice for Rohith Vemula and the release of the then three arrested students, numerous organisations decided to gather outside Dadar station (E) and carry out a peaceful protest. Among them were All India Students’ Association (AISA), All India Students’ Federation (AISF), Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), All India Youth Federation (AIYF), University Committee for Democracy and Equality (UCDE) and others. The protest was supposed to begin at 5pm. Continue reading Encounters With the State and Other Comedies: Asmit Pathare →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Education, Government, Identities, Law, Media politics, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

St Louis Universities Stand With JNU: A Statement

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Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU) in New Delhi, India, was arrested on Feb 10 on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy. Kanhaiya was present at a meeting on the evening of Feb 9, where incendiary slogans were allegedly raised. Seven other students were also charged. Mr. Kumar is not accused of raising the slogans; indeed the identity of the person(s) who raised the slogans remains a mystery. Charging a student leader for sedition for another’s mere sloganeering is prima facie absurd. Further, the assault of Mr. Kumar, other students and faculty, and even journalists, in court premises by lawyers and others sympathetic to the government, do not inspire confidence in a fair judicial process. Continue reading St Louis Universities Stand With JNU: A Statement →

Bad ideas, Debates, Politics, Right watch

Betrayal at Midnight – Review of ‘Muslims against Partition’ : Guest Post by Karthik Venkatesh

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Guest Post by Karthik Venkatesh

Muslims Against Partition — Revisiting the legacy of Allah Bakhsh and other patriotic Muslims

Freedom at midnight put some people in a spot – those Muslims who chose to stay back in India and did not opt for Pakistan. Pakistan was always conceived as a nation that would be created in areas where Muslims were in a majority in undivided India i.e., the north-western portion and a part of the eastern portion. It was difficult to visualize how all of India’s Muslims would be accommodated there because the reality was that Muslims were and are found in every nook and corner in this country. How then was Pakistan going to fulfill its purpose? It clearly could not. Recognizing this and recognizing the danger to those Muslims who could not go to the ‘promised land’, many Muslim leaders opposed the creation of Pakistan. Muslims against Partition by Shamsul Islam (Pharos Media, 2015) is their story. It details how such leaders were in effect betrayed after having striving unreservedly for a united India. Continue reading Betrayal at Midnight – Review of ‘Muslims against Partition’ : Guest Post by Karthik Venkatesh →

Identities, Images, Language, Politics

Conversations on Sedition: Ritanjan Das and Abhijit Sengupta

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The weeks following the February 9th incident within the JNU campus have been nothing but eventful in India’s social and political discourse. At least, this is something most of us will agree on, no matter which side of this increasingly impermeable “fence” we sit on.  There have been arguments, counter arguments thrown from each side to the other, names have been dug up and hurled across, evidence in favour of what purportedly happened or did not happen have been put up by each side for the other to see. Videos have been made, unmade; cartoons have been drawn, redrawn; political figures have been idolised, lampooned; students have been demonized and idolized; dangers of the increasing menace of nationalism and anti-nationalism have been stuffed down one’s throat through the so called idiot box or the smart net.

In the midst of this deluge of opinions and ideas, information and misinformation, the question that some have raised is, are both sides losing the plot a bit? What exactly are we discussing or debating so vociferously? Are we really listening to the other sides’ arguments, or are we just hearing a few words we want to hear and voicing our own opinions in pre-designed responses? These are some of issues we are highlighting in this piece, hopefully in a slightly different format than what we are used to elsewhere.

What follows is a conversation between two intelligent people from opposite sides of the fence. The conversation is based on some real ones, which the authors of this piece had actually engaged in with different individuals over the last few weeks. We have attempted to distil the central ideas of both sides and present it to the readers. We cannot and have not included every aspect of the ideas and opinions of both sides, and we will not include the abuse. But what we have attempted to capture, is a reasoned and rational attempt at understanding the real problem(s), as understood by each side. Continue reading Conversations on Sedition: Ritanjan Das and Abhijit Sengupta →

Countryside, Culture, Debates, Government, Identities, Language, Law, Movements, Politics, Right watch

Sedition is a Shade of Grey or, Bharat Mata’s Smothering Embrace: Ankur Tamuliphukan and Gaurav Rajkhowa

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The dominant narrative around the recent JNU incident has been that the unwarranted police action and the concerted acts of violence, incitement and misinformation that followed are all part of a determined push by the saffron brigade. After love jihad and beef, the story has it, it is “sedition” and “Pakistani agent” this time—we are living in a state of undeclared emergency. A sense of disbelief and apocalyptic doom seem to underpin these sentiments, along with a nostalgic optimism for a quick return to harmony and normalcy. But such things have happened far too many times, and far too often for us to harbour such illusions. For what we are going through is in effect a recalibration of that normalcy.

To read political slogans literally is an absurdity. But in the hands of the present government, it is a calculated absurdity that reads “Bharat ki barbadi…” as armed conspiracy against the state. The variables are many—arrests, fake tweets, rampaging lawyers, patriotic house-owners and now, open calls for murder. But the calculus resolves itself into the same formula every time: national/anti-national.

At the outset, the opposition to the attack on the university campus seems to have coalesced around two points—first, maintaining a safe distance from the “anti-India” slogans raised at the meeting; and second, showing themselves as the real nationalists, standing against the saffron thugs in patriot’s disguise. Partly in response to a vicious media campaign, videos of “real nationalist” speeches at the protest venue are being posted on social media everyday. We are told at length about the “real” Indian behind the deshdrohi, his credentials, and how he wants his India to be. Things reached a disturbing pitch when spokespersons of the traditional Left went on record to express their displeasure at the real culprits not being caught. Without doubt, the saffron brigade cannot be allowed the prerogative of deciding what “the nation” means. But why do so from the flimsy ramparts of sedition? Continue reading Sedition is a Shade of Grey or, Bharat Mata’s Smothering Embrace: Ankur Tamuliphukan and Gaurav Rajkhowa →

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Hate as Harmony – Law and Order under Saffrons

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Muslims were equated to “demons” and “descendants of Ravana”, and warned of a “final battle”, as the Sangh Parivar held a condolence meeting here for VHP worker Arun Mahaur, who was killed last week allegedly by some Muslim youths. Among those present on the dais were Union Minister of State, HRD, and BJP Agra MP Ram Shankar Katheria as well as the BJP’s Fatehpur Sikri MP Babu Lal, apart from other party local leaders, who joined in the threats to Muslims. Speaker after speaker urged Hindus to “corner Muslims and destroy the demons (rakshas)”, while declaring that “all preparations” had been made to effect “badla (revenge)” before the 13th-day death rituals for Mahaur.

(http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/muslims-warned-of-final-battle-at-sangh-meet-mos-katheria-says-weve-to-show-our-strength/#sthash.ZBMcpoFo.dpuf)

 

What does someone do in the winter of one’s own life when you discover that the values you cherished, the principles for which you fought for have suddenly lost their meaning and the world  before you is turning upside down ?

Perhaps you express your anguish to your near and dear ones or write a letter about the deteriorating situation around you in your favourite newspaper or as a last resort appeal to the custodians of the constitution that how you are ‘forced to hang your head in shame’.

Admiral Ramdas, who has served Indian Military for more than four decades and has remained socially active since then, followed his voice of conscience. Continue reading Hate as Harmony – Law and Order under Saffrons →

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