Selective Democracy At Work
By Mahtab Alam
09 June, 2011
Countercurrents.org
There is no denying the fact that the police action against the peaceful protest of Baba Ram Dev and his supporters (most of whom were only followers and didn’t necessarily agree with Baba’s politics) at Ramlila ground, Delhi in the middle of the night intervening 4-5 June 2011, was unwarranted. The act by the security forces, no matter whoever ordered it, was brutal and can’t, and shouldn’t be justified. It was an attack on the basic civil rights of the Indian citizens as the right to voice one’s concern and freedom of expression in a peaceful manner is a constitutional right of India barring the citizen’s ideology, and this right does not depend on the mercy of any government. Hence, the aforementioned police action should only be seen in that light. Naturally, given the circumstances, it was the responsibility of Civil and Human Rights groups and individuals to condemn the inhuman and undemocratic acts of the police and security forces, as they usually do in other cases of atrocities. Less than a day, two prominent human rights groups of India, the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) and the People’s Union of Democratic Rights (PUDR) condemned the incident. In fact, these were the first ones to condemn, barring the political parties.
At the same time, political parties, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) started crying foul. Party President, Nitin Gadkari while addressing a press conference on 5th June said, “The prime minister has no moral right to remain in power after this”. He compared the incident to the horrifying Jallianwala massacre, when British colonial rulers had fired on a gathering of unarmed men, women and children, killing hundreds in 1919. “Peaceful protest is our democratic right. In this incident of June 5, we see the incident of June 25 (1975), that is, the Emergency. It has refreshed memories of the emergency. It reminds me of the Jallianwala bagh massacre and is a taint for democracy,” he told the media persons. His party man, more (in)famously known for his anti-People works, the Chief Minister of Gujrat, shri Narendra Modi said, ‘the lathi-charge by the police while the people were sleeping was nothing but "Ravanlila” at Ramlila ground.’ Like his party President, Modi was also reminded of the days of the Emergency, which coincidently was also in the month of June in 1975.Joining him, Modi’s counterpart from Bihar and an ally of BJP, Nitish Kumar said that the forcible eviction of Ramdev and his supporters was a major blow to democracy and termed it as an attack on the democratic rights of the people. Like his counterpart, he said, "The UPA government owes an explanation”.
So like a friend of mine said, one can say, ‘if I may ask, what's wrong with it?’ After all, they are from opposition parties and they have every right to criticise the brutal act. Of course, they do have the right. Unlike many of my friends, I would not say that every government, including the ones led or supported by BJP did things like this. Though I can cite many examples from the recent past, from the states of Jharkhand, Karnataka, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, all either ruled by BJP or a part of the government. Any brutal act by any government cannot be justified, no matter how ‘secular’ the government is. Then, what is wrong, if Gadkari and his gang say that by this incident they are reminded of the emergency? It is. And the problem is selective criticism.
Here are some recent examples, which none the less are brutal and undemocratic. According to a news report, on 3rd June 2011, barely a day before Delhi Police along with Rapid Action Force (RAF) swept down at Ram Lila Maidan, six residents of Rampur and Bhajanpur villages, Forbesganj block of Araria (Bihar) were killed. Among the deceased included two women and a six-month-old infant. The infant was killed at point blank. Ninety percentage of the population of these two villages are Muslims. They were protesting against blockade of the connecting road between the two villages for a factory. If I use Gadkari words, was not it a fascist action of the government, to which his party is an ally? And the chief minister has no moral rights to remain in power after such a brutal attack. But there is no mention about the incident by him, his party and any member of the entire gang. Weren’t they citizens of India, or in the least, human beings? Didn’t they have the right to protest or voice their concern like Baba Ramdev and his supporters? Like the UPA, the NDA government, especially Nitish Kumar owes an explanation.
Let us see another form of selective democratic practice by the Party with a difference, namely the BJP. It was reported in Dainik Bhaskar on the 4th of June that the Chhattisgarh Home Minister Nankiram Kanwar made a public statement that the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Ekta Parishad were supplying arms to the Naxalites and that the Minister was considering banning the organization. In this regard, the Special Intelligence Branch of the Police (SIB) called for detailed reports on the activities of the two organisations from all 18 districts of the State, along with suggestions to impose the ban. Interestingly, PUCL is the same organization founded by Jayaprakash Narayan to uphold and defend the Indian Constitution in the wake of the emergency. And Ekta Parishad is a non-violent social movement in India working on land and forest rights at a national level. It has been built up over twenty years growing from the local, to the state, to the national and increasingly, to the international level. The organization is led by one of the well-known Gandhian Activist, P V Rajagopal who is also the Vice Chairman of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi.
So, one would want to ask Mr. Gadkari and gang, didn’t the situation in Chhattisgarh remind them of emergency? Needless to remind, the situation of democratic rights in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa are much worse than other parts of India. The records of the NDA government show that it has been as repressive as the others. The case of Gujarat and Kandhamal are the most illustrative ones of fascism, or “Ravan-lila”, in Modi’s words.
So, the problem, as I said earlier is selectiveness of the forms of Democracy practiced (if practiced at all) by all political parties, especially the likes of BJP. In this regard, all are alike. Rahul Gandhi would cry foul on the brutal incidents of Bhatta Paursal, UP but not even bother to utter a word against the Police atrocities at Ramlila ground. By doing so, these political parties only stamp the much criticized statement of writer-activist, Arundhoti Roy, ‘India is a democracy for elites’. And if that’s not the case, why are the governments acting against all those who are working for the powerless or questioning the selective notions and practices of Democracy? Governments, across the party line owe an explanation, before they can talk of Democracy as we don’t want ‘a Democracy with difference’.
(Mahtab Alam is a Civil Rights’ Activist and Independent Journalist. He can be reached at [email protected])
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