‘Achche Din’ For Hatemongers

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

30 May, 2016
Countercurrents.org

It was unfortunate to hear the legal brain of the government Mr Arun
Jaitley expressing helplessness on the issue of online trolling of
people on the day when the prime minister was holding a meeting with
his party’s ‘social media volunteers’ in Delhi. Why did the senior
minister whose articulations are used by the government both inside
and outside parliament to ‘legitimise’ all the acts which remain
indefensible. Like a ‘successful’ lawyer, Arun Jaitley bring issues of
the past government to justify his position in parliament as he has
all the information available now. We have not seen other ministers
speaking in Parliament. Outside the parliament it is the prime
minister who ‘market’ his party and as the ‘Economist’ rightly put him
as, ‘ India’s one man band’.

This government promised to work for a corruption free India. It
campaigned through its troll and demonized all the previous Congress
regimes, particularly Nehru and his family. It had a special taste for
that. Many complimented the government that while inflation might not
have been under the control, the ‘corruption’ has really been
‘controlled’ as suggested by Arun Shourie. One does not know whether
Vijay Malya of Rs 9000 crore fame or many other members of that
fraternity who have betrayed bank and have made them virtually
bankrupt are called corruption or not. Rajasthan’s Royal man Lalit
Modi is in London and we don’t know when will he be brought back to
India. In all we have been told that Industrial Houses in India own
more than Two Lakh crore to the banks but we do not see any effort by
the government to bring that money. The ‘Kaladhan’ fame Baba is on not
just land grab everywhere but also getting huge promotion everywhere
as government spending millions to promote his Yoga. Baba has been a
businessmen and should behave like that but he continue to serve the
interest of a few cronies who work behind him while Baba use a fairy
cocktail of religion with business and politics to get things done as
he wishes.

The government which is pretending to fight against corruption has not
only allowed Vijay Malya to go but also is the toast of many in the
film fraternity, a large part of who work on black money. The
Bachchans of Boforse and Panama fames are back in news but every body
know that he wont be called corrupt. Arnab Goswami and his gangs are
ready to take every one on except their own Jains and Bachchans. We
all know that nobody is guilty unless pronounced such but it is also a
fact that if an accused is the host of various government programmes,
can any investigating agency truly carry any work of investigation
against him.

The spate of violence against Dalits and Muslims in India saw the
worst kind of justification. When two Dalit children were burnt alive
in Faridabad last year, our Minister made very insensitive remarks.
For the entire year, the government and its minister tried to justify
the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq for allegedly keeping ‘beef’ in his
refrigerator. Arguments were given that it was not beef but mutton but
that is where we mistake. What if beef was there? Cant an individual
eat food of his choice at his place?

For the whole year the controversy regarding beef was kept
deliberately. The more people wrote against it, the better it was an
opportunity for the Hindutva trolls to make threatening remark to
others. It is well known factor that beef business in India is not the
domain of Muslims alone but Hindus too are engaged in the export work.

The entire year, we saw the government, attempting to muzzle the voice
of freedom. Universities were targeted and demonized. Rohith Vemula’s
death jolted the nation but soon the Sangh Parivar jumped into the
fray and painted it according to its own version. The spin masters
re-wrote stories through social media and confused people. The best
way for them is if they fail then confuse people and divide them.
There was justification for everything as no attempt were made to
pacify the students. The scholarships have been reduced. NET
regulations have been changed to suit the interest of Sangh Parivar in
the appointments of teachers at various universities. Now the working
hours have increased and teachers are supposed to behave in a
different way than academic. May be they can also define the ‘dress
code’ for teachers?

Fire of student unrest, which started from FTII to Hyderabad Central
University ultimately, engulfed JNU too. Students are being punished
just because they organized a political meet or hold a different view
point. Entire institutions are being threatened and no efforts were
made to reach out the students and academics for a negotiation.
Rather, the members of the ABVP were let loose at every place to
threaten and intimidate the opponents and file criminal complaints
against every one. The university administration everywhere is using
ABVP students as a cover up to hit at the other students. Now the
students in BHU are being targeted simply because they demanded access
to library. Can you imagine a Vice Chancellor denying them access
saying that they should ‘study’ and not come to library? What is study
without library? The day before several students have been arrested
because they were sitting on hunger strike against this draconian
decision of the Vice Chancellor.

Farmers are dying of hunger and it is not that they are dying just
because of this government but the process of their death has
escalated and no serious effort was made to meet their demands. The
fact is that the corporate and their cronies create this crisis so
that the farmers are compelled to leave their work and then the
corporate take full control of our agrarian sector, which they are
dying to do so for years.

There is more funds at publicity then for the farmers. There is more
encouragement for the trolls then to guide them to speak politely and
counter your opponents through argument. Can any one abuse to his
political opponent and the government say it is helpless. Why the
government is so keen to defend the ‘defamation’ law but not really
interested to protect people particularly women getting abused in the
worst form including threat to public rape and molestation. Can such
people really be fit for being part of any political discourse?

The violence against the African nationals has increased during the
past two years. In fact the ambassadors of the African nations
virtually boycotted the Africa Day celebrations organized by the
government. After the killing of a Congolese national, there was
attack on a Nigerian national in Hyderabad and now come the news of
assault on about 7 African nationals in Delhi. This is a serious issue
and the government cannot allow a free for all situations in the
streets of national capital and elsewhere. It is not that such things
are happening for the first time but unfortunately the rowdy elements
have been encouraged after this government assumed power. The remarks
against Dalits based on their caste and color is now order of the day
on tweeter under the ‘freedom of expression’. The new phenomena are
not to feel bad about a cultural practice or historic wrong but
justify all the sins of the past under some pretext or other and
glorify your own myths carefully crafted against others.

After assuming office the Prime Minister has visited United States
several times. He has visited Europe and travelled to Singapore,
Malaysia, Australia and Middle East but does not seems to be
interested in Africa. Last year, we had a big Indo African summit and
the Prime Minister of the country did not utter a word about the
person who founded the strong Indo African ties, the first prime
minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru. People in these countries still
remember Nehru for the statesmanship hence despite caste and racial
prejudices in our society prevelent, the leadership of those times had
never ever supported such prejudices and the world believed in them.
Alas, the situation today is different. The government’s minister and
a former General suggest that it is minor incident ‘blown’ out of
proportion by the media. One does not know how media which is
virtually procured by the ruling party, can ‘create’ obstacles’ in the
path of ‘development’. Yes, while people might have been suffering
with various complexes but such incident of racial prejudices were not
those common in India as they are being witnessed today. I do not say
that people have turned communal and racist all of a sudden since May
2014 but it is certain that racists, caste mind aggressive brahmanical
forces have definitely taken it on their ‘hands’ to ‘protect’ India
and abuse any one. We have not seen an unambiguous condemnation from
any minister or senior leader about these incidents, which can create
a healthy environment. The African leaders and community today think
that it has become highly difficult to live in India with growing
racial prejudices. What has government done to stop such things and
assure the leadership and common people in Africa that we are
determined to protect all the citizens living in this country
irrespective of their caste, color or nationality? What is the message
going world over that we are a high risk country for Africans. The
Western world is already speaking against communal polarization and
risk for women tourists. Is not it a shameful thing that a country
which claim to have the ‘biggest’ ‘civilization’ is being reminded to
mend its ways? The leadership of the day has to be clear to its
supporters or opponents that respect freedom of expression, right to
choice but no authority to physical threats, intimidation and sexist
abuses opponents. It must send a clear message that it respect
national and international laws and want its law enforcing agencies to
work without any prejudices.

No saner political party will ever justify their supporter abusing
their opponents. A political discourse is based on ideology and not on
intimidation and life threats or vitriolic misogynistic behavior.
Politics means you engage with your opponents too and don’t treat them
your enemy. Never have we seen such abusive environment, which we are
witnessing today. And rather than speaking a single sentence against
such trolls we are told that some people are defaming the government
and creating obstacle in the path of ‘development’. If you speak more
the leaders are threatening to break our neck as they are trained for
the same.

Can any democratic country allow the kind of training Bajrang Dal
‘volunteers’ are having and shockingly the governor of Uttar Pradesh
Ram Naik justify that. What if some Muslim organisation is engaged in
the same king training to protect the ‘nation’? Why has the
government allowed such things to happen? Is national security
endangered because of ‘external’ terrorism or minorities inside India
or the activities of Hindu fanatics do not fall under that category of
‘threat’? Moreover, if any other minority group organizes such a camp,
how would media make an issue and what would be the reactions of the
‘loudspeakers’?

Two years have passed. The paid media is doing its duty in the service
of the master. There is little difference between Doordarshan and
other private channels. In fact, Doordarshan seems to be better than
those mercenaries who are making ‘news’ inside their studios. It look
everything in India started two years back and all the predecessors
were either corrupt or anti national. Speaking against the government
or the party it heads has become the ‘anti national’ act. India is
Indira has now converted into India is saffron or India is Sangh and
Sangh is India. Whatsapp, Facebook are crowded with stories, which are
being ‘constructed’ and meant to create confusion and division among
people.

The dismissal of Uttarakhand government through dirty tricks was the
worst that this government could do. It passed the Uttarakhand bill in
the Parliament just a day before when the Assembly under instruction
from the Supreme Court voted for Harish Rawat led government. The
president of India failed but the Supreme Court and most importantly
the High Court of Uttarakhand’s judgment on the issue as
extraordinarily historical and a lesson for the government at the
center to stop meddling in the internal affairs of other parties or to
dislodge the governments of the opposition parties.

Assam’s victory has emboldened them further. With active media
support, they are ‘determined’ to term it the ‘biggest’ victory
despite dismal performance elsewhere. In Tamilnadu the BJP fielded 235
candidates and 232 lost their deposit. In Kerala they got a seat for
the first time and in Bengal a few more so there is noting to boast
too much.

The BJP and the Hindutva can console itself that India is getting
‘Congress-mukt’ but that is an illusion. One should never write an
obituary of a politician or political party till it is buried
completely. Secondly, Congress is the main opposition party in many
places including the BJP ruled states. Third, a non Congress
opposition to BJP will be more dangerous and detrimental to Hindutva
than Congress party which can never afford to antagonize its upper
caste vote bank. Congress survived because it provided a coalition of
different castes and communities but now completely in the grip of
brahmanical elite. In fact, Sangh is engaged in same identity
politics, which it often condemned. The people of Kerala, Tamilnadu,
Pondicherry and West Bengal have clearly rejected the ‘achche’ din
sarkar which was not even remotely in picture in these states but
media started ‘celebrating’ achche din and also pointed out if
‘elections’ are held today NDA would win over 342 seats. What can you
say about these shameless mercenaries who masquerade as journalists
and opinion makers. They will continue to do so and bombard you with
their ‘opinion’ and corruption. This is the biggest corrupt practice
in Indian political history. We must ban all political poll surveys
and exit polls. These thugs want to confuse people and divide them. We
can not defend these paid opinion makers in the name of ‘freedom of
expression’. The election commission and political parties must wake
up against these monster pollsters who are being used by moneybags to
influence public opinion in India.

The scenario is changing in India. India cannot survive without
coalition politics. It will have to be a coalition of Dalits,
aadivasis, shudras, Muslims and other minorities. We must remember
that Hindutva ascendency in power is basically brahmanical attempt to
protect its citadel, which Congress failed to protect as it was losing
shine. The war in India is open and unambiguous. It will be a war
between the Manuwadi forces and all those who do not believe in it.
So, a coalition is the need of the hour. People will respond. Bihar
responded to the call and Uttar Pradesh goes to poll next year and it
will probably decide the fate of India. If the Dalit Bahujan forces
fails to unite and organize themselves, you will only find trolls of
hate stronger and more intimidating. Right now they are celebrating
‘achche’ din yet uncertain of their future because of the rising Dalit
assertion everywhere. It is time to get ready for Uttar Pradesh’s
battle for 2017 as there lies the future of India once that is
controlled by the Dalit Bahujan forces, we will definitely have
‘achche din’ in India in 2019.

Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social and human rights activist.
He blogs at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com
twitter @freetohumanity Email: [email protected]