A Silent Coup Against Indian Constitution
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
07 April, 2014
Countercurrents.org
India is passing through one of the most crucial phases of its
political life. As the exercise of the 'democracy' begins the future
of the country would also be locked and will be opened on May 16th
only. It is important to understand the dangers of what has happened
so far. The results will be out in a month but it is for the first
time in our history that 'someone' has already 'declared' himself as
the prime minister of the country. Things are not simple. Today, the
'man' is already declared as the 'most powerful' person of the country
and every other questioning him has been made as person against
'development' and pseudo secular. It is not easy for a person who is
main accuse for instigating violence against Muslims in Gujarat and
kept conspicuously silent when people were crying for help such as
fellow politician Ehsaan Jafari who was burnt to death by the barbaric
anarchists mob which was allowed to do things at their whims by the
state administration and who was admonished by his own prime minister,
to be 'anointed' as a 'national icon'. Witness the systematic
campaign, rumors, fudging of data and then controlling the entire
communication through a fictitious army of 'devotees' on social media
and enforce 'curfew' in the news rooms which is worse than what
Doordarshan and Aakashwani did in 1975. Today the role being played by
embedded media is perhaps much disturbing and scornful to opponents
and dissenting view point. If one has to see the replica of dirty
tricks that Sanjay Gandhi played during emergency, these elections and
the campaign management by the likes of Amit Shah are the best
example.
We know media is Modified and at the moment not ready to listen to
anything which can suggest that India had lot of achievements during
the past 60 years. It seems that India got freedom by the freedom
fighters owning their allegiance to Hindutva and after that everything
that the Gandhi family did was simply to destroy India. In critiquing
Sonia, Rahul and Indira, they have also made mockery of Nehru without
any respect to either history or his contribution which political
opponents are supposed to do even if they disagree. That started last
year on October 31st in Ahemdabad when chief minister of state make
political speech to denigrate the first prime minister of India just
to score a political point about Sardar Patel.
Yes, Congress is guilty of one hundred things. It demolished
democratic values such as happened in 1975. Congress promoted
cronyism. It promoted 'chamchagiri'. It converted governors to agent
of the congress party. It denigrated autonomous institutions like
National Human Rights Commission, National Women's Commission and
other such autonomous bodies by picking up absolutely political
chamchas to head those bodies which have responsibilities to provide
justice to the people. It was the party that imposed Emergency in 1975
and anti-Sikh violence in 1984 in the aftermath of the assassination
of Indira Gandhi are some of the darkest chapters of Congress Party's
life which are hard to erase as there is no remorse in 'real' sense.
There were communal riots in the country and the government really did
not take actions strongly. Meerut, Maliana, Bhagalpur, Nellie, Bombay,
Malegaon and many more disturbances saw communalization of
administration and police force. Today, there are talks of failures of
dealing with these riots but it is also need to understand as who are
the forces which speak language of hatred and retribution, who
communalise the administration and used such symbols in public life
and political speeches which unambiguously put the minorities make
feel as 'secondary' citizens of the country?
There is no doubt that Congress has been a party of the brahmanical
elite whose main interest was to maintain status quo through 'liberal
democratic' face. But definitely you cannot blame Nehru for this. At
least Congress remained much more democratic during his regime and
despite all his weaknesses Nehru never ever courted the religious
thugs, Gurus and communal forces. The down-fall of Congress began in
the post 1980s with return of Indira Gandhi who created a Bhindarwalen
and then appeased Hindus in Punjab. The same things happened in Jammu
and Kashmir where Indira Gandhi sought votes for the protection of
Hindus. Sanjay Gandhi was known to flirt with religious
fundamentalists. Rajiv followed Indira's legacy and actually did the
same tricks though he was definitely much bold and wiser in many
senses. He signed Punjab and Assam accord even at the cost of his own
party government but his own cousin Arun Nehru was flirting with Hindu
Gurus and Babas and got opened the locks of disputed 'structure' in
Ayodhya. Later, Rajiv started with Ramrajya and lost the elections.
The biggest damage done to Congress was by P.V. Narsimharao who was
basically influenced with the Sangh philosophy and had a number of
friends. Rao believed in Vajpayee more than to his Congress
colleagues. The demolition of Babari Masjid in December 1992 was a
well-planned strategy of Sangh Parivar and definitely Narsimha Rao had
knowledge about it. There is nothing new of these 'expose' now as two
veteran journalists late Nikhil Chakrawarty and Prabhash Joshi were
known to some of these deliberations between various groups. It was
only after that 'break' of promise that Prabhash Joshi started writing
to Hindutva goons as 'terrorists' otherwise he was always considered
to be an insider.
Narsimha Rao depended on notorious babas like Chandra swamy and others
who were actually 'secular' mascot of Hindutva. There were other
'Shankaracharyas' too who might condemn BJP for political reasons but
never really were different from them. All this only helped the
Hindutvaisation of Congress Party.
The last ten years of Manmohan Singh regime were different. Congress,
for the first time, accepted that coalition era has arrived in India
and had to provide political space to maneuver for smaller political
parties. UPA-I started with great promises and government listened to
civil society voices too. There was no hope for the government's
return to power but it returned. UPA two started in the 'whims' that
there is no opposition to it now. It started with vigorous
'corportisation' by Man Mohan Singh and his close associates like
P.Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahaluwalia. The unrest caused in the
states like Chhattishgarh, West Bengal and elsewhere added with
growing corruption in fixing up the amount of coal block build up the
perception. The UPA did not take things seriously and played game. The
anti corruption plank was hijacked by the same forces who are actually
the counterparts of Manmohan Singh and his team in the Hindutva
organization.
The government never came out openly against Hindu fundamentalists. It
played tricks and today we are in a condition where the government is
ready to go out but people are really terrified and disturbed when the
option and opportunities for a possible new regime are provided to us.
We have no problem if those claiming to be 'new' and 'alternative'
provide alternative to Chidambaram, Montek, Manmohan economics or give
us an inclusive government in which Muslims, Dalits and Aadivasis feel
safe and secure. The problem is that the new entrants are more
'nationalistic' and jingoistic in their approach whose different gangs
and 'senas' will be ready to beat up the people for their dissent like
the goons of Sanjay Gandhi during emergency.
Hence India faces the biggest challenge to its very idea and concept.
The secular socialist democratic republic is under the threat from
those whose heart lies in big corporations of America and Europe and
who want to sale the public land and resources to those looters with
in India or outside it for a throw away price in the name of 'growth'.
That is not alone; the very premise of our nationhood is now under
'arrest' by those who have no history of fighting the country and
those who are actually replicas of Talibans and separatists Muslim
League which sought Pakistan with an idea that Hindus and Muslims
cannot live together despite the known history of people in India
living together despite all kind of differences and fight.
Frankly speaking these forces are not fighting to eliminate a secular
congress but to replace a brahmanical government which has become
totally discredited. So, it is nothing but an attempt to retain the
hegemony of miniscule minority which has been marginalized politically
though their control over politics, bureaucracy, media and our
national life remain uninterrupted. The fight of the Sangh parivar is
against a congress which would be lead by Gandhi family and which is
attempting to return to its secular socialist roots.
Congress lost the plot because its brahmanical government wanted to
appease all by doing nothing. It played tricks rather than taking
strong action on issues like corruption and then wrongful arrests of
Muslim youths. It failed to bring the issues of minorities, Dalits and
OBCs to the fore and fight for them with ideological clarity. The
whole issue of food security, and natural resources was dealt with
more symbolism and less in seriousness which resulted in move
backfiring.
We also know there was a communication gap between the government and
the party. The party was moving towards a different direction while
the Ministers in the government were in different. Leaders like Kapil
Sibol, Chidambaram, Moily, Pawan Bansal, Ashwini Kumar, Rajiv Shukla,
Shree Prakash Jaiswal,Rita Bahuguna and Shinde would take congress
nowhere as there is not much perceptional difference between their
thought and Hindutva and we can always find them in the other camp if
things do not materialize here. The perception that Congress is
corrupt went beyond the roof top. Now, this perception would not have
worked easily if the Congress had done something good for Muslims,
OBCs, Dalits and Aadivasis except for some constitutional provisions
in technical sense. The dole out packages would not really work as
people want participation in power. MNREGA and Mid Day meal would not
work if they remain symbolic when the school education is privatized
and people are still not able to get work more than 40 days a year.
Yet, a secular congress remained the best bet for India despite all
these hick ups. I have no issue even if a so called third front come
with a clear commitment to secular socialist republican ideals of the
country. We have no issue whether Mayawati become Prime Minister or
any other Dalit Bahujan leader or our friends from the left as India
need to be governed by political class, those who worked for the
people and not paratroopers who have been let loose on people from the
above. We believe the people of India and have faith in them yet we
have to understand now the enormity of this elections and why the
saffron forces must be defeated at all cost who have unashamedly
connived with corporate media and administration at one hand while
hoodwinking people in the name of social engineering in the villages.
A careful image has been crafted of Narendra Modi as a 'tea seller'
who was 'humiliated' in his child hood. His macho images are also
being projected and promoted actively everywhere including social
media.
The last six months campaigning pattern can be seen which has silently
upstaged and pulled the rug from the parliamentary system. In the
system, we elect our members of Parliament and they elect a prime
minister. Today, our democratic module has been carefully converted
into a US style poll where we 'need' experts and therefore we have
bureaucrats, army commanders, policemen, businessmen joining politics.
There is no bar on any one's contesting elections but attempt to
subvert public opinion through embedded media has to be condemned.
India will have to see these general elections in a different way.
Yes, for the first time, we are witnessing the open defiance to norms
and decency. Despite all our aversion to the Modi brand of politics
and that of the Hindutva, the elections this time have crossed that
limit. The corporate houses have cleverly done a coup against Indian
democracy. First they manipulated a protest in the name of 'fight
against corruption' and through Kejriwal and Anna attempted to
discredit every institution we build up through hard work of our
political forefathers. Now, the entire team Anna's political ambitions
have come out in open and Kejriwal has formed the party, the media had
no option but to openly wage a war against him. The reason for a war
against Kejriwal is because the media felt that a highly demoralised
Congress Party would not be able to take on Modi and AAP is becoming
the 'biggest' hurdle to Modi on his way to 7 RCR.
The media has already made Modi as Prime Minister and Modi is behaving
as a prime minister of India. His body language, contempt for his
predecessors and all other opponents look as if he would be able to
run the government without any opposition. The Hindutva 'event
managers' are targeting political leadership and trying to eliminate
them following example of Israel which have used the same methodology
to eliminate the genuine Palestine leadership. As more intelligence,
military and policemen are joining the team. It looks they following
the same tricks as they did in their duties.
Where are the common men and women in it? Celebrities are being
appointed and we are informed, none less than Amit Shah that it is
time for 'expert' to be brought in. What is the expertise of Hema
Malini, Smriti Irani, Paresh Rawal, Kiron Kher and Meenakshi Lekhi?
Yes, shouting at others on the prime time and using the worst kind of
language towards your opponents. The system of nurturing a
constituency and leaders interacting with their people has been done
away with. Why should Rajnath Singh leave Ghaziabad constituency for
Lucknow ? Why we fight in two constituencies? I think Mayawati does
the best. She does not need a certificate whether she can win an
election or not. She rarely contested and that give her strength to
campaign for her candidates.
Despite Supreme Court warning, we seen those who are accused were
given tickets by the BJP. And now we have seen the fulmination and
vitriol by Amit Shah, Modi's notorious but trusted colleague to
'manage' things in Uttar-Pradesh. Already vicious atmosphere has been
created. But the most damaging thing to Indian democracy has been in
the way of hiding facts from the people and absolute capitulation by
the media which always claimed how it fought the tyranny of Indira
Gandhi in 1975. The tyrant today is much more dangerous and fascist in
attitude than Indira Gandhi. For all her shortcomings, Indira Gandhi
had in her heart the socialist tendencies and she would never ever
surrender to these crony thugs even when she might have sat with them.
Today, the entire agenda is being framed by the charlatans of these
corporate thugs. They have turned out to be propaganda machinery of a
man called Narendra Modi. Even within the BJP if any one raises
question the 'forward defense' shouts at others. The nation wanted to
know as why a devotee named as 'Madhu Kishwar' was granted interview
by her God Narendra Modi? And one should know that a political
opponent as media would try to pin down a simple young boy like Rahul
Gandhi. Arnab tried to humiliate him without knowing the fact that the
man Arnab Goswami and his Times Now team feel the 'Bhagya Vidhata' of
India is a plain criminal and outright fascist who would not allow
himself to be scrutinized to public. None in the media ever questioned
why he is not talking to media? Yes the focus was on others and
ofcourse the PR agencies working overtime to give us 'shining Gujrat'
feel all the time where just two days three people were killed in a
manhole cleaning the human excreta.
Why we are not informed that Modi and his government handed over in
platter the precious communal land. Today, village Panchayats in
Gujarat do not have land. The success of a few powerful Gujratis is
being presented as a great 'revolution' done there. Thankfully, India
is not Gujrat. It is much more vibrant and colorful than a state where
money matter more than anything else.
So the fight of people of India is not against a tyrant but also
against the corporate media which has made itself more powerful than
anything else. It is package news to sell its own interest. The time
has come to expose the activities inside the newsrooms. The immunity
that they have got in the name of 'media', 'writer' and 'journalists'
must be done away with. It is time to have a press council which can
have the power of derecognizing them. After all, media is not above
Indian law. If they claim to unbiased and committed to news then it is
time to ask question a how much space have they given to political
parties other than the saffron. During emergency we used to call
Aakashwani as 'Indirawani' but today with hundreds of channels, all of
them have been 'fixed' by the 'Hindutva' 'managers'.
Just a few days back we got the news that in one EVM in Assam the
authorities found that pressing any button would only stamp Lotus. It
is time to put a break on it as things are moving dangerously and with
entire administration now polarized and communalized we are heading
towards anarchy and chaos. Democracy is not a guarantee to peace
building alone. Democracy has been hijacked by the corporate and
manuwadis who are now using all their tricks to deny others a right.
How can we succeed as a democracy when it become symbolic and provide
legitimacy to all illegitimate acts? Can any democracy allow an
individual to snoop? Will any democracy allow its leaders to speak the
language of retribution, hatred and murder? For a pluralistic society
with so much of diversity, the corporate honchos added with their
admen masquerading as journalists and opinion makers have converted it
into a 'Americanised' debate where an entire country of over one
billion people are being asked to decide between three choices. This
game of first converting a non entity into a brand and then
discrediting democratic institutions to dislodge a democratically
elected government was unheard of at least in India. But corporate did
it. And now they are not even giving us an alternative. They have
already declared Modi as prime minister through their 'surveys' which
they carry on so vigorously to manipulate public opinion.
All the right thinking people are worried about the non representation
of minorities as well as numerous minorities even among Dalit Bahujan
and Aadivasis. They are worried about as why people are not included
in decision making. With every election, the number of these segments
in our parliament is reducing and we have no way to increase their
fair representation. How can the demand for a fair representation of
15-20% of its Muslim population in our power structure be termed as
'communal'. It is a fact that it is not communal when Ramdev, Ravi
Shankar and other 'bhudevtas' seek vote for Modi but when Shahi Imam
speak not to vote to BJP that is termed as communal. You bring out
hate speech of Iqbal Masood some six month back and send him to Jail
but have no action against either Amit Shah or Vasundhara Raje who is
holding a 'responsible' position. If past speeches have to be found
and people banned on those lines then Advani, Uma Bharati, Modi and
others will only find their place in Jails but then the 'movement' for
'Ram janambhoomi' was the 'biggest' movement of his life which Advani
termed as bigger than the 'quit India' movement of 1942. Nothing is
communal when Vijay Kumar Malhotra says Okhla and Jamia Nagar areas in
Delhi are den of 'terrorists'. We know what hate speeches mean. Those
who have seen the role played by Hindi media as well as the political
class of the Hindutva, just search for videos of 1989,1991, 1992 in
Uttar-Pradesh, Bihar and elsewhere of speeches of all these gentlemen
and women.
Already those who fought against this tyranny are being targeted. They
are being abused and if they are invited to media discussions they are
being lynched. Anchors have already decided who to provide space and
who to demolish. Indian parliament seems to be made virtually a non
entity in front of these larger than life anchors. They have created
situations which need to be defeated now. The war is on the people of
India. It is the war of lies, deceit, calumny, distortion,
falsification and glorification of information to deny people their
legitimate right in the democracy. We elect our leaders to work for us
but leaders are being imposed from the above. Celebrity culture is
being developed to dupe people.
Socialism is the dirty word for media and corporate but that is the
part of our preamble. They hate secularism too and that is why it is
the biggest challenge today. Will India remain the same after May
16th? Will hate mongers be there to decide our destiny? Will those
who are ready to sale our resources to crony and corrupt corporate
will be our 'decision makers'? How can anyone be our leader whose name
creates fear and hatred among 20 percent of its population which is in
real sense around Twenty Crore, a number which is much bigger than
combine population of France, Germany, UK, Switzerland, Itlay and
perhaps a few other European countries.
When India was moving ahead and polity was becoming more
decentralized, the threat has emerged in the form of a 'cult'
revolving around a person. The important part of parliamentary system
is that it provides opportunity to all and that is why people like
Mayawati, Lalu Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Phoolan Devi and many
others could make it to Parliament and became leaders of their state.
If we are unable to preserve our democratic system, these thugs will
only force us leaders from the above to lead the nation. It is that
danger lurking over our head which we have to demolish in these
elections. It is time we ask for a change in our political system and
make it more proportionate to provide opportunity and space to all the
marginalized sections of society. Our political system also needs
changes and that to effectively such as Germany did in the aftermath
of Hitler who also came through 'popular mandate'. When the system
convert to proportionate arrangements there is little chance of a
fascist takeover of the state. We hope that the people of India will
not allow the constitution to be defeated in these elections. Hope
they will not allow those who do not even repent for the scores of
deaths because of their farcical movements for a temple and yet want
to build a Ram Temple with 'unanimity' and constitutional mean. Time
has come to call a rebuff to such forces who wish to legitimize the
demolition of Babari Mosque? Strange but true that such forces are
still operating and dreaming to be our leader is shocking beyond word.
They will continue to use those symbolism that hurt and humiliate
Muslims like calling for unanimity in building up a Ram Temple,
Uniform Civil Code, abrogation of article 370, 'cow protection' and
many such things. Let us hope people will realize how important these
elections are to save our democracy and its secular socialist
constitution.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social and human rights activist.
He blogs at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com twitter
@freetohumanity Email: [email protected]
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