Dark Times Ahead
By Goirick Brahmachari
27 November, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Friends,
These are dark times. Where the voices of the dissent are expected to be crushed. This is a call for all the progressive people and forces in India, across party lines, to come together and organise against the Brahminical right wing that has taken over the spirit of secularism in this country. This is a call for all the artists, writers, poets, singers, workers, farmers, academicians, politicians and the thinking middle class to organise and come together against a possible backlash of dissent.
The Bharatiya Janata Party during its run up to elections and it's emphatic win has promised us a lot of things. One of the prominent promises that ensured their mandate was development . While the Indian new middle class was lured to the idea of a better life, we cannot deny that a lot of Dalits and Minorities too got excited by BJP's promises. What we need to realise is that jobs for middle class, FDI, privatisation of rural health care, flyovers, shopping malls, deregulated markets including finance and banking, genetically modified crops, reduction of subsidies for poor with increasing tax benefits and oil subsidies for middle class and rich, clinical trials, over exploitation of resources, free gift of government resources and land to corporates may not be the definition of development for every Indian.
These are the issues that concerns us :
Massive polarisation across states and regions
336 seats for the running party which means most bills will be passed without any opposition
Lack of Minority, Dalit, SC and ST representation in the 16 th Lok Sabha
D- voter issue in Assam/ North East and the rise of Ethno fascism in NE states
Right-wing stand on the Section 377
Right wing stand on violence against women and women's empowerment
Deregulation of banking, financial markets and other sectors, introduction of Genetically modified crops and mass scale Commodity Stock exchanges
Suppression of free speech , dissent and art
BJP's stand on closure of double taxation treaty with Mauritius, Singapore and Cyprus and scanning of black money that comes in the form of FDI
Saffronisation of education and history in particular
Possible rise in Hawala Transactions, Dabba trade, Satta Bazar and Hundis
Government surveillance Programs
Jingoism and Right wing politics / relation with neighbour countries
Right wing stand on AFSPA
Right wing stand on government expenditure programs
Right wing economic policies and growth models that are not inclusive
Corporate appeasement and Corporate anarchy
Declining government space and policy space due to nexus between government and private
Decline of Left and Center which indicates more right wing influence on policy framework in years to come
Increasing RSS influence and cultural revolution of the right
BJP's stand on Nuclear energy and uranium mining
BJP's stand on status of MOUs with big mining companies in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa.
Salwa Judum and other state sponsored militia
This is a precautionary attempt to reorganise and consolidate against totalitarianism of the state- an attempt to organise against a mandate that has destroyed room for any differences in policy making and made it easy for the ruling party to dictate its terms. Democracy includes the right to disagree with the majority. When that is not allowed, a state ceases to be a democracy. We must remember that 69% of Indian voters did not vote for BJP. That gives us hope and tells us dissent exists.
The RSS and BJP supporters have already started taking about uniform civil code and construction of Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Babri Masjid. They have also started to voice out their concern against repealing 377 and against laws that allow live in relations. USA's special interest in Modi and BJP too poses new challenges. What is the fate of people under AFSPA in Kashmir, Manipur and Chhattisgarh? What is the fate of so called illegal migrants and legal migrants who are termed as d voters in North East and Bengal. What is the fate of farmers of Gujarat who continue to die as they talk of Sardar Patel's statue over Narmada river?
Friends, we need to come together. For these are the times when we will be attacked for our ideological alignments. For we have a voice. These are the times when we must come together to give ourselves hope that we can resist together, that we can write or sing or paint the words we want to on the walls. These are the times when we need our poems to be pasted on the walls and every pillars of flyovers and not let them ban or block our thoughts in Facebook. So in the name of democracy and free speech let us all unite!
We have done enough online activism and have failed. I value online activism and can see what it means specially in the light of Arab Spring , Occupy movement and other movements that has struck the world in recent times. A closer look at the current political and economic framework of India, away from the dirty lies that media, reports / bourgeoisie data feeds us, will tell us that if there is a country that needs to embrace the consensus raised by the world's proletariat who have come out to the streets, fearless and strong, to sing songs of change, it is this, it is this, it is this!
Long live the Dissent !
Goirick Brahmachari
Goirick Brahmachari lives in New Delhi. He hails from Silchar, Assam
His poems have appeared in North East Review, Nether, Pyrta Journal, Raedleaf Poetry, Coldnoon Quarterly, The Four Quarters Magazine and other Indian journals.
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