THE PORTENTS OF A
FASCIST TYPE RULE.
(Publish in 'CLASS
STRUGGLE' -Magazine of CPI(ML).
For the past 22
months India in the rule of NDA government under the leadership of
Narendra Modi is being pushed backwards. The ruling party-BJP-and its
government have been systematically threatening the entire populace
in to accepting the view of the communal forces in every issue. They
are not allowing any dissent, and even not allowing to question the
basic presumption of the ruling government.
Particularly for the
past 3 months such a threatening situation is created in our country
by the ruling party as well its fellow communal out-fits. Various
incidents occurred in this period indicate the dangerous portents of
the B.J.P. rule.
The NDA government
is playing diversionary tactics in order to cover up its many
failures and divert the attention of people from basic issues like
unemployment, ever-growing poverty, uncontrolled price rises, ever
increasing assaults and atrocities against women, agrarian crises,
displacement of adivasis from their natural abode, ever increasing
police brutalities etc. By promoting ‘nationalism’ of its own
variety, BJP is acting as if patriotism is its monopoly and is
attempting to forcibly “instill nationalism” among the students as
well among the youth and populace.
Even the state
governments are resorting to violence as well to bring-out various
draconian laws to oppress and suppress people under various flimsy
pretexts.
Recently the
Rajasthan state government had cracked down an intended peaceful
‘Jawabdehi Yatra’, to be conducted under the banner of the
Soochana Evam Rozgar ka AdhikarAbhiyan, for 100 days of work
programme to cover T blocks across the state’s districts to listen
to people’s grievances and spread awareness through street-corner
meetings. This yatra was flagged of by social activist Aruna Roy. A
mob led by B.J.P. legislator Kanwar Lal Meena attacked the members of
organisations like Mazdur Kisan Shakti Sanghatan (MKSS) at Aklesa in
Jhalwar district. This shows how the ruling party is intolerable
towards civil society activists. This cannot be seen as an isolated
incident. Even the central government has been hounding Greenpeace
India -an NGO - which is unpalatable to the ruling BJP leaders, and is
seeking to cancel its registration. In fact the NGO Greenpeace is not
raising any fundamental questions against the system and
establishment.
The Gujarat state
government is making persistent efforts to get the draconian ‘Gujarat
control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Bill- 2015’, which has
provisions such as “making confession to a police officer of the
rank of S.P. of police admissible in court, and allowing 180 days
instead of 90 days for filing of a charge-sheet”. This bill was
first moved by Narendra Modi in 2003 when he was the C.M. of Gujarat.
Three times this bill was refused to be cleared in the UPA regime.
But again in March 2015 the assembly passed the bill and sent it
afresh to the center for presidential assent. Thus through this
GCTOC, the Gujarat state moots to do away any nominal legal available
protection from the abuse of the powers by state.
Recently the
instance of police high-handedness was brought to light when a
Tirunalveli Court directed district police to charge 12 personnel
including seniors with murder, who staged a fake encounter last year
shooting a rowdy dead. This shows how the state violence is legally
practiced in our country with the backing of the ruling-classes.
Despite the above
incident of court-indictment and question against the state violence,
the BJP government in center and the Gujarat state government and the
brutal and inhuman higher police officers who were castigated and
punished by the Supreme Court in Ishrat Jhahan’s fake encounter
case, are making every effort in their power to justify the fake
encounter killing of Ishrat Jhahan, by arguing that she was a LeT
terrorist, by basing on the Pakistani-American double agent David
Headly, who is an approve granted with many immunities for not
punishing him- to give a dubious deposition that Ishrat was a LeT
operative. The Gujarat state government shamelessly announces that
its stand on encounter deaths is vindicated. The honchos of
Sang Parivar ideology are persistently preaching that an accused to
be a terrorist can be killed without the necessity of any legal
formalities or processes. Whoever question this perverse logic are
being branded as anti-nationals and seditious.
Again we witness
another brutal method of the state violence adopted in Chattisgarh
state. The state government Chattisgarh seems to have allowed to
clamp down on free-speech and dissent in the state. A leader of
Adivasi movement Sonisori and leader of Aam Admi party, who sought
to hold the state administration accountable for the killing of
Adivasis in fake encounters, arbitrary arrests, sexual torture and
assault of Adivasi women by the police and security forces and
planned to highlight these issues through a 200 km march from Bijapur
set to end in Jagadalpur on international women’s day, March 8, was
attacked by motor cycle borne assailants who threw acid like substance
on her and injured. In the first week of February(2016)
Malini Subramanyam, a journalist associated with Jagadal Legal aid
group, a group working with Adivasis was forced out of state by the
police. In fact Ms. Sori was previously too was tortured and sexually
assaulted by the Chattisgarh police while in their custody in
October 2011 and Ms. Sori had been trying to lodge an F.I.R against
I.G.P of Bastar,S.R. Kalluri for intimidating her. Now this present
attack, which speaks volumes about the unbridled police (state)
violence in that state.
In January, at the
annual police conference, the Delhi Police Commissioner B.S.Bassi
said that if permitted by the constitution of India, the Delhi police
wood shoot or hang perpetrators of heinous crimes against women “on
the spot”; revealing the dangerous line of the thought of police
higher-ups. Thus the police ardently believe that they themselves are
to be empowered to deliver justice without restraint. The police
refuse to accept the concept of “innocent till proven guilty” but
insist to accept the concept “guilty till proven innocent”. These
comments of Bassi show, how the very police the supposed upholders of
justice lack any belief in the very system itself.
The instance of
arresting and implicating the students of JNU in to ‘sedition’
cases is again a pointer how the B.J.P. rulers and their state has
prepared to be heinous in opposing and suppressing those who differ
with their perverse views, opinions and notions.
The incident of the
attack by pro B.J.P. lawyers and goondas, on the arrested leader of
JNU Kanhaya Kumar, students, J.N.U. professors and journalists in the
very premises of Patiala court where the J.N.U. case has be heard,
reveals to what dangerous proportions, the B.J.P and its government’s
tyrannical tendencies have grown.
Besides the above
instances of the state, some other incidents appear to be having no
connection with the state too are note-worthy in the present
threatening situation.
On Jan-1, when the
Njathuvela cultural forum against fascism, has planned a protest
“kiss on the streets” as a sequel to its campaigns against
“Brahminical Hegemony and caste system”, as soon as the
protesters arrived to the venue, in Kozhikode of Kerala the workers
of Hanuman Sena surrounded and attacked the protesters. The police
lathicharged and arrested 31 people including the victims of the
attack. Even a journalist of Thejas daily, who attempted to save a
physically challenged man who was roughed up by the police was
arrested and taken to police station where he was brutally beaten by
the police.
On Jan-2, Marathi
author Shripalsabnis lodged a complaint with police that he received
death threats, for his remarks that “Narendra Modi would forever be
smeared with the taint of 2002 Gujarat riots”.
On valentine day,
Bajarangdal activists held “protests” demanding “Ban Valentine
day” in many cities of the country.
Dr. Subramanya Swamy,
on behalf of V.H.P has again raised the controversial issue of
“construction of Ram temple on the site of Babri Masjid” at
various forums from January on wards even going to the extent of
filing a fresh petition in Supreme Court for building Ram temple.
Thus he is actively razing hatred against Muslim community, as a part
of the activities of V.H.P. and thus doing the possible damage in the
minds of people.
The VHP announced
that it would celebrate ‘Ramotsav’ in April in one lakh villages
across India where the participants will be made to take a pledge to
construct a Ram temple at Ayodhya.
The VHP in recent
months made attempts to raise the temple pitch.
On March. 6, 15-20
youths sporting saffron bands on their foreheads, on motor cycles in
Kanchna village on the outskirts of Chattisgarh’s capital, with
cries of Jai Shriram they vandalized the church, and attacked men and
women and thrashed them. These attackers are Bhajarang dal activists,
and the victims are a group of people from down-trodden families in
the village who set up the church under a tin shed, to pray on
Sundays.
This is how the
ruling BJP strategically using these mobs of ‘fringe elements’ to
run riot and threaten its opponents in to silence, besides using
“nationalism” as an alibi to suspend the rule of law.
While the above
incidents and trends themselves are of a grave nature, the Prime
Minister Modi himself had advanced a theory of conspiracy against his
government and that attempts are being made to destabilize his
government. Modi, the leader of BJP government who has an absolute
majority to his party in parliament has chosen to make such
unsubstantiated allegations without even an iota of evidence.
Probably to garner electoral gains in the oncoming state elections.
However such
allegations find parallel in the history of India. Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi voiced the same conspiratorial theory in 1970s, when
she was fast loosing political ground. She also portrayed the
opposition as nation’s traitors. Several black laws like MISA, PD
act were used to silence dissent and finally internal emergency was
promulgated.
Now the very same
story with a campaign of all voices opposed to ruling party are being
dubbed anti national opposition is termed seditious.
After coming to
power in 1933, in the general elections, the Nazi party of Adolph
Hitler, made the same false accusations of conspiracy to destabilize
the government and razing racist hatred against Jews and with the
very slogan of ‘Nationalism’ has established its fascist rule.
Now in India, we see
the very same arguments, claims, allegations of conspiracy to
destabilize defame the government, and the very same pogroms
conducted against Muslims and dalits making it very clear that NDA
government is on the way nearer to establish its fascist type of rule
in a near future!
Last year, when
India marked the 40th anniversary of the imposition of emergency,
L.K.Advani, the staunch R.S.S.man and its ideologue stated that he
did not rule out the possibility of similar situation in future.
Whatever might be his reasons for such an assumption, but to day
though emergency is not legally imposed, the same situation of
emergency is existing in practice.
This is how the
present day situation portends the imminence of the danger of a
fascist type of rule. The democrats and the real patriots of our
country shall prepare unitedly to face and resist such imminence of
the danger of fascist type of rule, resolutely.
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