Remembering Kandhamal (Odisha, 2008) Riots Yesterday (25th Aug, 2014 there was a meeting at press club at CST in Mumbai. The meeting was organized by Centre for Study of Society and Secularism and an amalgam of secular organisations in Mumbai. The theme was to protect democratic institutions in the country. When I attended the meeting many things became alive in my memory, I remember the days when many funding organisations used to come to CSSS and discuss the position of communalism in the country. And generally they used to argue that now communalism has come to an end in the country since there are no communal riots occurring anywhere in India. Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer used to argue with them that this is not the situations rather communalism is becoming a challenge for all the secular organisations in the country. And communal riots are not going to end in near future in the country. But those funding organisations and their so called experts were bent upon proving that there is no need to spend money on studying and fighting communalism in the country when riots are not taking place. So we are going to stop funding your organization, it is better that you search for some other sources for carrying out your work. And many organizations stopped funding CSSS. Now I want to ask the so called experts of funding organizations that where is your prophecy in the backdrop of hundreds of communal riots flaring up in UP and other parts of the country. I still remember t hat poor Engineer had hard time in convincing those so called big experts of funding organizations. Now I want to come to the point about the occurrence of communal riots in the country. It is very sad and tragic that even after 68 years of our freedom we have not been able to stop the occurrence of communal riots which was initiated by the British to divide us. Rather some political parties and organizations in the country has adopted this as a tool to come to power and be in hand in glove for exploiting the poorer sections of society by dividing them. This way these organisations and political parties are serving the interest of industrialist class in our country. Since time immemorial it is irony that poorer sections of society has never been united to fight against the exploiter in the society who are exploiting poorer sections of society belonging to all religions. But the poorer sections of society are not able to understand the game of capitalist class in our country. After coming of power of Modi whose interest he is going to serve, certainly he is going to serve the interest of Ambani and Adani. But when we will understand this we do not know. In UP the whole environment of communal flare-ups is created by the communal organisations to win elections. Basically communalism in the country suits the interest of all those wheelers and dealers and the capitalist class in the country who want to benefit from the system. So there is a need to create awareness in the country against the designs of capitalist class among people in the country. Secondly I have seen many people writing on social networking sites writing about injustices and terror of jihadi groups in Muslim countries , be it Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan and failure o state in Pakistan ( I do not support these groups and their philosophy) . But where are our democratic institutions when communal riots take place in the country? In Kandhamal thousands became homeless in the riots of in 2008. Hundreds of women were molested raped, hundreds murdered in which few beheaded but till now there is no convictions. Perpetrators of violence are moving freely and threatening victims not to go for justice. But the excuse of murder of Lakshmananda Saraswati for which communal riots occurred, his convicts are all behind bars even if his murder was claimed by maoist. This is not only the failure of our democratic institutions in the country but it shows that the institutions of judiciary are not there at all. What sort of democracy is this? This is not only about Kandahmal but in thousands of riots in India since independence the conviction rate is very less. Now I want to ask all those persons who are claiming day in and day out about the failure of democratic institutions in the Muslim countries and the tyranny of jihadi outfits what they will say about this? In functioning democracy in India Gujarat riots and Mumbai riots happen where hundreds of persons are killed and hundreds of women raped and mutilated and a particular political party see to it that justice is not done to the victims. People in our country say that Muslims must be taught a lesson In the country. A particular group and a political party for years are planning to keep minorities as second class citizens in India. What sorts of democracy we are living in where police take sides in communal riots and judiciary in such cases keep mum rather show lackasidical attitude towards conviction of people in communal riots. Now the time has come to ask ourselves that are we living in functioning democracy or in a medieval period where everything is fair for acquirimg wealth and power. Thirdly I would like to say that if communal riots in the country are taking place then it is also because of the fact that the values which we used to believe in are no m ore relevant as it was before 1857.. Nowadays t here are few interactions among different religious communities and each religious communities are having negative attitudes and stereotypes about each other. All persons belonging to different religious communities are having poisoned mindsets and hatred towards each other. It has become rare that people belonging to different religious communities celebrate each others religious festivals. Even the kids’ mindsets about other religious communities have become poisoned. All the religious communities are carrying so much poison in their minds about other religious communities that it becomes easy for communal organizations to make them fight even at the slightest instigation. In this regard I would like to blame the secular organizations and persons that they and their messages have not reached the people at the grass roots level. Except the Christian organisations no organizations and individuals belonging to minorities or secular category have been able to work at the grass roots level as RSS and BJP is doing in different parts of the country right form dalits to triblas. Now when nobody is working among dalits and tribals only RSS and their different affiliates are working among them, so it becomes easy for them to mobilize in accordance with their agenda be it killing or murdering a person in the name of cultural nationalism. The secular organization will only hold a meeting in press clubs of Mumbai or Delhi or go for field trip, prepare reports, organize lectures, show films and repeat the same exercise when communal riots occur at other places. Let’s ponder over the matter seriously, make our judiciary and police accountable and functioning with regard to communal riots in the country.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 09:03:02 +0000
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