Beleaguered Bush: Heightened Opposition at Home and Abroad

The death sentence for Saddam was meant to be an orchestrated high point in the War on Terror for the Bush Administration – but instead it has invited widespread global outrage and coalesced with a range of shocks for the Bush regime. The electoral blow to the Republicans in the recent mid-term polls was widely seen as an indictment of the US policy in Iraq, while the election of Ortega in Nicaragua and the build-up of a militant and popular uprising in Mexico all served to deepen the crisis for the Bush regime. In this feature, we have articles analysing the implications of these developments not only for Bush but also for the anti-imperialist struggle.

2006 US Mid-Term Elections: Blow for Bush Administration

THE Democratic Party in the 2006 US elections won a comfortable majority in the House and a narrow majority in the Senate. They also secured a majority of the state governorships. The mid-term elections take place every two years in November to elect representatives to both the House and the Senate. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, was elected to the Senate from Vermont - the first self-described socialist to do so.
Even if the Democrat victory cannot be expected to usher in serious changes in imperialist policies and even domestic policies, the elections have been a major setback to the section of the ruling elite led by the Bush/Cheney administration.
Crisis of Imperialism
This election year Iraq was the main reason that the US electorate voted against the Republicans. Since the Democratic Party did not have an alternative peace plan either, it was largely a negative vote. The cumulative effect of lies about weapons of mass destruction, torture at Abu Ghraib, detention at Guantanamo Bay, secret CIA prisons, no bid contracts to Halliburton and Bechtel, billions of dollars of missing cash and latest attack on habeas corpus became too difficult to manage.
According to recent estimates, more than 655, 000 Iraqi people and 3000 US soldiers have died and more than 20000 US soldiers have been wounded. General Maples testified that in Iraq, the attacks on occupation troops have increased from 70 per day in January to 170 per day in September to 180 per day in October [1]. This made 2006 October one of the deadliest months since the occupation started. The forecast for 2007 is worse for not just Iraq but also Afghanistan.
Drawing parallels with the Vietnam War right wing columnist Tom Freidman of the New York Times said “what we’re seeing in Iraq seems like the jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive.” General John Abizaid, top American military commander for the Middle East, has warned of the possibility of occupation going out of control. The incoming Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee accused the Bush administration of ignoring the reality that ‘‘we’re getting deeper and deeper into a hole’’ in Iraq. As the Iraqi resistance and anti-war movement intensify, the imperial crisis deepens and the occupation becomes untenable.
The US ruling elite is now hard at work in an endeavour to formulate a strategy for ‘success in Iraq.’ Several potential presidential candidates including Republican John McCain and Democratic Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have called for more troop deployment. Despite massive public opinion against the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, before the elections, the Senate passed (100-0 vote) the record $447 billion US military budget along with a supplemental $70 billion bridge fund for the next six months of occupation. The entire ruling class establishment is in it together.
The first casualty of the elections was Defense Secretary “shock and awe” Rumsfeld. Bush chose his father’s CIA director Robert Gates as the replacement. Before his appointment, he was also a member of the Iraq Study Group (ISG), the ‘bipartisan commission’ co-chaired by Republican James Baker, former Secretary of State, and Democrat Lee Hamilton, former Chairman of House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Both Republican and Democratic leadership are working closely with the ISG. It has been meeting with numerous political and military leaders, including George Bush, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. The ISG is slated to release its ‘policy recommendations’ to prevent the US Empire from sinking in the Iraqi quicksand.
The unpopularity of the Iraqi occupation in the US and the anti-imperial resistance of the Iraqi people have forced the ruling class to rethink its Iraq strategy. This pressure is also being felt by elected politicians who are part of the Democratic Party’s Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) with about 71 members. They have introduced the “End the War in Iraq Act of 2005” that would prohibit further use of Defense Department funds to deploy United States Armed Forces to Iraq. Since both the Republican and Democratic parties are not interested this bill is gathering dust.
Jobs and Scandals
Iraq was however not the only issue. Although gay marriage was banned in several states but in South Dakota a referendum to ban virtually all abortions was easily defeated. After Enron, the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal maligned the Republican elite in a major way. The Center for Public Integrity reports that lobbyists spent $4 billion in 2004. The organic relationship between big business, lobbyists and politicians was exposed. Most politicians connected with the scandal either resigned or were defeated in this election. Flooding after Hurricane Katrina was on everybody’s mind too, especially people of colour.
The economy was also an important issue. Millions of jobs have been lost in the last few years. In Ohio alone 200,000 manufacturing jobs were lost since Bush came to power; it was the decisive factor there. Nationally, with people spending $1.1 trillion more than they earned, the negative personal savings rate is unprecedented since the Great Depression. This when the total 2005 US debt was nearly three and a half times the US’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that is close to world’s GDP of $44 trillion [2].
Even though the official unemployment rate in July 2006 was 4.8 percent it is estimated that more than 8 percent of the potential labour force is underemployed or unemployed [2]. The minimum wage of $5.15 an hour has not been increased for more than 10 years. Six states that had a referendum to raise the minimum wage overwhelmingly voted to raise it. The main labour unions played a major part in this. They spent more than $100 million and had 100,000 volunteers to increase voter turnout in the election for the Democratic Party [3]. This nexus with a party of the ruling class has been an impediment in building a more militant labour movement.
Challenging the System
History informs us that progressive legislations, in a capitalist political system, are the fruits of a vigorous movement. They have never been a gift. Now is the time to connect the struggles against exploitation in the US with the occupations abroad to re-energize this movement. These will include the struggles of workers, people of colour, undocumented immigrants, gays and women for an egalitarian and just society.
Progressive forces have called for anti-war marches on Washington in January and March. Momentum is building to demand universal health coverage, minimum wage increase, investigation of war crimes, impeachment of Bush, worker’s right to organize, Katrina victims’ right to return and ending the occupation from Iraq to Palestine. Active duty soldiers are also resisting the occupation by becoming conscientious objectors. This should also be the time for the anti-imperialist struggles to introspect on protest tactics and movement strategies to intensify the struggle.
It is clear that the invasion of any country, corruption of politicians, reign of big business and attack on the working class will not end with this election. These problems are endemic to the capitalistic political system. It cannot be reformed. A new society has to rise from the ashes of imperialism and capitalism. Building a movement which does just that is the challenge.
End Notes
1. Michael Gordon and Mark Mazzetti, General Warns of Risks in Iraq if G.I.’s Are Cut, New York Times, November 16, 2006.
2. Fred Magdoff, The Explosion of Debt and Speculation, Monthly Review, November 2006.
3. Steven Greenhouse, Labor Movement Dusts Off Agenda as Power Shifts in Congress, New York Times, November 11, 2006.

No More Street Food in Delhi!

Lalit Batra

Most cities and towns in the so called Global South are marked today by an overwhelming presence of the informal economy. Hawkers and street vendors are one of the most visible segments of the informal sector. When Keith Harth, an economic anthropologist, on a mission to study urban labour markets in Africa, coined the term ‘informal economy’ he was, to a large extent, referring to scores of hawkers and street vendors selling a bewildering array of goods on the streets in cities and towns of Africa. Till 1960s the dominant discourse viewed the presence of the informal sector of the economy, including hawkers and vendors, as a temporary phenomenon, a by-product of the transition from the ‘traditional’ to the ‘modern’ economy. It was assumed that as the process of modern capitalist development advances this sector would cease to exist soon enough with the extension of the legal, regulatory and administrative frameworks of the State to all aspects of economic activity.

However various studies subsequently conducted in many parts of the world proved beyond doubt that far from shrinking, the informal sector was in fact expanding. In almost all of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the majority of the workforce was found to be working in the informal or unorganised sector. Recent studies suggest that subsequent to the ascendance of neo-liberal economic policies in most parts of the world, its speed of expansion has increased substantially. In fact even in advanced industrialised countries of the West informalisation of the economy and the workforce is rising significantly.

Today about 93 per cent of India’s work force is in the unorganised sector, which accounts for 63 per cent of the country’s GDP. There is a dearth of reliable data on the prevalence of the informal sector in urban areas. There are studies which put these numbers at 65 percent in small towns to 46 percent in million plus cities. In any case, one can safely assume that over half the workforce in urban areas is earning its livelihood in informal sector. A large number of those within the urban informal sector- 15 percent according to one estimate- are street vendors.

Delhi has a workforce of roughly 40 lakhs, only about 22 per cent of which are employed in the organised sector. There is a paucity of official data on the number of hawkers and vendors operating in the city but reliable estimates put the figure between 3 to 4 lakhs making it one of the most important informal sector activities in Delhi. The problems faced by street vendors in the city are now too well known to need any elaboration. Studies conducted by several organisations recount the familiar tale of barely enough earnings to be able to survive, harassment and plundering by the police, municipal authorities and local musclemen, criminalisation by law, non recognition in official city plans, apathy or hostility of the middle and upper classes and so on.

Unlike many other major cities the Master Plans of Delhi have repeatedly made provisions for accommodating and regularising hawkers and vendors but there has been little effort on the part of authorities to effectively implement these provisions. Thus till date less than 20,000 tehbazari licenses have been issued by municipal authorities rendering the existence and livelihoods of over 90 per cent street vendors illegal and making them easy preys to all kinds of harassment and exploitation. A study conducted by Manushi, an NGO, in 2001 puts the payments made by hawkers and street vendors in Delhi by way of bribes and extortion to police, municipal officials and local musclemen at Rs. 600 crores annually!

In this context the recent Supreme Court order banning cooked street food in the capital is like punishing the victim instead of the perpetrator. The order put a seal of approval on the scheme proposed by the MCD and the NDMC to ban cooked street food in order to regulate hawking and vending in Delhi with a view to beautify the city for the Commonwealth Games 2010. Citing reasons of health and hygiene, the court ordered that, except tea and coffee sellers, all other hawkers selling cooked food on streets will have to go. The court also rejected the petition filed by hawkers’ associations and NGOs like NASVI, SEWA and Manushi for conducting a comprehensive survey to ascertain the number of hawkers in the city and identify suitable hawking sites.

At a time when the economy has stopped creating jobs despite all the hullabaloo about 8 percent growth rate, the court order is bound to add a few lakh more to the list of the unemployed. Not only that it will kill the 500 year old great culinary tradition of street food of Dilli beside making the city further unsafe. Significantly, the order comes at a time when the government is considering allowing 100 percent FDI in retail. Sealing of commercial units, removal of hawkers... has the highest court of land put its weight firmly behind the Reliances, Walmarts and McDonalds of the world?

People’s Petition Submitted on May 16 to Lok Sabha Speaker and President of India

Sir,
The subject of criminalisation of politics is one that concerns the entire nation closely. It is deeply disturbing that on the one hand, our polity is tolerant of ‘fake encounters’ (summary executions) of alleged criminals and terrorists, while our highest representative body – Indian Parliament – harbours people caught red-handed in acts of human trafficking, and convicted on charges of abduction and suspected murder. There is a tendency to tacitly justify the police killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh by suggesting that he was, after all, a ‘criminal’ or even a ‘terrorist’. At the same time, Mohammad Shahabuddin, a convicted criminal whose reign of terror is notorious, enjoys the privilege of being a Member of Parliament. ‘Crime’ is used as a cover to justify State terror, while the State itself patronises and protects criminals – even those convicted by a court of law. The implications of this trend for Indian democracy are dangerous.
The conviction and life sentence of the sitting MP from Siwan, Mohammad Shahabuddin, by a Siwan sessions Court is a remarkable victory of a determined people’s struggle against a notorious criminal politician. Shahabuddin has been sentenced to life on charges of abduction and suspected murder of a CPI(ML) activist Chhote Lal Gupta eight years ago. The steadfastness and tenacity of the witnesses in the face of a terror campaign by the MP has resulted in this conviction.
Now the question faces us: will Parliament honour this people’s victory and this court judgement, and expel a convicted criminal from the precincts of Parliament? Will Parliament respect the norms of democracy and expel those involved in human trafficking from its ranks?
We would like to remind you that ten years ago, Chandrashekhar, a young activist who had left the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University in order to work among the poor and dispossessed in his hometown Siwan, was gunned down in broad daylight by Shahabuddin’s henchmen. Following a movement led by students and teachers of JNU, a CBI probe was eventually ordered into the killing. Is it not indeed strange that a local Court in Siwan should be able to deliver justice within eight years while the CBI should be unable even to frame a chargesheet after an entire decade?
We the undersigned – concerned citizens of this country as well as the people of Siwan – appeal to you to intervene to ensure:
• Immediate dismissal from parliament of convicted MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, as well as MPs accused of human trafficking Babubhai Katara and others;
• Speedy completion of CBI probe into Chandrashekhar’s murder

Signatories included Prof. Kamal Mitra Chenoy for the JNU Teachers’ Association, Prof. Rizwan Qaiser for the Jamia Teachers’ Association, Prof. Anuradha Chenoy of JNU, Profs. Tripta Wahi and Vijay SIngh of DU, educationist Anil Sadgopal, eminent journalist Sukumar Muralidharan, Prof. Mohan Rao of JNU, Jean Dreze, visiting Professor, Allahabad University, filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, Pranay Krishna, general Secretary of JSM, Satyadev Ram, ex-MLA, Mairwa, and Amarnath Yadav, MLA, Darauli, among others.

Shahabuddin’s Conviction: People’s Victory Against Criminalisation of Politics

Lal Bahadur Singh
Fourteen years ago, the Vohra Committee submitted its recommendations to curb criminalisation of politics – but these never saw the light of day. R.K. Narayanan, as President on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Republic in 2001, spoke out against criminalization of politics. But Parliament is yet to take any action against the most notorious of its members - Md. Shahabuddin, recently sentenced to life imprisonment in a case of abduction and suspected killing of CPI(ML) activist Comrade Chhote Lal Gupta. he has also been sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for attacking the CPI(ML) office, while around 40 more cases of murder, kidnapping, having illegal arms like AK-47 etc., as well as the CBI inquiry into Comrade Chandrashekhar murder case, are still pending against him.
However, even after he has been sentenced with life imprisonment, though extremely belatedly, not a single political party, barring CPI(ML), has come out categorically, demanding his dismissal from parliament! Whatever the People’s Representation Act may say in this regard, if MPs can be summarily dismissed for cash in query episode, why can’t such an exceptional criminal be at least suspended from the highest institution of democracy in the land, even after he has been proven guilty by court for abducting a citizen to kill?
The reasons for this criminal apathy on the part of ruling parties of all hues are not far to seek. Can one expect it from the Congress or other UPA partners and supporters, who stand to lose one MP and antagonise an ally like Laloo Prasad? Should one expect it from BJP or NDA, whose leader and now the Dy. CM of ruling JD(U)-BJP combine, Sushil Modi and leaders of the then Samata Party, the predecessor of today‘s Nitish Kumar‘s JD(U), had complained of police bias and excesses against Shahabuddin, during the Pratappur shoot-out episode, expecting Shahabuddin to rebel against Laloo and help them topple Rabri govt. and form their own! It is not surprising that even CPI(M)-CPI have not come out with any demand for action against him. Somnath Chatterjee, so pro-active on corruption issues, is not ready to take any initiative to ‘uphold the dignity of the Parliament’ by ousting this criminal. All recall that as CPI(M) General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjit had even campaigned for Shahabuddin during the last parliamentary elections.
Actually criminalization of politics no more hits the headlines of media, nor does it worry the ruling political parties, thanks to the grand consensus among them regarding their great use-value in winning elections and grabbing power! In fact one often finds jealous competition among political parties to win mafias to their fold, and often governmental power is used to do so. In the much hyped ‘clean’ elections of UP, almost all mafia-criminal turned politicians have won the elections, most of them as respected candidates of national political parties!
In this scenario, the indictment and life imprisonment for Shahabuddin is certainly a great people’s victory, thanks to the consistent and vigorous movement, launched by CPI(ML) all these years, against all odds. It has shown how the criminalization of politics can actually be fought and defeated.
When all political parties surrendered before the reign of terror unleashed by the Shahabuddin gang and practically withdrew from the political scene, it was CPI(ML) alone which fearlessly conducted a resistance struggle against him, of course, paying a heavy price with the martyrdom of many of its leaders and supporters. After the assassination of Comrade Chandrashekhar, the ex-president of JNUSU, a powerful and popular student movement erupted, forcing the then Gujral Govt. to order CBI inquiry into the case. Kaushalya Devi, Chandrashekhar’s mother, was at the forefront of the struggle for justice for the entire decade. It is really a matter of shame for the apex investigating agency of the country and reflects the political patronage enjoyed by Shahabuddin that even after a decade, the CBI is yet to chargesheet Shahabuddin in the case!

People of Siwan Hold Dharna at Parliament Demanding Shahabuddin’s Dismissal
On May 16, thousands of people from Siwan held a Dharna at Parliament Street demanding dismissal of Shahabuddin and completion of the CBI probe into Chandrashekhar’s murder. The Dharna was presided over by CPI(ML) MLA from Darauli Comrade Amarnath Yadav. Partiicpants from Siwan included former MLA from Mairwa Satyadev Ram, AIALA District Secretary from Siwan Jugal Thakur, Jaynath Yadav, member of the party District Committee, Naimuddin Ansari, former mukhia and District Committee member, RYA leader Ravindra Bharti, and several others. Participants from Delhi included Swami Agnivesh of the Bandhua Mukto Morcha, Mujtaba Farooque of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Rakesh Rafiq of Yuva Bharat, Tanweer Fazal, lecturer at Jamia Millia Islamia and representative of Forum for Democratic Initiatives, Sandeep SIngh, General Secretary JNUSU, KK Pande, editor, Janmat, Pranay Krishna, former JNUSU President and General Secretary, Jan Sanskriti Manch, and Kavita Krishnan, editorial board, Liberation.
The highlight of the dharna was when Comrade Shital Paswan, main eyewitness in the Chhote Lal Gupta abduction case, spoke of his experience. Eight years ago, he said, Comrade Chhote Lal was summoned by Shahabuddin into his vehicle and whisked away. The next morning, a struggle began that still goes on. The police wouldn’t file an FIR – until the CPI(ML) gheraoed the thana for hours. Since then, Shital Paswan has hardly been able to stay with his family. His family has been approached several times with threats and bribes alike (the proffered bribe has been upto a crore rupees). Even his cousin in Delhi was approached and told to warn him to shut up. Yet, he gave evidence in Court – and it was his evidence that nailed Shahabuddin.
Shital Paswan recalled how Shahabuddin has been acquitted in several other cases involving the murder of BJP or JD(U) supporters, because the witnesses turned hostile, and in some cases, these parties did not even lodge an FIR. By contrast, Shital Paswan is proud of standing firm, not fearing for his life, and caring to sell his conscience. Shital Paswan displays the kind of stubborn courage characteristic of the ML movement itself in Siwan.

क्या नारद सिर्फ साहित्य का एक बंद कमरा बन कर रह गया ह

नारद हिंदी ब्लोग का सबसे सम्मानीय फीड एग्रीगेटर है। हिंदी ब्लोग की दुनिया जो कुछ ही साल पहले एक झोपड़ी थी , उसे घर फिर घर से गाँव और गाँव से लेकर कस्बे तक की अवस्था मे पंहुचाने का श्रेय अगर किसी को है तो वह निर्विवाद रुप से नारद को है , उसकी परिकल्पना कर उसे अब तक की अवस्था मे लाने का जो महान कार्य नारद के चलाने वालों ने किया है। हिंदी से तो उतना नए हम नही हैं जितना कि नारद से हैं। नारद अभी नया है लेकिन अब इतना भी नया नही है कि उसके फैसलो और कार्यकलापों पर बहस न की जा सके। kuhd नारद ने अपने बारे मे कहा है .....नारद की असली ताकत तो है हिन्दी चिट्ठाकार, जिनके सामूहिक सहयोग से नारद को स्थापित किया गया। नारद एक विचार है, एक आवाज है, हिन्दी चिट्ठों की। हिन्दी चिट्ठे है तो नारद है, उनके बिना नारद का क्या अस्तित्व? इसलिए आप अपना प्यार और स्नेह नारद मे बनाए रखिए। नारद अपने ब्लॉग नारद उवाच द्वारा आपसे संवाद कायम तो करते ही रहेंगे ही। किसी भी प्रकार की सहायता, समस्या, सुझाव अथवा आलोचना के लिए नारद के द्वार सदैव आपके लिए खुले है।
इससे ज्यादा खुली बात और क्या हो सकती है? इतना सब कहने के बावजूद भी अभी हाल ही मे एक चिठ्ठा बजार को हिंदी चिट्ठाजगत से बाहर निकाल देने की जो घटना हुई , वह निश्चय ही निंदनीय है। और सबसे बडे दुःख की बात तो यह है कि ये सब मेरे ही चिठ्ठे से शुरू हुआ। लेकिन इस घटना के बाद एक बहस शुरू हुई जिससे आशा की जा सकती थी कि एक स्वस्थ बहस शुरू हो , लेकिन ऐसा हुआ नही। उल्टे चिट्ठाकारी को बंद करने की बातें होने लगी। इसमे कोई शक नही कि प्रतिबंधित किये गए चिठ्ठे की भाषा अशोभनीय थी। लेकिन उसके बाद नारद के लोग भी काफी लिजलिजी सी हरकतें करने लगे तो शक होता है कि ऐसा क्यों। बेंगाणी बंधुओं ने नारद को चिट्ठी लिखकर कहा कि उक्त बजार ने उनके खिलाफ अशोभनीय बात कही है इसलिये उनका चिठ्ठा नारद से हटा दिया जाय। जितेंद्र भाई ने भी इसे खर पतवार का नाम दिया। अनूप जी ने भी कही कोई कसर बाकी नही छोडी । क्या यह साम्प्रदायिकता बनाम धर्म निरपेक्षता का मामला था या विचारधारा बनाम विचारधारा या फिर कुछ और जिसे हम अभी सोच नही पा रहे हैं। बेंगाणी बंधु नारद के संचालक मंडल मे हैं और नारद के सक्रिय सहयोगी भी। जितेंद्र जी भी नारद की व्यवस्था मे काफी सहयोग करते हैं। बेंगाणी बंधु चंदे वगैरह से नारद को सहयोग भी किया करते हैं लेकिन गली , मोहल्ले या बजारवाले नारद को ऐसा कोई सहयोग नही करते हैं। जाहिर है कि जिस देश मे चंदे देने वालों के हुक्म से सरकार चलती हो , वहाँ पर मात्र एक फीड गेटर और क्या उम्मीद की जा सकती है। हम वैश्विक धरातल पर पंहुचने का दवा तो करते हैं लेकिन हमारी सोच अभी तक वही गली मोहल्ले वाली है। जो चन्दा देगा , उसकी सुनी जायेगी और जो नही देगा , उसको बचाव का एक मौका तक नही दिया जाएगा। भले ही चन्दा देने वाला किसी के भी ब्लोग पर जाकर गलियां दे आये। ये तानाशाही नही तो और क्या है। खैर ये तो पुरानी परम्परा रही है कि कमजोर को ही दबाया जाता है। लेकिन अगर नारद सच मे एक पंथनिर्पेक्ष और लोकतांत्रिक प्लेट फॉर्म है तो क्या yअह माँग भी जायज नही है कि मेरी ब्लोग पर आकर गाली देने वाले बेंगाणी बंधुओं के खिलाफ भी कोई कार्रवाही की जाय ? लेकिन ऐसा होगा नही। क्यों कि चंदे के तो खेल ही निराले होते हैं।



क्या नारद सिर्फ साहित्य का एक बंद कमरा बन कर रह गया है या फिर इसे हिंदी ही नही बल्कि समाज मे जितनी भी तरह की असमानताएं हैं , उनके लिए अगर कोई बहस चलाई जाये तो उसका मंच नही बनना चाहिऐ ? मैं किसी अखाड़े की बात नही कर रहा हूँ , एक मंच की बात कर रहा हूँ। लेकिन ऐसा होता नही। कई लोग तो ऐसे हैं (जिनमे खुद नारद की सलाहकार समिति के लोग भी शामिल hain) जो ऎसी किसी बहस को कोई दिशा देने की जगह उसका बहिष्कार करना शुरू कर देते हैं , कुछ चिट्ठों का बहिष्कार करना शुरू कर देते हैं। यह तो उसी पक्षी वाली बात हुई जो कुछ भी होता देख अपना सर जमीन मे गाड़ देता है और समझता है कि अब कुछ नही होगा। लेकिन क्या इतने भर से ही बात ख़त्म हो जायेगी ? लेखक , साहित्यकार या पत्रकार , वही लिखता है जो समाज मे दिन प्रतिदिन होता रहता है। कही से कुछ भी नया नही रचा जाता है। कोई नयी कल्पना जन्म नही लेती है। रचना अपने आस पास हो रही क्रियाओं की ही प्रतिक्रिया है। तो क्या नारद को समाज से मिलने वाली फीडबैक के लिए तैयार नही रहना चाहिऐ ?

Fascist Assault on Freedom

Manisha Sethi

The dust on the sordid Fake Encounter saga had just begun to blow when came another instance of fascist overdrive in Gujarat. Earlier this month, goons affiliated to the ruling BJP-RSS-VHP combine barged into the Fine Arts Department of the MS University, Baroda, vandalizing the art work displayed by the post-graduate student, Chandra Mohan. The Vice Chancellor, M.S. Soni, a known RSS stooge, responded swiftly by first handing over the student to the police, then suspending the Dean of the Fine Arts Department, Shivaji Panniker, who had refused to be cowed down by the combined might of the Hindutva brigade, and then finally ordering the sealing of the department itself!
At the center of the storm were Chandra Mohan’s paintings depicting Sita and other goddesses. The saffron brigade charged that his paintings—which were not even on public display—were immoral and obscene. Their fragile sensibilities violated, vandalism became their incumbent duty. Earlier, M.F. Hussain has earned the ire of these groups for his paintings of Hindu Goddesses.
Unfortunately for the sham defenders of the faith, there exist numerous examples of the coupling of erotica, aesthetics and spirituality in the arts and literature for the past two and a half millennia for them now to turn their prurient noses at any one artist’s depiction and interpretation of mythology. The Siva Linga for instance. Or the yoni, the object of awe and reverence in the tantric sects. The widespread worship of lajja gowri (the shy goddess) who was typically represented with her feet held back and the vagina prominently displayed. The sculptures of Khujarao have appeared far too many times on the publicity brochures of the various tourism departments for even the Sanghis to feign ignorance. But for the purveyors of “One Nation, One Culture, One People”, all signs of multiple and alternative traditions must be erased. Thus an exhibition portraying the Jataka tale of Ram and Sita as a brother-sister duo was attacked in Ayodhya a few years ago. Thus too, the mazaar of Wali Dakhani, a symbol of syncreticism and plurality needed to be razed. As must now, the occlusion of the erotic from all art that evokes mythology.
Unfortunately the Sangh Parivar is not the only group that assaults freedom of artistic and political expression. The CPI(M) was full of virtuous indignation over the Sangh violence on artists at Gujarat, but seem to have conveniently forgotten that storm troopers from their own party had, less than ten days ago, attacked Shaonli Mitra eminent artists and intellectuals in Calcutta for speaking out against the Nandigram massacre. In CPI (M)-ruled Kerala, five students of a film and television college had been expelled last month for producing and directing a film on homosexuality – and neither the CPI(M) not the State Government did anything in their defence.
Next door to Gujarat, in Congress-ruled Maharashtra, in October 2006, a play on the working class culture of Bombay mills, “Cotton 56 Polyester 84”, was disrupted by the Maharashtra police and its performance prohibited in Nagpur. In the same month, police in Chandrapur (Maharashtra again), raided a book stall at Deekshabhoomi, where the golden jubilee of B.R. Ambedkar’s conversion was being commemorated. The publisher’s crime was selling books of Bhagat Singh (whose birth centenary the Congress is celebrating), Clara Zetkin and Che Guevera among others! Days after television channels beamed live the beating up of a Christain priest in Jaipur by BJP-Sangh workers, VHP goons emulated the same in Kohlapur. In true Modi style, the two Christian priests were arrested for inducing conversions through allurements and fraud. The VHP activists—caught on camera strutting their act—were let off for lack of a formal complaint against them!
Vigilante violence against Christians and Muslims has received legal crutches in the form of anti-conversion laws, which require extensive paper work and fees for converting to religions other than Hinduism. The law is routinely employed by the rightist goons to justify their own violence and to claim legal immunity. It is a sign of our times perhaps that the very law which is intended to curb the constitutional right to practice and propagate religion should be titled, “Freedom of Religion Bill”. This law operates in seven states: the most recent entrant to this illustrious club is Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh. Though there were no express demands for an anti-conversion law, the state government decided to take pro-active measures to “infuse confidence among the people of the state”. The Principal Home Secretary conceded that the law was not based on any study or statistics indicating the presence or proliferation of forced conversions. Buoyed by the passage of the bill in Himachal, demands for a similar legislation are echoing elsewhere too: VHP’s Ashok Singhal welcomed the Himachal Government’s move and demanded the extension of this law to the entire country; the new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Khanduri promised the (un)Freedom Bill to a congregation of Hindu priests in Haridwar.
Even as competitive communalism masquerades as a struggle between communalism and secularism, the battle lines are clearly drawn. The real pitched battles will be fought for extending and deepening democracy and defeating fascism.