Don’t Confuse, It’s a Political Move

The Congress led Indian government finally awoke of a slumber and decided, hastily, that it’s an appropriate time to execute Afzal Guru – held guilty for his role in the December 13, 2001 attack on parliament – and so even before the whole India woke up, he was hanged. Supreme Court confirmed the death penalty of Guru in 2005 and since then his clemency file ferried between the Rashtrapati Bhawan and the Home Ministry. Whenever the government was pressurized by the media and the opposition, it retorted the same line -- the issue is ‘highly contentious’ and law will take its own course. Even after the execution, Digvijay Singh, the General Secretary of the Congress party, returned with the old argument – law has taken its own course; it was a ‘legal and constitutional’ issue; please don’t ‘politicise’ it. Sushil Kumar Shinde, the Home Minister, added that when it was ‘politically suitable’ to hang him, he was hanged.

Democracies are based on law, and if I am not mistaken, India is a democracy. Its constitution asserts that the law must prevail, irrespective of the circumstances. The law took eleven years to finally execute Afzal Guru. No issues. But neither his hanging was a small incident nor the crime he was complicit in. And this is why the people of this country had the right to know the government’s stance, which the government explicitly snatched away from them; no information was disposed of.

While the secretness puzzles, the timing of the execution overtly indicates that Guru has been hanged according to a well-contemplated plan. The government has been in deep water in recent days; the Delhi rape case, the Home Minister’s remark on saffron terror and the slowing growth rate struck badly on the reputation and functioning of the government, already troubled with plethora of corruptions cases. It continuously receives a lot of flak for all its failures. Apart from that, it was persistently accused, both by the media and the opposition, of being soft on terror. Having executed Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru in less than three months, it has not only tackled but nullified that argument.

Further, all of a sudden, how an issue that was ‘highly contentious’ for the government simply became a ‘legal and constitutional’ one? And now when the government has got rid of Kasab and Guru, what about the pending hangings of Balwant Singh Rajona and those who killed Rajiv Gandhi? Can the government take a same stern action on them? Absolutely not! Rajona and the killers of Rajiv come from states – Punjab and Tamilnadu -- that are powerful, and if they are hanged, there would be a huge outcry. Instead of favouring the Congress party, it will dampen its prospects not only in Punjab and Tamilnadu, but in entire India.

In fact, the execution is a well-calculated electoral step. It is a desperate attempt by the Congress to reach out to the Hindu-hardliners who associate themselves with the BJP and blame the Congress of appeasing the minority community.

Auguries are coming from some states that people are more interested in development than the polarizing politics. The Congress’ strategists understand quite well that it is not in a position to defend its economic policies anymore, and it will be in the interest of the party if it can somehow divert the attention and shift the debate to other issues. And nothing can be more perfect than an emotive issue like the hanging of Guru. When elections are near, throwing Guru to gallows is like a decision taken in haste to shroud the failures of the government and once again indulge in cynical politics.

Why it's always the women?

There is a creature on earth. They call themselves men. They consider themselves the God of this entirely inhuman and insensitive ‘modern-day world’. They enjoy molesting girls publicly, love throwing acid on women, and relish destroying women’s lives. And the reason of doing all these heinous deeds is they are men. They think it gives them the license to commit these acts.

The latest example of their barbaric nature is the Guwahati encounter where more than 30 young men ganged up, barely a kilometer away from the Assam’s State Secretariat, to molest a girl who happened to have visited a pub with some of her friends. The girl was molested for about half an hour, before the police came and rescued her from the mob. A couple of months ago, in Calcutta, a same type of hapless incident had happened where a mother of two was gang-raped when she was on her way back to home with her children from the famous night spot on Park Street.

I shudder, and any human would, to think what happened in Guwahati, or for that reason, what had happened in Calcutta. But frankly speaking, the big concern is what happened after the incident- the responses that came after the brutal incident. The chauvinists openly started speaking out their all-time favorite quotes: what was she doing in the pub, a girl of loose morals only visits pub. Some went further and added, oh the girl certainly would not have well-dressed. Am I supposed to believe that it was the girl who called it upon herself? It was she who wanted it to happen? Disgusting and despicable!

Aren’t we the home of an awful sickness? A group of people molest a sixteen year girl publicly who is the student of class XI, and a group of people watch this cold-hearted act, and then sections of people, instead of condemning the menfolk who committed this heinous deed, come out and start excoriating the behavior of the girl. What is wrong with our society?  Do men wish to see women in their tutelage? Are men the victim of self-righteousness that allows them to distribute the blame on those, they consider, are weaker than them?

The prophecy that these incidents would not have happened, had they been well-dressed or behaved in a different manner, are per se fallacious. What about the certitude of men that they are superior to women, that it is always the fairer sex who is guilty? When would the society accept that it is the fault of those merciless and insensitive men who commit these acts? Frankly speaking, even if the accused are arrested and incarcerated, nothing would improve. They will be sentenced to jail for a year or two. But, is this enough for the girl who would suffer the lifetime of shame and pain?

For the sake of a little humanity that is still alive in this world, don’t pass the buck. Don’t unreasonably object on what your daughters wear. Don’t unnecessarily restrict your daughters from going out in the night. Don’t compel them to feel inferior. Instead, teach your sons the lesson- “don’t indulge in this insensitive, inhuman, gross and callous act”.

The Great Saga of the Highest Constitutional Office

Bengal, a state which is the land of stalwarts like Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekanand, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Sri Aurbindo and many others, is all set to give us the new President. Yes you are right! I am talking about the Congress and its allies endorsed candidate Pranab Mukherjee- the son of Bengal (his services to Bengal is hardly notable) is likely to occupy the august office of President.

India has got Presidents like Rajendra Prasad, Sarvapalli Radhakrishanan, and Zakir Hussain who helped the highest constitutional office not only maintain its prestige and glory but also added great dignity to the office. At the same time it has also witnessed Presidents like Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Giani Zail Singh and Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, who only lowered the dignity of the high office.

The president who is charged with disgracing the high office most is Fakhrudin Ali Ahmed. He was the man who timidly signed the emergency proclamation at midnight after a meeting with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, causing the virtual demise of democracy. However, it would be injustice to him to declare him the most fallible President ever. The president who stands head to head with him is Giani Zail Singh. He was unanimously nominated to be the President. But began his stint with a shameful remark, “If my leader had said me to pick up the broom and be a sweeper, I would have done that. She chose me to be the President.” He was on the brink of creating a constitutional crisis when he became hostile to the Rajiv Gandhi government and threatened to dismiss it. The president also compelled the Congress government to remove its MP KK Tewary who had alleged in the Lok Sabha that the President is providing shelter to terrorists in the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Presidents like R. Venkatraman and K.R Narayanan are accused of bringing to bear a clerk’s mindset in the highly prestigious office. K. R Narayanan also played a vital role in bringing K.G Balakrishanan in the apex court who later also served as the Chief Justice of India. And it was Narayanan who spent a couple of extra days in London after his formal visit was over- during which even the British denied to concede his presence in their capital.

With the election of Pratibha Patil for the highest constitutional office, the dignity of the office touched a new low. Her term began on a low note and is ending on a low note as well. An article of Arun Shourie in the Indian Express accusing her of mismanagement at a Cooperative Sugar factory, surfaced the moment she was nominated for the august office in 2007. Recently, an RTI application revealed that Patil’s 22 foreign trips cost 205 corers, the highest ever by a president. Now at a time when she is about to leave the office, she is being accused of ‘land grab’ in Pune which was meant for the military use.

But all this is past. The country is about to get a new President. Pranab Mukherjee is certain to be elected as the next President of India- the loyal supporter of Indira Gandhi who actively participated in her misdeeds during emergency. Pranab Mukherjee is also believed to be the originator of the slogan “India is Indira and Indira is India”, which was highly used during emergency.

It is a well-known fact that Pranab Mukherjee has been the troubleshooter and the crisis manager for the congress party and has never been far from the center of the power. His intimate relationship with the party hardly indicates that he would go against the party lines.

Given all these, only an overtly optimistic person can expect that Pranab Mukherjee, as the next President of India, would restore the lost glory of the highest constitutional office. He, like many of the former Presidents may end up becoming the puppet ‘Mahamahim’ Rashtrapatiji. Of course, the puppeteer would be Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi. After all, we are living in a political monarchy and she is the queen.

The Question of Justice

Writing on the issue of Naxalism is similar to writing on India’s failures; the failures of Indian government, the repeated failures of Indian intelligence and the failure to gauge the unrest among people. The government never took the responsibility of its ignorance, the intelligence never measured the seriousness of the problem, and the police did the rest to aggravate the problem. Even at this time when the Naxalite issue has taken the shape of a national security issue, they are busy in playing blame game. The government is dismissive and not ready to come out of its comfort zone.

Whenever the problem of Naxalism is debated, what comes first is the ‘issue of justice’. Without fail, the government has failed to do justice to tribal issues. But, isn’t it absurd to conflate tribals and Maoists. All tribals are not Maoists! And if we say so, it would be injustice to them.

I concur with the view that the state has failed in resolving the problems of tribals, instead has created many. Yes the government is just inept! But does that mean it has lost the right of maintaining law and order? I am saying this because the sympathizers of Maoists have continuously opposed any idea of tackling the problem by force. They insist that the state should open the doors of dialogue. I agree with this idea also. After all they are the citizens of India like us. But talk to whom and on what issue? Kishenji who is no more had once demanded that the government should discontinue with IPL. Is the state supposed to take their consensus on this issue?

There are all kinds of sympathies for Maoists and they are enjoying sympathizers in abundance, so much so that I suspect even the state has that number of sympathizers. But here I disagree with all the sympathizers of Maoists, not because I am against the cause they are fighting for but because they are perpetrating acts of violence and killing civilians indiscriminately. If the question of justice can be raised for Maoists, it must also be raised for the rights of civilians. And, of course, the lives of soldiers are also precious so when the issue of justice is debated, they are not to be forgotten as often they are.

Maoism as an ideology is nihilistic. It always stands against democracy, liberal values and personal rights. Moreover, it criticizes anything that suggests them to give up arms and come on the table for dialogues.  It has clearly been stated in their documents that mass organizations and mass struggle is just to serve their purpose and their ultimate purpose is to turn down the democratically elected government.

Democracy functions on managing without consensus. In a democracy, everyone has the right to disagree but nobody has the right to wage a war against the state even if it is against the backdrop of some legitimate issues. Maoists are fighting for the right cause but their means are wrong. They have continuously been embroiled in blowing up schools, government buildings and railway tracks. Not only this, they have been abducting government officials on regular intervals. They run a parallel government in some areas where their law prevails which just glorifies violence. And no socialistic ethic glorifies violence.

But, the misconducts of Maoists can’t justify the role of the government. The government is equally responsible for this anarchy. It is not supposed to play its dirty politics on the corpses of innocents what it has done from the very beginning.  It’s high time the government should follow the constitution and address the issue with vigor.  But will the government step out of its comfort zone? Will the government say sorry to its citizens once for the crimes it has committed? I know they won’t. This blurs the future. Nothing will change! Naxals will continue with killing innocent people! The government will continue with sending soldiers to die! After all, for some, ‘Peace is a Limpid Nonsense’!