[dropcap]F[/dropcap]rom Union Finance Ministry to Political Oblivion to being the first Bengali President, the ‘Chanakya’ of Indian politics had tasted it all.
Despite being the first citizen of the country, Pranab Mukherjee, more commonly known as Pranab da, never missed Durga Puja at his ancestral home in Birbhum.
Mukherjee who adorned the highest citadel of politics– President of India had a modest beginning. Deeply tied to his roots, he used to make it a point to be at Mirati village in Murshidabad district every year to take part in the four-day rituals, the Durga Puja had a ‘social dimension’ for him.
“I want to avail this opportunity to be with the people of my area,” Mukherjee always said during his visit to his native village.
On several occasions he was heard saying that the ‘Chandi Path’ he did during the Puja days gave him courage and strength to fight all odds round the year.
Born into a Bengali Brahmin family, Mukherjee studied in Kirnahar Shib Chandra High School and graduated from Suri Vidyasagar College in Birbhum. After completion of his education Mukherjee worked as an upper-division Clerk in the Office of Deputy Accountant-General (Post and Telegraph) in Kolkata.
In 1963 he became Lecturer of Political Science at Vidyasagar College and also took up a job as a journalist with the ‘Desher Dak’.
85-year-old Pranab Mukherjee had a long political career and began his journey with Ajoy Mukherjee’s Bangla Congress. In 1969, he became a member of Rajya Sabha as the representative of the Bangla Congress that was formed on May 1, 1966. Later, he caught Indira Gandhi’s eye and became the part of National Congress.
A quintessential Congressman for five decades, the seven-time parliamentarian’s first stop in Delhi was the Rajya Sabha in 1969, the House that re-elected him four more times before he won his first Lok Sabha election from Bengal’s Jangipur in 2004 and was re-elected in 2009.
Politicians these days don’t think twice before defecting to another political party, forgetting the ideology of their root party. Mukherjee is one of the few politicians who started and ended his political career with the Congress.
Despite several political turmoil within the party Mukherjee was forced to leave the Indian National Congress (INC) many a times and even if he started a new party, the affinity was always with the Congress, be it joining the Bangla Congress or starting Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress (RSC).
Since then Pranab Mukherjee was under the benign eye of Indira Gandhi and gradually became her favourite. What happened following the merger of the Bangla Congress with the Congress is now history. He was omnipresent in the Congress party, be it the era of PV Narasimha Rao or Manmohan Singh.
Pranab Mukherjee was sidelined from the INC following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Although Mukherjee was much more experienced in politics than Indira’s son, Rajiv Gandhi, it was Rajiv who gained control.
Mukherjee lost his position in the cabinet and was sent to manage the regional West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee. He was considered to be Indira’s likely successor and, siding with those within his party who aligned themselves against Rajiv Gandhi.
In 1986 Mukherjee founded another party, the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress, in West Bengal. The RSC and INC merged three years later after reaching a compromise with Rajiv Gandhi.
More than a Bengali from Bengal, many regarded him as a Hindu Brahmin. He raised eyebrows when he attended a function of the RSS but there also he highlighted the importance of pluralism and tolerance. Clearly, while dealing with the BJPs Hindutva policy, Mukherjee’s characteristics remained composite in nature and involved unity amongst the diversity in religion. He always represented India’s variety and diversity.
During the turbulent days of Bengal politics, in 1967, the first United Front government came to power in Bengal. Ajoy Mukherjee was the Chief Minister and the left Front’s Jyoti Basu became the Deputy CM. Soon after this alliance of Congress with the Left Front, the bonhomie between the two parties continued and Mukherjee too was extremely close to Jyoti Basu.
After spending several years in political oblivion the Bharat Ratna politician returned to limelight in 1991, when Rao appointed Mukherjee as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission. Mukherjee later took up the role of External Affairs Minister from 1995 to 1996 in Rao’s Cabinet. In 2000, he was appointed President of the West Bengal Congress: a post he went on to hold until his resignation in 2010.
Apart from his political life, Mukherjee was extremely close to Bengali literature. Rabindranath Tagore, Tarashankar, Bhibhutibhushan Bandhopadhyay were among his favourite authors.
Not only an avid reader, Mukherjee has also penned several books. His books, ‘The Dramatic Decade- The Indira Gandhi years’, ‘The Turbulent Years’, ‘The coalition Years’ won the hearts of many Bengalis.
Through his work, be it in politics or literature, the Bengali hearts will always miss their Pranab da and his ‘Chandi Path’ every year.
With inputs from senior journalist Anirban Chakrabarti
Giridih/Ranchi: Member of Parliament (MP) from Unnao, Sakshi Maharaj getting quarantined in Giridih, Jharkhand and being let off within a day has once again proved how strong Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s information system is, and it can build a narrative in its favour.
The five times controversial MP, when asked for permission to visit Giridih was permitted with a remark that he will have to ‘quarantine’ for 14 days, a norm set by central government itself. The message was sent to him on Friday night, said a source in Jharkhand Chief Minister Office (CMO).
Sakshi Maharaj was in Giridih to visit Gurumata of Shanti Bhavan, with which the MP is associated and he often visit. On Saturday, when he was to return, district administration officials told him to remain in quarantine, but the BJP MP stated that since the Parliament session to is to begin from Monday and as a member of the standing committee, he needs to be there. The MP, to avoid police action, also used a different route to reach Dhanbad, from where he was to take a train to Delhi.
But at Pirtand, Giridih Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM) and Indian Administrative Officer Prerna Dixit stopped him and asked him to remain in quarantine at Shanti Bhavan itself.
After the incident, BJP leaders and its information system come into action. BJP leaders cited Tej Pratap Yadav, son of Lalu Yadav as an example, who recently visited the RJD Supremo with a cavalcade in Ranchi.
Accusing Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand having double standard, BJP leaders also warned of protest, if Sakshi Maharaj was not let out of quarantine within 24 hours.
Screenshot of a post in Facebook praising SDM Prerna Dixit
“We have also met Deputy Commissioner (Rahul Sinha), Giridih and now Sakshiji Maharaj is being released,” Mahadev Dubey, BJP district president told eNewsroom.
On social media, party supporters had also got active and accused the Hemant Soren government of having double standard on the issue.
Dubey also informed that he had written a letter to SDM Dixit to get permission for protest, but that was denied.
“Yesterday itself, we had said that the MP has asked for exemption from quarantine, we will again think over it. And when his Covid-19 report was declared negative, we decided to let him go,” DC Rahul Sinha told eNewsroom.
While leaving, Sakshi Maharaj told media persons that what happened with him was unfortunate.
However, Jharkhand Mukhti Morcha (JMM) MLA from Giridih Sudivya Kumar refuted all the allegations of BJP and told eNewsroom, “BJP is only spreading misinformation on this issue. First of all, Sakshi Maharaj, who is mentioning that he has been MP several times, should act more responsibly.”
Kumar continued, “And on the issue of Tej Pratap, Ranchi administration has lodged FIR. Also, if he was travelling with several vehicles, then while coming and returning, anytime, Nitish Kumar government should have taken action against him, which did not happen.”
“And as far as the question of Sakshi Maharaj letting go within 24 hours is concerned, the MP has been released by administration on two grounds—first his Covid report was negative and second, his request that he has to attend Parliament Session on Monday,” the JMM MLA added.
The MP had also visited Shanti Bhavan in April, but as the rule to put outside travellers in quarantine came into existence in the month of July only, it was not a violation of lockdown rules that time, said the DC.
Meanwhile, on social media, some netizens has praised SDM Prerna Dixit as ‘hero’ for putting the MP, who has become synonymous with controversies, in quarantine. The 64-year-old Sakshi Maharaj is named accused in at least 34 cases.
Before watching Sadak 2, I watched Sadak once more to renew the memory. It was of course a hit back in 1991 but what if it had released today? One would have said Prashant Narayanan as a villain from the Bhatt camp did a way, way better job in Murder 2 than Sadashiv Amrapurkar. That’s my opinion. But not only did the role of Maharani (played by Amrapurkar) sell back in the 90s, the couple was even a hit.
Today, when the clean print of the old movie popped up in parts in its sequel, one thing that I felt good about was the work of restoration into the digital version. And of course a good black and white portrait of Pooja Bhatt in Sanjay Dutt’s (Ravi, the taxi driver) room and in his Audi. Good photography, I must appreciate it.
Now let’s do a preliminary autopsy of what director daddy did for his daughters.
1. He loves Pooja more than Alia. How? He knew it would be the worst film of his career. He kept her only in references, photos, dialogues and memories.
2. Director Saab envied the character of Jishu Sengupta (Yogesh Desai) so much that he in real life became the villain of his younger daughter’s career.
The repeat star cast
If half of the star cast — run over by “nepotism” — from a flop movie (Kalank) comes together in a headless and dying story, coupled with bad direction (on par with Ram Gopal Varma’s Aag), no “Malang” or a “Musafir” would like to travel on this “Highway”!
The story now, a bit: A girl, Arya, leaves home because she knows her maasi killed her mother and is now married to her father. Both her parents follow a dhongi baba and she wants to reveal the truth and conspiracy behind the murder of her mother. She starts an online campaign to unmask these fake godmen. She manages to get quite many followers and also a lover, Aditya Roy Kapur (Vishal) who has a history and also a plan. She hires Ravi for her Kailash Yatra and history is mutually shared in the geographical exploration.
Forget about the storyline or direction or even the star cast, from factual errors to incomplete back story, Sadak 2 can easily be said “the worst so far this year”.
The same old nagging tunes of Ankit Tiwari, predictable dialogues and weakest of the lot, its screenplay, take you nowhere.
If you loved, sorry hated, Chunky Pandey in Begum Jaan, Jishu was the one who viewers had hated more in its original version Rajkahini. He repeats! Powerful, impactful, composed with an evil stare, he is perhaps the one who stands out in the entire movie. Priyanka Bose (who recently did a fabulous job but overshadowed by Adil Hussain in Pareeksha) as the maasi-turned-mother, Nandini, is good only in one scene and then there was a line of good actors wasted. From Makrand Deshpande to Gulshan Grover and the trio in the lead, who are considered good actors, are just wasted.
Saransh: Director Mahesh Bhatt who had made beautiful and memorable movies leaves a Zakhm on his fans and perhaps wouldn’t like to put on the director’s hat anymore.
सरकार द्वारा किए जा रहे तमाम प्रयासों के बावजूद देश में कोरोना का प्रकोप बढ़ता ही जा रहा है. पूरे देश में इस रोग के प्रसार और उसके कारण लगाए गए प्रतिबंधों से एक बड़ी आबादी बहुत दुःख और परेशानियां झेल रही है. इस साल की फरवरी की शुरूआत में ही विश्व स्वास्थ्य संगठन ने दुनिया भर की सरकारों को इस रोग से बचने के लिए उपयुक्त कदम उठाने को कहा था. परंतु उस समय भारत सरकार ‘नमस्ते ट्रंप’ और मध्यप्रदेश की सरकार को गिराने के लिए शुरू किए गए ‘आपरेशन कमल’ को सफल बनाने में व्यस्त थी. फिर 22 मार्च को जनता कर्फ्यू लगाया गया और उसके दो दिन बाद देश को ताले-चाबी में बंद कर दिया गया. इसके बाद से सरकार ने कोविड को गंभीरता से लेना शुरू किया. समय रहते स्थिति को नियंत्रित करने के लिए उचित कदम न उठाने की अपनी घोर असफलता को छुपाने के लिए सरकार बलि के बकरों की तलाश में थी. और तबलीगी जमात एक अच्छा बकरा साबित हुआ. पहले सरकार ने और फिर मीडिया ने देश में कोविड के प्रसार के लिए तबलीगी जमात द्वारा मरकज निजामुद्दीन में 13 से 15 मार्च तक आयोजित एक सेमिनार को दोषी बताना शुरू कर दिया.
इसमें कोई संदेह नहीं कि उस दौर में इस तरह का बड़ा आयोजन करना उचित नहीं था. परंतु हम इस तथ्य को नजरअंदाज नहीं कर सकते कि नमस्ते ट्रंप में भाग लेने के लिए सैकड़ों लोग विदेश से भारत आए थे. इस कार्यक्रम में लगभग दो लाख लोगों ने शिरकत की थी. उस समय तक देश में मंदिर और अन्य धार्मिक स्थल खुले हुए थे और उनमें धार्मिक व अन्य आयोजन हो रहे थे. तबलीगी जमात के कार्यक्रम में भाग लेने जो लोग विदेश से भारत आए थे उन्होंने सभी आवश्यक अनुमतियां लीं थीं और हवाईअड्डों पर उनकी बाकायदा स्क्रीनिंग हुई थी. इसके बाद भी कोरोना संक्रमण के प्रसार के लिए जमात को दोषी ठहराना सरकार में बैठे लोगों की विशिष्ट मानसिकता का प्रतीक था. जमात को कठघरे में खड़ा कर देश के संपूर्ण मुस्लिम समुदाय पर निशाना साधा जा रहा था.
गोदी मीडिया ने एक कदम और आगे बढ़कर यह चिल्लाना शुरू कर दिया कि तबलीगी जमात ने एक सुनियोजित षड़यंत्र के तहत देश में कोरोना संक्रमण फैलाया. इस तथाकथित षड़यंत्र को ‘कोरोना जिहाद’ की संज्ञा दी गई. कहा गया कि मरकज में ‘कोरोना बम’ तैयार किए जा रहे थे. मजे की बात यह है कि मरकज उस इलाके के पुलिस थाने से कुछ सौ मीटर की दूरी पर है. गोदी मीडिया की समाज में कितनी गहरी पैठ है यह इससे जाहिर है कि इस दुष्प्रचार ने तेजी से जड़ पकड़ ली कि मुसलमान जानबूझकर देश में कोरोना फैला रहे हैं. कई स्थानों पर ठेले पर सब्जी बेचने वाले गरीब मुसलमानों की पिटाई हुई और कई हाउसिंग सोसायटियों ने अपने कैम्पस में उनका प्रवेश प्रतिबंधित कर दिया.
कुछ तबलीगियों को क्वारंटीन किया गया और कुछ को अस्पतालों में भर्ती किया गया. फिर तो साम्प्रदायिक गोदी मीडिया की बन आई. चारों ओर फेक न्यूज का बोलबाला हो गया. यह आरोप लगाया गया कि अस्पतालों में भर्ती तबलीगी वार्डों में नंगे घूम रहे हैं, यहां-वहां थूक रहे हैं और नर्सों के साथ अश्लीलता कर रहे हैं. इससे देश में पहले से ही मुसलमानों के प्रति जो नफरत व्याप्त थी वह और बढ़ गई. पुलिस भी हरकत में आई और विदेश से आए तबलीगियों के खिलाफ कई राज्यों में प्रकरण दर्ज कर लिए गए. उन पर वीजा नियमों का उल्लंघन करने, महामारी फैलाने और इस्लाम का प्रचार करने के आरोप लगाए गए.
इन मामलों में अदालतों के निर्णयों ने उल्टे मीडिया और पुलिस को ही कठघरे में खड़ा कर दिया. इन फैसलों से जाहिर है कि पुलिस द्वारा दर्ज किए गए मामले कितने झूठे थे और मीडिया ने किस कदर दुष्प्रचार किया और अफवाहें फैलाईं. ऐसे ही एक मामले में बंबई उच्च न्यायालय की औरंगाबाद पीठ ने पुलिस और मीडिया पर तीखी टिप्पणियां की हैं. न्यायालय ने कहा, “जब भी कोई महामारी फैलती है या कोई आपदा आती है, तब राजनैतिक सरकारें बलि के बकरों की तलाश करने लगतीं हैं. इस मामले में परिस्थितियों को देखते हुए ऐसा लगता है कि विदेशी तबलीगियों को बलि का बकरा बनाने के लिए चुना गया. तत्समय की परिस्थितियों और वर्तमान में संक्रमण की दर को देखते हुए ऐसा लगता है कि याचिकाकर्ताओं के खिलाफ की गई कार्यवाही गैर-वाजिब थी”. मीडिया की आलोचना करते हुए अदालत ने कहा, “प्रिंट और इलेक्ट्रानिक मीडिया में जमकर यह प्रचार किया गया कि भारत में कोविड-19 संक्रमण को फैलाने के लिए ये विदेशी जिम्मेदार हैं. उन्हें गंभीर मानसिक प्रताड़ना दी गई”.
यह निर्णय मुसलमानों के प्रति पुलिस और मीडिया के दृष्टिकोण की केस स्टडी है. जो मुसलमान विदेश से सेमिनार में भाग लेने आए थे या भारत में घूम रहे थे उन्हें अकारण परेशान और प्रताड़ित किया गया. अदालत ने कहा, “पुलिस द्वारा की गई यह कार्यवाही, देश के मुसलमानों के लिए एक अप्रत्यक्ष चेतावनी थी कि उनके खिलाफ कभी भी कोई भी कार्यवाही की जा सकती है. इस तरह के इशारे भी किए गए कि देश के मुसलमानों पर केवल इसलिए कार्यवाही की जाएगी क्योंकि वे विदेशी मुसलमानों से संपर्क रखते हैं. इन विदेशियों के खिलाफ कार्यवाही से दुर्भाव की बू आती है. एफआईआर को रद्द करने या प्रकरण को समाप्त करने के लिए दायर की गई याचिकाओं का निपटारा करते समय दुर्भाव का पहलू ध्यान में रखा जाना होता है”.
यह साफ है कि हमारे देश में जहां एक ओर कुछ लोगों को बलि का बकरा माना जाता है वहीं कुछ को पवित्र गाय का दर्जा मिला हुआ है और उन्हें कभी भी कुछ भी कहने या करने की आजादी है. हाल में दिल्ली में हुई हिंसा के मामले में जिन लोगों के विरूद्ध पुलिस द्वारा कार्यवाही की जा रही है उनमें से अधिकांश वे हैं जिन्होंने सीएए-एनआरसी के खिलाफ प्रदर्शन में भाग लिया था. इसके विपरीत, जिन लोगों ने भड़काऊ भाषण दिए, जिन लोगों ने देश के गद्दारों को… जैसे नारे लगाए (अनुराग ठाकुर), जिन लोगों ने कहा कि आंदोलनकारी घरों में घुसकर हिन्दू महिलाओं के साथ बलात्कार करेंगे (प्रवेश वर्मा), जिन लोगों ने कहा कि हम उन्हें धक्का देकर भगा देंगे (कपिल मिश्रा), वे सब खुले घूम रहे हैं. उन्हें किसी का डर नहीं है.
ठीक इसी तरह का घटनाक्रम 2006-08 में देश के विभिन्न भागों में हुए बम धमाकों के बाद भी हुआ था. हैदराबाद की मक्का मस्जिद में हुए विस्फोट के बाद बड़ी संख्या में मुस्लिम युवकों को गिरफ्तार कर जेलों में डाल दिया गया था. बाद में विभिन्न अदालतों ने उन्हें सुबूतों के अभाव में निर्दोष घोषित कर दिया. इसके विपरीत मालेगांव बम धमाकों की प्रमुख आरोपी प्रज्ञा ठाकुर को न केवल जमानत पर जेल से रिहाई मिल गई है वरन् वे सांसद भी बन गई हैं.
कहने की जरूरत नहीं कि देश में कुछ लोगों को पवित्र गाय और कुछ को बलि का बकरा घोषित कर दिया गया है. आप बकरे हैं या गाय, यह आपके धर्म पर निर्भर करता है.
Ranchi: A day after highlighting the need of postponing National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) examinations at the nation level, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren wrote to Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank describing the present situation of Jharkhand amid lockdown during Covid-19 pandemic crisis.
CM Soren in his two page letter to the education minister pointed out how the Jharkhand government has not yet permitted the commencement of public transportation and opening of restaurants and hotels since lockdown had begun in March. He maintained that conducting NEET, JEE examinations could have serious consequences for students and state during Covid-19 pandemic.
“Moreover, many examinees would be from containment zones, the candidate or his/her family members may be infected too, and could infect others while appearing for examination. This could be life threatening for them and others, so in public interest, the examination should be postponed,” Jharkhand chief Minister’s letter stated. It also maintained that in the wake of non-opening of hotels and lodges, the parents along with the examiners could have serious accommodation problem if the examination is conducted.
In the letter CM Soren highlighted how people were leading a stressed life because of the pandemic. Given the fact that these exams are professional exams, that decide the future course of studies of the aspirants, Soren added, “These exams are extremely critical in the life of the students. The success or otherwise decides the future life of the examinee. Hence, it becomes necessary that they appear for the exam in the best mental frame.”
On Wednesday, while interacting with the opposition Chief Ministers, Hemant Soren had also said that a united group comprising chief ministers from the Opposition should meet President of India Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to put forward their demand for the cancellation of the examination.
The chief ministers who had interacted together on the issue with Congress President Sonia Gandhi were Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee, her Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray, Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Chattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel and Puducherry’s V Narayanasamy and they all almost echoed Soren.
Mamata Banerjee had even said to knock the door of Supreme Court on the issue.
The communal provocations by the ruling Sangh Parivar forces and retaliatory Muslim violence faced different responses from ruling parties in states in tune with the political preferences of the regimes. In BJP-ruled Karnataka, on 11 August night Bengaluru police was asked to open fire on a violent Muslim mob which was demanding immediate arrest of a politically well-connected Hindutva enthusiast following his inflammatory post against the prophet of Islam on Facebook.
As I have mentioned in my earlier piece, the violence was a godsend for BJP before the coming municipal polls in Bengaluru. Post-violence decisions by its government made it clear that the Sangh parivar would further its claims to be the no-nonsense protectors of peace-loving Hindus from Muslim menace. An edgy communal polarization in big cities would also help the regime in the coming rural polls in the state. Approx. 13 per cent of Karnataka population is Muslim, spread across the state but more in northern region, formerly ruled by princely Hyderabad.
However, Hindutva fanatics and vigilantes had never met harsh law enforcers in the city and state despite vandalizing properties and roughing up people for celebrating Valentine Day and other ‘anti-Hindu and anti-national’ activities. These included celebration of the reign of mythological Demon king Mahisasura by the Dalit Hindus, commemoration of birth anniversary of British-era Muslim monarch Tipu Sultan in the Mysore region or installation of a giant statue of Christ. The recent protests against pre-Covid protests against religiously biased Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) also came under the same category.
Meanwhile, the real culprits and the conspiracy behind the killings of veteran educationist MS Kalburgi and journalist Gouri Lankesh are yet to be unearthed. More than five years have passed since they were gunned down at their homes by the motorcycle-borne killers. The latter’s modus operandi clearly linked these two killings to the series of targeted assassinations of prominent anti-RSS public intellectuals including Govind Pansare and Narendra Davolkar in neighboring Maharashtra. Deccan region of south-central India which comprises large parts of both states and adjoining areas was once the theatre of prolonged battles between Mughals and Maratha Empires. Nagpur-centered Sangh Parivar has usurped the legacy of the Maratha king Shivaji by turning him into a Hindu superhero against Muslim tyranny. Mixed populated Deccan has become the Sangh’s launching pad farther south to complete its trans-region communal polarization and Hindu consolidation.
Anyone who questions the RSS grand narrative of medieval Deccan wars and larger Indian history in terms of Hindu-Muslim binary by referring to clashes among Muslim powers; north Indian Mughals Vs Deccan’s Vijapur- Golconda or Shivaji’s alliance with regional Muslim forces and his tolerant statecraft would risk the fate of old communist Pansare. Similarly, any opposition to the appropriation of Basavanna, the 12th century anti-Brahmanism statesman-turned saint would meet his end like Kalburgi and Lankesh. Many secular Hindu intellectuals like late UR Ananthamurthi and K S Bhagawan have received death threats or expulsion to Pakistan for their critical takes on Brahmanical orthodoxy. Same was the experience of those who refused to join the Sangh’s demonization of Tipu Sultan as a bigoted monster and preferred a critical appreciation of the controversial ruler and his era. Bengaluru’s leading minds like thespian and playwright Girish Karnad and historian-columnist Ramchandra Guha faced the saffron ire time and again for opposing the RSS vision of India, past and future.
File photo of Left rally in December, 2019 against CAA-NRC-NPR in Kolkata
Bengal scenario
During Bengaluru-like situation in Bengal’s Baduria in 2017, state police under Trinamool Congress (TMC) dispensation was explicitly told not to use maximum force as the ruling party counted heavily on Muslim votes. Similar attacks on police stations had happened in north and south Bengal by Muslim mobs following digital and other forms of provocations by Hindutva forces in 2015-16 prior to Bengal assembly polls. Huge shows of religious sensitivities of the Muslim masses were organized by rival conservative Muslim bodies. The local ruffians and smugglers used the opportunity to settle scores with police-administration and attacked police stations from Kaliachak in Malda, Ilambazar in Birbhum and Baduria-Basirhat in north 24 parganas.
In no way, I stand for police firing as it had mostly killed the innocents across the country over the decades. It would have worsened the communal situation in the areas bordering Bangladesh. But the police laxity, never shown to the opposition protesters under TMC or its predecessor Lefts, became handy for the BJP and its echo-chambers to bolster its charges of Muslim appeasements by Mamata Banerjee government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, then the BJP president had tried their best to fan the communal tension in Basirhat and other bordering areas of Bengal during their election campaigns in 2014 and 2019. They threatened to expel Bangladeshi Muslim ‘infiltrators’ and accused them of stealing land and livelihood for locals while welcoming Hindu illegal immigrants as ‘refugees’. Mamata virtually substantiated some charges as she had courted Muslim conservatives and shown favors to minority religiosity (rather than focusing on the community’s earthly problems like livelihood and education) to bag Muslim vote en bloc. The community has a share of approx. 30 percent of Bengal population.
However, after prolonged mayhem in Badudia-Basirhat, an exasperated chief minister obliquely chided the Muslim zealots who had stoked the mob passions during the violence. Many of them had either been aligned to her or were trying to bargain with her party in order to gain leverage in local and state politics by playing radical saviors of the community. While BJP supporters heckled Hindu TMC leaders, some Muslim cleric and politicians close to the TMC were also at the receiving end of the Muslim mob ire. Religious but sane voices with the community had tried to douse the flame and took positive steps. But personal and group rivalries even among the scions of Sufi-Pir traditions in rural Bengal were evident during the violence as they vied for popular support to buttress their social-political power and personal wealth.
But she also blamed forces from outside Bengal for troubles who are trying to be radical saviors for Muslims. As Bengal is heading to assembly polls by May 2021, Mamata is now explicitly worried about the growing influence of Hyderabad-based All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in pockets of Bengal. She had spats with its chief Asaduddin Owaisi, now the most vociferous Muslim voice in the BJP-dominated Parliament, over initial violence in Bengal of the regime’s religiously biased CAA-NRC project. Ambitious clerics cum politicians in Bengal used to court Congress and Left parties till the nineties and later Mamata’s TMC.
File photo of Muslims distributing fruits to Kanwar Yatris in 2017
Now they are cozying up to radical saviors like AIMIM as well as primarily Kerala-based Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) whose leaders are the prime accused in Bangalore violence. Both have the ambition to be a pan-Indian Muslim political party as BJP-RSS regime has triggered a nationwide panic and anger among Indian Muslims. Both are now spreading their wings in Maharashtra, Karnataka and other southern states, even in distant Bengal. In the meantime, orthodox Wahabi-Salafi clerics who are opposed to liberal- pluralist Muslim voices and Hindu-Muslim syncretic traditions like the sects of Baul-Fakirs have been fast gaining ground in rural Bengal since last few years. Gullible Muslim masses, particularly, the rural youth are falling prey to them as their participation in communal violence from 2014 onwards have underlined.
Muslim retaliatory street violence: A trap to be avoided
In the backdrop of ongoing Hindutva offensives, it’s natural that extremists and separatists, from Jihadists to Pan-Islamists, religious and political exclusivists and other self-professed saviors of the Muslim community would flourish in India. The failure of democratic and secular opposition parties including the Lefts to put up a concerted and spirited resistance to the reign of religious fascism so far has added to their desperation. The saving grace of the resistance in these dark hours is civil society protests led by women and students mainly in big cities.
Nevertheless, there are judicious voices among Muslims in India who are alarmed over the street violence by a section of community youth in reaction to digital insults to Islam. They feel that mayhems a la Baduria and Bengaluru would only help the Sangh Parivar to show the community as inherently violent and intolerant to criticisms with primitive herd mentality.
Others have felt that the trap for reactive violence must be avoided if the majority among Muslims believes in the founding ethos of free India and other modern multi-cultural societies which the Hindutva and other majoritarian fascist forces want to destroy across the world. But protests in democratic forms must be continued. Holding high the national flag and the ideals of our freedom fighters, the cross-faith citizens’ sit-ins from Delhi’s Shaheen Bag to Kolkata’s Park Circus and countless rallies from Bengaluru to Mumbai against the Modi regime’s religion-based Citizenship matrix had set the examples. We must renew the spirit of the protests that had ignited the imagination of idealist youths as well as grey-heads prior to Covid clampdown.
Also patience is needed to turn the table. Lakhs of migrant laborer families, both Hindus and Muslims who were left to fend for themselves and forced to walk hundreds of miles to reach their distant homes during the lockdown have already known it dearly that this inhuman regime stands for crony capitalists only. With millions lost their livelihood, the mass disillusionment about the regime’s false claims to legendary Ram Rajya is bound to come. Muslim separatism of Jinnah era or Islamic radicalism and fundamentalism are no answer to the current plights of Indian Muslims. They must strive for cross-faith united resistance. Poor and lower caste Hindus and Muslims had fought and prayed together against oppressors and exploiters of all hues for centuries. Unless, Muslim bodies too strive for its revival, hotheaded responses will further augment the Brahminical Sangh Parivar’s social engineering project that now uses Dalits as its foot soldiers in riots and subsequent Hindu consolidation as Gujarat 2002 to Bengaluru 2020 violence have underlined.
An iconic picture of Hindu-Muslim unity does the round on social media I Courtesy: Hindu Muslim Unity/ Facebook
Ram and Rahim can and must unite
The hope also lies in the sanity of those who still cherish both the tolerant heterodoxy and syncretic traditions of our forefathers. The Muslim youths who saved the offender Naveen’s mother and formed human chains in front of a Hanuman temple in Bengaluru to save it from the irate mob are epitome of such hopes. Three years back, some Hindu and Muslim youths in Baduria- Basirhat had also joined hands to guard the Mazars, mosques and Mandirs. The family of an elderly Hindu trader who was killed by the Muslim rioters on his way back home, refused to join the saffron brigade despite BJP tried its best. Instead, they made room for an injured Muslim in the same ambulance in which they carried the old man to a Kolkata hospital.
Such people represent the silent majority of the land beyond the online hate factories, frothy studios of Godi TV media and blood-thirsty mobs. Let us keep up the light of those countless small Diyas amid the prevailing darkness.
The hydra-headed digital demons must be fought
A sizeable section of the Bengali Muslim youth who had joined the intermittent communal violence are migrant laborers who have lost jobs, first after demonetization in 2016 and then during Covid-19 lockdown this year. Apart from the economic miseries, these Bengali boys are bitter and restive over the persecution and harassment they have faced as ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’ from Gujarat to Karnataka as well as in Hindi heartland.
As I spoke to some of them as well as their village elders at riot-hit areas, they harped on their exposures to cross-country witch-hunting as well as global Islamophobia by dint of online social media. The elders included some local clerics who used to prevail upon the hotheads and mitigated the communal tensions by banking on village-level inter-community daily dependence and local traditions to maintain social peace. Now they feel bewildered after the invasion of the globalized menace; the smart-phone with constant social media access by dint of As we have already observed the phenomenal growth in the numbers of smart-phone users and low-cost internet connectivity. It has wiped out the boundaries between known and unknown, reshaped the identities while redrawing the battle line between ‘us and them’.
The proliferation of hateful messages and images through social media has made the digital demon a powerful multiplier of the evil forces. Prolonged COVID lockdown has only widened its reach and impact. Unfortunately, today’s tech-savvy but culturally ignorant youths have been most vulnerable to these master manipulators of bigoted passions in the name of Lord Rama- Krishna and Allah and His messenger.
Furthermore, this infernal technological force at the command of Hindutva and other hate-factories has become virtually invincible with the active connivance or deliberate condoning of the hate and disinformation campaigns by the US social media behemoths, particularly, the Facebook and Whatsapp controlled by it. The Wall Street Journal has recently reported on Facebook’s Indian operatives being willfully lenient to the BJP bandwagon despite its hateful and violent messages and images against Muslims and secular opposition, apparently on business concerns. The report is another pointer to the hypocrisy of the FB founder Mark Zuckerberg who had promised to amend its practices several times before the American lawmakers.
In addition to ‘Godi’ or pro-Modi TV media, this vast echo-chamber is wreaking havoc on the social fabric of India and many other strife-torn countries. The fabulous tie-up between the Facebook and Jio cellular network of Reliance group led by Mukesh Ambani, the leading figure of crony billionaires of Modi regime has only made the medium itself a deadly opiate for the vulnerable youth across the faith line and a veritable death agent for Indian pluralist traditions and modern democracy. We must raise our voice against such nexus, both online and offline, sans the rudderless violence as we have witnessed from Baduria to Bengaluru.
Kolkata: After the handloom, handicrafts and later, powerloom boards got scrapped one after another, many in the sector expected the Government of India (GoI) to announce some alternate measures on Independence Day. But with no such announcements forthcoming, industry expert feel the artisans and weavers will suffer as a result.
In fact, people involved with handloom are worried about how the weavers, artisans and printers would now approach the government with the interface like handloom board now gone.
Just days before the National Handloom Day, August 7, the central government abolished the handicrafts and handloom boards. The resolution to scrap the two advisory bodies was passed on July 27 by the office of the development commissioner of handlooms and was made in “consonance with the centre’s vision of ‘minimum government and maximum governance’ and leaner government machinery and the need for systematic rationalisation of government bodies.”
While the handicrafts board was established in 1952 by Pupul Jayakar and chaired by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, the handloom board was formed in 1992 and comprised representatives from the sector, besides members of the central and state governments.
The Reaction
Expressing anguish over the disbanding of the handloom board (AIHB), designer, chairperson of non-profit Dastkar and a member of the board, Laila Tyabji wrote in her social media post:
“All these years on, it (AIHB) remained the one official forum, however watered down, where the voices and views of weavers and craftspeople could be expressed directly.
The spaces where people themselves can interact directly with the government, or be part of their own governance, are certainly becoming leaner and increasingly few in number. It is worrying,”
Tyabji, who was trolled for her comments, said, “The mudslinging is irrelevant. Just making allegations doesn’t give answers as to why the board was abolished and what is to come in its place. There has to be some reassurance from the government. Already there have been protests and marches by the artisans’ forums against the decision. If a board is not working well, you don’t scrape it but try and revive it. If you abolish something then the message goes out that you are not interested in it.”
Another member of the board, designer Madhu Jain, who works extensively with artisans, said, “I don’t want to comment much on the centre’s decision. I believe they (government) must be having something up on their minds. Smriti Irani is a bright minister and must be having something in the pipeline as she is someone, who has deep interest in handloom. The board had a very meaningful role to play. Being part of the board had been a good experience as it had some of the finest minds in the country.”
Former honorary president of CCI (Crafts Council of India) and former NID director, Ashoke Chatterjee feels the boards were a wonderful way of creating rural employment and women empowerment and the abolition of these boards is leading to protests. “There has also been many cases of suicides among artisans in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” he said. Designer Ritu Kumar, who has also written a book Costumes and Textiles of Royal India, wasn’t ready to comment and said she along with other designers would later make a collective statement through crafts council.
Government Clarification
Union textiles minister Smriti Irani, taking part in a Web chat was extremely critical of the functioning of the boards and its non-functional members. Speaking of her own experience of handling the ministry, she said, “The NGOs desired to extract funds through government and international sources on the premise that they were connected to the clusters and the grassroots weavers. And I think there was a deliberate attempt to ensure that the disconnect continued. The weaver is not even aware. The middlemen or the social activists took advantage from both ends.”
Batting for the scrapping of the handloom and handicrafts board, the minister added, “Our efforts in the past 4 years have been to break the nexus and ensure that if there is a sarkari order, we leverage our field offices and district administration to ensure that all arms of the centre can collaborate in making sure that our weavers are supported.”
For Smriti Irani a case in point is the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY). “When the PMMY was announced it wasn’t for weavers but we spoke to the department of financial services and asked them if they could help with the weaving clusters. For this we got nationalised banks and reached out to all clusters.”
The Union minister, talking of revival of the sector, said that she is trying to revitalize the Weavers’ Service Centres (WSC). “In the first phase, nine WSCs were upgraded. For the upgradation of the 28 WSCs in India, we have given NIFT Rs 30cr. We felt the students, who are future of textiles, should go to the clusters and upgrade the WSCs. They should also understand the weaving patterns of the local area and juxtapose it with modern designs,” said Irani. The minister assured that there is no reason to cry foul over the disbanding of the boards.
Differences Remain
Textile designer Bina Rao, working with weavers for the last 30 years, was a member of the now-defunct AIHB. She feels the loan procurement is not so easy for a weaver. She said, “The process of getting Mudra loan is cumbersome and the amount given is not enough for even one cycle of production for weavers. It is a brilliant idea but the vehicle should be proper.”
Rao, who had been member of many expert panels set up by the government, says that during her tenure of 6-7 years, she only had two meetings and that too ended without much action, though there were many expert meetings. “Whenever I was in the capital (New Delhi) for the ministry’s meetings, I would request for Smritiji’s time and each time I failed to get her time. The last four years or so I have noticed that centre’s intent on the handloom sector wasn’t progressive with high GST on yarn and finished products,” she added.
But she is optimistic about the government taking steps to revive the sector. “We are hopeful that the centre will come up with some smart solutions, putting in place another body that will recognize the handloom sector just like other industries.”
Kolkata: One of India’s youngest social media influencers and activists, Wali Rahmani who became a household name because of his YouTube videos has vowed to never make his opinion public. Rahmani has been consciously refraining from posting on social media or making YouTube videos to share what’s on his mind regarding Prashant Bhushan or to counter the anti-Muslim narrative of the right-wingers.
21-year-old YouTuber Wali Rahmani has been in activism since his teenage and even adopted underprivileged kids to make them future leaders by providing them good education and ensuring holistic development of every child in his center Ummeed. The law student uses his Youtube earnings to nurture kids.
Rahmani has also been very active during lockdown and help get foods not only to men and women but animals too.
Speaking to eNewsroom, Rahmani said, “I am disheartened with the kind of trolling that my family and I have had to endure, because of my talk on Dhruv Rathee’s YouTube chat show.” On being asked, what he said on the show, he replied, “We were speaking about the communal clashes that took place in Bengaluru because of a derogatory post made about the Prophet (PBUH) and I had cited a Hadith, which many other Islamic scholars like Mufti Menk has also cited. But the moment the video was released, people took offence to the Hadith (which now I have come to know is a wrong Hadith) I shared. I have even apologised for the same, but people kept trolling me and my parents.”
He paused and added, “It felt sad. All these years I have been advocating for the community. The videos I made to break myths and counter right-wingers made me take up law as a profession. But, the same community is trolling me mercilessly. I am disappointed and hence have decided to be off social media. I had even wanted to delete my accounts. But my team told me that I shouldn’t delete them and that they would be using it to share stories of others. I gave in to their demand as they are the ones who have worked hard right from my handle getting a blue tick to me getting over a million social media followers.”
The youngster who till date had been praised suddenly has several memes terming him as a Sarkari Musalman, an agent of BJP, a traitor and even Sanghi. Some have even volunteered to throw garbage at him and his family while some have openly abused him.
Video of Mufti Menk, telling the rivayat of old woman throwing garbage on Prophet Muhammad
“The rivayat shared by Rahmani has been written in many Urdu books. Also, let’s be clear, it’s not a hadith but rivayat. He can’t be trolled for that. He is socially active youth from the Muslim community. A gifted speaker. He shouldn’t have been trolled the way he is being. He has even apologised for it,” said Noor Mahvish, a law student from Kolkata.
She further said and questioned, “Maybe the timing was wrong for Rahmani. But we shouldn’t forget the good work done by him just because of him sharing this rivayat on Dhruv Rathee’s show. Also, if they feel, Rahmani is wrong, then why are they not trolling Mufti Menk, who has also shared the same rivayat?”
Meanwhile, social activist Saira Shah Halim had some advice for the young activist, “Rahmani should not leave social media. We all get trolled for one reason or the other, but that should not make us leave any platform. There are people with right-wing mentality on both sides, and we should not bother about them.”
The extensive communal violence in Bengaluru on 11-12 August reminds me of the similar mayhems in Bengal’s Baduria town under Basirhat subdivision bordering Bangladesh on 2 July 2017. The last one was subsequently spread to some of adjoining areas in the next few days. The digital triggers for the violence as well as the consequent mobilization of vandals through online social media on both occasions have revealed almost a copy-paste method in the madness. The pattern is being increasingly used in inciting sectarian frenzy in various parts of the country as many other incidents have underlined.
In India’s Silicon Valley city, tension was palpable following mutual incitements in Facebook and Whatsapp on the eve of Janmastami (birthday of Lord Krishna) on 11 August. Exchanges of hateful messages and MIMs about the sexual proclivities of the Hindu god and Islam’s prophet were making rounds. The sectarian spat among some local netizens had begun in the backdrop of a more divisive Bhumi Pujan or foundation-laying ceremony for the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya on 5 August. Although India is still a secular republic, at least officially, the Hindu right wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it a point to be the principal player in the religious ceremony to begin the construction of a temple where once stood a five-century old mosque named after first Mughal ruler of north India, Babar. The latter was demolished 27 years back in a mob hysteria engineered by Modi’s party BJP and its ideological fountainhead, Rashtriya SwayamSevak Sangh (RSS).
Indian Muslims have grudgingly accepted the convoluted Supreme Court order that rewarded the disputed land to the ‘friends of Ram Lala’ while calling the demolition as a ‘criminal act against law’. Nevertheless, Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat equated Ram Janambhoomi ‘liberation’ to Indian freedom struggle against the British Raj which implicitly harped on the Sangth’s pet view of charge against the period of Muslim rule as an era of foreign subjugation and by extension, hatred to Indian Muslims as ‘Babar ki Awlad’ (children of Babar). Taking the cue, the online glee of the Hindutva groups on the occasion of their revenge over the ‘historical wrong doers’ had already vitiated the atmosphere. A large section of Muslims are increasingly feeling seized under the Modi regime, particularly after its second term since last May as the government and ruling party have unleashed a series of legal and administrative moves towards the RSS professed goal of a Hindu Rashtra or a majoritarian India. In this backdrop, the local explosion had only needed a suitable detonator but also an accessible instigator.
The IT capital of India: a vortex of communal politics
The cosmopolitan and temperate Bengaluru and Mangaluru have become the breeding grounds for fanatic Hindutva vigilante groups like Sri Ram Sene and Hindu Jagarana Vedike under the BJP rule in Karnataka over the years. They were intermittently challenged by radical Muslim parties and groups like SDPI and PFI etc. The mainstream opposition parties including Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) too are faction-ridden and controlled by wealthy elites with vested interests in real estate promotions and other lucrative businesses in the expanding tech city and its suburbs. The recent shows of money power in horse-trading for buying allegiance of party-hopping legislators to replace the elected government are a new normal in the state and national politics.
Both BJP and its rivals have little qualms in playing the communal and caste cards as the city municipal polls are scheduled in September. Though the polls are likely to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, jockeying for party tickets and cold calculations over sectarian voting have already begun. Media reports pointed to factional fights within ruling and opposition parties over the Pulakeshinagar assembly constituency in east Bangaludu, the epicenter of the latest communal flare up.
The violence began over a Facebook post that insulted the prophet of Islam from P Naveen, a known mischief-monger and Hindutva enthusiast with political connection and ambition. Earlier, he had hailed the Bhumi Pujan in Ayodhya as a victory for Hindus. He is the nephew of Congress MLA from Pulakeshinagar, Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy. Murthy, a Dalit leader, had defected from the JD(S) to Congress before the last poll and won it too at the chagrin of the Congress bigwigs who had been eying the seat. Now, BJP is luring him to make headways among Dalits in municipal wards in and around the constituency.
Naveen has been arrested and his Facebook account has been deactivated | Courtesy: The Print
Meanwhile, the accused Naveen, a real estate businessman as well as his rival a local SDPI leader, who was reportedly instrumental in whipping up communal passion over the former’s posts also harbored ambition to be local corporator. The list of realpolitik factors behind the communal violence is not exhausted herewith.
The sequence of events that led to the violence is still contested. A Muslim mob was reportedly gathered by SDPI men after a meeting on 11 August early evening. By late evening, a group of them raided not only the accused Naveen’s parental home at Kaval Byrasandra in east Bengaluru but also the nearby residence of his MLA uncle. Fortunately, none of them were at their homes. The mob ransacked their homes and put bikes and other vehicles on fire. A silver lining, however, came from some local Muslim youth who saved Naveen’s mother, Jayanthi R and some other family members including children by shifting them to adjoining buildings. She later told the media that the local Muslim boys stood their ground braving the ire of their coreligionists but outsiders.
According to some media reports, other groups led by SDPI men had already gone to DJ Halli police station demanding a FIR against Naveen and his immediate arrest. But police reportedly told them to wait for the senior officials to turn up. As the news spread that the police declined to take action against the MLA’s nephew, the mob outside went berserk. The trouble spread to the adjoining area of KG Halli. Some other reports said that the situation went out of control after a police search team failed to get hold of Naveen. The mobs attacked the police stations and extensively damaged and set vehicles and other properties on fire inside the compounds and outside. Some Muslim Congress MLAs and a SDPI leader who had reached the DJ Halli police station tried to control the rioters but failed. By that time, a section of mob was demanding that the offender would have to be handed over to them for summary trial.
Police charged batons on the mob, lobbed tear gas and finally opened fire killing three Muslim youth. As reinforcement reached from other areas, police imposed curfew and arrested more than hundred, mostly Muslim youth. Naveen was finally arrested after hours but claimed his Facebook account had been hacked. Neither the police top brass nor BJP’s BS Yediyurappa government explained the failure of the cyber crime and social media monitoring system in the high-tech city. They were supposed to take care of online trouble-makers since the Bhumi Pujan in view of growing communal tension in congested and mixed areas like DJ and KJ Halli. And, why did the administration take hours to rush police reinforcement within the city before all the hell broke loose? Did the top cops wait for the violence to be spread so that their political masters can harvest the electoral dividend later since the incident that involved a Congress MLA from Dalit, nephew and Muslim SDPI leaders?
Indeed, close observers of Karnataka politics now find the riot a godsend for the BJP government before the municipal polls. Chief Minister Yediyurrapa decided to follow his UP counterpart led by the Yogi Adityanath, the fanatic Hindutva monk-politician praised by Modi on Bhumi Pujan day in Ayodhya. Karnataka will recover the cost of destroyed properties from the arrested persons, overwhelmingly Muslims. It has booked a majority of the accused under the dreaded anti-terrorist act, the UAPA.
Baduria in Bengal: same hate factories in action
Like in Bengaluru early this month, the digital trigger for violence in semi-urban Baduria in rural Bengal came from a Hindu teenager who had posted a denigrating message/image about the prophet of Islam in the Facebook on or before 2 July, 2017. A Facebook post came up in the wake of Eid-Ul-Fitr and Rath Yatra that year, the last festival being a popular Hindu festival in Orissa and Bengal connoting Lord Jagannatha’s (a form of Lord Krishna) annual chariot-borne journey to his aunt’s home and return after a week. The violence broke out and was spread almost for a week as Rath Yatra was still in vogue. Paramilitary forces including BSF were deployed to control the violence amid the spats between Bengal’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) government and Modi’s BJP at the Centre.
Younger to Bengaluru’s Naveen and much less well-heeled, Baduria’s Souvik Sarkar was apparently a new convert to social media hate campaigns. In some other cases in Bengal and elsewhere, it seems that the gullible teenagers and youth who have no knowledge of religions and sensitivities around their key figures and tenets had either fallen in the traps of riot-mongers unwittingly or are being brainwashed to be the zealous trigger-pullers.
My subsequent investigation as well as those by anti-communal civil society groups and media persons found BJP-RSS propaganda machine very active among the youth of Sarkar’s village as well as the entire subdivision. The rural economy, dependent mainly on cultivation and fisheries as well as demographic politics of mixed population areas bordering Bangladesh have become a hotbed of communal outfits of both Hindu and Muslim varieties.
The ruling TMC in Bengal has been identified more as a Muslim party and its challenger BJP is championing the Hindu cause. Once known as the base for composite peasant movements led by communist parties and home of Hindu-Muslim syncretic culture, the minority-dominated subdivision has fast deteriorated into hubs of communal politics. As scheduled castes dominate the society across the faith line, mostly poor subaltern youth at both sides are following to the tunes of elite electoral politics.
The post incitement mobilization of riot mobs through the smart-phone and social media too followed the same pattern both in Bengaluru and Baduria as well as in other instants across India as well as in other instants across India. A group of Muslim youth attacked accused Souvik’s parental home, ransacked and put it on fire after failing to find him there. Police managed to arrest him within hours, apparently with the help of his uncles who were in police force. Even after his arrest, Muslim youths continued to block the roads in the town as well as neighboring areas for days. They too raided Baduria police station demanding that the culprit must be handed over to them and clashed with police when it declined.
The story of a judge shaped my initial consciousness about our judicial system.
The Patna High Court had a judge belonging to Gangpalia in 1960s or early 1970’s. Gangpalia was a kilometre away from Daraili Mathia—my village in the Siwan district of north Bihar.
The judge used to spend his summer vacation at his village. He was a deeply religious person. Accompanied with his ‘purohit (family priest)’ and barber, he would walk to the river Saryu at Dararuli, a kilometre away from Gangpalia to take a dip in the holy waters and perform puja on the river bank.
He didn’t mingle much with the elderly villagers and didn’t keep security personnel around him as long as he stayed at his ancestral house. But he was fond of small children who gathered around him to listen to folk stories that he shared with them.
My family and that of the judge shared a common purohit, Gajadhar Mishra who used to tell us about the ‘Judge Sahib’.
The most interesting story that Gajadhar Mishra shared with us when I was ten year old or so goes as follows:
Once Judge Sahib—as the judge was referred to in the area—went to the river bank with the purohit and barber. He used to brush his teeth with a Neem twig but on that morning the barber had forgotten to carry the same for him. The judge Sahib asked the barber to get a twig from the Neem tree at the campus of the police station at Darauli, three hundred meters from the river bank.
But as the barber climbed on the tree to pluck the twig, the daroga or the police station in-charge, came out; a stout cane in hand. He hurled abuses on the barber, asking the latter to get down.
Panicked, the barber came down but pleaded with folded hands, “Judge Sahib has asked me to get the Neem twig. I climbed the tree with his permission”.
The haughty daroga caned the barber and said, “How did you dare to climb the tree? Ye judge-fuj kya hota hai (I damn care of a judge)”. The daroga used many unprintable words and beat up the barber mercilessly.
Bruised, the barber returned to the judge without the Neem twig and told him the saga of his woes. It was not known how the judge immediately reacted to his barber’s complaints. He cleaned his teeth with sand and water, performed his puja and came back to his house.
But the barber shared this story with the villagers. Within an hour hundreds of villagers surrounded the police station. It was not the era of mobile phone and internet. It’s hard to imagine how the people got themselves connected for a common cause and laid siege to the police station within no time. Not only from Gangpalia, but the people from all the neighbouring villages—Kumhati, Belaon, Bhitoli, Done and Darauli– surrounded the police station to deliver what might be dubbed as instant justice on the daroga.
The daroga got holed up in his room with some rifle wielding policemen sauntering around. But the mob was angry and getting volatile. In the meantime, the district magistrate and superintendent of police, Siwan descended on the police station to control the situation. The DM and SP requested the people to disperse with the promise that they would punish the daroga.
But the people were not ready to move.
Eventually, the DM and SP reached to the judge requesting him to accompany them to the police station and pacify the people. They got the judge in their vehicle and took him to the police station.
As the daroga saw the judge, he fell on his feet begging for mercy.
The judge politely said, “You are a young police officer. I am a judge. We have the DM and the SP around. But all of us are supposed to serve the cause of the people. You should never harm the innocent people. The police stations and courts are meant to protect the people and not to intimidate and harass them”.
Then the judge requested the people to disperse which they did by shouting the slogan, “judge saheb bhagwan hain (The judge is god)”.
The judge has gone into folklore. The people began calling Gangpalia as “Judge Saheb ka Gaon (village of judge sahib)”. Gangpalia was known as ‘Judge Sahib ka Gaon” for the generations growing up in the villages around in 1960’s and 70’s.
The point is the people revered judge Sahib not because he rode a Harle Devidson’ bike and demonstrated his power. He lived like a common man at his village and never overawed the people with his aura and demeanour. He lived a simple and secluded life. The people respected him for his simplicity, compassion and generosity. He was what the common Indians living in the hinterlands imagined him to be like.
A layman, I am not qualified enough to pass a judgement on the chief justice of India, S A Bobde riding a Harle Davidson bike without wearing a mask as a precaution against Covid-19 pandemic and activist lawyer, Prashant Bhushan twitting his picture with the comment on justice Bobde’s conduct that has invited contempt against him.
But going by my own consciousness about the Indian judiciary that I gathered as a small child, I can say that the Indian hinterland dwellers see “Bhagawan (God)” in a judge who live a simple life but has unfathomable commitment to the cause of the people—the ultimate source of democracy and its institutions, be it judiciary, legislature or executive.
In his defence against the contempt case on him, Prashant Bhushan quoted Mahatma Gandhi’s submission in a British court 98 years ago and said: “I do not ask for mercy. I do not appeal for magnanimity. I cheerfully submit to any punishment that court may impose.”
Prashant Bhushan may fall in the bracket of Mahatma Gandhi in the context of pursuing the cause as the people’s rights activist. He may have credential to do so because; he has been steadfast in raising his voice against corruption, violation of human rights and injustice in Jammu and Kashmir. Be it the 2G, 3G scam associated with the Congress rule or that of the Rafale deal associated with the BJP rule — Prashant Bhushan has raised his voice without fear or favour.
Many writers and thinkers have equated him with Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. He has thousands of academics, scholars, legal eagles, policy makers and philosophers from across the world expressing their solidarity with him.
But Gandhi had become ‘Mahatma’ by emerging as the voice of the voiceless and identifying himself with the poor masses living on the periphery of Indian society. Prashant Bhushan has just moved a step in the direction of becoming a Gandhi. He has to carry his journey forward to become a Gandhi whom the beleaguered Indian democracy needs today.
