Author: Krishen Kak
Publication: Vigil
Date: January 30, 2004
URL: http://www.vigilonline.com/reference/columns/vicharamala_view.asp?col_id=45
Thoughts on issues of current interest
[my comments - as an Indian citizen - within square brackets], including
instances of some double standards of our public figures, especially in
the construction of Indian identity (all those Macaulayan myths, and the
hypocrisy that is Nehruvian secularism) - Krishen Kak
[The double standards of our self-proclaimed
defenders of democracy - such as Aruna Roy and Shabnam Hashmi/ANHAD - is
evident in their going international over post-Godhra Gujarat, but retaining
the silence of the morgue over the widespread violence in Bihar (V'mala
11). The double standards of our human rights champions is led by the National
Human Rights Commission that solicits a Supreme Court lecture on rajdharma
to the government of Gujarat (V'mala 40), but all including the Supreme
Court are curiously silent when it comes to Bihar.
This is the Bihar which has its
"highest-ranking police officer calling his political boss lafanga (rascal)
and several other sweeter names" and stating the boss covers up for a history-sheeter
Member of Parliament with international terrorism links. It is not a coincidence
that this boss is that darling of Nehruvian secularism LP Yadav, and the
MP is a Muslim (BK Punj, "Ojha and the lord of misrule", The Pioneer, Dec
19, 2003). Punj concludes "It is apparent that Mr Laloo Yadav has greater
concern for Shahabuddin - a man charged with serious crimes like links
with the ISI - than the country." Patriots may please note that this history-sheeter
with alleged links to international terrorism had been appointed Minister
of State for Home Affairs by "secular" prime minister HD Deve Gowda. It
is "secular" to put the cat in the creamery!
This is the Bihar where the High
Court has more than once declared the absence of the rule of law, most
recently stating it "is ready to certify that the State is fit for being
put under President's rule" (The Hindu, Jan 24, 2004). But our defenders
of democracy were tight-lipped. After all, the boss of Bihar is their "secular"
darling, LP Yadav.
This is the Bihar which assassinates
the honest IIT-ian Satyendra Dubey, to a chorus of protest from NRI IIT-ians.
But our defenders of democracy were tight-lipped. After all, the boss of
Bihar is their "secular" darling, LP Yadav.
This is the Bihar where Sarita and
Mahesh are assassinated. And then, wonder of wonders, the cat suddenly
gives tongue.....]
---------------------------------------------
The Hindu, Jan 29, 2004
"Bihar murders find echo in Delhi"
by K Kannan
....An appeal to join the "Battle
for Democracy'' has been issued by Prof. Jean Dreze of Delhi University.
"What a tribute to the Republic of India on the eve of its 54th Republic
Day anniversary! Two young warriors of light paid their tribute to the
nation with their blood on January 24, 2004! No, not on the borders fighting
with `enemies' but while educating their fellow countrymen and women to
lead their lives with dignity,'' he said in an e-mail alert circulated
to concerned citizens across the country.
In fact, that is what Sarita and
Mahesh were doing for the past three years. In the villages of Gaya they
were working among the backward castes and Dalits trying to redeem the
pledge the people of India had made to themselves 54 years back but which
was left, as Prof. Dreze pointed out, to rot in the backyards of power
by the parties who have been the rulers all these years.
Condemning the killings, Prof. Dreze
said: "....They had obviously disturbed the power equation ... which greatly
upset the local mafia patronised by the ruling party of Bihar. They started
threatening the duo, asking them to give up their work in that area.
"Sarita and Mahesh could have done
that. Sarita's husband earns a handsome salary as the chief of Actionaid
India, Bihar, and Mahesh came from a well-off family.....
In Bihar, the macabre nature of
the rape of democracy leaves you speechless. Seven years ago, it was the
killing of Chandrashekhar who was merely exercising his right to speech
and had to pay for doing so with his life, murdered in daylight by the
henchman of a don who continues to adorn our Parliament. In Bihar, idealism
is fatal, as was proved recently by the murder of Satyendra Dubey,'' says
Prof. Dreze.
"Numerous killings, of not so prominent
citizens of India in the land of Bihar for trying to secure for themselves
and their community the rights which are theirs, guaranteed by our Constitution,
have remained invisible.''
Asking whether political correctness
prevents citizens from pointing fingers at the perpetrators of such crime,
Prof. Dreze said it was "time to speak up for democracy in Bihar, to act
for ourselves and to choose between political correctness and a truthful
politics for democratic values".
[Dreze in The Hindu, Jan 30, 2004,
clarified that the above was an ANHAD email he'd circulated. An almost
identical piece by Apoorvanand is also in circulation - only the latter
adds "Does political correctness prevent us from pointing our fingers towards
the Criminal in Chief who provides comic relief to our middle class and
who, in actuality is a Killer Clown?"
Dreze is the well-known social activist
who, without doing his homework, publicly certified the integrity of Harsh
Mander, his colleague in the Right to Food Campaign. This Campaign in an
email condemning the Bihar murders noted "The state machinery typically
fails to respond, in fact it is hand in glove with the criminals in many
cases." But the real question is why these human rights champions never
protested earlier against the "Killer Clown"?
ANHAD - Act Now for Harmony and
Democracy - is a so-called NGO promoted by Shabnam Hashmi and Harsh Mander/ActionAid
that solicited money from the public but would not declare whether it was
registered. This is not surprising. Consider that Hashmi was caught in
a lie about foreign assistance to SAHMAT when she was there. Consider also
that associated with ANHAD is Aruna Roy, likewise caught in a lie about
foreign assistance to her Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan. And that "secular
icon" Mander was caught in a number of lies about his so-called 'resignation"
from the IAS. ANHAD now sponsors "a Global Community of Indians Reaffirming
their Faith in a Democratic, Secular, Pluralistic, and United India" in
a new foreign-linked Nehruvian secular racket rather grandly called "Promise
of India". Again, in introducing this racket, ANHAD said nothing about
whether it has a registered legal persona. As to its statement reproduced
above, consider...
1. It puts quote marks around "enemies"
- clearly it doesn't consider the wars initiated by Pakistan to be enemy
acts.
2. "...local mafia patronised by
the ruling party of Bihar" - the ruling party, and its upholders (such
as the Congress Party) till now were all "secular"?
3. The spouse of one of the two
victims is a senior ActionAid executive.
4. "In Bihar, the macabre nature
of the rape of democracy leaves you speechless". Is that why our self-proclaimed
defenders of democracy, so vocal about Gujarat, were tongue-tied over Bihar?
And are still tongue-tied over Kashmir?
5. "Numerous killings, of not so
prominent citizens of India in the land of Bihar...remained invisible".
Our defenders of democracy were too busy with their Muslim constituency
in Gujarat to bother about the Indian constituency in Bihar?
6. "...time to speak up for democracy
in Bihar...to choose between political correctness and a truthful politics
for democratic values". Aha, the cream on the cat's whiskers!
It was politically correct not to
speak up against Bihar just as it is politically correct to revile Gujarat?
Why then are ANHAD & Co. speaking up now? Because the killing of two
they claim as their own finally forces them to do so?
Nehruvian secularism is about political
correctness, not about truthful politics. To the ingredients of the Nehru-Gandhi
Secular Creed listed in V'mala 20, one can now add -
"17. The killing of ordinary Indian
citizens enabled by a ruling party that is Secular is no occasion for protest.
Such deaths are sacrifices on the altar of Secularism."
V'mala 42 concluded with my comment
of the puking hypocrisy that motivates these so-called activists. The deaths
of ordinary Indians do not count; these do not bring in awards and prizes
and foreign sponsorship. Because the killers are ostensibly "secular" and
therefore politically correct.
But the death of one of their own
constituency is a direct attack on them, and the "secular" is suddenly
re-defined to "truthful politics" - but a truthful politics to be contained
within the specific arena of attack.
Therefore, it is still politically
correct for these "activists" not to speak up about, for example, Kashmir.
Only ordinary Indians die there. Only when someone they can claim as their
own is killed will they club the Butcher of Anantnag with the Killer Clown.
Such puking hypocrisy.
