28 August, 2018
नज़रिया: ‘नक्सलवादी हौआ से फ़ायदा लेने की कोशिश में मोदी सरकार’
https://www.bbc.com/hindi/india-45339311?ocid=socialflow_facebook
English translation of original in Hindi at url given above
28 August 2018 or 28 August 1933
India faced with stark choices
The arrests of 5 senior activists on 28 August 2018 and the searches conducted on the homes of other well known Activists is a premonition of things to come. It is evident that the Modi Government is now trying to play on fears of a deep rooted Maoist conspiracy to shore up its fast eroding electoral fortunes. “Urban Naxals”, have been conjured up from the Deep State’s copious magic hat. “Naxalites” is a term that is used to denote tribal Maoists engaged in armed opposition activities in Central India. The ragtag Maoist Peoples Liberation Army is now sought to be portrayed as the greatest threat to Modi and his vision of a corporate India.
There is a ferment amongst the tribal, the Dalit and the marginalised that frightens the Upper Caste and Upper Class elite across the political spectrum. A new assertive young Dalit leadership no longer satisfied with the crumbs of affirmative action thrown at it wants jobs and land. The Modi dispensation does not have these issues on the agenda. Land reform in an age of corporate land grab is an anachronism. And job creation has been a figment of Mr. Modi’s dream factory. The tribal is seeking implementation of the 5th Schedule of the Indian Constitution that gives a measure of internal self determination. It has not been done in a single Indian state. The dilution of the Forest Rights Act and the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 is leading to the biggest land grab in the 21st Century, the likes of which have not been seen since the colonization of the North American continent or Australia.
Shades of the Reichstag fire in 1933, which Hitler and Goebbels milked so assiduously to frighten the German populace to give up the meager protections given to it by the Weimar constitution. The Naxalite bogey man is here.“Red under your bed” as Senator McCarthy railed in the 1950s! In the normal circumstances, it would have been the Pakistan under your bed syndrome. The Pakistan bogeyman is not an easy card to play now. There is a newly democratically elected Government making all the right noises about peace with India. The Modi establishment had considered doing a repeat of Mrs. Indira Gandhi a la 1971 on the western frontier. Many saw the armed feints euphemistically called” surgical strikes” by Indian Special forces to test both Pakistan preparedness and international reaction. The International community, in particular, the United States is not going to look too kindly on any military options being exercised on the imbroglio in Kashmir. It needs Islamabad to stabilize Afghanistan more than ever. With Iran and Saudi tensions at their peak, and President Trump sabre rattling, the more sober Pentagon analyst is aware that Iran and Pakistan are crucial to the arrival of a modicum of settlement with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Islamic terror bogeyman in India is less than a scarecrow. Muslim youth in India have little time for ISIS prescriptions. Every ground report indicates their overwhelmingly wanting to be part of the new political ferment across India that is looking askance at the rise of hard Hindu fundamentalism. Unlike, their parents generation, they have no crosses to bear. Their making common cause with other marginalised sections raises the specter of the loss of inherited privilege and illegally acquired wealth of the India carpetbagger. The Hindutva fundamentalist government has too much too loose in a peaceful democratic transition. It has crossed the Rubicon to help its corporate cronies. A dissenting citizen can be thrown into prison for a year as in the case of the Dalit leader, Mr. Chandrasekhar Azad of the Bhim army and that can be extended. In Kashmir, the incarceration is for two years and is routinely renewed. There is a shoot to kill policy as was seen against peaceful protestors in Tuticorin recently. Serving officers of the Army want immunity from prosecution for all human rights violations as prayed for in a recent petition in the Supreme Court. 4 million people are in danger of being declared Stateless. The list could go on and on.
India is at a crossroads in its democratic growth, On 28 August 1938, the Mauthausen concentration camp opened in Austria. On the same day in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a dream” speech heralding civil rights reform in the United States. We in India are being posed the same questions. Will it be genetic clones of an Austrian corporal or the path chosen by Marin Luther King Jr., the Kennedy and Johnson administrations to bring social peace to the American heartland? By Ravi Nair of the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre. In the original in Hindi, the figure 7 is mentioned as late evening on 28 August 2018 there were reports that two others who had been taken into custody after their homes were searched.
Ravi Nair
South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre
22 Northend Complex, Ramakrishna Ashram Marg
New Delhi 110001, India