By Shabnam Hashmi
01 October, 2008
Tehelka
Life and liberty are not the gift of society, state or Constitution but inalienable rights of every individual. The flame of liberty will glow so long as there are persons who have guts, grit, and vision to expose and disprove those nibbling away liberty in the name of expedients.
A journalist of a well-known television channel recently asked me why the community to which I belong (of human rights activists) always takes stands which are opposed to the stand of the whole nation. Can the shrill voices of the electronic media replace our whole being? Can they replace the Indian Constitution and the rule of law? The strong judgements passed by the media after every terror attack, every encounter and every arrest of a ‘mastermind’, can sway the middle classes and the executives working in the multinational companies. But can they stop a nation from questioning? Even at the height of Hitler’s rule in Germany, when benches on the roadside had signs saying, ‘Not for Jews’, someone had the guts to put a black cross on them, establishing that such politics of genocide was not acceptable.
Though India is being transformed at a fast pace where all minorities are being forced to realise that they are second-class citizens, the difference is that there are many more people in India who are challenging the fascist agenda of those who are in power and others, who are desperately trying to capture power in the coming election.
The ascent of these forces has been systematic and well planned. Twenty years ago, most of the secular forces believed that the communal fascist forces were on the fringe of society and laughed at the possibility of their ever moving centerstage. Today the situation has reversed — the communal forces are so centrestage, it is difficult to differentiate between what is right and what is centre. They have invaded all spaces and areas including the minds of our secular politicians.
Among the plenty of weapons that they have used in this journey — from the peripheral to the Centre — fake encounters occupy a fairly important position. They have cleverly used different weapons at different stages. Beginning from ordinary bhajan mandalis, they moved to more organised kathas, to new age gurus. Working at different levels over 15 years — shishu mandirs, shakhas, ekal vidyalayas, sant samagams, television serials, the rath yatras, leaflets, videos, CDs — they have slowly entered the consciousness of an entire society with targeted messages against minorities. Only those sections of society who strongly and consciously contested this ideology could retain their sanity. After the seeds of hatred were sowed successfully and the harvest was being reaped, started the more decisive phase — the physical attacks and largescale genocide. Most of the experiments were done in Gujarat and the remote areas of other states. For example, the experiment within the tribal belts started in the late 1960s and early 1970s.Almost simultaneously, the VHP swamis then moved into these areas.
Today, we have reached a stage when an innocent person can be killed in a fake encounter, and declared a terrorist. A large number of innocent young Muslim boys are being victimised by the police on charges of terrorism. In most cases, they are not shown to be arrested by the police until many days after their arrest in gross violation of the law. Their families are also not informed about their arrest and while in police custody, they are made to ‘confess’ and sign blank papers. The courts routinely deny them bail. When the police chargesheet them, the trials go on almost endlessly during which the poor victims are virtually defenceless. GUJCOC, MCOCA, POTA and many other such draconian laws are required only so that the statements which the police force out of the victims can be considered as evidence.
After years of torture and confinement, when the case against the victims is found to be baseless, no action is taken to hold police officials accountable. The young patriotic journalists, of course, are then not around to report the horrors of all those years lost in the dark cells of a jail. Stopping the victimisation of the innocents will be the first step towards finding a solution against terrorism.
Shabnam Hashmi is a social activist with Anhad. This article, which appears in Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 39, dated Oct 04, 2008, has been distributed by Countercurrents.org
1 comment:
hahahaha..shabnam hashmi is getting his own medicine now. You lies and people will haunt you forever, these inferior pseudo intellectuals who want to divide the nation. Are you leftists naxalites or maoists or both getting funds from China & Pak?
-jairam
India resurgence - 2008
The year 2008 is a great landmark in Hindu Resurgence in this country.
Centuries of uninterrupted slavery under different alien rulers ensured that the Hindus were ruthlessly repressed. By the time the British magnanimously granted us a fractured country and a volatile independence, the country was taken over by an Anti - Hindu elite from among the Hindus themselves. These new rulers saw in the vast multitudes a bonanza to perpetuate their family rule bysimply continuing to repress them. So the concept of Secularism was introduced.
Desert religion propagandists were given a free hand to run amok and convert in the guise of "social service". Hindu temples were taken over for the express purpose of looting. So called Minorities who are actually in majority in several states and districts were given a plethora of benefits, subsidies, reservations, political patronage etc. The average Hindu suffered all these iniquities silently as they were kept divided on caste lines.The Hindu was expected to be quiet and submissive, any communal riot, disturbance was blamed on him by the politicans, bureaucrats, judiciary, press and English language TV mediums.
Hindus were fugitives in their own country. Any assertive Hindu was dubbed as belonging to the '"Parivaar" a contemptuous phrase coined by an antagoistic Press and scheming politicans. The idea was to crush the questioning Hindu. More than 50 years of repression under Secular rule has infuriated the average Hindu.
Secularism has brought the country to the brink of another Partition. Kashmir which represents the Head of this country and Bharatmata is sought to be dismembered by a group of Islamic separatists. Eating subsidised Hindu food, Haj travel, and engaged only in sexual reproduction, these Separatists have been thriving on anti - Hindu repression and violence. Even a small piece of land, that too on lease, was sought to be denied by the Islamic fundamentalists and separatists. The "secular establishment" fearing disruption for their family rule went on an anti Hindu tirade. That was when the VOLCANO EXPLODED. The average Hindu armed only with stones, sand and sticks joined in unison to fight the Islamic militants. As the nation watched the angry faceless Hindus of Jammu rose in a mighty effort to take on the ruthless might of the Separatists and the inimical secular rulers. What happenned is History, despite the anti - Hindu hysteria of the Islamic terrorists, the anti - Hindu tirade of the Politicans and the media, the world watched amazed at the stoic battle waged and won by the brave Hindus of Jammu. Yes, we too can revolt against the secular impostors, that was the message from Jammu.
Next, an obscure tribal district in neglected Orissa. Bearing the brunt of high voltage conversion tactics by Missionary gangs, led by Keralites like Raphael Cheenath, Thomas Chellan etc Kandhmal District, became the laboratory for Christianising India. Shameless tactics like abuse, violence and anti - Hindu ridicule were taken to great heights. The fed up Hindus rose in unison to combat the menace of conversion. The Missionary gangs sowed wind and reaped whirlwind.
Next, Mangalore, which had felt the tremors of the Goan Inquisition of Francis Xavier, was still being prodded by Pentecostal Evangelical gangs. The same ridicule of Hindu Gods, their customs, rituals and rites was the chosen weapon of the converters. But Mangalore on the border of Kerala had seen what the converts were made to do. First Hinduism is ridiculed, gullible Hindus are converted and thereafter told to imitate the same rituals but pray to the Desert Gods. Hindus are no longer fools. They have also seen through the chicanery of the politicans, press and missionary gangs. The inevitable happenned, Mangalore rose in anger to teach the converters a sharp rebuke.
In distant Jharkhand the Sarnas, have warned the Christians that their crusade through "Nemha Bible" to demolish the "Sarna Dharm" will not be tolerated. They have warned the Bible Society of Bangalore not to carry intentional insulting messages.
It is time for the Politicans, the media and the conversion gangs led by Keralites to take note of the RISING HINDU. The message is loud and clear no more repression of the Hindus. Social scientists should now study this emerging phenomenon of assertive Hindus rising in rebellion in different parts of the country to protect their religion, culture, and customs.
[shabnam hashmis & pinrais of this country will get their ass smeared with chilly powder if they go on talking garbage)
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