Promotion of Communal Violence Bill

Centuries ago, by the time Islamic Sultanates had managed to exercise their supremacy over Gangetic India, there arose a peculiar conflict – of bands of sanyasis being beaten and robbed by bands of fakirs. If one wonders on what made these fakirs act so violently towards sanyasis, the answer lies in three basic facts:

·      Fakirs were considered above the law on most matters

·      With the imposition of Jaziya on Hindu lands, carrying arms had become the sole prerogative of Muslims, with the only exceptions being Hindu noblemen / warriors being in direct service to the emperor

·      Crimes by Muslims against the kaffirs carried little censure as compared to crimes by Muslims against fellow Muslims and worse, crimes by Hindus against Muslims

Anyways, the drift continued for a couple of centuries only being broken in phases where the Muslim rule weakened. However, with the consolidation of Akbar’s rule, jaziya was first temporarily and then permanently removed and Akbar, on representation by various sanyasi orders, allowed them to carry arms and act in self defense. Very soon, the Sanyasis found themselves on surer footing compared to fakirs and we had more militant sanyasi orders coming into being. Things, of course, took a worse turn for sanyasis with the rule of Aurangzeb when the fakir order became bolder again but soon again, the rise of multiple revolts through the country weakened his Empire and the Mughal Empire was served a fatal body blow with the rise of Maratha Empire. 

And the impact of these changes – many sanyasi orders became equivalent to a band of brigands, collecting taxes from villages and zamindars in their area of operations and many a times, liquidating competing bands of sanyasis and fakirs. These sanyasi bands had become so powerful that even during the oppressive Islamic rule in Bengal, their writ run over large areas and later, the East India Company had had to fight pitched battles to get rid of the marauding bands.

But how are events which happened over the last few centuries relevant to us now? Plainly, because it reinforces the fading reality that without the fear of law, even the most humble and meek creatures can turn into bloodthirsty marauders. Had the fakirs been under the pale of law, the sanyasis, in most likelihood, would have continued to be away from acts of retributive violence. Likewise, if the sanyasis had been adequately controlled by local kings, it is unlikely that they would have turned to medieval version of local warlords.

Today, we are faced with the prospect of being thrust with a legislation, which will ensure that the identified ‘minority’ communities will be above the law while any act of the majority, which can even remotely be construed as damaging to the identified minority.

And who is this minority? Minority in a state – meaning Hindus and Buddhists in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Muslims in all other states of the country and probably Christians in all states of the country other than the North Eastern states of Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya. Even here, it is to the discretion of Jammu & Kashmir assembly if they do indeed decide to extend the law to the state.

Rather than delve into the point of weakening of the federal structure of our country on account of this legislation, let us only concentrate on the banality of assumptions which has moved the NAC driven UPA Government to introduce such legislation.

Assumption 1: The legislation assumes that minorities are minorities through the entire geographical / demographical area of the state and hence are always weak.  

Reality: Each state may have districts where the minority is in a majority, i.e., Malappuram and Manjeri in Kerala, Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, Malegaon in Maharashtra, Murshidabad and Malda in West Bengal, Dhubri and Barpeta in Assam, Kishanganj and Purnea in Bihar, Rampur in Uttar Pradesh and so on. Likewise, if not in districts, many states have parliamentary and assembly constituencies where the minority is in a majority or towns / cities where this phenomenon can be observed. Further, each town has at least one locality where the so called minority is a majority. If we leave aside the question of base majority/minority, we have whole regions like Western UP, North Bihar, Lower Assam, Gangetic Bengal etc where the so called minority is around 40%-45% of the total population. If the Act defines minority at the macro level, should it not go deeper and define minority in a fairer and more relevant micro level.

Assumption 2: Numbers alone mean domination.

Reality: if the assumption were true, a handful of colonizers from Europe would not have ruled the world, 300 strong Muslim army would not have won the Battle of Badr, nor would Babur have won Panipat and Plassey would have seen Siraj-ud-daula victorious. A determined, organized and well resourced group with a definite goal is way more powerful that an larger group of vacuous and disparate individuals. It is not for nothing that one says, ‘Having One Lion in the army is better than having a million sheep’.

Assumption 3: It is always the minority which bears the brunt of the riots.

Reality: While this assumption is certainly true in countries like Bangladesh, which have only Hindu casualties whenever riots happen, one would be surprised to note that the so called majority community forms a disproportionately large proportion of the killed, hurt and displaced. Rather than delving too far into history, let us look at figures on riots in the last decade or so:

a.   Mumbai – 1993 - 575 Muslims and 275 Hindus (2:1)

b.   Malegaon – 2002 – 12 Muslims and 3 Hindus (4:1)

c.   Gujarat – 2004 – 794 Muslims and 254 Hindus (3:1)

d.   Marad – 2003 – 1 Muslim and 8 Hindus (1:8)

e.   Mau – 2005 – 2 Muslims and 10 Hindus (1:5)

f.     Aligarh – 2006 – 2 Muslims and 4 Hindus (1:2)

g.   Hyderabad – 2010 – 0 Muslims and 4 Hindus

h.   Deganga – 2010 – 0 mosques damaged and 4 temples burnt

In case riots are really one sided, one can wonder whether the number of dead from the ‘majority’ community means that they committed suicide only to give a bad name to the meek, peaceful minorities! And before anyone steps into point out that minority casualties are higher than the majority casualties in case of Bombay and Gujarat riots, one should account for the fact that normally an 80% strong majority would ensure that cent percent casualties are from the 20% minority or a the very most, a few collaterals in course of the one way blood bath. But one can see, reality is different. Higher number of Muslim casualties in Muslim dominated Malegaon was on account of police action on marauding mobs, yet again an indicator that better armed crowd can inflict more damage on a larger opposing mob.

Assumption 4: Riots are always instigated by the majority 

Reality: Majority of riots in the country have been instigated and led by the minorities. Even the arch liberal, Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his 1971 address to the Parliament, used home ministry data to buttress that point. But since 1971 is so last century – let us look at facts for the last 2 decades.

a.   Mumbai – 1993 – Destruction of Ganesh Idol in Bandra East

b.   Malegaon – 2002 – Procession protesting attack on Afghanistan turned violent

c.   Gujarat – 2004 – Godhra carnage

d.   Marad – 2003 – Unprovoked. Police inquiry pointed to a conspiracy to intimidate the Hindu ninority.

e.   Mau – 2005 – Attack on Ram Baraat procession

f.     Aligarh – 2006 – Attack on Bharat Milap procession

g.   Burhanpur – 2008 – Attack on Hanuman Rath

h.   Dhule – 2008 – Attack on Navratri Pandal

i.     Kandhamal – 2008 – Killing of Swami Laxmananand Saraswati

j.     Miraj – 2009 – Ganpati pandal depicting killing of Afzal Khan by Shivaji

k.   Bareilly – 2010 – Banned Tazia procession taken out through a prohibited route

l.     Hyderabad – 2010 – Removal of Hanuman Jayanti banners

m. Deganga 2010 – Unprovoked. Apparent Muslim anger at the upcoming Durga Puja celebrations

n.   Bharatpur – 2011 – Attack and arson on Gujjar homes following dispute on a public ground

Both the above lists can go on and on. 

All the right thinking citizens should ponder and evaluate if this proposed bill is indeed being driven by the noble intent of preventing communal violence? In its present form, the bill is certain to handle immunity from prosecution and retribution to a very organized, militant and belligerent ‘minority’ – which may not even be a minority in the true sense of the word.

The passage of this bill in its current form, where perpetrators and victims are defined by birth is the worst form of legal apartheid and can only lead to a situation where a cornered ‘majority’ may be forced to jettison its wavering belief in the intent and capability of its ruling classes to protect its basic rights to life and dignity.

Election Results: Ominous signs

Like any other elections, results declared on May 13, 2011 have brought cheer to the victims and gloom to the vanquished. While individual states may seem to have given either a thumbs up or a thumbs down to their ruling parties basis ‘local’ issues, a few trends emerging out of these results seem to augur ill for the country in the long run. Please don’t accuse me of stating that State Elections are fought on ‘National’ issues. I would in fact, go to the other end and say that in an election without any emotive central theme, most General Elections are an amalgam of many minor state elections. At the same time, what one cannot deny is that National issues do have a significant impact on the people voting to elect their state government. Hence, results of State Elections are seen as a portent of the people think of a ‘National’ party. Not so long back, it was BJP’s rout in 2007 UP elections which showed itself incapable of forming a strong parliamentary core to any NDA Government, with the loss in cosmopolitan Delhi showing inefficacy of its campaign to people. People voting for local issues do not necessarily jettison the ‘National’ issues at head and may decide to opt for the more ‘pressing’ priority on hand.

Hence, while the people of Tamil Nadu seem to have punished DMK for its corrupt and arrogant ways, of Kerala having withdrawn from the levels of disdain they had displayed towards LDF in the General Elections, people in Bengal seem to have voted for a long overdue change rather than positively reposing faith in the Congress policies. Tiny Pondicherry, has in its own way, has either punished the incumbent (?), rewarded its favorite son (?) or turned its back to the corrupt Congress regime in Delhi (?). Inexplicable, however, has been the choice of the Assamese for they seem to have rewarded a corrupt government, which did not have much to show to its credit and which, by all accounts, was hard pressed to retain even its current seat tally

While it is certainly the case that the scenario of all parties having tasted power at some time or the other has meant that people are no longer having any illusion of one being better than the other. At the same time, it doesn’t mean that the incumbent can go on reaping fruits of office without fear of punishment. After all, even if opposition parties get a share of spoils, that share will certainly be much lesser than what the rulers get and would not percolate at the same rate to their grass-root workers. Hence, the pain of being out of office, and by default, having lesser share of the ‘cream’ should be sufficient to act as a punishing tool for any non-performing corrupt ruling party. Hence, there is no reason why a Tamil Nadu should not vote out a DMK and Assam a Congress.

What is ominous for the country is the clear emergence of minority communal politics as being THE deciding factor in electoral politics. While the newspapers are full of VS Achyutanandan’s heroic campaign against the UDF, relatively little attention has been paid to the fact that the war against corruption seems to have impacted only the Hindu electorate with the Christian and Muslim groups reposing faith in Congress. Lest I be accused of being alarmist, let’s look at some facts and statistics: The UDF comprised of 9 parties these elections and of these, the Socialist Janata Dal is led by a Jain and Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy led by a Hindu. Of the others, while 6 of them are led by Christians the balance IUML, is led by a Muslim. Of these 9 parties, the only Hindu led party does not have any representation in this Kerala assembly. In effect, the ruling front now is a minority front, having won on account of consolidation of Muslim and Christian votes. Of course, Hindu support is there but certainly, to imagine that the front will stand for Hindu interests is laughable. Even this UDF victory has been brought about by the spectacular performance of the IUML, which has won 20 of the 24 seats it contested, having virtually swept the Muslim majority Malappuram. Obviously, affinity to community leaders was a more important criterion for deciding their voting preference for the minority communities. It is for the first time that we now have a ‘mainstream’ state of India, being ruled by the ostensible minorities, in spirit and in reality. Lest is sound unconvincing, let us have a look at numbers again. Of the 140 MLAs, 73 are Hindus, 37 Muslims and 30 Christians; More importantly, in the UDF, of its 72 MLAs, only 26 are Hindus while 29 are Muslims and 17 are Christians, i.e., 70% of the ruling class belong to 'minority' communities.

It is interesting that compared to previous LDF stints, the Achyutanandan regime witnessed lesser number of clashes in between the LDF and RSS cadres. Was it because of the not so covert cultivation of the Malayalee Hindu by Achyutanandan? Even now, compared to the local body polls, LDF’s vote share seems to have gone up by roughly the same degree by which the BJP’s vote share has fallen. Did it mean that, faced with a spectacle of even more assertive minority politics, a section of BJP’s voters simply moved to the LDF? If that be so, corruption was not an issue even in Kerala. It will however be foolhardy to imagine this as being the beginning of a more rational left position on issues of secularism. A group of people defined by their visceral hatred of Indian culture and religion can only exploit sentiments and insecurities and not protect the vulnerable.

Coming to West Bengal, it cannot be wished away that Mamata Banerjee was more than aggressive in her wooing of Muslims. Right from the issue of Rizwan’s suicide to tom-toming of the Sachar committee’s report, she has been assiduously trying to paint herself as the new champion of minorities, reciting namaaz in rallies and taking care to cover herself with a green shawl all the times. Even in an issue as ghastly as Deganga, where Muslim hooligans desecrated temples and attacked a hapless Hindu minority, she maintained a studied silence and only accused the RSS/BJP of dividing people. In a state which already had a declared 30% Muslim population in the 2001 census itself, it is likely that this percentage has only increased and they, in effect, decide the rulers of the state. Anyways, the state assembly now has the highest number of Muslims ever elected (59 and around 20% of the assembly) and even the vanquished left has around one third of its MLAs from the minority community. With the defeat of both Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Gautam Deb, it is likely that the next Left Front Leader would be a Muslim, an overt attempt to mend bridges with the community which has moved to TMC in the last couple of years.

Most inexplicable has been the state of Assam where a Government, buffeted on various fronts, has managed to increase its vote share so spectacularly. Not only has the issue of corruption, both at the State and the National levels, failed to have an impact, the voting suggests a clear consolidation of the Muslim votes in favor of Congress and the AUDF. This, however, still does not explain the victory of Congress in Upper Assam, which has turned its back to both the BJP and AGP. OHere again, maximum number of Muslims have made as legislators till date; 28 or around 25% of the assembly strength. 16 of the 18 AIUDF members are Muslims while 10 of Congress MLAs belong to this community. ne more state seems to have fallen irretrievably to minority politics of the darkest kind.

As expected, the ELM is full of advice to the Left on ‘mending’ its ideology to appeal to the new age. It seems that they miss the point of Left ideology having emerged a victor in this election too. Mamata Banerjee has spared no efforts to underline her commitment to Ma, Mati Manush and has openly proclaimed herself to represent the ‘true’ communist thought. She is all pains to explain that the old ‘communists’ were good while the current are ‘bad’. And what is bad about them: Only the fact that they tried to bring in industrialization and free market economics (of course, by most reprehensible of means but being adopted by State Governments of all colours). It was this desire to change that proved their nemesis. What does the ELM want the Left to change to? No one, not even the ELM seems to know. Little has, on the other hand been said about the barbaric culture they represented, the way they made politics a tool of retribution and violence, how they subverted institutes, killed dissent and made the party an extension of the Government. While the change was long overdue and it is certainly Left’s defeat in 2009 Lok Sabha elections which gave the hapless people a confidence that CPM can actually be defeated, if Mamata’s protestations about her being the ‘true’ communist are correct, a culture change may still elude Bengal.

In the other fortress where Left stands vanquished, issues have never been about ideology for both the UDF and LDF represented same thought process. In spite of its defeat, the Communist thought process is too deeply ingrained in the academia and the political establishment to whiter away just like that.

In a way, not only do these state elections results represent victory of minority communalism, they represent the ever reducing impact of larger issue in public decision making. With corruption being the mantra of the day, no one talks about price rise, which anyways seem to be as ineffectual an election issue as corruption and public loot. Even Tamil Nadu results, which seem to be a saving grace will be rendered meaningless if, the victor walks over to the mother bee of corruption, something which she does not seem averse to.