People's Democracy

A Thief Dubbing Others As Thieves

WE are grateful to our readers who have flooded us with an encouraging response to the special issue of People's Democracy marking the 10th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition. A further confirmation that this issue has had an impact comes from the vituperative venom the RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya has spewed. On the very front page of its issue dated December 22, the Panchajanya has chosen to deflect from its “glory” of the Gujarat win by carrying a photograph of the cover pages of People’s Democracy special issue, with an item titled “Marxists Receive British Money To Spread Anti-Hindu Hatred.” Their objection is to a collage of paper cuttings depicting the violence unleashed by the RSS and its frontal organisations at the time of the Babri Masjid demolition and later in Gujarat. They have take umbrage to the fact that the space was donated by the Indian Workers Association of Great Britain.

First the facts. For every special issue, People's Democracy solicits advertisements. The tariff is circulated well in advance and the advertisements received are duly carried. This is the standard procedure all publications are legally allowed to employ. Further, this is not the first occasion that Indian workers abroad have donated advertisement space for a special issue. 

The photographs used in the collage had all been published earlier. The self-appointed champions of the Hindus --- the RSS and the Panchajanya --- shamelessly continue to defend the inhuman behaviour of their cadre in these riots. It is only pseudo-Hindus who would equate such fanatical behaviour of a few with all the Hindus. It is necessary to, once again, remind ourselves that the majority of India’s Hindus had rejected the RSS vision of a fascistic ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and embraced secular democracy. The fanatical wrath and ire against this was taken to the extent of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.

These pseudo-nationalists have actually questioned the credentials of the Indian Workers Association Great Britain. Little surprising. Those who deliberately stayed away from the Indian people’s mighty struggle for freedom would never know the role played in this struggle by many such organisations abroad. The RSS claim to patriotism and nationalism could not have been more vacuous. The Panchajanya even mentioned the name of the national president of Indian Workers Association Great Britain as it resembles a Muslim name! This they may have hoped would add flavour to their communal minority-bashing. Unfortunately for them, Avtar Sadiq is a turban-wearing Sikh!

The Panchajanya response is a feeble and deceitful attempt to cover up the by-now much exposed “donations from abroad” feeding the hate campaign that they have unleashed in India. Indian nationalism is one that unites Indians in defence of the country, irrespective of their religious beliefs, castes, creeds or languages. It is pseudo-nationalism of the Hindutva variety that preaches hatred and exclusivity. It needs to be repeated that Hindutva has nothing to do with Hinduism. This was stated by the very person who coined the term Hindutva as a political slogan that seeks a fascistic transformation of the Indian Republic. Such a transformation the Indian people did not allow during the course of our freedom struggle. They shall not allow it now either.

-- EDITOR