Confront This Modification of India

Sitaram Yechury

BUOYED by their Gujarat victory, the Saffron Brigade is upping the ante on all fronts. The process of Modification of India that we discussed in these columns earlier, has been accelerated by Modi himself who urged a gathering in Mumabi "not to be ashamed of Hindutva" and "fight its (BJP) opponents through Hindutva". "Use all means", he thundered and by implication suggested that all those opposed to the BJP's Hindutva are pro-Pakistani.   

Such fascist aggressiveness is matched by activities centering on inflammable communal agenda at the ground level. Reports show that violence and curfew continue to rage various parts of Gujarat. Even normal innocuous kite-flying contests are generating communal strife and tension. In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, large-scale violence led to the imposition of curfew in Vidisha district on the issue of cow-slaughter. From far away Kerala reports appear of a grievous assault on a group of Protestant missionaries by RSS workers.

While such tensions are being created systematically to reap political and electoral benefit, another area of concern is fast emerging. Confirming the fact that given Indian realities, any erosion or undermining of secularism simultaneously constitutes an attack on democracy and democratic institutions come the darkening shades of authoritarianism. The release of journalist, Iftikhar Gilani, has completely vindicated the apprehensions we had aired that draconian laws like POTA will be misused infringing upon and curtailing the democratic rights of the people.  It is both an irony and a tragedy that a person who authored a whole book on his confinement during the Emergency today presides over the home ministry which, without declaration, is adopting similar, if not worse, measures.

Describing the situation as being "warlike" in reference  to terrorism, the deputy prime minister went to the extent of justifying curtailment of democratic rights while speaking to media persons on his return from Guwahati recently by stating  that a "democratic State need not be a soft  State". Indians who go abroad, we are being told, cannot criticise any policy that the government pursues. Already there are reports that trade union delegations, critical of the government policies at the conference of the International Labour Organisation, were heaped with official disapproval.  The deputy prime minister when asked if he did not believe that a democracy like India could survive criticism at home or abroad, he said, "No.  I don't see that. Democracy does not mean everyone can do whatever they want" (The Hindu, January 14, 2003).  No originality here.  Sounds pretty much the same language as that of Indira Gandhi during Emergency. 

While the prime minister through his annual musings talked of strengthening people-to-people contacts and improving the relations with Pakistan, the home ministry is busy refusing entry to Pakistanis to attend international events in India. Some who were officially and legitimately invited to the recent Asian Social Forum at Hyderabad were not granted visas.  Similarly, thirteen Punjabi writers from Pakistan invited for the international Punjabi writers' conference in Delhi were denied visa. 

Clearly, the prime minister was seeking to satisfy his imperialist masters by posing to worry about Indo-Pak relations, while his deputy concentrates on utilising these very tensions to further the saffron communal agenda.  They seek to utilise the anti-Pak sentiments as the proxy to spread hatred against the Indian Muslims. The deeper this hatred, the greater are the political and electoral dividends for them. 

Yet another sign of fascistic authoritarianism came from the prime minister himself when he urged the Governors at a conference in Delhi to play a more pro-active role. Now, under our Constitution, Governors are the President's representatives in the states. In the past, we have often seen this office being blatantly misused to serve the interests of the central government in a state where opposition parties head the government. Under this BJP-led government, this trend has become more blatant given the fact that leading RSS personalities have been appointed as Governors in many states. 

Interestingly, some of these Governors have asked for a legislation defining their role as Chancellors of Universities -- a post that they normally occupy, ex officio, because of their appointment as Governors.  They are seeking this to intervene in the functioning of the universities and more importantly in strengthening and advancing the RSS agenda of communalisation of Indian education.  The more active a Governor becomes, corresponding is the denial of authority of the democratically elected state government.  This runs directly contrary to the federal spirit of our Constitution. The prime minister's exhortations, thus, are fraught with grave consequences for centre-state relations leading to the erosion of powers and rights of the state governments. 

Thus, we find in various ways, a systematic effort to undermine secular democracy in India. This is being done to advance the RSS agenda and facilitate the transformation of the Indian Republic into a fascistic "Hindu Rashtra".  It is this agenda that has to be defeated if India has to retain its secular democratic republican character.