Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (PMD)
Mangaluru, Oct 25: Well-known human rights activist Teesta Setalvad on Wednesday, October 25 called for a united fight against the 'saffron brigade' and the powers-that-be who she said were spreading 'psychological warfare' and committing violence against minorities and Dalits.
Teesta Setalvad was speaking on the topic 'Talking peace in times of hate', a talk-cum-interactive session championing peace in the coast. The session, hosted by Samarasa, was held at Bishop Jathanna auditorium, Balmatta, here.
Teesta began her talk with a minute of silence for Gauri Lankesh. She then said, "Gauri would have asked 'why the silence. Break the silence'. And now, we have come together, to break the silence caused by fear in an atmosphere of aggression and hate.
"For 30-35 years, ideological forces that believe in the overthrow of the constitutional ideology itself, have occupied constitutional powers. Nationalism is being debated. Is nationalism about fighting for the poor and underprivileged or is it about spreading hatred? Not a single member of the saffron brigade has participated in the national freedom struggle. The current regime instead is trying to fight a psychological warfare, spread fear. Believers of non-violence are scared or silent.
"The fight is at many levels. We need to figure out how we can act ahead of the other, to reclaim our public space over hatred and aggression. We need to tell those in power that they have sworn to the Constitution and not to the party. Today's crisis is not of numbers. Those who spread violence on Junaid, Akhlaq, Dalits in Una, they are in it together. And together under various banners to save themselves. Sometimes they are VHP, RSS, Bajrang Dal. They are a hydra-headed monster which keeps multiplying, but at the centre, the ideology is the same," she said.
Calling for a united fight, she said, "How do we fight this psychological warfare? Students are fighting back, raising questions. As many as 25,000 UGC scholarships were reduced in universities. Those who question status quo are being made silent. If we need deprived students like Rohit and Kanhaiya, in JNU and HCU, we need deprivation points during admission for those from the rural areas and have no place in the caste structure. Middle and upper class find a way. But what about the lower class? Institutions of democracy need to open up.
"There was an attack on MNREGA, RTI Act, Forest Act, Right to Food Act, Right to Compensation Act - these rights-based legislations were attempts to constitutionalise unconstitutional laws. While presenting the Constitution, Dr B R Ambedkar, said we are embarking on dangerous grounds, giving ourselves political independence without giving ourselves social and economic independence.
"CrPC, IPC, Land Acquisition Act 1894 were not constitutionalised. It took 70 years to do that. In the last two-and-a-half years, we have slid back by 25 years. The attack and aggression are taking place on so many fronts. Few of us, about 5000-10,000 people, are fighting. How do we make it more effective? How do we try and understand that it is important to build an alliance between all these struggles? My Adivasi brothers and sisters are fighting today for the Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, which is being diluted by the environment minister. The right to the gram sabha to stop a company to acquire a forest land is now being taken away. How do we understand and develop a counter-narrative to this? Whatever steps were taken to bind our society, this government is undoing it. When we cannot connect, we do not unite. We need to unite and show our strength to win against the psychological warfare," she added.
"The transfer of public resources to crony capitalists along with a completely majoritarian communal hatred is what we observe now. There is a daily attempt to sell Air India. In Indian railways, you book two months in advance, and there is no booking. You book two days earlier via tatkal; you get a confirmed ticket. The concerted effort by this regime to support crony capitalists. We never had a PM roam the world, unite with crony capitalists. Today we see a completely undemocratic selling of public resources to private players.
"What happened to the land ordinance? The first bill that the government in power tried to pass within two weeks of coming into power. They tried to bring a land ordinance that takes away the rights of the gram sabha to decide if the SEZ project should be implemented in Mangaluru or not, or if Adani must get 300-acre land or not in Tumkur. Social audit and fair compensation rights were taken away. In 5 BJP ruled states passed state land laws. The attack on religious minorities, the aggression and hatred is a clever way to divert any discussion from the complete transfer of public resource to private hands. We are made to obsess over the hate politics which is their agenda so that we are not able to understand the socio-economic agenda of this government. How many jobs have been created? Patels in Gujarat, who were supporters of the regime, now ask 'where are our jobs'. We have the right to question the undemocratic, unconstitutional steps of the government and we can do so because it is our basic democratic right.
"What is happening in our textbooks? In a place in Gujarat, they are teaching unscientific and irrational ways of thinking. The same is being applied to Haryana. The idea is to build a generation of unthinking morons, who are happy to join a mob but don't know to think. This is the kind they want. Mangaluru should have a large number of people from every community come together and form an alternative, who look abroad and ashore and celebrate the food, beliefs and languages of this entire region and build on assimilation, amalgamation and contribution of all. Not the land of Mumbai nor Mumbai or India belongs to s single community or class. That is the real India. I believe vigilance committees have begun here. We need to have active Mohalla committees to interact between citizens and the government. Anytime there is a rumour, a reason for communal riot, try and nip it before it escalates into communal violence. If anyone utters words that seek to divide people, we should question the person. I am looking for when elections will be fought on issues of hunger, poverty, unemployment and not on God and fallacious issues. The reason I openly call this government proto-fascist is that of its extreme right ideology at religio-political and economic level. We need to question the ideological warfare that has been unleashed on us through a majoritarian discourse. They say that this land water forest is for one set of people. It cannot be, it will not be, it never was.
"Communal ideology works on tit-for-tat. If anyone speaks this language, we need to question it," she added.
She brought two incidents to light. One, set in Dharavi in December 1992, where a boy was stabbed and killed based on his identity. He survived for two days before dying. The grieving father was asked by the boy's younger brother, 'you owe it to me to tell us who did it', because they were the neighbourhood boys. There was a sense of revenge. The father stood firm and refused to give the name 'I want this to stop', was his only simple answer. "Somewhere in our public discourse, we need to propagate we cannot have an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. We have to propagate a sense of justice.
The other story she shared was in Kurla, December 1992, where she visited a building in a lane, which was dominated by people from one community. She visited the building the morning, a day after the inmates of that building survived a major attack. They said, they would not have survived but for the intervention of a mother of a Shiv Sainik. The leader of the mob that was to attack the building was intercepted by his mother who said, 'if you want to attack this building, you will have first to attack me'.
"The hatred, injustice was not legitimised overnight. It started in the mid-1980's. Today we have reached a pinnacle. People in power have no shame when they utter words that impact people of a community. We have to actively become peacemakers, foot soldiers of the constitution, at least three hours a day, constantly talking the language of peace, courage, firmness, and be enforcers of the rule of law. Do not allow yourselves to be rumour mongers. We have a rich history of a diversity of culture. Do not reduce yourself to hate. We have to work towards a narrative that accommodates every section of the society. Despite the creation of Pakistan, India will remain a secular democracy," Teesta said.