In the
wake of the punishments being metted out to the culprits of Mumbai blasts
of 1993, the logical demand of punishing the guilty of 92-93 Mumbai
carnage came up from different sections of society. Many a delegations
met the political leadership to urge for implementation of Shrikrishna
Commission report. This report impeccably pointed out the role of different
leaders, from Shiv Sena-BJP and even some from Congress in the Mumbai
riots. Their crimes of commission and omission are there for all to
see in this report. The present government, Congress-NCP, had come to power on the
promise that they will implement the report. Despite long years of being
in power; they cleverly sat pretty, giving some flimsy answers about
the actions which they seem to have taken. One sampler will do, for
the crime
which calls for few years of imprisonment, they transferred some one
from one to the other department, bravo! Now with the revival of the
pressure from the victims and concerned citizens, again some white wash
is being peddled out with the promise to take action.
At the same
time, those involved in the riots threatened against the implementation of this
report. Same political formations had earlier rejected the report as being anti
Hindu, and challenging that if the report is implemented, it will be the
political death of those who will do so. An argument is being rehashed as to why
should the wounds of the riots be reopened, unmindful of the fact that wounds of
the victims may heal only and only if the culprits are given the punishment. A
subtle threat has been given that its implementation will bring in more
violence. It’s clear that those who are the victims try to call for justice and
those who are the patrons of criminals or criminals themselves peddle these
arguments to avoid their own punishment and to protect their political
interests.
The second
report which is under attack is the one related to the socio-economic
condition of the Muslim minority. This report, like the previous report
on the same issue, Gopal Singh Commission, pointed out the abysmal condition of
the Muslims, their low levels of incomes, social deprivation, economic
destitution, their being side tracked from the jobs, welfare schemes and other
ladders for progress. As the
present UPA government is trying to take this seriously, is accepting
the idea of forming of Equal Opportunities Commission in principle,
some political elements have termed this affirmative action of the government
being like throwing ‘an Atom bomb at Hindu community’. It is warning
that it will take to the streets to oppose this ’appeasement of Muslims’.
There
are lots of parallels in the attitude to both the reports. As such these
two reports genuinely reflect the twin aspects of the problem of the
minorities, the socio-economic aspects and the physical security. Both
have a strong impact on each other and also on the existence of the
community as a whole. One infers from Sachar committee report that as a
community, Muslims are the only one’s whose
economic and social situation has slumped down in last sixty years.
And Shrikrishna report delineates the anatomy of a riot, the expression
of depth to which communalism has sunk in our society. It demonstrates
as to how one type of political leadership, the one like BJP-Shiv Sena
instigates and launches the attack, getting its
legitimization in advance from the propaganda that the minorities are
a threat, are attacking, so we have to retaliate to protect ’ourselves’.
The other
type of leadership sits back and lets these elements do their communal
polarization, and also does accommodate some elements from these parties
for the sake of power. Congress which claims to be secular easily slips
when principled actions are to be taken. During the Mumbai pogrom Congress
Chief Minister Sudhakarrao naik was sitting pretty paralyzed by inaction
and silently supporting the attack led by Bal Thackeray. When a delegation
of industrialists led by Tata called upon him to stop the mayhem, he told
them to meet Thackeray to request him whatever they want. The same party
later admitted into its fold the likes of Narayan Rane and Sanjay Nirupam,
who were loyal sainiks of Thackeray. The third player in the game, the
state machinery, the police and bureaucracy and partly judiciary is
infected by the institutional biases against the minorities and aids
and abets the anti minority carnage in different ways, that’s how
you see so many of police officers blundering and participating in the
violence and getting a pat from their political masters.
Sachar
Committee shows that condition of Muslims is worsening. No democracy
worth its pluralism and equality can ignore a chunk of its society and
ignore the affirmative action for weaker sections of society. Here it
seems so far the democratic values have been put on hold as far as weaker
sections are concerned. Here one type of leadership, the right wing
is dead opposed to any affirmative action, equating it to nuclear attack
on the Hindus. The other leadership, which so far slept over the issue,
is hopefully trying to wake up to it. The third major player the bureaucracy
is by now too communalized to be bothered to let the affirmative action
take place. The tragedy is that on one hand there is no effective affirmative
action for minorities and on the other even the token talk on this issue
is presented as a threat to Hindu community.
Can we
let this denigration of minorities go on? One recalls that our earlier
caste system had totally marginalized the low castes. Today in the communal
scenario another chunk of population is being relegated to secondary
position. Are we creating new type of exclusionary social system? Sprawling
ghettoes like Mumbra, Bhendi Bazar on one hand their absence in the
social sphere on the other, totally violates the spirit of national
community.
Golwalkar,
the second supremo of RSS, the most important ideologue of RSS-BJP and
affiliated organizations which are leading the anti minority tirade, wrote “…non
Hindu people in Hindustan must either adopt Hindu culture…they must cease to be
foreigners or may stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation
claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment,
not even citizens rights.”. One may add to that they will also be subjected to
differential legal system! Are we heading towards this terrifying vision
of the patron saint of RSS-BJP?
|