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The hidden agenda is all out in the open. No eye that
is willing to see the truth has any doubt. Mounds of literature have appeared in
the wake of the Gujarat Carnage describing the horrendous barbarities of the
Saffron Brigade. Investigation reports, articles, pamphlets and books
continue to pile up on the newspaper-stalls and bookshops. Literary works in the
form of stories, and poems have appeared in literary magazines and newspapers
along with art works and photo exhibitions on Gujarat. Sensitive and bold minds
have issued statements renouncing their religion. Old anti-communal literature
has seen reprints and plays are being re-staged. Manto, Munshi, Rahul have been
dug up. Partition horrors have reappeared on the pages. The people have been
reminded of 1947, 1984, and 1992. Editorials, debates and discourses over
communalism have occupied almost all the magazines and newspapers. Delegations
from many countries have visited India to take stock of the situation and have
issued statements. The Gujarat Carnage, in a sense, has become an affair of
major concern.
Add to this the verdicts of the Chief Election Commission and
the intervention by the Supreme Court, the Human Rights Commission, the National
Minority Commission, various Women Rights Organisations and Human Rights
Organisation and you find an avalanche of information, exposures, revelation,
condemnations and denunciation.
Every printed item on Gujarat explicitly explained the nexus
of the Saffron politician, the civil and police bureaucrat, the criminal, lumpen
not so lumpen, rather respectable looking state employee and car borne
middle-class trader armed with the cell-phone and combustible material, leading
the marauding crowds. Every piece had its own fury and rage, protest and
disapproval, agony and despair, denunciation and indictment, and above all, a
cry and a call for stopping the growing and ever-expanding monster of communal
fascism.
Not only this, even the sections of society who have hitherto
remained unaffected from the fire of communal explosions have shuddered at the
dangerous prospects of an inferno that may no longer leave them secure at a safe
distance. India of the first decade of the new millennium has been likened with
the Germany of the 1930s. Hitler’s treatment of the Jews is being seen in the
emerging situation of the Saffron attitude towards the minorities and its
further extension into all kinds of dissent and opposition. Leave aside the
Muslims and other religious minorities, not to say of the democrats and
communists, even the Hindu liberal intellectuals belonging to the upper crusts
have been unsettled in their safe houses. Perhaps, that is why such a wide and
angry coverage of the carnage has occupied the columns of every newspaper and
magazine.
One thing has been conspicuous by its absence: any
reaction on the part of big business! They have kept quiet all along. The
Ambanis, Birlas, Tatas, Marwaris, Sindhis and all those who have stakes in the
smooth running of the economy have kept quiet in spite of the fact that Gujarat
is a hub of industrial and business activity and this hub has remained almost
jammed for the last six months. They have not raised an eyebrow despite the fact
that the call for economic boycott of the Muslim community means a huge
reduction in business activity, as Muslim industrial workers and traders have
always been a vital part of the economic life of Gujarat.
One conceivable explanation of their silence is: the slump.
Production and business activity is already down and unemployment has mounted.
Therefore, the closing down of businesses has not affected it in any immediate
sense. The more important factor is that it does not bother which way the
politics goes unless its interests are threatened by the forces of change. The
saffron brigade, despite its Swadeshi rhetoric, can only help it in the
long run through imposing an openly fascist regime, curbing every democratic
voice and protest, breaking the unity of the working class and the people in
general, and diverting the ire of the masses, due to increasing unemployment and
poverty, towards one particular section of society. Not an unprofitable deal!
Big business can readily deal with anyone who has state power. For it, the
profit motive is the only motive, not human beings or humanism.
Moreover, when ‘peace’ comes there will be no big hindrance
in the flow of supplies and trade as the Hindu traders will easily replace the
Muslim traders and profit making would go on as usual. Already, the call for
economic boycott of the Muslims is intended to break their economic backbone and
snatch away their livelihoods thus benefiting the small and big Hindu traders.
(It is not without reason that the Hindu traders have participated in the
carnage most happily. Neighbour brutalizing a neighbour, sent an astonishingly
dreadful shock through his spine.) The onslaught of unemployment on the workers
and poor people would be directed against a specific section of the population
thus minimizing or ruling out the dangers of a concerted counter-attack of the
proletarian masses and the middle classes against the capitalists and the state.
The philosophy of Hindu Rashtra and Hindu resurgence has thus helped a section
of the crisis-ridden trading middle class and the ruling classes enormously.
Its reach is so great and effective, and so dangerous and
destructive, as it is based on the already existing social thought and culture
with its elitist and castist superiority, and it only asks for the exploitation
of the existing ideas and a brutalizing of the social relations. This is never
difficult in a conservative society like ours where brahminical ideas are deep
rooted. It has been able to divert the attention of the masses from their real
enemies and been able to concentrate their anger against their own class
brothers. That is why all the reports and discourses have alleged that the
marauding crowds who had enjoyed killing their neighbours are totally
unrepentant even after so many months have passed.
Likening of the carnage by Nazi crowds killing and destroying
Jewish people and properties and celebrating the orgy, as in Germany in the mid
thirties, is quite contextual. Then too, there was no remorse in the majority of
the German people. The only hope lay in the democratic and communist forces that
fought very bravely till their death. (They lost against Hitler. And in this
way, their fight against fascism was lost within the country.) As a consequence,
the majority who followed Hitler had to pay for this in the form of utter
destruction that came in the wake of WW2 where they lost more men and women than
the fascists had killed for being Jews, democrats and communists, and even
liberals. The Nazis had set the whole world against themselves. And the BJP-led
saffron brigade is setting the whole of India, which in any way is more populous
than Europe and comprises various religions, nationalities and peoples that are
quite great in numbers and have nothing in common with the so-called Aryan
supremacy or the (fanatic) Hindu way of life, against itself. India as one
entity is sufficient enough for combating and defeating the rising fascist
menace only if it learns from history.
Nevertheless, as even the liberal press has cried at the
horrendous happenings, the danger bell, it seems, has sounded all around. Leave
aside the common human being; even persons like Sonia and Lyngdoh are coming in
the orbit of the target. The BJP rulers have betrayed no intention to stem the
Gujarat wave despite the misleading statements of "blot", "let down", and
"shame" from the top brass including Advani. Their game continues amid
both kinds of rhetoric.
Rath Yatras continue and communal mouth blasts still rant
the air. Modi, who should have been hanged by now, is spearheading this campaign
amid slogans of the "Lion of Gujarat."
Forget whether Sonia or any of her ilk has the political will
to combat this rising monster. They can only appease, as Vaghela’s campaign has
brought to the fore. Vaghela’s campaign has more to do with the double-edged and
pseudo-secular policies of the Congress than his RSS background. There is only a
pretense of liberalism in the intellectual brain of the Congress, the rest is as
reactionary as the BJP. Though many an intellectual wants an end to the
communalization of the polity, yet the Congress party’s behaviour is determined
by its overall reactionary political needs. Until fascism saddles down firmly,
the liberals don’t bother to oppose it. Ultimately, either they fall in line, or
accept defeat like cowards, and are swept away ignominiously. Only a few dare to
oppose. But the fascists spare no one.
Well, of course, the exposures have been great. But most of
the protests and voices have come from a humanist angle. Though it is a good
thing in itself, yet crying for humanity and humanism does not solve the
political problem of fascism. The Gujarat atrocities have only unveiled the
devilish face of the fascist forces. Remember there is no repentance! Nor will
there ever be. Rather, look at the celebrative mood of the killers coming out of
jails and the participants of the Rath Yatras. You cannot say to them, "You
have killed by notching out the foetuses and by throwing the slit out mothers
into the fire. Shame on you!" They relished it while it was done, and then
celebrated. No regrets.
On the other hand, Modi has advanced further. Against the
Muslims he blared, "We five, our twenty-five." After two days, he counted
three generations taking the "figure" from five to six hundred and twenty-five.
The scoundrel (or if something more appropriate you can write) tried to degrade
Muslim brethren quite knowing the census fact that the "Hindu rate of growth"
is more than any other community in the land. In the mould of a malicious
campaigner, he declared that the rehabilitation camps were "child-producing
factories." You might have heard of perpetrators of genocide. Modi is one
among them, a worthy product of Indian democracy (!) He is suggesting killing
more children to set the demographic ‘misbalance’ right. If not, he is hinting
at: rape and kill.
The BJP defended him by declaring that he was only pointing
to the problem of population increase. You won’t find a more sinister defence
anywhere. This way they want to control the ‘population explosion’ and
create a better race. Hitler too tried his hand at "creating" (by asking the
weak and frail not to procreate) and "establishing" a superior race of Christian
Aryans. Here, the BJP wants to solve the population problem by killing more than
15 crore Muslims first (like Jews in Hitler’s Germany) and then by taking on
fifty crores more belonging to other religious communities and dalits to set the
"demographic figures" right to create an exclusive and superior upper-caste
Hindu Aryan race. It is here that the BJP fascists are miscalculating and
digging their own grave.
Then again, it is not a question of human (population)
figures as it is not merely of humanism. Primarily, it is political question.
This ‘humanism’ sort of thing never moves the reactionaries.
They are cold-blooded calculators and as stony as a rock can be. Truly said,
they are brutes and sadistic. A political question as it is, it can be only
resolved through a political solution (and only by keeping the interests of the
oppressed sections of people as supreme). It is properly said, that by taking
the politics to its extreme, it can be solved only through extreme measures.
That is, it is a political question, which in the ultimate sense, has to be
resolved militarily. There is no other way. Remember the fate of the Jews, then
trade unionists, then communists, then democrats, and ultimately the liberals in
Germany. Also, remember the solution that could only come through war in the
form of a world war. You cannot defeat fascism without fighting it out
militarily.
For this war to be won, all the forces that can be brought on
a broadest single platform must be united. This is primarily the task of the
proletarian revolutionary forces to lead such a front. Reactionaries cannot take
up this task of leading the fight as some expect of the Congress party. It is
pathetic to see liberal writers, even the ‘communist’ ones, have begging
the Congress not to adopt the same tactics as that of the BJP, as has happened
in the case of the Vaghela’ campaign.
This begging will lead nowhere, and this should be clear by
now. Especially, the Muslim brethren, Christians, dalits and the intelligentsia
must understand the limits of the Congress party, and its hypocrisy that has
been clearly exposed during the destruction of the Babri Masjid and on numerous
other occassions.. Neither can the people bank upon the so-called secularists in
the NDA to whom many of the opposition parties, including the CPM, occasionally
appeal in the name of defending democracy and for thwarting the hidden agenda.
Another important aspect of the Indian political set-up that
has pronouncedly made itself felt is the behaviour of the regional and less
strong parties like the TDP, AIADMK, BSP and others. These have betrayed starkly
opportunist positions. In their parliamentary political gimmickry these forces
usually talk of being champions of the dalits and Muslims. Gujarat has clearly
exposed their games. While Jaya Lalitha and her AIADMK has shamefully sided with
the BJP and company, the TDP has failed in its (pseudo) commitment to defend the
Muslims. The BSP is only interested in opportunist dealings to continue itself
in power. It has come to the defence of BJP stalwarts by refusing to issue a
fresh notification to continue the legal case against them in connection with
the destruction of the Babri Masjid. Its pro-Muslim and pro-dalit veil is being
exposed by the day.
The appeasement policy of the bourgeois reactionary
opposition forces is only helping BJP’s fascist agenda politically.
It is the working class and its party only that can spearhead
the movement against the fascist onslaught of the Hindu communalist forces. Only
a strong militant movement of the working class can unite the impoverished
peasants, petty traders and employees who are most likely to fall prey to the
fascist propaganda and the solution being provided by the fascist brigade to the
current problems and crisis. The existing passive voices of the limited
secularists, does not disturb the fascists much. Anew militant force should then
be taken to a higher level and united with the armed struggle that is already
going on in many pockets of the country in the interiors. Only such recourse to
the anti-fascist struggle can relieve the country of the fascist menace that is
threatening to engulf the whole of India.
Gujarat is the first major battle ground where the BJP has
thrown down the challenge of communal fascism. There has been no fight back
there, in spite of the fact that there is a great number of proletariat in the
cities like Ahmedabad and Surat. Ahmedabad, once considered the Manchester of
India due to its vast textile industry, is in shambles. The rise of Hindu
fascism has acted as a great divisive force in working class unity and for the
unity of the people in general. This only points to the sorry state of the
revolutionary working class movement and revolutionary peasant movement there.
The industrial slump and the poverty of peasant masses that has come in the wake
of WTO and globalisation are pushing things into a worse direction. We might be
witnessing this throughout the country in the coming times due to the strong
presence of the saffron and allied forces everywhere. It is this sad development
that must be cause for concern and which should underline the necessity of
organising forces on a class basis and on a revolutionary platform.
Unless the revolutionary proletariat is able to achieve this
objective these forces will only find themselves helpless in the face of the
rising counter-revolutionary tide, decrease in numbers and see their exit
exasperated and dejected. At the most, this exasperation may end in a dismal
abyss of revengeful terrorist acts on the mass of Hindus that don’t achieve
anything and only complicate the situation further. The Hindu communalists only
want it to happen and use a venomous tongue. The likes of Modi use a
provocative, vituperative language, which is part of the plan to further build
up the frenzy and carry out their nefarious plans of a countrywide anti-Muslim
holocaust. On the one side, there is the state sponsored mass frenzy, on the
other, the reaction comes through such terrorist acts that indicate the
desperation of the victim. Both ways the communal hatred gets further
aggravated. This has created a vast gap between the two communities.
Either the proletarian forces fill the gap or it is bound to
snowball in the wrong direction. The proletarian masses belonging to both the
major communities in Gujarat and in other parts of the country still have some
relationships left. Everything is not lost yet. The petty bourgeois disgruntled
masses throughout the country have nowhere to go in the absence of a viable
alternative to fight against the rising specter of unemployment and an uncertain
future. The saffron politicians are exploiting this situation through divisive
politics to take them along a reactionary path as has been witnessed in Gujarat.
This has to be accepted as bitter wages of the lack of initiative and failure on
the part of the revolutionary communist movement. If the Hindu communalist
forces succeed, then, there will be no stopping it. One must try to retrieve the
situation and change it before it is too late. If the revolutionary forces make
strides in the right direction and succeed in their endeavour, the resistance
forces are likely to increase enormously. There is no other saviour, and cannot be.
The people’s opposition that has made itself known in a vast
myriad of forms to communal fascism is a welcome and healthy sign in the
crisis-ridden society of ours. All the outbursts of disgust and protest, of
concern and anger, and moreover, the Delhi rally of one lakh dalits and Muslims
against the Gujarat carnage and numerous other small protests have shown that
there is a silver lining, a hope, and a great scope for the anti-communalist
forces to emerge as a powerful mass movement. This vast and scattered mass of
concern, protest and anger needs to be united with, won over and brought into a
single powerful stream of resistance, ultimately directing it against the
present inhuman system as a whole.
The onus of building a powerful anti-communal-fascism
movement through steadfastly standing against the rising Hindu fascists and by
uniting all the people’s forces lies on the revolutionary communists alone.
September 25, 2002
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