Our Fractured Conscience
Our Fractured Conscience
(published in The Telegraph, Calcutta, Nov
7, 2006)
Is it of the very essence of
truth to be impotent and of the very essence of power to be deceitful? And what
kind of reality does truth possess if it is powerless in the public realm? Hannah Arendt, in Truth and
Politics
Public opinion is now debating
the death penalty awarded to Afzal Guru in connection with the 2001 attack on
the Indian Parliament. The debate is becoming a shouting match, but is an
opportunity for us to think about the phenomenon of virtuous murder, of which
judicial executions no less than political killings are a part.
A certain line of thinking
places the roots of political violence in poverty and backwardness. A greater
part of the explanation may lie in the experience of humiliation. The idea of
justice is rooted in the sense of fairness. Unfair treatment gives rise to
anger, which shifts towards revenge when it finds no redress. Fairness requires
that wrong-doings be acknowledged. If the wrong-doers do not accept they have
done wrong, society may render such acknowledgement to the victims. When even
this is not forthcoming, violent emotions and deeds become probable. Such deeds
are seen as crimes by one side and as justice by the other. When your anguish
is greeted by silence, you want to make an explosive noise. Bhagat Singh’s bomb
in the Legislative Assembly was meant to “make the deaf hear”. (The risk
associated with loud noise is deafness on all sides). Where communities are
pitted against each other, we enter the dark portals of collective guilt,
innocent victims and faceless avengers, of killing as a means of obtaining
recompense.
Consider that other ageless
phenomenon, the double-standard. Humans have been sensitive to the terrible
burden that killing imposes upon us. Hence we have always asked the Almighty to
salve our consciences. Our ambivalence is exemplified in the ancient
Judaeo-Christian debate on the Sixth Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Kill.
Did God mean Thou Shalt Not Murder? Pacifist Christians insist upon the
first meaning. Crusading Christians require the second. A current of thought in
India has named Gandhi’s assassination Gandhi-vadh, rather than hatya.
Godse considered his act to be an act of justice. Undoubtedly V.D. Savarkar
(whose portrait adorns the halls of Parliament) thought so too. What ideals do
our leaders wish to uphold by honouring a chief accused in the Gandhi murder
trial?
Afzal didn’t kill anyone. If
he may be hanged for enabling the attack on Parliament, is there not
prima-facie evidence of politicians and policemen enabling carnages in Delhi
and Gujarat in 1984 and 2002? How many of them have been brought to justice?
The handful of convicts are underprivileged persons - the big fish are
flourishing. In 1987 over 40 Muslims of Meerut were allegedly murdered by the
Armed Constabulary. The case took eighteen years to come to court, with
delaying tactics resorted to even by parties that claim to defend minority
rights. Sometimes the phrase “rule of law” sounds farcical. The Indian
establishment has regularly suborned the justice system to protect a certain
class of criminal. Policemen in dereliction of duty end up with promotions and
enablers of mass murder get hailed as heroes. Why is this contempt for human
life any less culpable than the attack on Parliament?
In modern times, devotion to
great causes has acquired a quasi-religious fervour, even when the devotees use
secular language. Albert Camus named our time the age of historical murder.
These habits of mind cut across the political spectrum. Our tradition of
militancy includes crusades for self-determination and people’s wars for
classless society. In August 2000, nearly 100 people were killed in eight
massacres in Kashmir. They included Amarnath pilgrims and some members of a
Kashmiri Muslim family. Most of them were brick‑kiln workers from central India
and Bihar. (Revolutionaries are not very exercised at the annihilation of
workers by jehadis of either Muslim or Hindu variety). On August 13,
2004, 9 school children were killed by the ULFA in Upper Assam. On August 15,
the CPI-Maoist shot dead nine persons in Andhra Pradesh, including a
legislator, his son, driver and a municipal employee. On September 12, 2005 it
slit the throats of 17 villagers in Giridih (Jharkhand). This February saw 25
tribals dead in a landmine blast in Chhattisgarh. Another blast on March 25
killed 13 persons. The Maoists apologised for the latter, calling it a mistake.
It is such ‘mistakes’ that motivate opponents of the death penalty to demand
its abolition. There were no apologies for 60 people killed in Delhi’s Sarojini
Nagar on October 29, 2005. Nor for the 200 dead and 625 injured in Mumbai this
July.
Every act of violence leaves a
lifetime of trauma for its victims, some of whom become avengers in their turn.
But one senses irony when sympathisers of militancy ask for a revocation of the
death penalty. Do they oppose it in principle or only when one of their own is
sentenced to death? Why are they silent when militants administer death
sentences to all and sundry? Does it make any sense to attach political threats
to appeals for clemency? And can the Hindu nationalists understand how the
well-wishers of Graham Staines feel when they see Dara Singh celebrated as a
hero?
The list is endless. The Salwa
Judum vigilantes of Chhattisgarh have allegedly committed rapes and killings. A
recent citizen’s report documented the vicious activities of this
state-supported militia but it also noted the Maoist’s brutality. Like their
opponents they too kill without presumption of innocence or chance for appeals
for mercy. The comrades should think about the impact of their activities upon
the grand ideal of socialism. They reject the legitimacy of the Indian state,
but their own political behaviour is highly autocratic. Should socialists hold
themselves to a higher or a lower standard than the system they criticise?
Tragically, those who wanted to prepare the soil for a just society have now
become judge and executioner rolled into one - a pure version of tyranny. Along
with right-wing radicals, their own legitimacy is grounded on nothing more
substantial than outraged sentiment and a claim to superior understanding of
Indian reality. Does this give them the right to kill anyone they want? India’s
ruling elites as well their critics are playing host to a nihilist element that
grows more confident the longer the democratic conscience clings to its double
standard on political murder. The concept of ‘collateral damage’ is not
confined to George Bush’s dictionary.
Our radicals have changed the
world for the worse. From militant communalists and nationalists to those who
kill for the sake of People or Historical Destiny, too many of us believe in
the death penalty. Those demanding death for Afzal are mobilising relatives of
the dead policemen. The families deserve our sympathy, but in any case Afzal is
due for life imprisonment. What good will it do to end his life? Policemen may
now sympathise with the families of two other murder victims, Jessica Lal and
Nitish Katara both of whom have seen their hopes for justice dashed to the
ground. The main suspects in these cases are relatives of Congressmen. Jessica
was shot in clear view of the high and mighty. Do those in charge of our
criminal justice system possess a clean conscience when it comes to restitution
for the victims of killers?
Restraint and compassion are the best means by
which to contain the rising tide of political violence. For a system with so
much blood on its hands, the hanging of Mohammad Afzal Guru would be yet
another example of its breathtaking hypocrisy.
Speak the truth
Stop the killing
अफजल गुरु को फांसी दिए जाने पर शुभकामनाओं के दौर को देखकर लगता है कि फांसी का उन्मादी शोर भारतीय राष्ट्रवाद की नई पहचान बन रहा ! शुभकामनाओं का आदान प्रदान करने वाले वही लोग है जो गुजरात में लाचार औरतों के बलात्कार और मासूमो की हत्या के बाद कह रहे थे "जय श्री राम- हो गया काम " ! फांसी की इस राजनीति के खिलाडियों में भाजपा के बाद अब कांग्रेस भी चैम्पियन बनने की राह पर है ! परन्तु सैंकड़ो औरतो और 1000 से अधिक हत्याओं और 1 लाख से भी ज्यादा लोगो को बेघर कर देने वाले, और गुजरात तथा देश के गाँव और कस्बो को हिंदुस्तान - पाकिस्तान की मानसिकता में बाँट देने वाले राज्य प्रायोजित आतंकवाद के दोषियों को भी क्या कभी फांसी मिल पायेगी ! देश की न्यायिक व्यवस्था पर भी क्या कारसेवको का कब्ज़ा हो चुका है या वह भी रंग देखकर न्याय करती है! भगवे और हरे एकसमान अपराध के लिया अलग अलग न्याय ! Mahesh Rathi)
