People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (P.A.D.S.) Statement on the murder of three young persons in Badaun and Pune
While introducing the Draft Constitution in the Constituent
Assembly, Dr B. R. Ambedkar had observed, “Democracy in India is only a
top-dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic.” The same
continues to hold true sixty four years later. A few weeks ago the people of India participated
in the largest-ever election of their representatives in a largely free and
fair process. However, other events since then have revealed the shallowness of
this democratic top-dressing along with the tyrannical side of our society and
polity.
On 27 May two girls aged 12 and 14 from an oppressed caste
family of Katra Sadatganj in Badaun district of UP were sexually assaulted and
killed when out to answer nature’s call. The rapists, belonging to the local
dominant caste, hung their bodies from a tree in a public display of their
power.
On 2 June in Pune, twenty-eight year old Mohsin Shaikh, an
information technology professional was beaten to death by a group of men
belonging to an outfit called Hindu Rashtra Sena. The killers even celebrated
their cruelty in messages declaring that the ‘the first wicket is down’.
From the rural hinterland to our industrial cities, from
poverty-stricken villagers to trained professionals, from minor girls to men in
the prime of their youth, Indian citizens belonging to certain castes and
religious groups in India
do not enjoy even a secure right to life. They are killed not by an
authoritarian state power, but by groups that appear to be growing naturally in
a society Dr Ambedkar characterized as ‘essentially undemocratic’.
There have been many occasions when the provincial or
central governments have set aside their duty to uphold the right to life
(Article 21) that is a pillar of the constitutional order. Even when
governments have not been directly implicated in such crimes, their indulgence
(or that of various leaders of ‘mainstream’ parties) towards criminals is no
secret. In Pune, the chief of the Hindu Rashtra Sena has 23 cases pending
against him related to illegal firearms, extortion and rioting. Yet he and his
organization have flourished. Extremist and violent outfits have spread widely
in Maharshtra in the recent past. One of these is suspected of murdering the
reputed rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar in Pune on 20 August 2013. Yet the
Congress-NCP led administration appears indifferent or powerless.
The criminal justice system in the country is quick to
arrest Muslim youth on trumped up charges of terrorism; many of whom are
acquitted by courts after languishing in jails for years. But it is lenient
towards organizations that terrorise people in the name of Hindu Rashtra.
In the Badaun rape and murder case the accused include two
police men. The police station in charge refused to file an FIR when informed
about the missing girls by the father of one of them, a casual wage-labourer.
The accused belong to the core caste base of the ruling party in UP. In Pune
too, the political context of the murder cannot be discounted. The state
assembly elections in Maharashtra are a few
months away, and the hyper activity of extremist groups is an attempt to
polarize voters on religious grounds. Hatred of religious minorities has always
been the ideological core of the BJP’s politics. The current prime minister
shot to fame during the Gujarat riots in 2002,
when thousands of Muslim women, men and children were butchered on the roads
and in their homes. We may hope that the new government will moderate its
extremist ideology and that of its mentor, the RSS. However, the hateful
utterances made during and after the elections by MP’s, ministers and
affiliates of their organizational family are not reassuring.
There are yet more disturbing patterns of official behaviour
that citizens should take note of. As the Sixteenth Lok Sabha was being
inaugurated, Delhi
police performed a barbaric act. Since April 16, four minor Dalit girls -
survivors of sexual assault on March 23, in Bhagana village of Haryana
On June
4, 2014, at 6 am, more than 800 policemen barged into the area, uprooted tents
and seized belongings of the protestors. Some of the women were molested by
constables who were not wearing their name-badges. Now the protesters are
sitting in the scorching sun, sleeping on the pavements and are facing
continuous threats. Their requests to the local MLA and the Union Home Minister
go unheard. This is nothing less than an onslaught on the democratic right of
protest. The failure of the mass media to report the police attack is an
example of the new anti-democratic ideological environment.
The P.A.D.S. condemns these crimes and demands immediate
legal action against the culprits. Full social and legal protection should be
provided to the families of victims, and to witnesses. States in India
routinely indulge in humiliating exercise of giving financial ‘compensation’ to
survivors of social crimes, while doing little to prevent them. P.A.D.S.
demands strict action against police and officials who failed to prevent these
crimes.
These crimes are of course law and order problems, but they
also exemplify the anti-democratic nature of Indian society. Indian society has
not yet left behind its caste mentality, which remains one of the most brutal
systems ever invented to control and dehumanize humans. Despite the talk of
tolerance and non-violence, the socially powerful sectors of our society are
vicious and intolerant of difference and dissent. Their influence makes
nonsense of criminal justice. As Ambedkar reminded us, a constitution can
provide only the institutional framework of a polity - the working of which
depends upon the people, their parties, and their politics.
The policy of unrestrained capitalist growth adopted by
recent Indian governments has strengthened the deep-rooted authoritarian
practices of Indian society. The inter-linkages of state policy, electoral
politics, regressive aspects of popular culture and neo-liberal economics
indicate that the jargon of ‘development’ will function as a mask for
undermining Indian democracy. Only popular movements that struggle against
caste, misogyny, communalism and socio-economic inequality can lead to
democracy. Hence a clear democratic agenda needs to be argued for and
established in every site of struggle.
