Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Discrimination, not justice: Hope this generation does a better job of navigating the struggle than the one that came before
NB: For those of my generation, India's struggling students have already given us hope - they are not fightng as Hindus or Muslims or Christians or Sikhs, or as this or that caste, but as Indians. They are protecting democracy and the values of the freedom struggle. I salute them all. But I repeat my warning against violence and those trying to instigate violence. Violence is the grammar of the oppressors - they are happy when protests become violent. Please remember that the strongest movements are those that eschew violence. This advice is relevant for the Maoists as well. DS
India is in the midst
of, arguably, the largest student protest since the Emergency. The ground of
protest is clear: India cannot be a Republic founded on discrimination and a
pervasive sense of fear. It cannot exclude or target anyone simply on the basis
of their identity. It is hard to predict the shape of any movement. We left the
current generation of students a tattered constitutional legacy, weak
institutions, an uncertain economic future, a poisonous public discourse and a
corrosive politics. We left them insecure and weak leaders or those whose
divisive passions are their only policy. So this movement will have to find its
own vocabulary, leadership and strategy for moral and institutional
regeneration. But here are some possible challenges to ponder, based on past
experience, especially of the Emergency.
In some ways, the
fight during the Emergency was simple. It was a fight for the restoration of
democracy against authoritarianism, joined by all kinds of forces. At this
fraught moment there are two battles. There is a battle against state
authoritarianism, its attempts to exercise pervasive control. But there is also
the battle against communalism, the attempt to divide society and unleash
passions that relegate minorities to second class citizens. They are two sides
of the same coin - the government is fomenting both processes. But in society,
the two can work at cross purposes. The BJP has a slew of proposed
bills, from anti-conversion laws, to a common civil code to population control.
Each one of them will, like the CAA, wear the garb of secularism; each one
will, in its content, likely smuggle in majoritarianism by disguise. These will
pose both tactical and moral challenges.
The tactical challenge
will be that they will once again consolidate majoritarian identities, produce
that fog of silence in which the CAA will be excused. The moral challenge will
be to find a vocabulary and positions that nudge secularism towards freedom and
equality for all individuals rather than one that pits minority and majority
identities in competition with each other, as our politics often did. The
communal axis will be used to divide society so that it cannot unite against
the authoritarian state. So, the fight over CAA cannot be won without ensuring
these issues do not divide us.... read more
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/discrimination-not-justice-6173881/see also
Kamal Haasan meets Madras University students, says we are moving towards a dictatorship
