War against Peace
By Pamarty Venkataramana
Case study :
A poor widowed mother approaches a greenhorn lawyer to apply for bail to free her son who got a seat at a premier State engineering college on quota of merit ranking but is arrested from the jungle abutting campus hostel for being a ‘naxalite’.
Bail applied. Court refuses. Later, a famous civil rights group convinces the mother to approach a senior publicist advocate.
Net result. Court of appeal takes a tough stance knowing fully well that this celebrity blackcoat is a turncoat who spews venom against democratic systems.
A life ruined. The youth turns hardcore naxal, indoctrinated in prison, tapoed at college. And, a blooming, brilliant intellectual life is snuffed out. To be groomed into a ‘dalapati’.
Old hawks in urban hideouts and in thick forest hideouts anoint this brave heart as a Robin Hood who is espousing the cause of other affected hapless parties.
– just one little case study!
State of Minds :
Let us do some plain-speaking now at least, in the aftermath of another gruesome and horrendous loss of good men in the battle against bad men .
All are compatriots. Some are not patriots. Yet, all are human beings. Hence, the grief and sorrow leads one to help analyst the genesis of this peculiar phenomenon that has plagued India via naxalbari.
Who supplies ground support to the naxalite groups -be it gadgets, rocket launchers, guns, rifles, bullets or funds and media blitz to these outlawed elements?
Who helps them seem to be more organised and military-like training imparted to keep killing lesser trained semi military and policemen,time and again?
Why do poor, illiterate tribal and Dalits as well as brahmanical and Christian-Muslim devout get enamoured by this movement of decades?
Who is the stately sponsor because it is clearly a foreign State sponsored domestic terrorism ?
Especially because many rural folks have become disillusioned since few decades to either surrender given the option by the local police administration or have transformed their identity to float political outfits and stepped into Legislative Assemblies and even August Houses of Parliament as proud elected proponents of the ideology of Communism ?
Many have turned leaf to set up businesses and become happy householders.
It is commonplace knowledge to believe that ninety percent of these naxalite sympathisers or bands comprise of humble common people who have been victims of wrongs committed by persons in powerful chairs of the establishment – be it a local Sarpanch or Police official or revenue inspector and be it a highly influential zamindar / landlord or factory owner.
Tribal womenfolk have been molested. Men exploited. By outsiders. The bhadralok often being wolves and wolverines in sheep skin.
Higher up leaders and bureaucrats seldom reach out to the plight of ones whose lands have been grabbed through a manipulation of revenue records or sweat turned into blood by deadly assaults on the self respect.
When an innocent is wronged, there can never be a deadlier weapon for Lady Law who seeks to mete out Justice that is dubbed by pen-pushers as revenge.
On the other side of the fulcrum is the tragedy of simpleton cops and hundreds of para military soldiers and informers being martyred in the cross-fire of Justice and ‘war against State’ versus ‘civil rights war’!
No amount of ex-gratia payments or compensation to bereaved families or social stigma attached to innocent family members of the branded naxalites can repair the damage being inflicted on the psyche of future generations of thinkers, fighters and leaders being churned out in our plural society.
Solutions:
So, where lies a solution to end this menace?
Believe it or not, to a great extent by ushering in an Uniform Civil Code in India, asap.
Next, by the Election Commission of India banning any group of citizens seeking registration of political party based on ideology of communism, parochialism or religious identity.
Third,by radical changes being brought about in the revenue and land-holding laws of the country,without letting federal structure of the Constitution being derailed through an immature confrontation of States versus Center dialogue being allowed to be continued to be perpetuated by both unbridled press folks as well as mischievous bureaucrats.
This is not what the founding Fathers aspired to see – a Nation pitted against itself on divisive factors as caste, creed, religion,wealth and vices.
An absolute majority Parliament has to leave it’s imprint in the annals of history.
Reign in vagabond netas who openly foments trouble from foreign powers. Muster moral courage to call a spade a spade. End political opportunism and appeasement of foes of Sanatana Dharma as being the stripes of ‘street smart politicians’.
Stop letting psycophants’ chants of Chanakya Neeti being the current style to govern.Instead, look towards Vidura Neeti. Hurt nobody yet win all, love all.
No policy is good which pits citizen against citizen.
Reform mindset of rulers and minions in the establishment. Singing the national anthem must not be a rotinue end of programme affair. The substance and meaning must genuflect and reflect in the functioning of a people’s democracy.
Do not be as greedy gora sahibs or lusty mogul hordes who tortured our forefathers but instead become the Gandhian whose soul appears to forever haunt this Karmabhoomi.
Do not let a socio-economic political problem be converted into a barbaric western media labelled ‘rebel’ or ‘insurgent’ Media.
The term ‘urban naxals’ is anathema to an urbane, learned and sophisticated society. Stop glorification of the obscene.
Work towards eradication of sins and crimes against innocent, helpless and honest citizens. This can primarily be achieved by an urgent repair of the admittedly collapsed criminal justice system of the country. Which can drastically come about by separating the function of investigation from that of law and order duties of the Police.
End the facade of caste based reservation. Nothing disturbed the Indian firmament more than the farcical OBC reservation bogey. Create more and more jobs to turn the reservation monster impotent and redundant.
Embrace new technological innovations developed by desi folks. Let not the establishment continue to spurn these geniuses amongst us. Even as so much of artificial hype is created about start-ups which most of the time are rank failures on account of vital factors such as lack of experience or greed and just for fame apart from violations of one another’s rights.
You have the naxalite’in their jungle lairs. And, you have the mafiaso in urban hideouts. Not to ignore the fissiparious elements in mass media and paid media outlets.
Arrest the tendency to label dissent as naxalism yet punish even non ‘naxals’ who don khadi or khaki clothes but spew venom constantly against the Honourable Government of India as well as the Constitution of India.
Human Rights groups and naxalite groups surface only when criminal justice system fails or bigwigs of Judiciary kowtow to political masters who have appointed them to such safe and generally immune posts.
A #NewIndia cannot emerge unless peace is restored to the land of sages and samskaras.
Dharma alone directs Ramarajya. Otherwise, there exists only a ‘drama rajya’.
Let empathy, sympathy and kindness for downtrodden sail along with stern action being taken to curb vicious foul play being sponsored by vested interests envious of any Nelson in power or a Nation that exhibits resilience across seven decades of growing up into a mature democracy.
Jai Hind!
Pamarty Venkataramana (PVR) is a distinguished and eminent international Jurist, Poet, Author, Speaker and Thinker based in India. His many books are published.
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