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Editorial
What Republic
Is India Talking About?
 Tanks on the
road, thousands of children pulled out to perform on a chilly
morning, a country displaying its deadly capacity in arms, and
caricatures of culture on rickety four wheelers: India on parade
marking its Republic Day looked a bit of a small time B grade
comedy. Apart from the fact that no respectable democracy brings out
heavy weaponery and artillery to underline what a perfect democracy
it is striving to become, the very fact that celebrations of
republic are happening at a time when so many are challenging its
writ is something you can miss only if you are in the habit of
missing an 800-pound gorilla in a bedroom.
Not
surprisingly, the Sikhs, Kashmiris and other people fighting the
imperial designs of New Delhi have sent a clear message that they
are no more ready to suffer subjugation. Within India, huge swathes
of territory are out of the jurisdictional control of the
government, and there is no end to districts where
New Delhi
dare not even post district magistrates.
It is there that
India is sending heavy artillery. Operation Green Hunt is nothing
but a project to snatch away the lands and rights of the tribals in
the name of control naxalism. The surfeit of security forces in
Kashmir is India's way of responding to genuine apprehensions of the
natives. The refusal to deal with the forces that threaten and
defame Muslims every single day is proof of the apathy of the Indian
nation state. And none other than hundreds of Indian non-profits and
its own human rights panels funded by government money have slammed
the poor record on protecting the Dalits.
The country is
on the verge of breaking up.
Darjeeling
seems a cosy and majestic hill station but the government cannot
even force shopkeepers not to display signboards that have
'Gorkhaland' as their new address. How can the government ask them
to remove the word 'Gorkhaland' when even government offices display
'Govt of Gorkhaland' boards and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) acts
like the government?
Manipur has not
stopped burning for decades now, and the Indian Army, drunk on the
heavy weaponry and light scruples, is adamant on not scrapping the
Armed Forces Special Powers Act as rapes continue.
Kashmir
is witnessing new attacks once again even as secret talks continue
and Telangana has been burning for so long that newspapers have
gotten sick of the story.
Still, India is
busy proclaiming itself to be a Republic of the people, for the
people, by the people. Clearly, this is a bunch of very few people
who know how to rule, and how to discard every norm of democracy.
In Telangana,
crowds of thousands of poor people join a bandh every other day and
what achieve their aim, whatever is the price they have to pay.
Indian government should be ashamed of the situation.
Just one look at
the solidarity displayed by citizens of Telangana with the students
of Osmania University agitating for a separate state, and you know
how much is
New Delhi's
writ respected.
In Gorkhaland,
the WB from the vehicle number plates has been replaced by GL while
in Hyderabad, you see TG instead of AP. What more proof is required
that India is being poorly heald together. The only way that
New Delhi
knows of keeping the country together is the Chindambaram way: Send
forces with heavy weapons to tribal areas and ask Air Force to help
out by bombing people carrying bows and arrows.
It is in these
times that the Sikhs are being repeatedly made to understand that
even their survival in India will be difficult if they do not give
up their unique identity and get assimilated in the Hindutva
mainstream. The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat continues to claim that his
and his organization’s aim is to make
India
“Sangh mayee”. Now they have put such stuff on their official
website that asks Sikhs to change their scriptures and reformulate
even what they cook in their kitchen, is there any hope that New
Delhi knows how to live with minorities?
27January 2010
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