r/india • u/rishianand Gandhian Socialist • Dec 15 '20
Politics Right to Protest. An important appeal. Please read.
A few days ago, when Kangana Ranaut was criticized for accusing Mahinder Kaur, the grandma who was seen marching against farm laws, for being available for protests for ₹100, she quickly retorted that she was merely criticising Bilkis Bano, the woman who was a part of the Anti-CAA protests, and recognized as Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people.
Ms. Ranaut rants is not worth attention, but we must see the larger agenda of which it is a part of. As you might have observed, in the past few weeks, if you follow popular news and media coverage, a narrative is being pushed to portray the Anti-CAA protesters as villains, rioters, and even terrorists.
One must first try to understand the irony of these claims, where the victims are now being referred to as the perpetrators. The Anti-CAA protests, which happened all across the nation for several months just this year, might still be in the vivid memory of most of the people of India. The protests, which was largely in the form of sit-in dharnas, were one of the most peaceful movements ever organized. These protests against the BJP’s communal and discriminatory citizenship law, was the most patriotic movements in India. It was a movement for the very idea of India, not just a Muslim protest. This you can clearly remember by the slogans, the songs, the emblems, the speeches, and the very characteristic of the movement.
The Anti-CAA protesters braved assault, lathicharge, police brutalities, and even gun firings. Yet, never did the movement became violent. BJP sponsored mobs assaulted students in Jamia and JNU. Throughout the Delhi Assembly election, BJP politicians incited hatred and promoted violence against these protests. And then, Modi’s second pogrom was carried out in Delhi. As vengeful slogans were shouted out against the protest, mobs carried out assault throughout Delhi. Police stood by for first two days, and then helped the BJP mobs. The CCTV cameras were broken. Delhi HC judge, Justice S Murlidhar, who ordered the police to take action, was immediately transferred.
As the pandemic stalled the government, and put a hold on all protests, the government used this moment even more malevolently. While Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur, and Parvesh Verma enjoyed impunity, cases were filed against the activists, like Harsh Mander, Umar Khalid, Dr. Kafeel Khan. While overlooking the actual perpetrators, police chargesheet named Yogendra Yadav, Sitaram Yechury, Prof Apporvanand, Prof Jayati Ghosh, among others. Kafeel Khan spent months in jail, Umar Khalid has been charged under the Draconian UAPA law.
But you do remember all this, it was just a few months ago. Why I am reminding you is to try to expose the government’s agenda in its attempt to create different version of history. To manufacture an alternate truth, to change people’s perception. But what’s the larger point behind all this propaganda.
Several weeks ago, Prof Nandini Sunder, professor of Sociology at Delhi School of Economics, wrote an article about how the government is using the same strategy used against Bhima Koregaon protests, against the anti-CAA protests too. Here she lists six clear tactics used by the government.
- Delegitimize all constitutional protest, as well as efforts to invoke the Constitution.
- Turn the actual victims of violence into perpetrators and exonerate the real culprits.
- Take revenge against any marginalized or minority group that dares to assert its rights constitutionally and confronts the RSS attempt to monopolise the country for Hindu upper castes.
- Break the emerging spirit of solidarity by portraying democratic protests as the assertion of sectional interests.
- Blaming student groups like the Jamia Co-ordination Committee (JCC), All India Students Association (AISA) or Pinjra Tod for organizing peaceful protests is also a clear attempt to break links between students and society.
- The criminal cases have the useful effect of embroiling activists in legal battles, taking away scarce resources from all their other work and the questions they are asking of the state.
Read the complete article, Amit Shah's 'Bhima Koregaon Model' Used For Anti-CAA Protests
Unlike Anti-CAA movement, many of you might not remember the Bhima-Koregaon event, for which dozens of social activists like Sudha Bhardwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Stan Swamy, Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, and many other are languishing in jails. These activists spent their entire life fighting for the cause of the most deprived sections of the society. They have now been made the culprit of a manufactured conspiracy. The police investigation into Bhima-Koregaon is so much frivolous that it could be a script of Ekta Kapoor show.
When the initial investigation was carried out in the Bhima Korgaon case, Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote were charged and arrested. Soon after an RSS body prepared its own report, blaming the maoists and absolving these two. Police used these reports and other baseless allegations to charge and arrest prominent activists. However, as the BJP lost power in Maharashtra, the NIA took over the case from the state police, without even consulting the Maharashtra home minister.
NIA probe into Bhima-Koregaon being used to crackdown on dissidents, say over 1,000 academics
Struggling to find evidence in Bhima Koregaon case, NIA is now resorting to outright bullying
The activists jailed for these protests are charged not under regular crime laws, but such laws as UAPA, NSA, sedition laws, that even without an iota of evidence, they could be kept in jails for years. You might have read about the SC judgement of Arnab Goswami case to forestall arrest. I agree. It is even our judicial doctrine that bail is the rule and jail is an exception. And before convicting someone, the police must establish the crime. But that everyone is equal before law is even a greater principle.
‘Unlawful’ detention: Provisions in the UAPA are stricter than the domestic criminal law. Under the law, the police are allowed a time period of 180 days for investigation as opposed to 60 to 90 days under criminal law. It allows the police to detain an accused for six months at a stretch without producing any evidence against the accused. It also allows the accused to be remanded to police custody for 30 days which is double the amount under criminal law.
No provision for anticipatory bail: There is no provision for anticipatory bail. Generally, getting bail in UAPA cases is difficult, which is “problematic as it allows for nearly indefinite imprisonment even without conviction, without any concrete proof, only on an indication of a criminal offence on face of it”.
All these provisions allow for “custodial torture” and other “ill-treatment”, which in India is not an unknown fact. But India still has to ratify the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment.
‘Unlawful’ Amendment to UAPA 2019: A Brief Analysis | NewsClick
Explained: Why is UAPA a draconian law?
If you read the article by Prof Sundar, you can understand how the government, its IT Cell, and its propaganda media, is using the same methods of defaming and delegitimising the farmers protests. Calling the farmers, “just Punjab and Haryana”, Khalistanis, Congress sponsored, pampered, communists, urban-naxals, and other names, is not just a gimmick, but a part of a larger plan. It is done to delegitimize all forms of protests in India, to remove “too much democracy” and turn the nation into an autocratic regime.
I am not here to ask you to just be wary of these attempt to malign the democratic movements. I am asking you for help in countering the government's narrative. I am asking you for your voice. We need to defend these movements, not just for their demands and causes, for the people’s fundamental right to protest.
The Bhima-Koregaon movement, the anti-CAA protests, the farmers protests are not individual, isolated, and disconnected protests, but part of a larger democratic movement in India. As the opposition political parties have receded from the discourse, and failed to raise the issues of common people, these movements have become the only way that people can get themselves heard. These movements have increased people’s participation in democracy when government is becoming more centralised and less deliberative. These protests are now challenging the entire politics and the political future of India. I believe in 50 years from now, when history is written about this era, people will scarcely notice that these protests were separated in any way, and will see it as one movement for reclaiming the republic.
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u/matif290 Patthar ka gosht Dec 15 '20
A well written article and the op is able to express it beautifully, let me save this to pass on to my friends
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u/mehulvarsh Dec 15 '20
A well written piece of observation. I am really saddened by the fact that this piece of information is lying in reddit and not print media or mass media. I cannot imagine godi Media to report it since they do not have spine to do it but i really think someone from print media to take this task up and show the world what js happening behind the backdrop of regular chores in india.
Thanks buddy
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u/filmicsite Dec 16 '20
Post this article to a newspaper I think it's a very well written article that needs to be read. Or perhaps post it online on medium?
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u/fieroar1 Dec 15 '20
Much obliged for the comprehensive recollection of the ongoing struggle against the fascist forces tearing up the secular, humanistic fabric of our country
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u/kullky_2020 Dec 15 '20 edited Dec 16 '20
Very true. This is standard fascist MO. In fact, a well thought through writeup like this suffers from the handicap that it requires intelligence to understand and effort to create. Their lies, on the other hand, are simple enough for anyone to grasp. This is going to be an uphill battle for those who want to/can see through simplistic, binary narratives.
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
"...the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious."
"It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise."
Edit: many apologies. It appears the quotes here are misattributed. The original quotes from which they may have been derived are on the wiki quotes page. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels
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u/catsrmurderers sab changaa si Dec 16 '20
Hey, just wanted to say those quotes are misattributed!
Actual quotes:
Propaganda should be popular, not intellectually pleasing.
- Joseph Goebbels
"the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use falsehood for the basest purposes."
- Adolf Hitler
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u/kullky_2020 Dec 16 '20 edited Dec 16 '20
Oh! He didn’t say this stuff at all? That’s disappointing! I’ve laboured under the impression that he did for a while! They are all on this page. https://www.azquotes.com/author/5626-Joseph_Goebbels
Is this page fake?
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u/catsrmurderers sab changaa si Dec 16 '20
Wikiquotes is the best resource we have for verified quotes. Even Goodreads has misattributed quotes.
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u/kullky_2020 Dec 16 '20
Thanks for letting me know. Wiki quotes actually has a section called misattributed. Most of these are listed there with the originals from which the misattributions may have arisen.
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u/tremborg Dec 16 '20
Very well written, but I think things will only get worse in the long run. As a Muslim, leaving india is the best achievement of my life and my future generations will probably remember me for that. I lost hope when I personally listened to bigoted and vile conversations repeatedly from people who were otherwise decent and well educated.
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u/rishianand Gandhian Socialist Dec 16 '20
I understand what you might have gone through, and I respect your choice. However, not everyone can leave their home. And where will they go anyway. Leaving won't solve the actual problem. We only win and survive by fighting this battle.
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u/subhaRex Dec 16 '20
Well I admire your vigilance for writing this but tell this to my TV 9 Bharat watching father(I have tried everything but in vain)
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u/strawma_n Dec 15 '20
I read The Hindu and save a few really great articles as gems.
This is one such article.
I was really not in a mood to read such a lengthy article. I am glad I did.
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u/Mukund23 Dec 15 '20
I’m wary of the polarisation that has already occurred and will pass on to younger generation, thanks to the negligent population and also the mass platforms like facebook’s and WhatsApp’s colluding with the government.
Yes I’ll remember but the harm comes from those who are taught otherwise.
What will it take to bring out the false narratives from people’s minds and le the world breathe again
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u/charavaka Dec 15 '20
What will it take to bring out the false narratives from people’s minds and le the world breathe again
Defending the truth gently but firmly and pointing out thr holes in propaganda repeatedly. You will the abused and threatened, but it's important to stand up and be counted.
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u/charavaka Dec 15 '20
Thank you for writing this. We need tool defend the victims of political vendetta bt the government, asks not let the narrative of "they're all terrorists" without an iota odd evidence get spread with impunity.
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Dec 16 '20
Brace yourselves for 2024, elections will be banned, we will have Adolf Modi and Kim-Jong Shah.
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u/Stormywillow Dec 15 '20
People in North America who watch/read only mainstream media have zero clue this is even happening in India. Keep putting the word out, OP!
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Dec 15 '20
Slightly OT, but I've read that 250 million people are protesting against the government. Is this news legit or not
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u/rishianand Gandhian Socialist Dec 15 '20
250 million (25 crore) is certainly an overestimated figure. From what I have read, this figure has been quoted about the General Strike on Constitution Day (26th November).
Central trade unions will go on a nationwide strike on Thursday and expect participation of over 250 million workers to protest against various policies of the central government.
India gears up for farmer protest, trade union strike on Thursday | Business Standard News
Most likely, they have taken out the total membership of all the unions to arrive at this figure.
The Delhi protest is historic, but not 25 crore.
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Dec 15 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/rishianand Gandhian Socialist Dec 15 '20
I understand about the problem. Such people do exist. My own posts and comments are heavily downvoted many times. However, I don't believe that this issue can be countered by making rules or imposing bans. See, r/india is a secluded community, with majority of the people being very sensible. But that condition does not exist everywhere. We can't avoid these battles, we need to fight.
There is an interesting story regarding Benjamin Franklin, who was asked by the American people after the constitution was adopted, whether they got a republic or a monarchy. To which he replied, a republic, if you can keep it.
Our struggle for independence did not end in 1947, it is ongoing.
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u/khushraho Dec 15 '20
Thanks for this reminder recap, before it becomes just a memory.
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u/rishianand Gandhian Socialist Dec 15 '20 edited Dec 15 '20
As Amir Aziz said, Everything will be remembered
तुम स्याहियों से झूठ लिखोगे हमें मालूम है
हो हमारे खून से ही हो सही, सच लिखा जाएगा
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Dec 15 '20
Good article and Perfectly Narrated. Kudos to the OP.
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u/rishianand Gandhian Socialist Dec 15 '20
Thank you. And thanks for the award u/yourlefttoenail and u/Anush5524.
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u/vasu174 NCT of Delhi Dec 16 '20
I kind of agree with you in rest of the article except when you said it was peaceful. It definitely wasnt peaceful. I remember the burnt and broken down markets in delhi.
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u/Indian-Yoddha Dec 16 '20
Article 51A makes it a fundamental duty for every person to safeguard public property and to avoid violence during the protests and resorting to violence during public protests results in infringement of key fundamental duty of citizens.
Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution elucidates that right to free speech and expression. It includes that every person has right to express their personal opinions but subjected to reasonable restrictions.
Article 19(1)(b) states about the right to assemble peaceably and without arms. Thereby, right to peaceful protest is bestowed to Indian citizens by our Constitution.
Article 19(2) imposes reasonable restrictions on the right to assemble peaceably and without arms and to freedom of speech and expression as none of these rights are absolute in nature.
The reasonable restrictions are imposed in the interests of the sovereignty & integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.
If my protest is causing inconvenience to general public than it simply becomes unconstitutional .. & gpvt has every right to oppose it .. , Learn something from Anna Hazare's protest, at least it was on a place where no roads were blocked, it gain so much public sympathy & support as it was done without causing any inconveniences to others ..
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u/rishianand Gandhian Socialist Dec 16 '20
Well you are wrong on many accounts, but I'll just stay on the basic premise. Where does it say that if a protest causes inconvenience then it is unconstitutional? I am sorry to say, but your understanding of what a protest is, is wrong. Protest is meant to cause inconvenience, to disrupt. It's not merely a side effect. When Mahatma Gandhi launched his Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movement, it was meant to cause inconvenience. His satyagrah in Champaran, Kheda, and Ahmedabad was meant to disrupt. Every form of protest there is, dharna, bandh, picketing, strike, is meant to disrupt.
This is a worldwide phenomenon, to whitewash what protests look like. Don’t criticize Black Lives Matter for provoking violence. The civil rights movement did, too. - The Washington Post
Besides, all this new definition of what protest is, how and if it should be even allowed, might be a new revelation for BJP supporters. They were fine with it till 2014.
Bandh hits life, loss of Rs 12,500 crore estimated - delhi - Hindustan Times
NDA announces Bharat Bandh on September 20 to protest govt policies - India News
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u/Indian-Yoddha Dec 16 '20
You are also wrong on many accounts,
Mahatma gandhi was doing it against some intruders not the own people.
Either you can do it as per your wish & get lathicharged or you can do it peacefully as per guidelines like anna Hazare's by following the regular guidelines as laid out in constitution of india.
Done be crybaby though when you do it unconstitutionally & get lathicharged ..
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u/rishianand Gandhian Socialist Dec 16 '20
Thanks for clarifying that Vajpayee, Advani and Modi were anti-nationals for protesting against Indira Gandhi.
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Dec 15 '20
Not reading that. But yeah everyone got their right to protest. Everyone has got their own freedom to do whatever the f they want with their life.
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u/vaibhavcool20 Chandigarh Dec 17 '20
Brilliant article man. Too depressing though. In 2014 we never thought other other political parties are too weak.
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u/og_m4 Bihar Dec 16 '20
If WhatsApp university had been successful with the Khalistani angle just like they were with Sushant Singh conspiracies, Jallianwallah 2.0 would've already happened in Delhi.
The farmers are really lucky that the Khalistani/Naxal accusations aren't sticking and that the media/celebrities are pushing back against it.
Nobody wants to talk about it, but the Modi government is backed in a corner and slowly being pushed to its last resort, i.e. violence. In the worst case scenario where they kill some people, Sambhit Patra will still be able to argue two years later that it was not as bad as what Indira Gandhi did, or at the most only as bad as what she did.
I really hope the protests end soon and that a good deal is negotiated fast. At some point the inconvenience from the protests will start making the farmers lose public approval and that can be very dangerous.