Owaisi doesn’t hold monopoly of hate

MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi is in the eye of a storm kicked up by his controversial speech. His vitriolic words have drawn condemnation from across the political spectrum — and increased his following among the hawks in his party.

However, in the frenzy to nail the MIM’s floor leader, we are ignoring the impunity hate mongers enjoy in this country. Likes of Praveen Togadia, the Thackeray cousins, leaders of numerous regional political and religious outfits and caste party satraps make equally venomous comments and get away with it.

Recently, Union minister Salman Khurshid had publicly threatened Aam Admi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal with violence if the latter ever dared to enter his constituency — and was promptly executed by his supporters. We haven’t seen Khurshid being arrested.

Politicians across party lines continue to make derogatory remarks against rape victims. Why don’t we see those powerful Sections of Indian Penal Code invoked against them? Ignoramuses like Asaram Bapu continue to walk free.

Leaders of caste kangaroo courts that make a mockery of the law of the land with their ‘verdicts’ of violent retribution and honour killings are free men. They continue to be key elements in the scheme of political parties.

Barely a week back, killers of Indira Gandhi, executed for the severest acts of treason and terrorism, were honoured by the highest religious body of Sikhs as martyrs. We don’t see Akal Takht leaders handcuffed and bundled into police vehicles.

There are several political leaders in Tamil Nadu who openly endorse the LTTE — still listed as a terrorist organisation by the country. Those who engineered the attacks on Sri Lankan pilgrims in the state are still roaming the streets, continuing their propaganda of hate and division.

Separatist leaders of Kashmir, who unleash anti-India tirades and continually support merger with Pakistan, continue to be free.

As a matter of fact, government of India allows them to visit Pakistan and meet anti-India leaders. Clerics who issue those outrageous fatwas that infringe on Constitution-guaranteed liberties are never touched.

Our holy cow approach to dealing with such people owing to their caste, region and religion has allowed them to become extra-constitutional authorities that act above the law. This, however, is not surprising in a country where scientists who make inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) prostrate before ‘human gods’.

What the MIM does in its strongholds in Hyderabad is no different from what Shiv Sena and MNS does in the Mumbai-Thane belt. The stranglehold it keeps on the community and its political power projection ensures that there is no dearth of fodder for Sangh Parivar organisations in Old City.

There is nothing unique about Akbaruddin Owaisi, and there is definitely nothing new about the toxicity in his speeches. Hate speech cases are nothing new to people like him and his equally competent counterparts in the saffron fold.

It is universal knowledge that all of them will go scot-free after the initial hype, a few court hearings and prolonged legal battles. Lawyers will take care of business in the court while their clients continue to ply their trade in public fora.

Unless there are convictions, jail sentences and punishments like debarring them from any kid of political activity and public office, there is no hope of de-fanging these merchants of hate. 

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on January 9, 2013.) 

Khaps are our Taliban, crush them before it is too late

After decades of deafening silence or being hand-in-glove with caste councils (khaps), the politicos seem to muster courage to speak out against these kangaroo courts, if Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s forays can be considered as an indicator.

Political parties have banked on caste votes to fuel their journeys to power and therefore it is natural that they don’t tread on the turf of their benefactors. This is not purely an India-exclusive phenomenon. At the zenith of Nazi power, the Catholic Church maintained silence on German atrocities in return for sparing the interests of the Church. Spain’s brutal dictator Franco too enjoyed similar privileges.

Haryana is not the nucleus of the menace of khaps — its tentacles reach the nook and corner of the country. Even while public outrage against khap-ordered atrocities, especially against women, are on the rise, political leaders are very measured in their response — Sonia too is no exception to this unspoken rule. Though she condemned the rise in crimes against women and called for the severest punishment for rapists, her response to a question regarding the ‘authority’ of khaps was surprisingly mild. She said only the government and courts have the authority to prosecute people. The statesman-like statement did not directly attack khaps nor did it say the kangaroo courts need to be done away with.

Khaps are nothing but an Indian version of Taliban, which has been instrumental in crushing the lives of millions of women in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The colour of the flags may differ, but the obsolete and suppressive ideologies are same.

The khap advisory to get girls married off at the age of 16 to curb rapes is not much different from the logic of proponents of female genital mutilation that physically and mentally scars millions of women across the world.

The primitive justification of male superiority and importance has over the decades created a demographic disaster across the country with plummeting sex ratios. The result has been an overdose of testosterone in social life. Coupled with the tradition of glorifying suppression of women’s rights, an environment dangerous for the fairer sex has been created.

Though our politicians take umbrage at comments on a wide range of matters and their wisdom spans from personal etiquette to art, philosophy, and literature, no one has the courage to take on the scourge of these extra-constitutional cancers that have been gnawing away at the core of ideals of democracy and liberty — ironically, guaranteed by the Constitution and reinforced by court rulings.

Mahatma Gandhi once said that India lives in its villages. And if the women in our villages are forced to live under the reign of khap terror, what kind of rule of law can we boast of?

Unlike the urban folk, the rural heartland turns out to vote in large numbers. When they exercise their electoral franchise, they hope their representatives will create a better future for them. However, our democratic model has remained a pathetic failure in this department.

When a country cannot protect its women (No, locking them inside houses and teen weddings are NOT solutions); when it cannot ensure freedom of choosing life partners for its youths; when law and order machinery fails to do its duty, we are no different from the failed states that are our neighbours.

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on October 10, 2012)

Racism is no match for our caste system

From prime minister to panwallah, all were ‘shocked’ at the gory incident in which a white supremacist gunned down six people at a Wisconsin gurdwara. The widespread anger was reflected in Hyderabad too where ‘peaceful’ protestors scuffled with policemen at the US Consulate (as if the US State Department provided the gunman weapons and ammunition).

While we are outraged at the racial discrimination faced by people of Indian origin across the world, there is hardly any enthusiasm in fighting the caste system that continues to rob hundreds of millions in this country of their life, liberty and dignity — ironically, guaranteed as Fundamental Rights by the Constitution.

Hundreds of young men and women fall victim to ‘honour killings’ every year (thousands go unreported or are hushed up by the well-connected families) because they dare to defy primitive caste kangaroo courts called khasi and choose their life partner. It was barely three months ago that an Uttar Pradesh DIG, Satish Kumar Mathur, was caught on camera asking a villager to kill the latter’s daughter if she was found to have eloped. And these are the men in uniform the judiciary expects to protect inter-caste and inter-faith couples from persecution and harm.

Then comes the inhuman practice of condemning hundreds of thousands of Dalits to the dignity-stripping job of manual scavenging. According to a 2011 ministry of social justice report, only 1,18,474 out of about 7.7 lakh (official figures) manual scavengers were given alternative professions under government schemes. Apart from social stigma, meagre wages, they fall victim to most virulent diseases and at times meet their ends in the ‘line of duty’.

Across the country millions are discriminated against in social life due to their caste. Entire communities are forced to live outside villages but are expected to serve the upper castes at their beck and call without questioning. Those who resist are suppressed with most brutal measures including murder and gang-rape of women of their families. Even if the victim/s mange to file a police complaint overcoming their fear, little chance do they have against the money, influence and top lawyers that their oppressors have. Eventually, destruction of lives and families is reduced to just another number in the ever-growing statistics.

In the land of modern social reformer ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy, two-tumbler system is still widely practiced. There are villages divided by ‘caste walls’ topped by barbed wire and lower caste people are not allowed to use public facilities and denied entry to temples.

Politicians support caste divisions to preserve their vote banks and fatten their wallets. Dalit ‘icon’ Mayawati’s opulent lifestyle and splurge of thousands of crores on statues and parks while people starved and farmers committed suicide would be a good example.

If the situation of Dalits can be termed bad, it is worse for the tribals. They are the first casualties when ‘development for greater common good’ takes place. Projects such as dams, power plants and Special Economic Zones that bring prosperity to the country are their worst enemies. Dispossessed and driven out of their ancestral lands, they end up in shanty towns and are brutally exploited in every possible manner by the rest.

Considering the colossal extent of our failure to function as a civilised society, we are standing on wafer-thin ground when we point fingers at ‘racism’.

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on August 8, 2012)