CAMPAIGN WE SHALL SPEAK / HUM TO BOLENGE Sitting on a burning stump The nightingale sang. The ruler’s gun Couldn’t touch a hair.
- NAPM India
community, the Sangh Parivar is doing what the Nazis did in Germany in the 1930s. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh considers Hitler and Mussolini’s ideals as its own and has steadfastly followed in their path. Whether it is through “love jihad”, imposing their food preferences or accusations of spreading disease, an atmosphere of hatred has been created towards a religion to the extent that crowds of otherwise normal people are killing innocent people. Gandhi’s assassination was a result of this same ideology. Today his killer Nathuram Godse has been declared a patriot and those accused of mob lynching are being honoured.
- Nagarjuna (1911-1998)
The history of the world has been a history of struggle by people and society, not of rulers. Today’s human civilization has been shaped by this desire to live a life with dignity, and the successful and unsuccessful efforts to fight different forms of discrimination, injustice, poverty and lies. Peoples’ movements have forced the retreat and, at times, decimated the strongest of autocratic forces. The people of this country have gradually gained rights and progressed by fighting numerous small and big struggles in the fields and factories, in the countryside and in cities. The peoples’ movements that emerged in the first half of the 20th century ended the rule of the world’s largest superpower, which was dependent on the plunder of India. History is a witness that the people who rose up for independence were fighting for not just political freedom but also economic and social freedoms.
The RSS, that has justified the caste and varna system as being essential for social harmony is today praising Ambedkar. To mislead people, the Sangh is celebrating great personalities like Gandhi, Ambedkar, Patel, Subhash and Bhagat Singh, while every day they trample on the principles that the nation builders espoused, lived by and left behind for us. The people of our ancient civilization, which taught truth and nonviolence to the whole world, are being scared by lies that Hindus are in danger. Instead of settling disputes with Pakistan and China, geo-political conflicts are being regularly used to gather votes and force our soldiers to be martyred in false battles. Nationalism is being used aggressively against the people of Kashmir and the Northeast, where citizen’s rights are being disregarded every day and to imprison opposition leaders for no reason. Across the country, those speaking against the government are being accused of being anti-national.
Today, under the leadership of the BJP, a period of dangerous majoritarianism has shaken the roots of democracy. There has been a successful attempt to undermine all the pillars of democracy in India. Constitutional institutions like the Supreme Court, Election Commission, CAG and CVC are functioning like an extended arm of the government. Institutions like CBI and ED are being grossly misused. The way in which, the three farming laws were passed in the Rajya Sabha shows that the government is willing to ignore all rules and laws to forcefully impose its view. It is their conceit that they have an overwhelming majority. They forget that the meaning of democracy is not “they who wield the stick owns the buffalo”!
The media has been completely captured to create a narrative based on many such lies. Even a pandemic like coronavirus has been exploited through such a policy and the media has been used extensively to target a particular community. Far from providing information to the people and questioning those holding power on their behalf, influential media institutions
This majoritarianism rests on a politics of dividing people and blind nationalism. By spreading hatred in society towards a particular
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