Do you get imprisoned for supporting the Congress?? Or rather can you? Of course not! It is the ruling party that has won the elections again..! If you to were to support an ideology as communal as that of the BJP's you still have a very rare chance of going to jail. But yes if you are a communist believing in the extremist ideology of Maoism there is not just a likelihood but a definite chance of being put behind bars..!
What intrigues me most is that how can a person believing in a particular political ideology be incarcerated? This can happen only in a highly suppressive political system like ours. Dr. Manmohan Singh has said in one of his speeches long before the elections started, that the biggest threat to this country is from Naxalites. Well, it is not the country that is threatened, it is just the system of the elite. Our media covers various issues of Naxalite violence all over the country, but it has not once stated the reasons for the evolution of such grassroots struggles. Many intellectuals, the so called bourgeois of that time (60s-70s) left the luxuries of their lives and went to the villages to work for the poor and enable peoples struggles against rich landlords who exploited them. Now these people along with many others are being tagged as Naxalites and being jailed incessantly from young students to teachers and other activists.
Even sympathizers and doctors are not being left by the police. Similar is the case of Dr. Binayak Sen. He is a doctor who was working for the poor in the villages of Chattisgarh. This area has a lot of Naxalite activity going on. He was treating a Naxalite patient in there and was arrested under the Chattisgarh UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act).
We have had such cases of non-stop imprisoning of all opposition during the emergency period under Indira Gandhi's rule. But even today this repression is happening with such laws and there is no say of another ideology. We live in a democracy and the basic functioning of such a system is incomplete without any opposition. If there is no opposition then this democracy is not democracy it is dictatorship.
Dr. Binayak Sen is not that closely related to the movement, but he has been in jail for the last two years. There are various others whose names are often mentioned as Naxalites that have come in the papers as Arun Ferreira, Murali, Vernon Gonsalves and Shreedhar who are all a part of the movement and were working underground with these political groups. Since they are not allowed to function freely, they have to work underground. Maybe their means of struggle is different form Gandhi's non-violent Satyagraha, but don't they deserve a chance too? Any ideology has a say in a democracy, and if it is not heard it uses other means to get itself heard and thus it resorts to violence and our media loves covering issues of violence.
My biggest point here is that putting people behind bars for following or sympathizing with a certain political ideology is not only irrational but also shameful for a nation that is proud of its secular democracy. Even leaders like Bhagat Singh and Subhash Chandra Bose resorted to violence during the freedom struggle to fight the British. But we, being a particular ideology or political party favoring nation always mention Gandhi as the pioneer of the struggle for independence.
2 comments:
Firstly, I love the way you've written your piece. A very honest and heartfelt piece of writing.
It's true what you say about the democracy being more dictatorial than democratic. Dissent is the only thing not acceptable to a government, especially from an out and out capitalist government. Hegemony will remain their tool of control. We need more people like you who are able to think and question this democratic setup, especially when it comes to dealing with political ideologies.
It's such a system of control that surrounds us, but we're so oblivious to all of this because we've been living like this forever. And for the few who choose to raise a voice, violence is the only means because every other attempt of theirs is silenced.
So which is the evil? The ones driven to desperation or the ones who drive them to desperation?
Very well expressed...clear and sharp. Most people in the human rights movment would agree with you. The debate however is that some people feel that when certain activists have particpated in armed struggle, then should we demand their release as political prisoners? What do you feel about that?
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