By M. Yusuf, TwoCircles.net
This article is in response to a friend who was seeking my support & sympathy for the members of the Pinjra Tod. While I would like to extend my support to all those incarcerated, I see no reason to offer any special solidarity to Pinjra Tod for their ‘revolutionary’ acts for the reasons mentioned in this article, implicating the left and the liberals for their incompetence in spearheading any credible movement.
From what has been learnt, it was the Muslims at Maujpur, Jafrabad, and adjoining areas who had to bear the brunt of the pogrom that took place subsequently. Perhaps the Pinjra Tod Gang, its allied company, and supporting organizations should have mobilized and organized the Chakka Jam in a Hindu dominated area. Perhaps Muslims were punished for taking the bait to hold a Chakka Jam.
The fact remains that it was the Muslim women, who were running a successful agitation for the first time against this Government, while the Civil Society (essentially comprising of the left, liberals, and those who did not want BJP/RSS in power), has failed to do so in the past six years that the BJP has been in power. Muslim women often projected by the liberals and the leftists as the epitome of backwardness clinging to ‘regressive’ practices such as purdah system, lack of education and generally living under the tutelage of their male counter-parts, were spearheading a movement in the capital of the country, fighting for their rights and fluttering the tri-color. The feminists could not muster any such movement in the history of the mostly metro based, Indian Feminism.
It was only after the agitation at Shaheen Bagh captured the attention of the Media – both national as well as international – that the civil society jumped in to share the stage. Ideally, the civil society should have led people to protest in non Muslim areas, especially since the Muslims were only talking about saving the constitution and that whatever was being done was unconstitutional. The Muslims are mostly worried about the pernicious situation they would be put into after the Act in question i.e. the CAA was put into effect and implemented throughout the country; does it dis-entitle them to talk of their insecure conditions just because they are Muslims? After all the fundamental rights to agitate and protest were conferred on the citizens to be utilized against a discriminatory government policy.
The crux of this article is that no credit is due to the Indian Civil Society, since in the past six years it has failed in bringing any change whatsoever; in the political consciousness in general, which continues till date, and the arrogance of the dominant Hindu community in particular. A mere glance at how the Anna Movement was organized, points towards multiple instances in which the civil society, the Left and the liberals have failed in the past six years, despite several conspicuous failures of the political executive against which several social movements could have been mobilized. Why did they fail? Majorly, because the majority had been swayed by Hindu Nationalism and started to overwhelmingly vote for the BJP.
The point is that if at all they want to do something for subsisting the political life and the polity of this country, merely joining the caravan of the oppressed and jumping on to the stage with a few words, or a song, or a slogan, or a dance, is not going to be enough. The Left and the liberal, or the Left-liberal, call them whatever one may, need to actively interact with the oppressors and those who support the oppressors.
To add, there were many educated Muslims who did not join the protests, for the reasons they were busy earning a living, some did not even support the agitation for the fear of repercussions which they could sense in a manner which cannot be explained. Perhaps, it could go beyond the mandate of freedom granted to them by the benevolence of the majority, after all Muslims are in a minority, and no bright mind would fail to measure the extent to which the people in minority could extend their politics. For all they know, by their experiences in the post Babri-demolition era, such protests could have been used by the people in power to use more force, to mould the public opinion against such protest by Godi-media and other means, to successfully manage the narrative; a task at which the civil society failed miserably.
Dr. B. R Ambedkar said, “………..An intellectual man can be a good man but he may easily be a rogue. Similarly an intellectual class may be a band of high-souled persons, ready to help, ready to emancipate erring humanity or it may easily be a gang of crooks or a body of advocates of narrow clique from which it draws its support” (Thoughts & Philosphy of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, by C. D. Naik). Although the support of the Left, the liberals and the civil society is not discounted; however their support would be more valuable if they could generate movements of their own, if they were able to generate some empathy and convince the people to the point of view of the oppressed; and if they would refrain from taking charge of the struggles of the oppressed, often to their own end.
For the reasons mentioned in this article, let the civil society be concerned about justice and the status of rule of law in particular. To put it plainly, in the recent past the Left and the liberals, for want of a constituency and support amongst the masses; and for wanting to seek some political relevance, visibility and optics, have often been joining the bandwagons of the oppressed. In the last few decades they have tried to hijack the discourses concerning the Tribals, the Dalits and the Muslims, while failing to implement any representation of these classes in their organizations, which have been running like cabals, hiding their inequities while forwarding false equivalents all along. A very rough example would be that they often equate Asaduddin Owaisi with the RSS, which is misleading, since Owaisi, in all fairness only calls for the rule of law and the constitution, while the RSS wants to bring in a new constitution. Things would be incomplete without mentioning the election candidature of the poster-boy of the left ‘Kanhaiya Kumar’ at Begusarai, Bihar in the General Elections 2019, who could have prevented the win of Giriraj Singh- his caste fellow, by not participating in the elections and extending his support to the main opposition candidate Tanveer Hasan who had been at the forefront in local politics for long and who would have easily won, had it not been for Kanhaiya Kumar,. Thus, the Left scuttled the chance of a Muslim leader to be elected to the Parliamment, knowing very well that they were scantily represented. What more evidence does one need to know that the Left is only interested in projecting its leadership for the oppressed while scuttling the chances of the leadership of the oppressed by the oppressed and for the oppressed. For the Left, without a doubt the Party, has been and is still supreme.
The Left has forgotten its agenda of creating a political consciousness of the working class, and has been a rudderless ship for quite some time now, what they did for the poor in West Bengal is apparent by the rampant inequity and poverty in the State. To counter these charges, the Left maintains that it’s not the time to question the Left and that this would lead to the weakening of the movement; but why do you want to be treated like a holy cow and what movement are you talking about? There is none left, thanks to your parochial highbrow supremacist snides and mean party politics, which belied true representation. Their weak point is that they engaged with the oppressed and not the oppressor; all the while failing to extend any protection to the Tribals, the Dalits or the Muslims, for that matter. Let all the revolutionaries deal essentially with the majority inhabiting this country, which has chosen the current politicians to power, not once but twice.
M. Yusuf is an advocate and practices at Courts in Delhi.