Ram Puniyani
Mr. Narendra Modi, for whom some
countries are warming up to relate to him in Europe
and in the East; the latest report from US must be very disheartening. Despite
a strong lobby for pressurizing to grant him Visa, the United States
Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), has called on the
Obama administration to maintain a visa ban on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi for his role in the pogrom of 2002 that claimed over 2,000 lives and
displaced over 150,000 people, many of whom are still in makeshift houses.
The commission chairwoman Katrina
Lantos Swett, of the US commission for international religious freedom (USCIRF)
said that "There is significant evidence linking him (Modi, added) to
the violence and the terrible events that took place in Gujarat and for this
reason, a visa would not be appropriate," In recent times Modi seems to be
the only person so disgraced by the Human rights watch body. John Kerry, the
present Secretary of the state of United States , had similar position
about Modi, when he was the senator. He had written to the State department to
the effect that Visa should be denied to Modi on the grounds of his possible
role in 2002 anti Muslim pogrom. The US Intentional Religious Freedom Act of
1998 (IRFA) bars entry of aliens ‘responsible for directly carried out,
particularly severe violations of religious freedom’.
The
In India last three decades in
particular have seen the rise of sectarian tendencies and intimidation of
religious minorities. Sikhs in 1984 (Delhi), Christians in Dangs, Kandhamal and
in various scattered acts of violence in Adivasi areas in particular, and
Muslims in an ongoing manner in Meerath, Malyana, Bhagalpur, Mumbai, Gujarat,
various places in UP etc. The intimidation is being orchestrated at social
level as well. One example of this is the religious congregations like Shabri
Kumbh, the ones’ held in Dangs and many other places, through which Hindus
particularly the Adivasis are frightened. The sectarian violence against
Muslims is leading to a situation where the whole community is being relegated
to the status of second class citizenship. Various states have brought in
‘Freedom of Religion Bill” which in an Orwellian manner prevents the free
choice of religions by the people, a right granted by the Indian Constitution.
These laws cannot stand the test of the values of Indian Constitution. But they
give a big handle to the communal forces in collusion with the section of communalized
state apparatus to intimidate the hapless religious minorities. The underlying
reason of these tactics is to polarize the communities along religious lines,
to prepare the ground for the ascendance of Religious nationalism, the communal
fascism.
The acts of violence against the
minorities are changing their pattern. On one hand instead of big massive
violence, a scattered sustained violence is being organized in different parts
of the country. The target is the non BJP ruled states like UP and Maharashtra in particular. In these states in particular
local city based communal violence is taking place and communalizing the
society. This trend will inherently strengthen the diehard communal party,
which is the electoral wing of the agenda of religious nationalism. While Modi
has been too clever and has changed the paradigm of his speeches from the
communal one’s to the one’s revolving around the development, which as such
should rather be termed as ‘pseudo development’. Modi he has already consolidated
his communal-social base, so now to win the electoral battle he has to lure
other layers of Hindus and communities, so the total projection around
development. Somehow, though law has not fully caught up with him, the blood on
his hands is refusing to get washed off despite his shrewd attempts in that
direction.
The US commission report gives the hope
at deeper ethical and moral grounds. Our laws and legal mechanisms are such
that the guilty of communal violence are getting away while the innocent are getting
killed during the communal carnages. The demand for a law which can punish the
guilty for their acts of omission and commission during the violence is very
much overdue. One hopes that we don’t have to depend on International agencies
to nab guilty of those people who let it happen under their nose, either in a
proactive way or by looking the other way around.
The test of democracy lies in
assessing as to how secure the minorities are, what the level of their dignity
is. On that scale India
is gradually sliding down, it’s a blemish on our democratic norms. It’s time
that irrespective of our religion, caste and creed we come forward to press for
protection of innocents, and for this the we must come forward with suitable
legislation so that those in authority cannot get away after presiding over
such inhuman acts and couch them in deceptive statements to escape the noose.
The supplementary observation is
about the rising trend of restriction of religious freedoms in South Asia as a whole. In recent times we have painfully
seen the persecution of Christians and Hindus in Pakistan ,
of Buddhists and Hindus in Bangle Desh, of Muslims in Burma and
Srilanka. The health of democracy in South Asia
is a worrying matter. We know that regions grow together. India has been
a strong pillar of democracy while other South Asian countries are in a
different stage of evolution towards democracy. Somewhere military Generals are
hovering over the elected leaders; at other the fundamentalist outfits are
having a lion’s share in shaping the course of the events of the country.
Tragically India
is witnessing the downward slope on the scale of democratic ethos. Need for us
to revisit the values of Freedom movement and the norms of Indian Constitution.
0 comments:
Post a Comment