Cow Vigilantism
‘Communal Fascism Will Not Pass’
NSI
Cow vigilantism which has received tremendous boost
since the ascendance of BJP at the centre got its first fitting reply
in Gujarat recently. The way in which a self-proclaimed Gau
Rakshak Dal—owing allegiance to Shiv Sena—attacked a group
of Dallts in Una (11th July 2016) who were skinning a dead cow,
publicly flogged them, led them to the police station charging them
with cow slaughter and even circulated a video of the whole incident
on social media to spread further terror, has caused tremendous
uproar.
Thousands and thousands of Dalits have come out on
streets in different parts of the state, gheraoed government offices,
damaged government property, enforced state-wide bandh and tried to
bring the government to its knees, demanding severe punishment to the
guilty and strict action against the police and government officials
who failed to act upon their complaint when they were being publicly
brutalised.
The wave of protests has still not ebbed. The anger
still simmers. Protest rallies still continue.
There have been thirty incidents of suicide attempts
by Dalit youth protesting the Una incident within a span of just one
week. People across political spectrum are appealing to the angry
youth not to resort to this extreme step and continue with peaceful
struggle. Undoubtedly, Una incident and the consequent Dalit
assertion is proving to be a great turning point in the history of
the Dalit movement as Dalits have ultimately realised that politics
of Hindutva is strengthening and further consolidating the purity and
pollution based caste system. The growing disenchantment of Dalits
with the politics of Hindutva was very much evident when their
protests reached Narendra Modi's home town of Vadnagar itself where
thousands of Dalits participated in a militant demonstration blaming
the Prime Minister himself and BJP for the brutal thrashing of
Dalits. Videos of the protest showed many Dalit people shouting, "Hai
re Modi... hai-hai re Modi,"—modification of a slogan used by
women during Hindu funeral processions.
The outrage has rekindled memories of the militant
assertion in early eighties led by the earlier generation of young
Dalits wherein they had fought to defend policy ol reservation and
also dared to take on the Hindutva formations head-on.
It has also been a great learning experience for
ordinary dalits in the state who comprise around eight per cent of
the population and who were largely co-opted by the Hindutva
formations in their project of hate and exclusion. One unique form of
struggle adapted by the protesters this time has rattled the ruling
elite tremendously and has the potential of nationwide resonance. It
involved throwing of carcasses of dead cows at government offices,
outside the houses of prominent politicians, removal of which became
a strenuous affair even for the establishment. A large section among
them have even boycotted work of collecting dead bovines and have
even declared that henceforth they are ready to die of hunger but
would not take up the occupation again. In fact, by this simple act
Dalits have rather issued a warning to the Manuvadi / Brahminical
forces that the day they resolve to leave all those 'dirty'
professions for which they are stigmatised, a catastrophe like
situation awaits them. One of the activists who 'pioneered' this
unique form told a correspondent that they have stopped doing it to
teach them a lesson.
Fact finding reports which have appeared in sections
of the media tell how the police did not stop the perpetrators on
their way and also took hours to lodge a simple FIR and arrest the
criminals. There are even unconfirmed reports that local police had
even tipped the Gau Rakshak Dal about the skinning of the
dead cow. The complicity and connivance of the local police is
evident also in the fact that despite enough proof available with it
in the form of the video of the incident about involvement of more
than thirty people in the thrashing incident, it has kept number of
arrests limited at eight only and is trying to portray it as an one
off incident.
The unfolding Dalit outrage which found the state
government in deep slumber has brought to the fore many other similar
recent incidents where Dalits had come under attack at the hands of
Gau Rakshak Dal and the silence maintained by the police
which had even refused to entertain complaints lodged by the victims.
It has also given a vent to pent up anger of the dalits against daily
humiliations and discrimination faced by them, widespread existence
of exclusion and untouchability in social life, denial of basic human
rights and manifold spurt in atrocities in the state in recent times
and failure of the powers that be to take proactive measures to curb
the growing menace.
The criminal acts by the Gau Rakshaks and
the impunity with which they are ready to take law into their hands
which has received nationwide attention has also been an occasion for
the senior members of the bureaucracy to speak out about the menace
they have become all over the state. Chief Secretary of the state G R
Gloria is reported to have told a national daily that,
"These vigilantes are self-proclaimed gau rakshaks but in actual fact they are hooligans". According to him "there are as many as 200 cow vigilante groups in Gujarat who have become a law and order problem because of their aggression and the way they take law into their hands and government is going to take strong action against them. The Chief Secretary was even categorical in admitting that lower level police personnel are hand in glove with these vigilantes."
"These vigilantes are self-proclaimed gau rakshaks but in actual fact they are hooligans". According to him "there are as many as 200 cow vigilante groups in Gujarat who have become a law and order problem because of their aggression and the way they take law into their hands and government is going to take strong action against them. The Chief Secretary was even categorical in admitting that lower level police personnel are hand in glove with these vigilantes."
It is worth emphasising that not some time ago even
the Punjab-Haryana high court while ordering CBI probe into the death
of Mustain, a transporter at the hands of members of another Gau
Rakshak Dal in Kurukshetra, Haryana (March 2016) had under tied
the growing criminalisation of the Cow Protectors who work with
impunity. It said that so-called cow vigilante groups constituted
with the backing of political bosses and senior functionaries
governing the state, including police,
"..[a]re bent upon circumventing law and fleecing poor persons ferrying their animals, be it for any personal domestic use or otherwise.... Apparently even the senior functionaries of the police are hand-in-glove with such vigilante groups."
"..[a]re bent upon circumventing law and fleecing poor persons ferrying their animals, be it for any personal domestic use or otherwise.... Apparently even the senior functionaries of the police are hand-in-glove with such vigilante groups."
Dalit anger witnessed on the streets of
Gujarat—variously described as Dalit rebellion by a section of the
commentators—has had spiralling effect in other parts of the
country as well, and has also helped galvanise the entire
parliamentary opposition camp which has even demanded that there
should be immediate ban on all such Gau Rakshak Dals and all
such miscreants who operate under its name and engage in mayhem.
Members of parliament on the floor of the house have denounced all
these vigilante groups who are targeting Muslims as well as Dalits.
brutalising them in very many ways and on occasions lynching them and
explained how the policies and programmes of the powers that be has
made a conducive atmosphere for their proliferation and demanded ban
on them.
The manner in which cow is being moved at the centre
stage of politics and where mere a rumour that it is being
slaughtered somewhere gives miscreants a licence to take law into
their own hands with due connivance of the police and administration,
is being compared with neighbouring Pakistan where the 'crime of
blasphemy' serves similar purpose. Pakistan has lost many precious
lives and many more are rotting in jail due to its refusal to check
religious fanatics for whom the blasphemy laws have become a tool to
intimidate innocents. Concerns are being raised whether India would
similarly go 'Pakistan' way -unable to stop erosion of secular
principles in polity and facilitating further legitimacy to faith in
social-political lives.
The open letter by Lalu Prasad Yadav to PM Modi in
the aftermath of the Una incident captures the prevalent mood in the
country wherein he had described how actions by cow vigilante
groups—which are receiving state patronage—has created an
ambience of terror and intimidation among farmers, tribals, dalits
and all those people who are engaged in cattle trading. In his open
letter he has directly blamed 'RSS as well as PM Modi' being
responsible for this state of affairs.
While the BJP and RSS having lost battle of
perceptions are busy counting losses in the aftermath of the Una
incident, and assessing its electoral fallout, the misogynistic
remarks by a senior leader of the BJP targeting Ms Mayawati, leader
of BSP and who has been Chief Minister of UP, has added further fuel
to the fire. It is a different matter that all their 'regrets' about
these remarks expressed on the floor of the house have proved to be
an eyewash and at ground level they are trying to be on the offensive
again utilising similar condemnable remarks allegedly made by a
fellow politican of the BSP.
Coming close on the heels of demolition of Ambedkar
Bhavan, in neighbouring Maharashtra by a BJP led government—a
decision which it regrets now because of spurt in voices of
opposition to this act—and the nationwide mass movement which
emerged after the 'institutional murder' of scholar Rohith Vemula of
Hyderabad Central University, and the alleged role of few central
ministers in letting it happen and a series of anti-Dalit actions and
controversial statements by its top leaders targeting the community,
or their attempts to discontinue the policy of affirmative action for
Dalits and Adivasis, the unfolding Dalit anger has also seriously
dented their well-planned strategy of consolidating their base among
the Dalits at an all India level. Undoubtedly Dalit outrage has not
only put the saffron dispensation at the state as well as centre on
the defensive and has put paid to their well calibrated strategy of
appropriating Ambedkar by projecting him as a 'Hindu Social
Reformer'.
Despite their claims vis-a-vis Hindu Unity, this
incident—which was no exception and was part of a unfolding pattern
of denying basic human rights to Dalits, intimidating them and using
them as storm-troppers for their anti-minority actions—has laid
bare the essentially Manuvadi / Brahminical core of their
ideology based on exclusion and hate. In fact their worldview is
basically anti-thetical to any vision of dalit
empowerment/emancipation or for that matter inclusive development.
And it has further demonstrated that their feverish attempts
notwithstanding to aggravate tensions between dalits and muslims at
grassroots level on flimsy pretext, in their worldview of Hindu
Rashtra both of them are equally dispensable. The unprecedented
fury shown by the Dalit masses in a state, which has been ruled by
the Hindutva forces for more than 15 years, and was projected by them
as a unique 'Gujarat Model' of development prior to the elections to
the Parliament in 2014, has shaken them to the core and has left them
scrambling for solutions. They are slowly realising that the
assertion of the Dalit masses has the potential of disrupting all
their political calculations in the coming elections to different
state assemblies—Punjab, UP and Gujarat itself—which are
scheduled to be held in 2017.
Another ignoble aspect of the present phase of
'Dalit Uprising' is the role of the media which (barring exceptions)
seems to have become a handmaiden of Hindutva's exclusion centred
politics. A cursory perusal of the coverage of the corporate funded
and controlled media demonstrate that it has refused to report Dalit
mobilisations on massive scale which have consistently challenged and
questioned Hindutva politics. A representative example of their Varna
dominated, anti-dalit worldview can be had from the way they
completely under reported the massive gathering in Mumbai recently
where more than 1.5 lakh people had gathered to protest the
demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan, by the BJP-Shiv Sena regime.
Forget being watchdog of democracy as it is being projected
elsewhere, forget its role of being objective it reporting events and
analysis, it seems much happy in its metamorphosis of being
spokesperson of the powers that be- a situation much worse than what
existed during emergency when 'it was asked to bend and decided to
crawl'.
The depredations of the cow vigilante groups are not
limited to Dalits alone, in fact, Muslims have been their chief
targets—as a cursory perusal of events since last two years makes
it obvious. The latest in the series happened to be from Gurgaon
where two Muslim transporters were attacked by a Gau Rakshak
group and were fed with cow dung laced with urine since they
were found to be carrying cattles. A video of the said incident had
also gone viral. A leader of the group even claimed on camera that
they have done it to 'purify' them of their sins. And since Haryana
happens to be a BJP ruled state—which is also contemplating forming
'Cow Protection Force' much on the lines of Home Guards and has also
appointed a special officer of the IAS rank to curb 'cow smuggling'
there was no action against the perpetrators.
It was only last year that Palwal in Haryana
witnessed communal riot like situation. The immediate trigger for the
situation was the cow vigilantes themselves who had attacked a truck
carrying meat and had spread a rumour that it was carrying beef
Police reached there within no time and instead of taking action
against the perpetrators charged the driver and owner of the truck
with criminal conspiracy and sent them to jail. The very next day
government announced that all cases filed earlier against 'cow
protectors' would be withdrawn immediately making it obvious that how
it would have no qualms if similar actions occur in future.
End of December last year, village Banokhedi,
district Kanial (Haryana) witnessed indiscriminate firing, by a cow
vigilante group on a canter (mini-truck) which was carrying
people—most of them belonging to minority community—who were
travelling from Punjab to UP for the coming Panchayat elections. It
led to death of one youth and serious injuries to several others. Cow
vigilantes attacked the truck in middle of the night and what was
more worrisome that there were few policemen also with them. Later
five people were arrested among them there were two policemen as
well.
The menace of cow vigilante groups is not limited to
one particular area or state, it has spread all over the country. Few
months back cow vigilantes had lynched two youths belonging to
minority community (one of them a minor) near Latehar, Jharkhand and
left them hanging on tree, as they were also found carrying cattles
and the cow protectors wanted to 'teach them a lesson'. Sarahan
village, District Nahan (Himachal Pradesh) was witness to an attack
on a group of minority youth by cow vigilantes (Oct 2015) which led
to death of one of them and four others were seriously wounded. Cow
vigilantes alleged that the youth were engaged in cow smuggling. Last
year similar group attacked a Kashmir bound truck with petrol bomb
which led to the death of a young man Zahid (19 years) because of
serious burn injuries. It was only few months back that Mehbooba
Mufti, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir wrote to Chief Minister of
Punjab how people from Kashmir who are meat exporters and traders are
being regularly brutalised in the state by self-proclaimed Gau
Bhakts.
It is futile to imagine that BJP—an affiliate of
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—would rein in Cow
Vigilantes, just because Dalits are feeling outraged over some
incidents involving them or sections of judiciary or even executives
are appalled at their transgressing of Constitutional values and
principles or the peace and justice loving people of the country are
reminding the Pracharak turned PM that he had declared in the august
house of the Parliament that for him 'Constitution is the most sacred
book now'.
The Sangh Parivar, operates through its vast network
of what are known as anushangik (affiliated)
organisations—with a strict division of labour between them—to
further the agenda of Hindu Rashtra. In fact, it would leave no stone
unturned to deflect attention of the people from its essentially
Varna mindset which, refuses to even acknowledge that assertion of
Dalits has basis in the age old hierarchy based caste system. They
would be ready to go to any extent to silence all such voices which
are questioning them, challenging them and are in a position to put
roadblocks on their 'path to victory'. An inkling of what is in store
for all such voices can be had from the unprovoked attack on a public
meeting protesting Dalit atrocities in Gujarat organised by a Dalit
group in the heart of the capital itself by an organisation which is
alleged to be close to the Hindutva Brigage.
Ongoing attacks on Dalits in the 'model state of
Gujarat' or an overall spurt in atrocities against Dalits presents
before all those Dalit leaders a pertinent question who had joined
the Modi bandwagon before his ascent to power and in a way helped
sanitise his controversial role in the Gujarat carnage (2002 )when he
happened to be Chief Minister. Whether the likes of Athavales, Udit
Rajs and Paswans would still cling to aprons of power, further
facilitating whitewashing of this essentially anti-Dalit and
anti-oppressed regime or would listen to the clarion call given by
the Dalits on the streets of Gujarat that without fighting RSS and
Modi led BJP, Dalit emancipation cannot even be imagined.
The unfolding Dalit outrage also poses important
question before the Dalit movement itself. Whether anger witnessed
would just peter away or would be able to reinvigorate the radical
agenda of Ambedkarite politics centering on caste annihilation and
fighting capitalism and would present a systemic challenge before the
Manuvadi-Hindutva forces forging alliances with like-minded
forces. Parties like BSP have lot many things to answer on this
issue.
No doubt, unfolding cow vigilantism and continued
silence maintained by the net-savvy PM over attacks on Dalils and
minorities has further exposed the real agenda of this government.
Analysts are predicting that the ruling dispensation will have to pay
heavily because of its essentially anti-Dalit world view in coming
elections to state assemblies. What is still unclear that how all
such forces, formations who are opposed to the agenda of Hindutva and
are keen to defend secularism in the country and further democracy to
the grassroots level, are strategising so that the exclucivist agenda
of Hindutva is delivered a crushing defeat not only at the electoral
level but at the social level also and what role a reinvigorated left
is ready to play in the unfolding situation. It remains to be seen
whether there would be parallel realignment of various social and
political forces at the ground level comprehending the menace the
very politics of Hindutva presents before the country.
The present moment in the country's history is
pregnant with tremendous possibilities and demand- a creative,
energetic and strategic intervention from the revolutionary left.
One is reminded of the historic slogan raised during
anti-fascist struggles in 30s which declared that 'Fasicsm will Not
Pass'. It was a time when a united front of communists, anarchists,
socialists and republicans had come up and were fighting shoulder to
shoulder which was also joined in by non-party people from town and
country, because everyone had realised what a victory for fascism
would mean to Spain.
Frontier
Vol. 49, No.5, Aug 7 - 13, 2016
- See more at:
http://www.frontierweekly.com/articles/vol-49/49-5/49-5-Communal%20Fascism%20Will%20Not%20Pass.html#sthash.Fcp0Jhfp.dpufVol. 49, No.5, Aug 7 - 13, 2016
