Democracy under house arrest
Terrorism and extremism are the biggest problems plaguing the world. Terrorists and extremists didn’t descend from the skies. Terrorism is a result of excesses of the rich countries. Similar realities are the reason for the genesis of Naxalism in north east and other parts of India. The attack and assault unleased on them made them lose faith in the democratic system, and reach out to weapons to protect themselves.
Inequality, poverty and hunger are the main causes behind Naxalism having found its root in the nation. Another reason for this could also be Army was used against these people to uproot them from their natural habitats. This contributed greatly to the growth of Naxalism. But any fight that uses weapons is not an acceptable way of expression even if it is for the people. Today we can seek justice only through democratic means. This has been proved time and again through the pages of history in India. But the state is committing a huge mistake in identifying the organisations/agencies that are creating a rift or trouble through extremist activities.
Earlier, all the anti-social activities and extremism would be attributed to muslims and the rest was easy to set the narrative. Soon after the destructive activities were carried out, the accused would be held and even punished for the crime. Media and investigative agencies didn’t deem it important to run a detailed investigation into the matter. It was always seen as ‘people of a particular faith being arrested for whatever crime’. As a result of this thousands of muslim youths went into jails never to come out. Their future was lost. This damaged the country’s internal security in two ways. The actual culprits were scot free. And this encouraged them to cause more destruction. The others who were wrongfully jailed, ended up being disillusioned by democracy that didn’t do them justice and got into the path of crime since they were already branded as criminals. Innocent muslims were turned into terrorists.
Investigations of Malegaon, Ajmer, Mecca Masjid, Sanjhota blasts were carried out with Muslims being the focal point. But many years later, the truth was revealed that Sangh Parivar members had executed these blasts. Irony is, the government is not showing any interest in curbing the Hindu terrorism that is raising its wide hood. This double standard followed by the government continues into elaborating on the term ‘terrorism’ to suit the narrative set by themselves. While all the destructive forces were called ‘terrorists’ earlier, the Modi-led government calls all those thinkers and progressive intellectuals as ‘urban naxals’.
On one hand, the governments are asking the naxals to drop weapons and come into mainstream; and on the other, they are branding thinkers as ‘urban naxals’. The government is trying to close all options of a dialogue by saying criticizing the government is equal to criticizing the country. This has caused major damage to the democracy and this is dangerous.
We have already seen people who turn away from democracy take to destructive paths. Democratic fights have taken a different route now. Hardly anybody speaks against labourers or farmers. The government isn’t even taking cognizance of democratic demonstrations. Instead, the ones who participate in such demos are branded as terrorists, and they are arrested. All those human rights activists under house arrest are deeply respectful of democracy. They have been speaking against anti-democratic forces. Unfortunately, anti-constitutional forces are right around us and they are let free while the democratic activists are being hounded. People are looking at activists with suspicion owing to these anti-democratic forces. And it could be owing to the pressure exerted by anti-constitutional elements that the government is arresting the activists and progressive thinkers.
This is a direct message the government is sending to the minorities, muslims and exploited communities of the nation, informing them that if they continue to speak against the government, they would also be meeting the same fate. Hence, the anti-constitutional people according to the government are guardians of culture, and all those who are protesting are naxals. To declare them as thus and then eliminating them is the motive of the government. The terrorist organisations will reap total benefit of this, is beyond doubt. To close the routes of protest, which is a constitutional right, is to deny democracy. Hence, the whole of democracy is under house arrest today.
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RJD surprise element in J’khand polls, party candidates leading in 5 of 6 assembly seats
Ranchi(PTI): The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has emerged as a surprise element in the Jharkhand assembly elections with its candidates leading in five of the six seats where the party is contesting, according to trends available on the Election Commission's website on Saturday.
RJD candidates in five assembly seats were leading over sitting BJP legislators.
In 2019, RJD had secured only the Chatra seat where its nominee Satyanand Bhokta won.
In Deoghar, RJD’s Suresh Paswan was leading by 19,581 votes over his nearest rival and BJP's sitting MLA Narayan Das after the third round of counting.
RJD’s Sanjay Prasad Yadav was ahead by 19,867 votes in Godda over BJP MLA Amit Kumar Mandal after the sixth round of counting.
In Koderma, RJD nominee Subhash Prasad Yadav, who was out on bail, was leading by a margin of 3,471 votes over BJP’s sitting legislator Neera Yadav.
Subhas Prasad Yadav, considered to be one of the close aides of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court in a money laundering case.
Party’s Naresh Prasad Singh was leading by 5,159 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP’s Bishrampur MLA Ramchandra Chandravanshi.
RJD's Sanjay Kumar Singh Yadav was also leading from Hussainabad by 8,213 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP MLA Kamlesh Kumar Singh.
Party’s candidate Rashmi Prakash, however, was trailing from Chatra by 3,776 votes.
Bhokta did not contest the elections this time, and his daughter-in-law Prakash was given a ticket.
