Modi attacks advocates for justice
Indian civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand have come under fire from the government of Narenda Modi and the far-right Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party for the attempt to win justice for the Muslim victims of communal violence in the state of Gujarat in 2002. The politically motivated attack comes in the context of escalating repression by Modi and his BJP. In response, the Indian socialist organization is calling for a united campaign of action in defense of Setalvad and in support of justice for the victims of nationalist violence.
RADICAL SOCIALIST condemns the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raid on the Mumbai residence of activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand, and organizations they established and run, including Sabrang Communications, Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace. The raid is a clear case of vindictiveness shown by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) towards Setalvad and Citizens for Justice and Peace.
Setalvad and Anand, along with fellow activists, have been responsible for keeping alive the memory of the pogrom of 2002 and for ensuring that some of the guilty at least were punished. As has already been pointed out by defenders and supporters of Setalvad, the CBI raid's timing is significant, exposing the malicious intent of the government in power. On July 13, the Gujarat High Court was to hear appeals by [Hindu nationalist] Babu Bajrangi and [former BJP politician] Maya Kodnani. On July 27, the same court will begin its final hearing into the petition filed by Zakia Jafri [whose husband, politician Ehsan Jaffri, was killed in 2002 when he attempted to shelter Muslims under attack from Hindu nationalists].
The CBI has been used as a weapon by the Modi government to muzzle critics or dissent in any form and discipline political rivals. Setalvad and her colleagues have been harassed since 2006 by the Gujarat police. With Modi assuming the office of prime minister in 2014, these cases are now being pursued by central agencies.
Modi's one year in office has seen frequent incidents of attacks on minorities. Repeatedly, Modi, or his ministers, have advocated causes from the Hindutva agenda, and have intentionally attacked and hurt minority sentiments. The reason for the severe persecution of Teesta Setalvad is, of course, an aggressive reaction to the determined fight put up by the organizations they have been running.
But more than that, it is a form of state-sponsored terrorization, where the aim, just as with any non-state terrorists, is not only to attack or kill certain persons, but even more, to strike terror among other people. By attacking prominent civil rights activists, the regime is seeking to discredit them in the public eye; to tie them and their time up in innumerable cases in self defense, so that they have less and less time to fight for the rights of oppressed groups of people. And, while knowing that these people are hardened fighters and may go on resisting, this terrorization is trying to silence and intimidate others, whether in Gujarat or elsewhere, so that they accept the move to implementation of more and more Hindutva agenda without protest. The assassins of Govind Pansare, the senior Communist Party leader of Maharashtra, who was killed in February of this year, have not been caught. Similar is the case with the murderers of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.
RADICAL SOCIALIST joins voices in supporting Teesta Setalvad, Javed Anand and several other activists and citizens in the time of assault from the BJP/Sangh Parivar-led government. We believe in spirited action against communal fascism and terrorism unleashed by the BJP/Sangh Parivar in the country. We join in criticism of the police state, as affairs have come to be in the Modi regime.
In order to express our solidarity, we believe that forms such as statements by prominent individuals or online petitions cannot be fully adequate. We are facing a government, headed by a party that has been repeatedly identified as fascist by many left and progressive forces. Solidarity has to take on more militant and mass forms. We propose an all-India day of action, when there will be protest meetings--in public spaces if we can mobilize sufficient people, in halls where that is not possible--in cities and towns all over India, where our demands should include:
-- Oppose the move towards a police state;
-- Oppose the Central Government's attempts at pushing the Hindutva agenda;
-- Stop the harassment of Teesta Setalvad and all other campaigners for communal harmony;
-- Stop state support to peddlers of communal violence from Gujarat to Muzaffarnagar;
-- Punish the killers of Pansare and Dabholkar
First published at Radical Socialist.
