By Sushil Kutty
It is a matter of understanding. Some understand, some do not. Where does the Bombay High Court stand? Is protesting the Election Commission of India issuing ‘show-cause notices’ to the evicted slum-dwellers of Bhoomiheen Camp, Kalkaji, Delhi, asking them why their names should not be struck off the voters’ list, ‘unpatriotic’?
Bhoomiheen Camp’s slum-dwellers no longer have a jhuggi over their heads. They also don’t have the protection of the Election Commission of India. Their names have been struck off the electoral list of Delhi. They now live in tents pitched among broken bricks in the Bhoomiheen Camp waste. Should they ask for permission to hold a rally or will they be told they cannot because it isn’t patriotic?
There are a dozen patriotic issues to hold rallies for. Hold one for former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar, which is as unpatriotic as one can get in this age of Modi-Modi-Modi…People with understanding will not understand.
As the two-judge bench of the Bombay High Court did not. Willy-nilly, the Bombay High Court has become a barometer for all things patriotic and unpatriotic. The Bombay High Court has its finger on the patriotic pulse. And the CPI(M) would henceforth watch its tongue when on the premises of the Bombay High Court; not ever take sides with ‘Gaza’ or with “from the river to the sea”. The Palestine cause is taboo. Concern for children getting bombed out of their skins isn’t patriotic! Distance separates. ‘Gaza’ is on Mars – the Andromeda Galaxy.
President Donald Trump wouldn’t have heard of the Bombay High Court’s observations on ‘Gaza’ and patriotism and Trump should not confuse ‘Patriot’ with missile. The United States has its Patriot Act. India has media outlets which breathe patriotism like we oxygen.
What’s the hullabaloo about? Why should a couple of honourable judges of the Bombay High Court be at the centre of “ridicule”? The two-judge bench turned out to be rank patriots. AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi wouldn’t stand a chance. He took oath in the name of ‘Jai Palestine’.
And ‘Palestine’ is not an Indian cause. Tagore might disagree. The bench dismissed the CPI(M)’s plea. The court felt the issue was “short-sighted” and the CPI(M) should refocus. “Look at your own country. Be patriots. This is not patriotism. Speak up for the causes in our own country,” Justice Ravindra V Ghuge said, in “ridicule” of a very high “queer” order. This wasn’t even flippancy. Question is, where should patriotism go when infants are blown to smithereens? Should the “Gaza” for one be different for another?
Living in denial isn’t a Bombay High Court thing, is it? So, the CPI(M) has no locus standi to challenge the police. Justice Ghuge made revelation after revelation: CPI(M) is registered in India! It can take up “India issues”. There are plenty of “India issues”. There’s pollution. There’s the garbage. There’s dumping. There’s flooding. There’s illegal parking. There’s drainage!
All of them are “patriotic” issues. “You are not protesting on those but on something happening thousands of miles outside the country. Why aren’t you protesting on such issues?” Justice Ghuge asked the CPI(M) counsel. The bench also comprised Justice Gautam Ankhad.
The police rejected the application because “the protest was against the country’s foreign policy, and will create a law and order situation”, which is not what “patriotism” is all about. Mumbai’s citizens had no right to demonstrate. It was against India’s foreign policy.
Justice Ghuge understood. He said the issue had to do with foreign policy and should be left to the External Affairs Ministry. The “untenable” unpatriotic plea was dismissed. The CPI(M) politburo “condemned” and objected to the court questioning the party’s patriotism. It spoke of the “history of our country and our people’s solidarity with the Palestinians…”
At the end of the day, however, what sounded was “our country has enough issues. We don’t want anything like this. I am sorry to say, you are all short-sighted. You are looking at issues in Gaza and Palestine. Look at your own country.”
There it was, India’s foreign policy spelled out by the two-judge bench of Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad, two patriots before they’re justices. “Our country has enough issues. We don’t want anything like this…You are looking at issues in Gaza and Palestine…Be patriots. This is not patriotism…”
Learn that by heart, include it in the new Class 8 history textbook and be the patriot you never were before the Bombay High Court spelled it out in black & white. (IPA Service)
