By Aditya Aamir
Who says the sarkari babu doesn’t have spine? Wait till he retires and watch him show backbone. And it doesn’t matter if an Emergency-like situation prevails, which is worse than Emergency. Ask the 48 retired civil servants who have written an open letter to the Prime Minister to tell him that the sudden arrests of five activists is the “most brazen display of coercive authority by the state yet”.
Mind you some of these vertebrae must have been around when Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency. They must not have shown backbone then because they were gentlemen and she a lady! Even otherwise, Emergency, compared to Emergency-like, was a walk in the park, with flowers blooming and butterflies flitting, rabbits playing cricket with the India Eleven.
But to haul up five unsuspecting intellectuals from their morning repast can’t be anything but a dictator’s whim. Petty, small-minded, authoritarian, autocratic, bossy, undemocratic, simply not done and one of the intellects a lady so good angels take a bow! Why, the midnight arrest of 100,000 plus during Emergency was only temporary suspension of fundamental rights, this was like curtains.
At least in 1975, with large scale censorship, there were no newspaper reports of arrests to create panic in the countryside. Besides, at that time, television black & white was very much under government control. Now, news is 24/7, 99% private and a fish market. And 5 arrests means 500 could be arrested tomorrow and 500,000 the week after. Hell, common and uncommon people alike are petrified.
Also, compared to house arrest, Emergency was just a holiday behind bars. Imagine being penned at home 24/7, the mental torture – cannot step out to buy cigarettes; visit the beach, go for morning walks, gupshup with the neighbour over the fence. At least from 1975-77, there was the jail superintendent with grey cells to talk to, here and now only two constables of low intellect on guard at the front and back door.
The 48 retired bureaucrats are outraged at the government move to “intimidate and silence any signs of dissent and democratic resistance.” Emergency 1975 gave both dissent and democracy room behind bars, and jails in 1975 were much more open, not crowded like these days’ Tihar. Besides, Modi and Shah have so shoddily executed Bhima Koregaon arrests, Rafale and the note ban.
This is the 48’s second open letter to Modi; the first one was on the Kathua rape-cum-murder of an eight-year-old. Compare 1975 to 2018, not even a single bureaucrat – retired or serving – thought of making the thousands of arrests an issue. Better sense prevailed then, better sense should have prevailed now. Protests across India show how drastic and draconian the five arrests were.
Look at those arrested, their standing and status: Lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj, poet Varavara Rao, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha. All of them outstanding citizens, with hearts of gold. People are holding ‘We’re In A State of Emergency’ placards, how much more desperate can it get?
The 48 have pinned guilty the draconian laws. Current laws “allow the flimsiest of evidence to frame charges and arrest those who are politically inconvenient and may threaten powerful commercial interests complicit with the state,” they warned. This isn’t Emergency!
“It is evident these arrests follow a pattern designed by the current dispensation to tag any dissident or critical intellectual activity as anti-national or seditious or supportive of secession and terrorism”, and it’s a shame “the rise in authoritarian and majoritarian tendencies” have become so evident, the state’s actions so hypocritical.
“A ‘Maoist sympathiser’ is treated as a dangerous terrorist who needs to be incarcerated but a sympathiser of Bajrang Dal or Sanatan Sansthan or Hindu Mahasabha, who flaunts the agenda of violence and hate, is seen as pursuing a worthwhile national cause.” How much more foul can it get? They asked PM Modi.
“The activists hold an exemplary record, and have always used lawful and democratic means.” And a “deliberate official falsehood foisted to damage their reputations, is truly bizarre and Kafkaesque… given your supremacy within the party and the centralised control you and your party president exercise, you more than anyone else have to be held responsible for this terrifying state of affairs,” the 48 said noting the grave situation, graver than ever before in India’s short history.
India’s millions will not tolerate an Emergency-like situation, which is more dangerous than Emergency. Why, hardworking journalists are at the risk of being arrested and in the face of continuous assaults on freedom of expression still boldly writing and speaking against the draconian state hogging space/time in newspapers and television channels.
Will they also be arrested Mr. Prime Minister? “As for whether democracy in India will survive or not, the jury is (still) out,” award-winning journalist Swati Chaturvedi wrote in the Gulf News! (IPA Service)
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