Janhastakshep ( 'Emergency Today')

Public Meeting

'Emergency Today'

Organized by Janhastakshep and PUCL

Date and Time: 25th June 2017, 5.15 PM

Venue: Gandhi Peace Foundation,

Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi.

Speakers:

· Veteran journalist Sh Kuldeep Nayar

· Noted social scientist Prof Imtiaz Ahmed

· Civil rights lawyer Ms Nandita Haskar

· Civil rights activist Prof Apoorvanand

25 June 1975 is remembered as the dark day of Indian History, when India’s Prime Minister had declared internal emergency and suspended the fundamental rights of the people and imprisoned thousands of political workers of opposition parties including large number of dissenters. Press was censored and non-conforming presses, though infinitely small in number, just like today, were raided and their editors were arrested or threatened .The atmosphere was ubiquitously filled with a sense of fear and apprehension. With the completion of 3 years of Modi government, the sense of fear and apprehension has far surpassed those of emergency days. The media today appears far more conforming and beholden to the rulers. The raid on the residence of the proprietors of NDTV is for the demonstrative effect just in case there might still be a lone wolf among them.

During emergency, the instruments of authoritarian attack on peoples’ right to expression; association and democratic resistance were mainly the Governmental coercive apparatuses; however, the threat of emergency today relies upon, apart from a compliant bureaucracy and security forces, on the lumpen hordes of various fronts of the Sangh Pariwar, RSS, VHP; Bajrajng Dal; Gorakshaks; Hindu Yuva Vahini, Hindu Raksha Dal etc. whose members enjoy full governmental protection for intimidating and attacking the minorities and political dissenters. The mob lynching of innocent people in different corners of the country in the name of cow protection, of which the brutal murders of Akhlaq and Pehlu Khan are just two examples. The central government under tutelage of RSS, has no socio-economic and political program to offer for resolving people’s day to day needs and issues like unemployment, hunger, health care, education, caste oppression etc. and they seek to deflect people’s attention by raising superfluous issues like ‘cow/cattle protection’, ‘triple talaq’ and the like to sustain polarization of the society along the familiar fault lines of caste, religion and region etc. Little wonder that this has put common people including workers, peasants, dalits and minorities to immense difficulties.

BJP’s victory in Uttar Pradesh and the choice of Yogi Adityanath as its chief minister is a clear signal of the kind of communal mayhem that can be expected to be unleashed in the build up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Needless to say that minorities, especially the Muslims, in India today feel to be under a siege. The recent caste violence in Saharanpur and the stand of the UP government only shows that BJP’s attempt to win over the Dalits into the Hindutva fold to bolster its numerical strength is only a sham and reinforces the upper caste and upper class credentials of Hindutva.

The present rulers in the pursuit of their authoritarian designs ruthlessly mounted their attack on educational institutions in the attempt to crush the dissenting ideas with the help of constitutional and extra-constitutional apparatuses. The attack on ideas that began with the students of Ambedkar Study Circle at IIT Madras has gradually engulfed all the institutions of higher education, metaphorically turning them all into JNU. UGC has put in place draconian regulations that shall curb student’s rights and facilities, shall police the teacher’s independence in teaching and guiding the students and shall keep a tight vigil over the kind of research. The HRD ministry has put out a draft of Gurukul style educational policy that does not allow questioning. The programs of debates and discussion on the campuses are disrupted by the goons of so-called Hindutva brigades in whose eyes all those raising the multifarious issues of the oppressed people are nothing but anti-national elements who deserve to be beaten up.

Kashmir has always been a rallying point for chauvinistic mobilization in the hands of ruling classes. The naked repression of the democratic rights and natural aspirations of the Kashmiri people by Indian rulers was etched on the minds of people across the globe when the image of Farooq Ahmad Dar, a Kashmiri youth, who was tied to the front of an army jeep to be used as a human shield, and taken around several villages to set an example of how stone throwers shall be dealt with, was beamed on their television screens. The army chief, through his unwarranted, irresponsible and intimidating statements has acknowledged that the Indian army in Kashmir is not fighting just a few militants, but is actually fighting against the people of Kashmir. The war being waged by the Indian government in Kashmir, in the name of Indian people, does not augur well for democratic rights, peace and prosperity of the people of India. Under the circumstances, it is the patriotic duty of every Indian to steadfastly oppose the atrocities being committed by the security forces, including the army, in Kashmir.

All these are bad omen for democracy in the country. It is in this context, Janhastakshep along with PUCL are organizing this hall meeting to observe the ‘Anti-Emergency Day’ on 25 June, 2017 to deliberate upon all the issues mentioned above. We solicit your active participation in this endeavor to lend strength to the voice of resistance against fascist designs.

Please join us for Tea at 5 pm before the meeting.

Janhastakshep & Peoples Union for Civil Liberties

18.06 2017)