homes in the northeastern states, fearing for their safety in the rest
of the country. The numbers of those fleeing was so high that Indian
Railways had to run special trains to meet the sudden upsurge in
passenger traffic. To a certain degree, the mass departure continues
even today. That the numbers fleeing has gone down is only because
most have left already. The administration was slow in responding to
the event, but soon caught up with the reality of the flight in
fright. Political leaders and the administration tried to assure
fleeing persons with statements declaiming the rumours. However, the
fact is, none were willing to believe these assurances.
The government has now blamed Pakistan for spreading rumours that
caused the panic. It has banned a list of websites and domains alleged
to have posted false propaganda, which fuelled the exodus. Indeed,
given the state of affairs in Pakistan, where the Pakistani government
has minimal control over its military apparatus and is over-run by
extremist elements it is possible that the allegations about the
origin of the messages are true.
However, blaming Pakistan for the exodus would not absolve India from
the realities that the people in India have learned to live with. By
comparison, if past experiences are of any meaning, returning home was
an option to the people from the northeast. This was not so for so
many victims of violence in the past that perished in the very homes
where they were born.
There is not a single political party in the country that has not
capitalised upon sectarian and religious divisions for immediate
political gains. All of them, including those in the northeastern
states, without exception, have, in the past, fuelled sectarian
violence in some of the most abominable forms. And, there is no
guarantee they will not do the same in the future. None of the
political instigators have ever been punished for such deeds. In fact,
many have risen to power through planning, fuelling, and executing
communal violence, in villages, districts and states. Even the
national capital was not spared. The 1984 riots against the Sikhs,
engineered by politicians and henchmen of the party presently in power
at the centre, was a brutal pogrom.
What is illustrated in the past week's event is the alarming reality
of clear-cut sectarian and ethnic fault lines from which India has yet
to recover. The event is iteration of the fact that the people trust
neither their government, nor the law enforcement agencies. Past
incidents of violence committed against Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and
Hindus; in Gujarat, New Delhi, Orissa and Kashmir only underlines this
fact. In all these incidents, the law enforcement agencies, and
subsequently the justice and political apparatus in the country, have
connived with criminals, reminding those who survived the violence
that justice is impossible and that there will be no remorse. Thus far
demanding or offering resignation from office is accountability at its
best in India.
The government that has blamed and now banned selected internet
services, accusing them for precipitating fear will have a moral and
legal dilemma for not acting against similar elements in India. Bal
Keshav Thackeray and his clan, having a stronghold in the financial
capital of India, is not an isolated gang of provocateurs in pursuit
of sectarian violence and hatred in India. If legal standards and
responsibilities are the same in each case, and if the country's
justice apparatus is equipped, and is allowed to apply these standards
in each occasion, most politicians who pretend to be national leaders
in the country, would be in prison today. That it has not happened so
far, and perhaps will never happen, is the root cause of the exodus
that the country is witnessing now. It will happen again. All that is
required is a similar catalyst.
Any community left with the only option of identifying first a
Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, or a Meitei, Naga, Malayalee, Tamilian
or Kashmiri, lives a life of insecurity. The plurality that India
claims exists within its fabric is in fact a fiction. No government
has tried addressing this. Each has only tried deepening it. To
address this divide, what is required is a strong national policy on
justice reforms, since justice speaks only one language, that of
equality. Unfortunately this has been the last priority for all
governments in India so far. Instead attempt is to legislate new laws
like the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to
Justice and Reparation) Bill, 2011 that lacked clarity in objectivity,
purpose and public consultation.
As a substitute of addressing the root problem, prohibiting access to
web content and blaming the neighbour for ones own misfortune only
reiterates the reality of retardation in Indian political thinking.
That the media has refused to look into this factor, and are
regurgitating the government's blame game, in fact, speaks about its
intellectual wilt.
Exodus in essence is fleeing for survival. Irrespective of the cause,
the country witnesses it each year during the change of seasons.
Legally there is no difference between the conditions, that force
internal migration of an estimated one million people each year who
leave their villages to work and perish in the cities and brick kilns,
feeding the rampaging hunger of construction companies that define the
skylines of India's new urban landscapes, and that of those who flee
work places fearing communal violence. Government policies that result
in the destruction of livelihood options in thousands of villages,
corporate entities that connive with governments in the process, and
the absolute lack of consultation with the people on policies and
implementation when livelihoods are destroyed, are crimes of equal
gravity.
Central to the issue is the unwillingness of the government and a
large section of citizens to recognise that, at its core, the concept
of a nation-state is that of an entity based on cooperation, i.e. an
agreement between the state and its people to form a nation, on the
guarantee that the state will spare no resources to protect basic
freedoms of the people, irrespective of their race, region, religion,
language and class. This guarantee is the best assurance, which
nurtures unity, speaking the universal language of justice based on
equality. It is this guarantee that the Indian state is yet to fulfil
for its people, who have forgotten or failed to realise the initial
act of cooperation that gave birth to their nation-state, and who
don’t truly understand the price of their daily submission amidst
petty squabbling, which legitimises inefficient and corrupt misrule.
/*For information and comments contact: */
In Hong Kong: Bijo Francis, Telephone: +852 - 26986339, Email:
india@ahrc.asia