Thursday, 26 March 2020
Sunday, 22 March 2020
“Aghast at How Communal the UP Police Has Become”: Darapuri
“Aghast at How Communal the UP Police Has Become”: Darapuri://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/9/18206/I-Am-Aghast-At-How-Communal-the-UP-Police-Has-Become-Darapuri?fbclid=IwAR
Friday, 20 March 2020
What is Chandrashekhar Azad's politics?
What is Chandrashekhar Azad's politics?
- SR Darapuri, I.P.S.(Retd) and President, Save Democracy
Campaign
On March 15, Chandrashekhar Azad announced the formation of
a new political party called Azad Samaj Party (ASP) which is welcome as in a
democracy every citizen has the right to form his own party. But no
announcement has been made about the agenda or politics of this party yet.
Prima facie, so far, there has been a belief among the common people that its
main aim is to do politics of Dalit Muslim alliance as seen from the conference
related to the formation of the party. If it is true, then it is natural to
raise the question whether it is a new version of social engineering of
Dalit-Muslim alliance or something else. It is known that the Bahujan Samaj
Party (BSP), which has converted from Bahujan to Sarvajan, is now on the verge
of collapse by using such a formula because BJP has used its very formula to take
away a large part of its constituency and has taken it under the umbrella of Hindutva.
Since Chandrasekhar claims to follow Kanshi Ram's political
ideology, it is pertinent to analyze the ideology and strategy of Kanshi Ram's
Bahujan politics. It is known that Kanshi Ram mobilized the Dalits with the slogan
"Baba tera mission adhura, Kanshi Ram karenge pura" (Incomplete
Mission of Babasaheb will be completed by Kanshi Ram) but did he ever define
the mission of Babasaheb's politics. Did he follow Babasaheb's ideological and
agenda-based politics? Did he ever adopt Babasaheb's mass movement based
politics? Did he launch any land movement for land allotment of land to
landless Dalits whereas BSP came to power four times? Did BSP implement its
slogan "The land which belongs to govt, that land is ours" when it
was power? Mayawati’s government has done the biggest injustice in 2008 by not
allocating land to Dalits and Adivasis under the Forest Rights Act, due to
which millions of Dalit and Adivasis are facing the brunt of eviction.
Did Kanshi Ram ever create or issue a Dalit agenda? Did he
use "political power is the key to all problems" for the development
of Dalits as implied in the second part of Babasaheb's slogan, "It
(political power) should be used for the development of society?” Did he, like
Babasaheb's speech in Agra, identify the landlessness of the Dalits as the
biggest weakness of the Dalits and like Babasaheb called to struggle for land
for the Dalits for the remainder of his life? In my knowledge, the answer to
all these questions is only in "No".
It is well known that Babasaheb never asked for votes in
the name of caste. All his politics was based on class interest. Babasaheb
himself had said, "Politics which does not talk of class interest is a
fraud". Whatever parties Babasaheb had formed (Independent Labour Party,
Scheduled Castes Federation of India and Republican Party of India) all had a
wide radical agenda. In it, Dalits workers, farmers, land distribution, women,
industrialization, education and health facilities were the main issues. There
was also an announcement to make special arrangements for the upliftment of the
historically deprived sections like Dalits, Adivasis and Backward Classes. All
the parties of Babasaheb periodically launched the land movement for the
allotment of land, the biggest all India movement was organized by the
Republican Party from 6 December 1964 to January 1965. During this Land Movement,
more than 3 lakh party workers had courted arrest and the then Congress
government was compelled to accept the demands of land allocation, minimum wages
and debt relief etc. Did BSP ever launch a mass movement on these issues?
In fact, Kanshi Ram established opportunistic and
bargaining politics by ending Babasaheb's mass movement and agenda based
politics. Are the Dalits not suffering the expense of Kanshi Ram's unprincipled,
agenda less and opportunistic politics today? Did not Kanshi Ram's BSP join
hands with the anti-Dalit BJP three times due to the greed for power? Didn't
Kanshi Ram's BSP give tickets to the anti-Dalit goons and mafias with whom the
Dalits fought? Is it correct to say that Kanshi Ram's mission was correct but
Mayawati has deviated from it? If to be fair, it is totally correct to say that
Mayawati has carried forward the agenda of Kanshi Ram with all sincerity.
Mayawati is accused of selling tickets, but Kanshi Ram started it by selling
Rajya Sabha ticket to Jayant Malhotra, a capitalist in 1994. Kanshi Ram also
accepted it before me. In the same conversation, Kanshi Ram told me that he did
not launch a mass movement on Dalit
issues, the reason being that Dalits are
weak to face police. Similarly about the conversion to Buddhism he said that
there is no benefit from it. That is probably why he did not accept Buddhism.
(By the way, even Mayawati has not adopted Buddhism, but it is her personal
matter.) Regarding Dalit agenda, Kanshi Ram told me that we have prepared it but
it is being kept under lock in Delhi
because he was afraid that if opened out, other people will steal and implement
it. Perhaps that is why he never released the election manifesto. He said that
whatever we have to do, we will do it only after coming into power.
Now if Chandrashekhar talks about advancing the mission of
Kanshi Ram, then what is new in this? That mission has so far been completely
exposed. Have the consequences of Kanshi Ram-Mayawati's politics not been fully
revealed? Can Kanshi Ram brand opportunistic, power hungry and dogmatic
politics be an answer to BJP’s current Hindutva Corporate-backed politics? Has
not the earlier Bahujan politics of caste and community indirectly strengthened
the Hindutva politics of the BJP? It is conceivable that Chandrasekhar has
announced the formation of a new party, but like Kanshi Ram, nothing has been
said about its agenda. Is this not a reiteration of Kanshi Ram's agenda less
and opportunistic politics? Will the politics of Dalit-Muslim alliance prima
facie not strengthen the Hindu-Muslim politics of the BJP? Does ASP have any
agenda in front of BJP-Corporate politics? Can any one individual based party
challenge a big party like BJP? Can BJP's fascism be countered by the alliance
of some communities? Probably NOT.
It is clear from the above discussion that till now Chandrashekhar has
announced to pursue the politics of Kanshi Ram, the consequences of which have
already come to the fore. Therefore, today there is a need for a radical
agenda-based democratic politics that raises important questions like land,
employment, agricultural development, education, health
services, and
social justice and creates alternative politics. A
politics that responds to the politics of RSS-BJP with Hindutva
and Corporate alliances and is democratically
driven in its character and prohibits individual and family centred politics. A
politics that builds democratic culture while respecting the right to
dissent and establishing citizenship. I am sure that
this politics can be the only way for Dalit emancipation against all kinds of feudal exploitation. We
are trying to make this only, and for this purpose, Save Democracy Campaign been launched in the entire state. I request Babasaheb's
true followers to join the Save Democracy Campaign.
Jai Bheem!
Tuesday, 17 March 2020
Monday, 2 March 2020
Sunday, 2 February 2020
Tuesday, 15 October 2019
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