A new year normally brings hopes for a new dawn and better things. Instead, we got an overdose of distressing right-wing madness, casting a shadow on the democratic future of this country. On 23rd December 2021, the Karnataka assembly passed the “Anti-Conversion” Bill. On Christmas day, in Ilkal, Bagalkot, the Hindu Para Sanghatana, stormed into a Christmas gathering in a shed, disrupting celebrations, alleging that forced conversions were underway. The school management had supposedly “invited students and parents to the school on Christmas day and offered them meat, wine and a Kannada translation of the Bible”. The next day, after an incredibly super fast-tracked “inspection and investigation” a girls’ school located on the same premises, was shut down accusing the school management of “converting students and parents to Christianity”, and disgracing the institution. Subsequent investigations however revealed that the school was in fact run by a group of 10 private individuals; 6 Hindus and 4 Christians. Neither the Church nor Christian missionaries had any hand in running the school. This group had taken over the school from a Christian pastor in 2007. An embarrassed State government quietly withdrew its order.
Till November 2021, there were 39 such attacks on Christian communities in Karnataka alone, according to the PUCL (People’s Union of Civil Liberties). On 3rd October, a mob of 200 right-wing activists attacked a small church in Roorkee in Uttarakhand. The marauders pulled down the cross, broke it into pieces and attacked the worshippers. Three of the attackers were reportedly BJP members. An FIR was filed within hours but no arrests were made. In the first week of December, the St Joseph School was attacked and vandalised by Bajrang Dal activists in Ganj Basoda town, 110 km from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, alleging that eight students had been converted to Christianity. They were never identified. In Agra, effigies of Santa were burnt on Christmas eve; indicating total ignorance of the mythical concept of Santa Claus to delight children, and having no religious significance, much less contributing to conversions. One “Santa” was even beaten up. On and on it goes, totally oblivious of what conversion to Christianity involves. It is certainly not something that can happen in an hour of “celebration with meat and wine”. There has to be a period of study and acceptance of the doctrines of the Church carefully supervised by a member of the clergy. And only when he is convinced of the genuine desire of the subject to convert, with full knowledge and intent can the process be completed.
It appears that the anti-minority pogrom of the right-wing mobs has been elevated to the next level with the “dharam sansad” in Haridwar, and later in Chhattisgarh where systematic genocide of Muslims was advocated as the “final solution”. Swami Prabodhanand from the Hindu Raksha Sena, said “like Myanmar, the police, the army and every Hindu must pick up arms and organise a cleansing of Muslims.” In Haryana, BJP MP Tejaswi Surya recommended bringing about “large-scale reconversion” to Hinduism by force. On the one hand, Stan Swamy who dedicated his life to the upliftment of downtrodden tribals, was hounded for three years, locked up under UAPA, denied bail or proper medical care and eventually died in custody, without ever being charged with any crime. Yet these so-called saints spewing venom at Muslims merely merited an SIT enquiry without even an FIR, in spite of publicly available video evidence. These were ex-facie offenses as per the IPC and demanded swift action. The Bulli Bai, Sulli deals and hijab controversy are yet more examples of sick, sinister communal hate. Not a single politician from the PM down to our Goan netas voiced even a murmur of disapproval. On the contrary the rabidly communal Yogi is now declared “an inspiration” to our current CM. One politician, seeking naked pre-election mileage, voiced a meaningless objection to the destruction of a church in Delhi months after the incident. The principles of natural justice namely “innocent until proven guilty” are applied as per the whims and fancies of the right-wing mafia with more and more laws being introduced which turn this concept on its head, so that you can now be locked up in a political dustbin, presumed guilty unless proved innocent. The NSA, PDA, TADA, POTA, and MISA which were used to shackle journalists and political opponents, have been further refined over time to make them more draconian and used against minority communities. More recent ones are the UAPA, sedition laws, Foreigners Act and the Assam cattle act; all of which presume guilt unless otherwise proved. No wonder 60% of Bills were passed in the winter session without scrutiny or debate.
Rahul Gandhi tweeted that “fearless leaders” are needed to take on the ruling party. Is he not a leader? If true democracy is to return, there has to be strong protest with the opposition taking to the streets, courting arrest, precipitating a jail bharo andolan as happened during the emergency. Today’s leaders prefer to tweet from the comfort and safety of their homes. 100 politicians challenging the Centre to invoke UAPA against them would be enough to delegitimise such laws. This will never happen with politicians eternally looking for opportunities to feather their own nests, ever fearful of spending even a day in jail or inviting a probe by the ED.
Unfortunately, civil society is highly unlikely to course correct anytime in the near future as long as “leaders” like BJP MP Janardhan Mishra declare that people should approach him only if the allegation of corruption exceeds 15Lakhs. Our only hope remains the Courts.
(The author is a founder member of VHAG)
