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Umesh:
I did not quite get what you tried to
mean. I also may not be quite clear in my views.
What I was trying to say was: Beef eating
may be a taboo to the Hindus in India but not to the non Hindus in India as
well as to many Hindus outside India. (In other words, we may effectively
say that only Indian cow is sacred, but not the British or the American cow.)
Anyhow, when the Hindus try to impose the
prohibition on beef eating in India on its entire citizens, it basically
goes against minorities right in a democratic country. In democracy,
everybody must have the basic freedom. If the entire community is
prohibited to eat beef only because the Indian Hindus do not eat beef, democracy
cannot function. This is one of the problems in India why we have a
dysfunctional democracy in India. We simply cannot have a set of administrative
rules which are not supported by the majority. In countries like India, we
will always have this problem because we donot have a set of citizens who are
all equal. (Even in ancient Greece and Rome, democracy worked only among
its citizens which effectively excluded the slaves). In a country like
India, we always have a conflict with democracy, because even according to the
Gita, man are not born equal. If we believe in a secular democracy, the majority
must not try to impose their beliefs or taboos on the minorities. If we want India to be a secular democracy, we cannot
have any prohibition against beef eating because that is based on religious
belief of one community. On the other hand, if we decide to make India a Hindu
state, we can have all type of Hindu prohibition imposed on its citizens. For
instance, in Saudi Arabia, one cannot eat pork, because that is a Muslim
country.
I was just trying to show the problem that
we are having in India. We want to say to the world that we are a democratic
country but in effect we donot want to practise it. This not because our
government is weak or corrupt but that the comminity, the people, have a
problem what it wants to do. That is the
main question.
In the words of Animal Farm, we want to
say that we are all equal, but that some of us are more equal. Once we
undertsantd this point, many aspects of Indian democrcay will be
clear.
We must understand one thing. That is the
Britsh have in fact did a jump start of democracy in India. Left to Indians
without the British rule, I seriously doubt whether we would have anby
denocratic rule as we have today. I think we Indians will benefit if we
understand this basic point by our heart.
Rajenda
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2005 3:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] I/J from
Tehelka
Rajen-da,
I think by reading your piece - it all boils down the fact that if cow
killing is effectively stopped -across India - I think there is already a law
to that effect (??) (which is highly unlikely seing our corrupt govt
and ineffective judiciary) then this excuse would be over.
In this case, Hindus were punished by other Hindus (like in last years'
Haryana case)-so I had put a caste -class angel -C-da didn't seem to buy
it.
Umesh
Rajen Barua <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
This type of communal violence by Hindus against
Muslims is not uncommon in India. Cow is a sacred thing for the Hindus which
have been made more sacred by Gandhi and now by Hindutwa. Now that the
Hindus have the upper hand after 1000 years in India, Hindutwa is ready
to strike and take the law into their own hands where they cannot do it
through the govt. Except for the cities, cow slaughter is a unofficial
social crime in India. Where people find that the govt does not do it their
way, people form such orgs like Hindu Yuva Sena, and take law into
their hands and do it on behalf of the government. People can be incited at
the slighted provocation or rumor. This is called Jungle Rule.
The incident shows that at present Jungle Rule is
prevalent in most parts of India specially in case of such communal
violence. I am however not clear about the meaning of the Head
line of the report: "Shame". Shame for what? What the article try to mean by
'Their Shame' and 'Our Shame'. Who are 'We' and 'They'? Shame at not having
a Rule of Law in such cases of communal violence in India or Shame at Hindus
Yuva Sena doing the thing? Untill and unless
the Hindus give a free certificate that cow slaughter is OK in India, I
think this type of violence will continue. And I don't think Hindus will
give a blanket certificate specially in rural areas. In cities, it is a
different matter.
Assam may not have this type of communal Jungle Rule
at present although we are not so sure. But we have other type of Jungle
Rule for sure. . The incident shows what may be outcome of this type os Yuva
Sena and taking laws into their own hands. With formation of our new
Lachit Sena we are also going into more of this type of Jungle
Rule in more areas. That is why I objected vehemently against
formation of this type of Lachit Sena by AASU although I did not see much
support from the Netters.
My morale for such news is that Indians should be
ASHAMED of such Jungle Rules whether these are for communal violence or for
any other type of Dadagiri or terrorism. All should be dealt with proper
force. This type of IJ is good and should be encouraged to keep the
communities feet on the fire, and this type of SENAs should be outlawed
so that we can insist on Rule of Law through the democratic process. For
democracy s to function, all men should be treated equal as a first
condition.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2005 8:10
AM
Subject: [Assam] I/J from
Tehelka
Barbaric
India
THEIR
SHAME, OUR SHAME
Rightwing activists strip two people for buying
cattle
By Chinmayee Manjunath
Udupi,
Karnataka
For What? Hajabba
(left) and Hassanabba at the hands of the mob ( In the Tehelka Website,
two people on the ground, naked- cm)
As more people gathered, the father and son were
stripped in front of the villagers, who remained spectators. The
tormentors then called a photographer to record the show
When
70-year-old Hajabba bought a calf on March 13, little did he know he would
have to pay a big cost for it. That he would be beaten up and paraded
naked. That his 29-year-old son, Hassanabba, would suffer the same fate.
Or that his 68-year-old friend Kanthapujari and his son Satish would be
jailed for a crime they had nothing to do with. The four, belonging to
Moodubettu village in Udupi district, are the latest victims of the
communal tension that is eating into this picturesque region of
Karnataka.
On the morning of March 13, Hajabba visited
Kanthapujari at his home; the two regularly dealt in livestock. On his way
back, he met another villager, Bhogushetty, who negotiated the sale of a !
calf. Paying him an advance of Rs 50, Hajabba agreed to take the calf in
the evening. At 7pm, when Hajabba was on his way in his Maruti van to
collect the calf, Bhogushetty stopped him near Kanthapujari's home and
handed over the cattle. Moments later, a crowd of around 10 people
surrounded the vehicle and dragged Hajabba out. "They just started beating
me," recalls Hajabba, sitting on a bed at the hospital where he spent two
weeks after the attack. The assaulters were members of the Hindu Yuva Sena
(hys), a rightwing organisation with presence in the region. Meanwhile,
Hassanabba, worried why his father had not returned, set out looking for
him. "When I reached the spot, there were about 30 men and they began to
thrash me as well," he says, flanked by his father at the
hospital.
They were then bundled into autos and driven to the
helipad at Adi Udupi, about 2 km away. As more people gathered, the father
and son were stripped and paraded in front of the villagers, who rema!
ined mute spectators. "Nobody came to help us. Everyone just stood and
watched," recounts a traumatised Hajabba.
The hys then called
in a photographer. "They made us pose, saying nobody should ever buy
calves after this," says Hassanabba, who lost consciousness soon after. By
then, police reached the helipad from Malpe, a neighbouring town. They
retrieved Hajabba's clothes and took him to the police station.
Hassanabba, however, was missing. "I kept telling them to look for him but
they ignored me," says Hajabba. He was questioned till midnight. But there
was still no sign of Hassanabba. "I don't know where I was all night but
when I got up at six in the morning, I was lying near the helipad,
dressed," says the father, recalling the events of that harrowing
night.
The next morning, when Hajabba registered a complaint,
Kanthapujari and Satish were taken to the police station. "They kept
asking us where we were the last night and we told them we were at home,"!
says Kanthapujari. A heart patient, he was admitted to a government
hospital in Udupi on March 16 under police surveillance and was discharged
only last week.
"Unfortunately, we got the news about the
attack late and by the time my men reached the spot of attack, the son was
missing. We suspect that Kanthapujari was the middleman and Satish has
close links with the Bajrang Dal," says S. Murugan, the Udupi
superintendent of police.
By late evening on March 14, the
two were charged with being abettors of the crime and jailed. Suresh,
Kanthapujari's second son, says his father may have been implicated
because he is known to do business with Hajabba. But Satish, he claims,
has nothing to do with the hys. Bhogushetty's name has not been mentioned
in the complaints filed with the police. Satish, who was in hiding for
some days, was arrested and released last week along with his
father.
The prime accused,
Yeshpal Suvarna and Prakash Bhandari, both leaders of the hys, have been
missing since March 14. Several members of the hys have also gone
underground and attempts to contact Vasudev Bhat, a prominent leader of
the outfit in the region, were fruitless.
Murugan admits tension
has been on the rise and it is not the first time trade of cattle has
sparked off violence. Other incidents occurred in Mangalore, Karkala and
Manipal, a region that has had a dominant presence of Muslims and
Christians.
Weeks before the Adi Udupi incident, Vanitha, a
factory worker in her early 20s, went missing under mysterious
circumstances in Hejamadi village. She had asked her neighbour, Ismail, to
help her find a better job. Activists of the hys attacked both for
speaking to each other. When they filed a complaint, Vanitha was
threatened by the hys, and was asked to withdraw her complaint. When she
refused,! Vanitha was assaulted. No one knows about her whereabouts. Till
now no investigation has taken place while Ismail is in hiding and
Vanitha's brother, an eye-witness, is also missing.
Locals cite
several such incidents. On March 19, a ceremony was held at a dargah in
Udupi. It was attended by thousands. A local Kannada daily printed a
photograph of two people carrying a green flag with the caption, "The
Pakistani flag in Udupi." Protests began soon, and though the paper was
forced by the police to print an erratum the next day, the town remained
tense. Days later, on March 26, bjp mla Raghupathy Bhat led a procession
in Udupi. Witnesses say Bhat withdrew from the scene as members of the
Sangh Parivar began to stone Muslim-owned shops en route. Bhat was not
available for comments.
Locals live in constant fear and
refuse to even speak about the hys or the Bajrang Dal. The region, where
different communities have co-existed peacefully for decades, has become
fraught! with communal tension. "We always lived together. Why these
people cause trouble, I never understand," says
Kanthapujari.
May 07 , 2005
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