A COUNTRY FILLED WITH ANTI NATIONALS!
K P Sasi
I thought the Muslims were the only anti nationals in this country. But I was mistaken. Earlier, thousands of people including even women and children who were questioning Koodankulam nuclear plant were declared as anti nationals. They are not the only ones outside the community of Muslims.
Over 11,000 NGOs in India are restricted from FCRA, while the Prime Minister himself has been flying around all the time for foreign funds. The technical and bureaucratic reasons given by the government may not appear to be convincing enough for anybody who studies the subject. Majority of the NGOs who are targeted belong to the Christian groups. But there is no word of resistance from the Christian leaders. They are still trying to solve the problems through backdoors without realising that the issue is political and it is an open attack on the minorities. Apart from the Christian NGOs, there are also NGOs which are involved in human rights and environmental issues. Some of them have decided to fight against this illegal discrimination. They include organisations like Greenpeace, INSAF, People’s Watch and many others. There are also court orders favouring them. But the Government has decided crush all dissent. They are also bracketed as anti nationals.
On the surface, activists are of the opinion that the decision of the government to target Greenpeace was due to their critical views on nuclear energy and mining. But the government had to bow down to international pressure and renew the FCRA of Greenpeace. INSAF, People’s Watch and others are still struggling. As per the words of Henri of People’s watch: The government’s order is absolutely illegal. When the government violates law, it is the responsibility of NGOs and civil society organisations to question it collectively. Unfortunately, those who resist are also not generating enough support from other NGOs. The term nationalism is often used to target the NGOs belonging to the minorities and those who are involved with environmental and human rights issues. Perhaps the words from Hegel may be useful to be remembered in this condition: A fighting slave is not a slave.’ The moment a slave decides to fight, he or she is liberated from slavery from his or her consciousness.
One thing is clear in this attempt of silencing the NGOs. The term nationalism is often used to target the NGOs belonging to the minorities and those who are involved with environmental and human rights issues. How is it that dissenting views on environment, development and human rights are anti national’ today? How is it that the right to association as per the Indian Constitution is becominganti national’ today? To understand this problem, it may be better for us to understand the mind set of the government and the Sangh Parivar on nationalism, since the problem is not just with the NGOs and the right to association. In a nutshell the official views of the government and the unofficial views of the Sangh Parivar on nationalism go like this:
All academic campuses are getting filled with anti nationals these days. Jawaharlal Nehru University is definitely anti national. And why are you so bothered about a missing Najeeb when there is ABVP in JNU to protect our nationalism?
Hyderbad Central University is filled with Dalit anti nationals. If an anti national student has committed suicide there it must be because of his guilt of being an anti national. Can’t you see how many anti national Dalit students are committing suicide in many of our so called prestigious universities and educational institutions? Still, the government is not putting all the struggling anti national students behind bars under UAPA. We are giving them enough time to realise their guilt like Rohit Vemula.
So to protect our nationalism, the government has decided to cut funds for every anti national university and educational institution. The government can not afford to spend money to teach the anti national students pay for their own education. Even after spending the major share of the budget on war and war related areas and even after employing most of our scientists in research on war and war related issues, we do not have enough money to protect our nation. So let all anti national students pay for their own education.
These youngsters are also getting inspired by many dreaded anti nationals like Medha Patkar, Teesta Setalvad, Arundati Roy, Abhay Sahoo, SP Uday Kumar and many others. They do not want development in this country.
And Adivasis were anti nationals right from Birsa Munda’s time onwards. Look at the way they are opposing the entry of all major corporate projects in their areas. These Adivasis can’t even understand that they are `vanavasis’. To make them realise this we are removing them from the forests. But there is a stumbling block on this. They are trying to get protection and cover under the Forest Rights Act. We need a little bit of more time to declare all such acts as anti national.
And while millions of anti national children of Adivasis are dying of malnutrition in Maharashtra, we found a way to deal with this problem. We put up hoardings saying that `I am a nationalist, I am a patriot and I am a born Hindu.’ Even then they do not understand.
The ex-serviceman who is crippled who came to watch a film in a theatre on a wheel chair did not even get up when the national anthem was played. Even the disabled are becoming anti nationals these days.
Even writers, film makers, poets and cultural personalities today do not have any respect for their country. They are returning their national awards.
But our intelligence departments are doing good work to identify the anti nationals. The anti national youths are wearing T-shirts with pictures of Bob Marley in south India. We have done everything to scare them. Why can’t they wear T-shirts with the image of Veer Savarkar?
On top of it, they are even kissing in public as a part of their protest strategies. These anti nationals do not have any morals. Do we object to even rapes if it is hidden? Did we object to even rapes on the minorities in public in Gujarat, Muzaffarnagar or Kandhamal? If they want to do such things they should do it in a true nationalistic and patriotic manner and not by the Indian Constitution. We are aware that the architect of Indian Constitution, Ambedkar had denounced Hinduism and burnt Manusmriti. Please give us some more time to change his version of Indian Constitution. In fact Manusmriti had laid down all the necessary laws for the Indian citizens. You can find even our respected Brahmin judges quoting Manusmriti instead of Indian Constitution in hundreds of judgements in establishing justice. But our anti nationals do not even listen to such supreme words of wisdom.
We are spending enough money to make our country to be filled nationalists. But these people do not listen. They are all becoming anti nationals in large numbers.
Why did Indira Gandhi declare Emergency? She was wrong. She should have done it without declaring it.Our government and unofficial social organisations which take law into their own hands have a democratic way of declaring Emergency. Your do not have to declare Emergency.
The above description so far seems to be the attitude of the central government, the states controlled by BJP and the Sangh Parivar. But they seem to have overstepped a little bit recently on their promotion such nationalism.
Just recently, the government included even a prominent news channel in their list of anti nationals. The list of anti nationals today include even the mainstream media also. Even NDTV is being targeted today. Personally speaking, I think it is a good move. Now, even the mainstream journalists who are so used to publishing only official versions of news as their daily diet, will be forced to rethink from now onwards. And if they do not rethink, sooner or later many other channels and newspapers will also be targeted as anti-nationals in the near future. And if that happens, it would be nice fun. A nation filled with anti-nationals! Just think of it. Enjoy the fun!
- P. Sasi is a film maker and an activist.
November 6, 2016
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