Marx and Gandhi

JANATA, January 26 - February 2, 2020 3 Editorial Contents Modi-Shah Duo Bring About a Fine Unintended The Republic is Being Reborn! Consequence / 5 Badri Raina G.G. Parikh, Neeraj Jain Flag This Extraordinary Moment—A Symbol of Power has Become a Totem of Resistance / 7 The ruling Modi–Shah duo led BJP government’s Chitra Padmanabhan attempts to make alternations in the Indian Constitution Shaheen Baghs Spreading: Indian Republic has Come have sparked off protests across the country, protests of Age / 8 which are unique in the sense that it is the first time since Kavita Panjabi, Sharat Pradhan Independence that people are coming out on the streets 154 European Union Lawmakers Draft Stunning to defend the Constitution. In cities and towns, tens Anti-CAA Resoluti on / 12 of thousands and sometimes even lakhs, are marching Mala Jay together, the tricolour waving in abundance, and small Closer Than Ever: It Is 100 Seconds to Midnight / 14 and huge photographs and cut-outs of Babasaheb John Mecklin Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi and drawings of the The Climate Decade: A Global Crisis Unveiled, Constitution being carried aloft. The Preamble to the a Global Movement Unleashed / 19 Constitution, a beautifully written promise of what the Erika Spanger-Siegfried people had resolved and promised to give to themselves, On Fire This Time / 24 in the new era of hope after the hated British rulers were John Bellamy Foster thrown out, is being read out in huge gatherings. Indeed, the Republic is being reborn. How the Rich Plan to Rule a Burning Planet / 31 James Plested For long, the ruling BJP and its parent which rules from behind the screens, the RSS, have been slowly Gandhi and the National Movement / 35 chipping away at the values of the Constitution. They Irfan Habib have sought to destroy the secular fabric of the country Defining Needs: Marx and Gandhi / 39 and deepen the communal divide, with campaigns Samar Bagchi such as ghar wapsi and love jehad, leading to frenzied The Importance and Centrality of Jawaharlal Nehru in mobs lynching innocent Muslims allegedly for cow Contemporary India / 42 slaughter. They have attacked democracy and freedom Anil Nauriya of expression by launching a vicious offensive to attack Dr. Ambedkar and the Future of Indian Democracy / 47 all ideologies and progressive forces seeking to challenge Jean Drèze their fascist ideology, labelling them as anti-nationals and Remembering the Forgotten: J.C. Kumarappa / 51 getting a docile police force to arrest them under false Ratheesh Pisharody charges of sedition. The rights of dalits and adivasis, India’s Worsening Unemployment Crisis / 53 guaranteed under the Constitution, are under attack. Neeraj Jain The BJP–RSS are seeking to destroy our universities Budget 2020: Impose Wealth Tax and Inheritance by foisting persons whose sole qualification is their Tax on the Rich to Finance Increase in Social Sector Hindutva leanings as their heads, and getting goons to Expenditures / 58 attack all dissenting voices. They have systematically Martin Hart-Landsberg, Prabhat Patnaik hollowed out or subverted all constitutional bodies The Unifying Element in All Struggles Against Capital Is ranging from the Supreme Court to the Election the Right of Everyone to Full Human Development / 64 Commission. The economic architecture built for self- Michael Lebowitz interviewed by editors of Hak Mücadeleleri reliance and economic sovereignty, so assiduously built over the past decades, is being dismantled. 4 JANATA, January 26 - February 2, 2020 There were protests across this gradual subversion asserting their identity as Indian Muslims, boldly of the Constitution in several states. But these were declaring that their forefathers had sacrificed their lives episodic, scattered and drowned out by the hegemony of for the freedom of this country and none can ask them the Modi-led government with its powerful propaganda to ‘go to Pakistan’, boldly defending the secular nature machine and populist appeals. of our Constitution and denouncing the RSS claim that With economic distress worsening, and the this country is a Hindu country. government not doing anything about it while seeking Even more fascinating is that the public gatherings in to divert attention by false slogans of ‘nationalism’ defence of the Constitution have brought out thousands and pointing fingers at Pakistan for everything going of women from the Muslim community. This too was wrong, the final straw was the BJP bulldozing the unheard of till now. Their indomitable spirit, their resolve Constitutional Amendment Bill through Parliament and most of all, their understanding of the Constitution using its brute majority. It fast tracked the granting of is breathtakingly lucid. It is as if a hidden treasure of citizenship to members of six religious communities diamonds has been revealed in this struggle. but not to Muslims. It was immediately seen for what The dream of Mahatma Gandhi, for which he it really was—an open subversion of the Constitution, sacrificed his life, is coming alive. Secularism is having which not only upholds secularism, but also equality of a rebirth in the country. all, irrespective of caste or creed, before law. Modi–Shah This is indeed a unique constitutional moment in the also announced a countrywide NPR as the first step to life of the Indian nation. In the 163 years of evolution of making a countrywide register of citizens (NRC). This the Indian Constitution, this is the fourth such moment. had already been implemented in Assam, with disastrous The first three moments were: consequences. It became clear to people all over the • The first moment appeared in 1857 in the besieged country—that our Constitution and our country were city of Delhi when the rebellious soldiers along under attack. with representatives of the city formed the It has led to unprecedented protests across the country Court of Administration and had given the city a against the CAA–NPR–NRC. The youth, especially “constitution”, outlining the structure of governance students of universities, have been leading these protests. and responsibilities of administration. The rebel It is as if democracy is having a rebirth in the country. soldiers were the first citizen-rulers—members of Till just a month ago, democracy had come to mean an incipient nation. mere voting in elections. And now, people are out on the • The second moment came in 1928–29, beginning streets, in thousands and lakhs, reclaiming democracy. with the report of the Nehru Committee (chaired In cities and towns, people, especially women who have by Motilal Nehru and with members such as never participated in a public programme, are spending Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose), the days and nights together in a new found sense of widespread demonstrations in 1928 against the fraternity and purpose. In a historic moment, on January Simon Commission, culminating in the declaration 26, thousands of people congregated at Shaheen Bagh in of Purna Swaraj by the Indian National Congress in Delhi to celebrate Republic Day. The National Flag was 1929 in Lahore. Founding a republic was declared unfurled by the three elderly women who have come to as the goal. be known as the ‘dadis of Shaheen Bagh’ for leading the • The third moment is known to all. It was the moment agitation against the CAA there, and Radhika Vemula, of founding the constitution of independent India the mother of Rohith Vemula, a former student of the (1946–49). University of Hyderabad who killed himself in January The fourth, and present, moment, is different from 2016; after the flag hoisting, the crowd sang the national all the above moments in that it is for the first time since anthem. They then chanted “CAA se azaadi, NRC se the Consitution was adopted by ‘We the People’ that the azaadi, BJP se azaadi”—along with other slogans against streets, campuses, squares, towns and cities, tea shops, the CAA and the NRC–NPR. clubs and assemblies are discussing and debating the What is exhilarating is that the Muslim minority is out Constitution, and the people are out on the streets in on the streets in massive numbers, carrying Ambedkar’s massive numbers to defend the very founding values photo in one hand and waving a copy of the Constitution of the Indian Republic as enshrined in the Constitution in the other, shouting slogans of ‘Samvidhaan Bachao’. of India. They are boldly asserting their citizenship, boldly We are indeed living in exhilarating times! JANATA, January 26 - February 2, 2020 5 Modi-Shah Duo Bring About a Fine Unintended Consequence Badri Raina It is said that the way to hell is paved with good For more than a month now, these new organic intentions. But did you ever imagine that the way to leaders have been braving the chill of winter, displaying heaven may, conversely, be paved with not-so-good the tiranga and pictures of iconic “framers” such as intentions? Ambedkar, and enacting readings of the Preamble of However the government of the day may protest the constitution—all that to emphatically underscore that there has been no nefarious intent behind the the point that they are out to defend the founding secular discriminatory provisions of the Citizenship Amendment and egalitarian principles on which the republic came to Act, it is by now irrefutable that few have been convinced. be founded. What sponsored public support the government has been As the days have gone by, these new leaders have able to mount has been uncharacteristically tepid in gathered to them thousands of other citizens across stark contrast to the energy and articulation among the castes and communities, and have each day generated spontaneous opposers of the CAA. new innovative forms of citizen-power in peace and Thus, a measure that has been insidiously designed secular unity.

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