You can’t stop the spring

I must say it was a refreshing change to find a 25 year old cartoonist silence one of the most vocal anchors on “national television” as they like to put it, Arnab Goswami. In his spirited defence Aseem Trivedi, just released from jail after being arrested on sedition charges, made it clear with the passion of youth that he wanted his fair share of talk time and was not prepared to settle for less. Supported by two stuffy cartoonists Arnab was on a sermonizing “but you must listen Aseem” spree until the young man reminded him that the anchor’s views were his own, with as little significance as any one else’s. And that though he liked to push these through as the nation’s views —-“the nation wants to know” is a favourite catchline on News Hour of this particular channel—-these were just personal views with as little, or as much sanctity as that of others appearing on the show.

Trivedi’s was just one story in this week. The governments in different states reacted with a mix of choking indifference to brutal attack on the people of India. In Madhya Pradesh over 130 villagers stood in neck deep water for over two weeks before the government agreed to their demands for alternative land and lowering of the height of the Omkareshwar Dam. The first instinct of the politician was to ignore the poor and it took half a month before they realised that the villagers, now with blisters all over their bodies, were determined to stay the course as they really had little left to lose. So instead of rushing to hold the hands of the poverty ridden masses, the politicians who are the government waited until they could wait no more, and had to take some remedial measures.

In Kudankulam the politicians ordered a brutal attack on the protestors, largely women and children, who had to flee to the sea to escape the police charge. Protesting for weeks and months now, the villagers have been fighting the authorities with all the resources at their command. And these resources, contrary to Congress spokespersons in the party and within the media, are not in the form of foreign money but in the form of a determination to save their homes and their lives. The villagers want the government to stop the process of fuel loading in the Kudankulam nuclear plant, to stop arresting the anti-nuclear protestors, to compensate those who have suffered loss of life and property, and to release those already in custody. The protest has been totally peaceful but the government and its police has not. Now, the protestors have decided to follow the farmers in Madhya Pradesh and move their protest to the sea where they will stand off the Idianthakarai coast until their demands are met.

In Delhi the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, clearly under political directions from the Union Home Ministry, decided to step up its offensive against the family of the arrested journalist Syed Kazmi. The police went in to arrest his 14 year old nephew for allegedly stealing a mobile telephone, but such is the anger in the area that the residents collected in large numbers and beat back the men in uniform. The Delhi police that is unable to solve simple murders rushed to arrest a minor boy for a mobile theft only as an excuse to intimidate and harass Kazmi’s family as they struggle for his release from jail. What a pathetic lot, greasy and corrupt, and inefficient!

The list grows by the day, as the governments at the centre and the state become more and more intolerant of peoples protests and the peoples right to dissent. Democratic rights are being muzzled as the political class resents any interference in its common aim of making money from all possible sources. This could be India’s natural reserves, mineral and forest and water; this could be India’s defence, procurements and supplies; this could be India’s IT sector riding on the information revolution; this could be India’s food sector taking the wheat out of the poor child’s mouth; this could be the people of India, their meager resources for bad seed and fertilizers, or their personal land.

And if any one protests, beat them down with the might of the Indian state. After all the politician wanted to use the Army against the poor cowering in the backwaters of Chhatisgarh but could not because of some resistance from within the top echelons of the force. But they are using the Air Force to hunt down the “Maoists” a government euphemism for any one in the jungles who does not sell himself to the authorities, lock, stock and barrel.

Where will it all end ? The ruling elite now looks on the people of India as its enemy. And perhaps before depression takes over it is best to draw a ray of hope from Pablo Neruda’s beautiful words: You can crush all the flowers but you cannot stop the Spring.
The writer is a senior New Delhi-based journalist