Analysis: What the attack on Prashant Bhushan says about us

Indians are a terribly violent people, but insist otherwise. The entire obsession with symbols of peace, chants, prayers and a supposed ‘live and let live’ approach explodes every minute of the day in violence. It can be a husband beating a wife, a khap panchayat executing two lovers, a driver shooting a toll booth agent without provocation, a son murdering his parents to the more organised and terrifying communal clashes, caste wars, custodial deaths. The cause of all is real or perceived dissent, ‘how dare you do not obey me’ shouts the husband as he bludgeons his wife; ‘how dare you defy me’ shouts the cop as he beats the man in custody to death. And at the end of the day, all of them sit back and insist, ‘Indians are such a tolerant people, we are so peaceful, we would not hurt a fly.’

It is this intolerance for dissent, this fear of the other opinion, which is manifesting itself in sudden and extreme violence against whistleblowers and others who do not hesitate to speak their mind. Goons allegedly sent by Jama Masjid Imam Bukhari ransacked activist Sheeba Aslam Fehmi’s house the other day, simply because she and her husband were intent on exposing the illegal land grab that Bukhari and his family have been part of for decades now. RTI activists exposing the misdeed of local politicians are hounded and killed with the investigations remaining inconclusive. Supreme Court advocate and a public face Prashant Bhushan was attacked in his chambers by three goons who insisted that they were part of some recently-floated right wing outfit and did not like his views on Kashmir. Kashmiri leaders visiting other parts of India are now targeted and attacked by similar outfits just because they have their own views about Kashmir, the state they live in. Intellectuals and activists working for the poor in Maoist affected areas are beaten and attacked by those who claim to be representing ‘national’ interests. ‘I do not like you so I will beat you, I will hurt you, and if I can I will kill you,’ is the motto that guides those who insist that they are protecting the nation, and guarding Indian interests!

We have been so conditioned that we stand up and salute when we see the uniform, but look away in disgust when we see the face of poor India at our traffic crossings. We stand for hours when the prime minister’s convoy passes by, but almost mow into the man struggling to pull a wheelbarrow of load because he crosses our path on the roads. The traffic cop who salutes me even while stopping me for a speeding fine, kicks the cyclist in the butt just because his front wheel touched the white stop line.

Before one proceeds, what exactly are ‘national interests?’ Is it the right of the Hindutva groups to loot and plunder and maim and kill without trial? Is it the right of Muslim fundamentalists to attack and beat and remain outside the law? Is it the right of the police to kill innocent persons in the name of the law? Is it the right of mafias and mobs to attack and murder those exposing corruption? Is it the right of the army to pick up young men, to rape and kill without accountability? Is it the right of the state to indulge in terrible violence to counter violence? Does all this strengthen the nation, or plunge it into chaos and violence and insecurity?

And who represents the nation? Is it just the army, police, politicians and their mobs and goons? Or the citizen, the poorest, and the most deprived individual? Do they have a right to speak, does their interest represent the national interest? Or has non-governance placed the two in such great conflict, that the one undermines the other? If villagers living in some remote shanty in Chhattisgarh are suppressed and oppressed and do not get a square meal to eat in a day, and never see the face of the government but only of Maoists who provide them some solace and security, will it be in their interest to go with the man holding out his hand at their door, or a government that has remained invisible through the years? Should they die for the national interest as defined by the Indian Establishment, or should they embrace the Maoists so that they and their children can live with some hope?

If in Kashmir a generation is born and brought up in conflict with no hope in sight, if it sees its elders and colleagues disappear without trace, if it is humiliated and beaten on the streets on a daily basis, if it is arrested on a whim under draconian laws like the Public Safety Act, what national interests can it live to protect? If a government that is expected to provide security, respect and dignity, that is in power to protect the rights of the people, abdicates all responsibility what does the helpless, frustrated, angry citizen do? Where does he go?

How does he vent his anger? It is easy for us to shrug this off, but try living in a box from where your shouts are not heard, your cries for your rights are ignored, and even as you struggle for attention your relatives, your friends are picked up and taken away, often forever.  And what can be a bigger travesty of justice than when persons like Bhushan understand the pain, and speak out for the Kashmiris, urge the deaf and dumb governments to find an immediate solution or let the people vote for their own future, he is beaten up in broad daylight by goons who claim to be protecting the ‘nation’! One expects the government not only to ensure justice to those involved in the attack, but to track down these strange outfits and ensure their ‘disappearance’ from the web and the field. Highly unlikely as the government secretly likes those who take law into their own hands so long as it is directed against those who have been speaking out against injustice and for the rights of all peoples and not just a select few. Governments and those who constitute the establishment are fearful of honest and courageous opposition that cannot be controlled with bribes and threats.

At the end of the day, the people of India must ask themselves whether it is in the national interest to speak out for the oppressed and the deprived or to beat up any and every one the politicians and their goons do not agree with. And having answered this successfully they must ask another question, is the future of India going to be the goons that could be seen on camera beating up Prashant Bhushan, or the few but courageous and increasingly growing tribe of persons who are refusing to accept the establishment’s corrupt and communal status quo? The tussle is on, and the answer will finally be determined by the people who alone can determine the true interests of a nation by marrying it with their interests, as these are complimentary, not confrontationist.