Chhattisgarh is once again in the news for the wrong reason. The attitude of the Chhattisgarh police and administration, and the silence of the BJP government raises the question whether Palestine is an enemy nation for our country and its citizens?
Earlier in June, Chhattisgarh came into the news when three cattle traders and transport workers from Uttar Pradesh were murdered by cow-goons associated with RSS and BJP just three days after the BJP government came to power. This was not a case of mob-lynching but a well-planned murder. This was an opportunity when the BJP government could have assured the minorities that there will be no atrocities on minorities under its rule and all citizens will be treated equally irrespective of caste and religion and this will be ensured through the legal process. On the contrary, the real murderers were acquitted by an SIT formed by the government drawing a false conclusion that all the deceased had committed suicide. This incident was protested all over the country, but it did not matter to the BJP and its government.
Now on September 16, on the day of Miladunnabi, five Muslim youths in Bilaspur have been arrested under Section 197(2) of the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), which deals with acts prejudicial to the integrity of the country, and for which there is a provision of 5 years imprisonment, for allegedly hoisting the Palestinian Flag in their homes and neighbourhoods. This incident took place in the city which is considered the judicial capital (Nyaydhani) of Chhattisgarh, because the High Court of the state is located here and hence it can also be said that the entire incident took place under the nose of the High Court.
These arrests were made after people and organizations associated with the Sanghi gang complained that those who hoist the flag of Palestine are terrorists and such an act is treason. By making the whole matter a ‘Hindu vs Muslim’ issue, videos spewing venom against the Muslim community were also made viral on social media.
After a strong resistance by the Muslim community along with the secular-minded Nagrik Manch, the district administration was forced to grant bail to the arrested youths. Under pressure from fanatic-Hindu organizations, the city magistrate kept playing hide and seek for 24 hours in an attempt to keep the arrested youths in jail and kept fooling the law. These fanatic organizations are openly talking about Muslims in public meetings, calling them terrorists, not allowing them to live in Bilaspur (and Chhattisgarh) and illegally asking Hindus to take up arms against Muslims and arming the Hindu society for their own protection, but due to the protection of the BJP government, no action is being taken against them.
This is an example of how Muslim festivals are being used to attack Muslims in BJP-ruled states. Similar attacks have taken place and are taking place in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. On the occasion of Muharram this July, cases have been filed and arrests have been made on the complaints of BJP and VHP leaders in Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand under UAPA and BNS.
BJP does not want to miss any opportunity to divide the society on communal lines by spreading hate speech against minorities. The Supreme Court’s order to take action against those spreading hate speech is lying in the dustbin here and the High Court here is a mute spectator to all these incidents, which is a symbol of the decline in the field of judiciary in the last decade.
Palestine is a political question for the entire world today. While by the end of the 20th century all the enslaved countries of the world have become politically independent, in the 21st century Palestine is still a country which is fighting for the freedom of its motherland and for freedom from the domination of Israel. The Palestine freedom movement has the support of all those people, communities and organizations of the world who are in favour of peace, justice and freedom. These are the people who believe that Palestine belongs to the Palestinians just as India belongs to the Indians and France belongs to the French, and they are therefore opposing the imperialist policies of the Israeli government of usurping the Palestinian territory and establishing Israeli settlements there.
Israel has expanded its territory by occupying the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem of Palestine since 1967. Millions of Israeli citizens who are against the imperialist policies of the Netanyahu government are also involved in the protests happening all over the world against the massacre of Palestinians. In India too, there have been large scale protests against Israel and the pro-Israel policies of the Modi government. The Israeli government is presenting it as a Jew vs Muslim issue and this campaign of Israel is getting the support of America and the imperialist countries. Unfortunately, due to its anti-Muslim policies, the Modi government has also sided with Israel and America. This stance of the Modi government is completely different from the stance adopted since our independence in the matter of Palestine.
The people of this country have supported the Palestine movement since the time of their freedom struggle. Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi played an important role in developing this policy. After independence, it became a part of our country’s foreign policy, which no government of the country dared to deny and which has the consent of the people of our country and almost all political parties.
Even today, there has been no change in this official policy of the Government of India, though the Modi-led BJP government has unofficially made this policy pro-Israel. Now this government is providing weapons to Israel to fight the Palestinians. A ship carrying a consignment of weapons from Chennai to Israel has been caught in Spain. These weapons have been manufactured by Adani through a joint venture with an Israeli company under ‘Make in India’. India has been disgraced all over the world and Adani alone cannot be held responsible for this. This case shows how big a price the country may have to pay for privatizing the country’s public defense industry.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has warned in its decision in the month of July that if anyone is found to be involved in this war, it will be considered a violation of international rules. By providing arms to Israel, the Modi government has also joined the massacre of Palestinians. Whenever the decision of the International Court will be implemented, the Modi government will be put in the dock, which is insulting the country against the unanimous policy of this country.
This October 7 will mark the first anniversary of the Hamas-Israel war. According to the United Nations, Israel’s attacks have killed about 42,000 Palestinian civilians so far and most of those who have died are women and children and those who are not involved in this war in any form but who have had to be displaced repeatedly to protect their lives due to Israeli attacks. Israel has carried out countless barbaric attacks on schools, hospitals, refugee camps and residential areas in the Palestinian areas. Due to these attacks, more than 10 lakh Palestinians have had to be displaced.
According to the June issue of the medical journal ‘The Lancet’, the actual number of deaths is more than 1.86 lakh. It says that for every direct death, there are 4 indirect deaths, which are related to the circumstances caused by this war: such as infectious diseases, destruction of health infrastructure, lack of food, water and housing and migration, etc. These attacks are a direct violation of international laws and the demand is gaining momentum all over the world that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be declared a war criminal for this massacre of Palestinians. Everyone knows that all those responsible for the massacre of Jews by Hitler were tried and punished, and this trial has become famous in history as the ‘Nuremberg Trial’.
The Hamas, which Israel and America are calling a terrorist organization today, was promoted by themselves to destroy the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). Later, Hamas succeeded in getting political support of the people of Palestine in the freedom struggle. But now an attempt is being made to label the entire Palestinian population as terrorists using Hamas as an excuse.
Similarly, Hezbollah is a recognized political organization among the people of Lebanon, calling it terrorist and pro-Palestine, Israel is attacking Lebanon today. The BJP is expanding this same logic in India today and saying that all those who are with Palestine are terrorists. But this will be the same logic as calling the entire public who voted for the BJP communal.
The innate enmity of the Sanghi gang towards Muslims in India is well known. It never sympathized with the freedom struggle of Palestine, because the Sanghi gang has shown its loyalty towards imperialism from the very beginning. And, now the Modi government, after coming to power, has started giving practical shape to the policy of keeping America and international financial capital happy. This is the reason why it is now openly supporting Israel even in the United Nations. This policy is an undeclared abandonment of the policy of non-alignment.
So should the people of India now accept the pro-Israel policy of the BJP and the Sanghi gang? The Constitution of our country gives its citizens the right to freedom of expression and this includes the right to political expression as well. Using this right, any citizen, community and organization of India can oppose those policies/decisions of the Central Government even in the matter of foreign policy, which they believe are against the broader interests of the country and human sensibilities.
When millions of innocent people are being massacred in any country and the government of our country is silent, the Constitution gives the right to raise voice against it and speak in favor of humanity. Then how can expressing support for the Palestinians, shedding tears and expressing grief over the massacre happening there and hoisting the Palestinian flag be a violation of any law of the country? When the festival of Eid was being celebrated all over the world, the joy of Eid also included the grief of the massacre of Palestinians and people were expressing this grief along with human sensibilities.
Now again the same question:
Is Palestine an enemy nation?
The official stand of the Government of India is that Palestine is our friendly nation, but a senior police officer in the state has given a statement to the media that he has registered a case against the youth waving Palestinian flags and now the court has the right to decide this.
Now the question also arises that the Central Government has taken away the right to decide the foreign policy of this country and which country will be a friendly nation and which will be an enemy nation from the Parliament and handed it over to the administration and the court?
Has our police, our administration and the Chhattisgarh state government, under the federal structure of the country, lost their minimum wisdom?
This becomes a direct case of misuse of law and harassing and intimidating the Muslim community for its political expression.
But why this mess?
In fact, the BJP’s Modi Raj has made a well-planned effort to erase the subtle difference between the government and the party. An attempt is being made to establish that now the BJP is the government and the government is the BJP.
The result of the efforts to inculcate the policies of the BJP as the policies of the government is that a tendency has developed in various circles of the police and administration to blindly follow the policies of the BJP and work according to the wishes of the party leaders and workers of Hindu organizations.
The attitude of the police and the government in the Bilaspur incident shows that the work of breaking and twisting the law to destroy the values and spirit of the Constitution and to harass the minorities is going on in full swing at a high level.
The unity and integrity of the country is under threat and this threat is coming from the BJP and the Sanghi gang. The secular people of the country will have to unite and fight this threat.
[The writer, Sanjay Parate, is the Vice President of Chhattisgarh Kisan Sabha, affiliated to All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS)]
Follow ummid.com WhatsApp Channel for all the latest updates.
Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic.