Crises of Crony Capitalism: the Unraveling Incompetence of Modi Regime

(Report on the Public meeting by New Socialist Initiative on 24^th Nov, 2018 by Sanjay Kumar)

Speakers: Prashant Bhushan, DrAtulSood (JNU) and DrRohit Azad (JNU)

Economy is unarguably among the most important component of any society. However, it is also true that informed discussions and debates on issues related to economy rarely enter public discourse. Instead, a moralistic populism which is quick to eulogise heroes and vilify villains dominates. In their opening remarks, the organisers of the public meeting on the above topic cited this lacuna in the political discourse in India as the context of the programme. For example, during the most recent national elections in the US, France and UK, an increase in the minimum wage was an important part of the opposition candidates’ campaign. In India that is highly unlikely. This absence is especially dangerous for left politics because it does not allow a critical class consciousness to emerge. Ever since independence movement we are witness to a longstanding populism in India, which talks of the poor, and how they need to be ‘helped’. Through this thepolitically powerful develop patronage over the weak. However, the poor in whose name economic policies are declared cannot be agents who make history, which any left politics needs.

खतरे में लोकतंत्र - अपने पैरों से तेजी से फिसलती जमीन को देखते हुए दमनात्मक कदमों पर आमादा भाजपा

मानवाधिकार कार्यकर्ताओं और जानेमाने बुद्धिजीवियों की गिरफतारी पर ‘न्यू सोशलिस्ट इनिशिएटिव’  का वक्तव्य

1.

न्यू सोशलिस्ट इनिशिएटिव, पुणे पुलिस द्वारा अपने केसरिया आंकाओं के निर्देशों पर मनमाने तरीके से और दुर्भावना के साथ मानवाधिकार कार्यकर्ताओं, वकीलों, प्रोफेसरों और कवियों के घरों पर एक साथ डाले गए छापे और उनमें से पांच को - सुधा भारद्वाज, गौतम नवलखा, अरूण परेरा, वेरनॉन गोन्साल्वेस और वरवरा राव - मनगढंत आरोपों के तहत गिरफतार किए जाने की कड़े शब्दों में भर्त्सना करता है।

इन सभी व्यक्तियों की बिना शर्त तत्काल रिहाई तथा उनके खिलाफ बेहद दमनकारी गैरकानूनी गतिविधियां निवारण अधिनियम/Unlawful Activities Prevention Act/ के तहत लगाए गए फर्जी आरोपो ंको वापस लेने की मांग करते हुए, उसकी तरफ से यह भी कहा गया है कि उन दोषी पुलिसकर्मियों के खिलाफ भी कार्रवाई की जाए जिन्होंने इस कार्रवाई को अंजाम दिया है।

Democracy Under Siege ! With Ground Slipping Fast Beneath Its Feet, BJP government Resorting to Draconian Measures

A Statement Issued by New Socialist Initiative (NSI) on the recent arrests of human rights defenders and public intellectuals

 1.

New Socialist Initiative strongly condemns the arbitrary and malicious manner in which the Pune Police, at the behest of its saffron masters, raided the houses of leading human rights activists, lawyers, professors and poets in different cities simultaneously and arrested five of them - SudhaBharadwaj, GautamNavlakha, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and VaravaraRao - under concocted charges.

Demanding immediate release of all these persons unconditionally and withdrawal of fabricated charges filed against them under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) , it also said that appropriate action should be taken against the guilty policemen as well involved in this act.

The Monks Who Spew Hate

Why Jailing of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Did Not Become A News In This Part of Asia

...........................
Subhash Gatade  

“Ordered disorder, planned caprice, And dehumanised humanity…”

- Brecht (The Exception and the Rule)

(Quoted in Thesundayleader.lk )

“I have done my duty towards the country,”

Gnanasara told reporters as he boarded the bus taking him to prison. “Why should I regret?”

HINDUTVA UNLIMITED

Time to Militarise Hindus, Hinduise the Nation!

How the advent of Hindutva Supremacism has accelerated arming of Hindus for sectarian violence

Subhash Gatade

Introduction

Like every exclucivist ideology/organisation/formation which claims to be centered around a particular religion - may it be Islamism, Zionism, fanatic Buddhism - Hindutva has always entertained a dream of preparing/arming its followers to fight the 'others' and slowly albeit not so silently moving closer to usher into its dreamland of Hindu Rashtra. Its ideologues/leaders have been candid enough to point out to the faithfuls the 'internal enemies'' and ways to deal with them or exterminate them. All these preparations dotted by regular drills, games and other militant exercises serves as a counter to the the much publicised notion by the same people that 'Hindus are Cowards' 1 or "Islam was spread through the sword" which has been an item of belief for the Hindutva fundamentalists.

[NSI Statement] New Socialist Initiative Condemns Hindutva Engineered and Inspired Atrocities on Dalits

Hardly a day passes without headline news of some or another atrocity on Dalits. On 24 May, a Dalit man in the Ahmedabad district was beaten and his house attacked by a gang of so called ‘upper’ caste men after he had attached Sinh to his name on his facebook post.  On 21 May a dalit ragpicker was beaten to death in a Rajkot factory. Atrocities on Dalits are occurring in the midst of a public ideological environment against them. On 26 May news came of a private school in Delhi asking 8^th class students to write a note on how reservations help undeserving and unqualified people for their summer vacation homework.  According to National Crime Record Bureau reports for recent years, between 10 to 15 thousand cases of crimes are reported under the Prevention of Atrocities act every year; an average of 35 crimes per day. Many times more crimes actually go unreported. In 2016 Indian courts had over 45 thousand cases under this act. Out of the 4048 cases decided, conviction occurred in 659 cases only. That is, five out of six cases of atrocity against Dalits did not result in any punishment. The number of attacks against one of the weakest and the poorest sections of the society, and the abysmal rate of conviction would put any civilized society to shame, but India chugs along.

दक्षिणपंथ की कीलें

जावेद अनीस

Courtesy-dailyo.in

मोदी सरकार के चार साल हो चुके हैं, भारतीय राजनीति और समाज के लिये यह एक भारी उठा-पठक वाला दौर साबित हुआ है. इस दौरान हिन्दू दक्षिणपंथियों के बेलगाम रथ ने एक के बाद एक झंडे गाड़ने में व्यस्त रहा है. उनकी उपलब्धियां अभूतपूर्व है, आज देश में राष्ट्रपति,  उपराष्ट्रपति, लोकसभा अध्यक्ष, प्रधानमंत्री और 15 राज्यों में मुख्यमंत्री सीधे तौर पर भगवा खेमे से हैं और 6 राज्यों में सहयोगी दलों के साथ उनकी सरकारें हैं. भाजपा लोकसभा में सबसे बड़ी पार्टी तो पहले से ही है अब वो राज्यसभा में सबसे बड़ी पार्टी बन चुकी है.

Invisibility of Class in Popular Politics in India

Sanjay Kumar

(This paper was read as part of the workshop on Confronting the Rule of Capital in the Global South: Marxist analysis and class struggle in India on 4 May, 2018, at Marx 200 Congress, Berlin).

The name of the beast Marxists confront everywhere is Capitalism. We want to understand it theoretically and defeat it politically. This requires that we appreciate both its strengths and weaknesses. The exact nature of the rule of Capital in a society is both a reflection of latter’s universal properties, as well particularities of the given society’s politics and culture. Our hope is that an understanding of the rule of the Capital in a society like India will also throw light on its understanding in other countries.

निशाने पर ‘‘जूठन’

पेरूमल मुरूगन, सोवेन्द्र हांसदा शेखर और अब ओमप्रकाश वाल्मिकी

-सुभाष गाताडे

‘तुम्हारी महानता मेरे लिए स्याह अंधेरा है..

मैं जानता हूं,/मेरा दर्द तुम्हारे लिए चींटी जैसा/ और तुम्हारा अपना दर्द पहाड़ जैसा

इसलिए, मेरे और तुम्हारे बीच/ एक फासला है/जिसे लम्बाई में नहीं/समय से नापा जाएगा।

- ओमप्रकाश वाल्मिीक (जूता)

1997 में आयी वह आत्मकथा ‘‘जूठन’’ आते ही चर्चित हुई थी।

उस वक्त एक सीमित दायरे में ही उसके लेखक ओमप्रकाश वाल्मिकी का नाम जाना जाता था। मगर हिन्दी जगत में किताब का जो रिस्पान्स था, जिस तरह अन्य भाषाओं में उसके अनुवाद होने लगे, उससे यह नाम दूर तक पहुंचने में अधिक वक्त नहीं लगा। यह अकारण नहीं था कि इक्कीसवीं सदी की पहली दहाई के मध्य में वह किताब अंग्रेजी में अनूदित होकर कनाडा तथा अन्य देशों के विश्वविद्यालयों के पाठयक्रम में शामिल की गयी थी। एक मोटे अनुमान के हिसाब से देश के तेरह अलग अलग विश्वविद्यालयों में - जिनमें कई केन्द्रीय विश्वविद्यालय शामिल हैं - इन दिनों यह उपन्यास या उसके अंश पढ़ाए जा रहे हैं।

The Crisis of Liberal Order in India and Successes of Hindutva Fascism

Sanjay Kumar

The last three and a half years of Modi government have made many Indians acutely aware of the threat Hindutva poses to whatever little democracy exists in the country. Minorities and Dalits have been physically assaulted by supporters of Hindutva with full state patronage. The bureaucracy and criminal justice system, which were already autocratic and corrupt, have been systematically infiltrated to communalise them further. Critics of Hindutva like Gauri Lankesh have been murdered in broad day light.Social media, which has emerged an important medium for country’s urban youth to form and express opinion, is dominated by troll armies of Hindutva that spread hatred and openly threaten people challenging Hindutva, or Modi government. Large sections of traditional media have become mouth pieces of the regime and brazenly pander to Hindu communal sentiments. The leader reigns supreme. The chaterrati in the media even applaud his mindless actions like demonetization. Opponents of the regime are openly branded anti-national, and brazen lies are spread about them. All sensible people of the country realise that the hatred, public violence, and communalization of state institutionsby Hindutva organisations are taking country towards disaster, and if it is to be saved Hindutva needs to bedefeated politically. The disaster India faces is that of a successful fascism. In times like these politically aware groups also have an additional responsibility.Hindutva does need to be defeated. However, this does not mean that the extant liberal mode of governance threatened by it be accepted uncritically.To the extent that the Hindutva is not a conspiracy, and roots of its success lie within Indian society and politics, it is also necessary to critically examine accepted notions of Indian democracy and society.