“CIVIL RIGHTS
ITSELF IS DEMOCRACY”
-Fr. Cedric Prakash
sj*
Dear Friends,
It is good to be here to address such a large
gathering of youth from all over! I feel very privileged and honoured to be the
Chief Guest of this pubic conference organised by the Solidarity Youth Movement
on the theme ‘Civil Rights Itself Is Democracy’. I wish to thank all
those who in any way are instrumental for my presence and I also wish to
congratulate all the organisers for bringing together such a large number of
youth together to reflect and debate on a theme which is so critical to the
country today.
Having said this, I would like to
draw your attention to two important dates in our recent past – on November
26th we observed the 65th anniversary of
the adoption of the Constitution of India; yesterday, December 6th we
observed the ‘Mahaparinirvan Diwas’ of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the chief architect
and the father of the Indian Constitution who died in 1956. Sadly enough, on
December 6th, we also remember the demolition of the Babri Masjid
when thousands of kar sevaks destroyed the mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh
inspite of legal sanctions and with total disregard to everything that is
enshrined in the Constitution.
Let us then get down to the theme of
this conference:
As we have said earlier, our
Constitution was mainly due to the visionary leadership of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
(the Chairman of the Drafting Committee appointed by the Constituent Assembly)
and his team of highly committed persons. On November 26th,
1949, the Constitution of India was finally enacted and it came into effect
exactly two months later, on January 26th, 1950.
At the heart
of the Constitution of India, is the Preamble which focuses on basic principles
which are non-negotiable and which are essentially a way of proceeding for
every single citizen of India. Enshrined in this Preamble are the core values
of Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
But after so
many years of having one of the best Constitutions in the world, can we
honestly say that India has come of age and that we have truly taken ownership
and mainstreamed the values of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity? The
answer, for most Indians, will surely be a simple and direct: “NO!”
Let’s take a
peep into the concerns that grip us as a country today of how civil rights are
trampled upon and of how the very framework of democracy is torn asunder:
We have a
long way to go in achieving the ideal “Justice for all”. Just an
awareness of what is happening to the marginalized communities in our country
like the dalits, the adivasis, the minorities and more vulnerable sections,
particularly our children, our women and the elderly, will give one an inkling
of how bad the situation is. Day-in and day-out, we are confronted with
painful and indeed horrific stories of gang-rapes and of child-abuse. Sadly,
the culprits are not merely strangers but even from within one’s own family. We
read gruesome tales of well-to-do individuals having no qualms in throwing out
of their houses an aged parent. The victim-survivors of the Gujarat Carnage
2002, in which we saw the battering and brutalization of a minority community,
still wait for that elusive justice! Just a couple of day ago, on December 4th and
at the right age of 100 years Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer died in Kochi. He is
one of those who has taken a stand for civil rights in the country and it was
he who headed the Concerned Citizens Tribunal which clearly held Narendra Modi
responsible for the violence against the Muslims in Gujarat in 2002.
At the heart
of any vibrant democracy is Liberty. But as a people, we are
aware that a sizeable section of society is really not free. Many of them
are bonded labourers or continue to be in the grips of rich and powerful vested
interests. Freedom of speech and expression is another area which is
being eroded day by day. Cultural terrorists decide to take law and order into
their own hands and dictate to us what we have to write and what we have to
read; the films we make or see. There are others who think that they are the
sole arbitrators of what we wear or eat or how we entertain ourselves. Above
all, Governments like the one of Gujarat, have enacted anti-conversion laws,
through which they deny the citizen the fundamental right of choosing what they
would like to believe in.
One can
hardly speak about Equality in a society which is highly
hierarchical! Due to lop-sided economic policies of the Government, the
poor become poorer every day and the rich are able to accumulate much more
wealth. India boasts of glaring contradictions: of having some of the
wealthiest people in the world and at the same time, those who do not have a
full meal to eat a day! Ours is a highly patriarchal society where women have
been at the receiving end since a very long time. However, this blatant
gender discrimination is becoming a visible issue today and hopefully women’s
empowerment will move beyond the “lip-service” in the next years.
Inspite of
Constitutional provisions, we are still a caste-based society (something which
Dr. Ambedkar fought tenaciously against) where those at the bottom of the
pyramid are still very unjustly treated. In several parts of the country,
minorities are relegated to second-class citizens and are constantly at the
receiving end of fundamentalist and fascist forces.
‘Fraternity’ is a
male word, hence this concept must be best understood through the prism of
solidarity: (your Solidarity Youth Movement) people coming together, supporting
one another, reaching out and helping one another and bonding with one another.
We have had moments in the country when the people have responded en masse to
issues, be it corruption or gang-rape. But that is really not enough! The
greatness of India is the wealth of its diversity, very specially of its peoples.
In several
parts of India today, people are confined to ghettoes, they are ostracized and
alienated. The rich Indian tradition of having ownership of the other’s
celebrations, accepting another’s culture or religion and creating space for a
neighbour who is different from us, is gradually becoming a thing of the
past. Due to political machinations, regional, religious and ethnic
jingoism hold sway. In some States, an Indian who comes from another part of
the country is regarded as a ‘threat’ and even as an ‘enemy’. This is indeed a
dangerous trend and forebodes ill for the future.
The list is
endless indeed….!
Just look at
some of the incidents that are happening in the country today: the hate speech
of the Union Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti – dividing Indian society
into “Ramzadas” and “Haramzadas” and had a clear intent to promote enmity
between communities. She should be easily charged and prosecuted under section
153A of the Indian Penal Code which holds to account anybody “promoting
enmity between different groups on grounds of religion….and doing acts
prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony.” But well, nothing happens
to her; first the Government defends her, then makes her apologize and finally
tells us that she is a person with a rural background!!!
Then, on
December 1st, St. Sebastian’s Catholic Church, Dilshad Garden, in
East Delhi was a target of arson and burning; Christians in Chhattisgarh have
been a target of constant attacks during the past months. In fact, just a
fortnight ago, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad demanded that Catholic schools in the
Raipur area put Saraswati Maa in all their institutions and that that the
children should not address the Priests who run the schools as “Fathers” Then
in U.P, and several other parts of India including Gujarat, we see how
systematically the minorities are targeted directly and indirectly.
In order to
safeguard the civil rights of all and eventually democracy, it is important for
us to look at some key factors that are destroying the fabric of society today;
these include:
· the
sophisticated infiltration of Hindutva and other forms of fundamentalism in
different levels of society
· the cooption
of the media and the effective use of propaganda replete with lies, half-truths
and myths
· the
denigration, discrimination and demonization of minorities in the country
· the
introduction of draconian laws
· the terrorizing
incarceration and killing of members of the minority community
· the
manipulation of education and the distortion of school textbooks / learning
· the
intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders, independent thinkers and
of those who take a stand
· the control
of the judiciary and the police
· the
privileging and the facilitation of the corporate sector, the rich and the middle-class
· the denial of
the rights of the poor and the marginalised
In the
context of the above, it is important that we as members of civil society do
all we can to preserve, protect and promote our rights and ultimately to
safeguard the sanctity of our democracy.
We have no
time to lose and we should do this:
Ø by studying
the Constitution of India and our rights and duties as citizens
Ø by being
aware of what is happening around us very particularly to the poor, the
marginalized, the sub-alterns and other victims of injustice
Ø by
documenting realities and writing about them in newspapers and journals
Ø by engaging
with the media
Ø by standing
up for truth, human rights, justice and peace
Ø by always
being vigilant (eternal vigilance is the price of liberty)
Today all of
us gathered here need to swear on the sanctity of the Constitution of India and
pledge to uphold its non-negotiable principles. Simultaneously, each one
of us must commit ourselves to ensuring that justice, liberty, equality and fraternity will
be mainstreamed in our lives and that we will do all we can to mainstream them
in the lives of others and in our country at large. Only then will we be
able to say that “Civil Rights is itself Democracy….”
Finally, we
need to pray in the words of our Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore:
Where the mind is
without fear and the head is held high,
Where knowledge is
free,
Where the world has
not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls,
Where words come out
from the depth of truth,
Where tireless
striving stretches its arms towards perfection,
Where the clear
stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sands of dead
habit,
Where the mind is led
forward by thee into ever widening thought and action,
Into that heaven of
freedom, my Father, led my country awake!
Thank
you!
(This Talk was delivered at the public conference organized by the
Solidarity Youth Movement and held at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on December 7th,
2014)
(* Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ is the Director of PRASHANT, the Ahmedabad-based Jesuit Centre for Human
Rights, Justice and Peace)
Address: PRASHANT, Hill Nagar, Near Saffron Hotel, Drive-in Road, Ahmedabad – 380052
Phone:
(079) 27455913, 66522333 Fax:
(079) 27489018 Email: sjprashant@gmail.com www.humanrightsindia.in
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