[sacw] Election Appeal from India

[Harsh Kapoor]

16 August 1999
=46YI- Posted below is an extract from the appeal by the Lokshahi Manch, Mum=
bai,
which consists of "individuals and groups who are alarmed at the growth
of totalitarian politics in India and wish to restore and strengthen secular=
ism
and democracy. Please circulate this widely.
(South Asia Citizens Web)
-------------------------------------------

ELECTIONS 99

VOTE FOR DEMOCRACY!

An Appeal to Voters

DEFEAT THE BJP!

Lokshahi Manch

Democracy in Danger!

Why are we appealing to voters in this booklet?

The reason is that we fear our democracy is today in very serious danger.
Many people think that democracy means simply the rule of the majority. But
that is not necessarily democracy, that could very well be majoritarianism
- brutal oppression of marginalised minorities by a powerful majority.
Democracy means that freedom, equality and fundamental rights are
guaranteed to each and every citizen, and the right to dissent is valued
and protected. This was the goal of our Independence struggle. But today,
sadly, we are in danger of losing whatever was won at that time. We are
faced with the frightening possibility of a totalitarian state in which
fundamental rights are severely curtailed or totally done away with.

This is why we feel it is so very necessary to fight for the survival of
our democracy, which in turn is essential to the survival of India,
consisting as it does of so many cultures, ethnicities, languages,
religions, and so on and so forth. One vital step in this struggle is to
ensure that anti-democratic forces do not come to power in the forthcoming
Lok Sabha and Assembly elections and gain a free hand to go ahead with
their agenda of hatred by manipulating the levers of state power.

What makes us think that democracy is in danger?

The BJP and Shiv Sena are the only parties that reject the notion of a
state based on equality and democracy, and have been working towards a
totalitarian state in which these values have no place. This is revealed by
a careful look at their record.

The Kargil Conflict: Victory or Fiasco?

Let us start with what has been claimed as a great 'victory' by this
government: the Kargil 'war'. It is true that most of the infiltrators have
vacated Indian territory, but at what cost? And why were they there in the
first place?

Reports were coming in from last October onwards that massive and
systematic infiltration was taking place. And yet the government, no doubt
too busy sacking Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, paid no attention! If they had
taken action at that time, the intruders would have been stopped before
they entrenched themselves in well-fortified bunkers deep within the Indian
side. There would have been no fuss, very little cost, and minimal loss of
human life.

But the BJP-led government failed in a very big way. They took no action
until after their government fell! Why?

If they took no action earlier because they thought that the infiltrations
were of no importance, why did they suddenly blow it up to the status of a
'war'? Why did they sacrifice hundreds of lives and an estimated five
thousand crores of rupees to get rid of infiltrators whom they had merrily
allowed to get in and entrench themselves? On the other hand, if they were
really so concerned about border security, why didn't they take action
sooner? Why have they deliberately kept people in the dark by blocking
access to Pakistani television and even a website critical of the Pakistani
government?

At the very least this demonstrates an effort to cover up criminal
incompetence and irresponsibility. And at worst, it was a cynical and
fiendish attempt to work up war hysteria in order to mobilise, consolidate
and expand their support base just before the elections.

In fact, even this war was 'won' only because US President Bill Clinton,
petitioned by Vajpayee, put pressure on the Pakistan government to ensure
withdrawal of the intruders. Otherwise it would still be going on, and many
more lives would have been lost. As it is, according to Finance Minister
Yashwant Sinha, the country is on the verge of economic collapse, and the
cost of the war would have added to the crisis. It has been spending much
more than its income, borrowing heavily, and now faces an internal debt
crisis. And at the end of the day, if the Pakistanis are 'out', after so
much strife and bloodshed, then this government, through its sheer
mishandling, has ensured that the Americans are 'in'.

Can we afford to put such people again at the helm of affairs?

Can We Feel Safe With a Mushroom Cloud Hanging Over Us?

The nuclear tests carried out in May 1998 were announced with great pride
and fanfare. We were told that these were 'explosions of self-respect'
which have greatly enhanced our security.

But what is the reality?

=46irstly, it is a matter of shame, not pride, that the land of the Buddha
and Gandhi, a country which won its freedom through non-violent struggle,
is now boasting of producing weapons of mass destruction. Weapons that
target millions of innocent men, women and children, subjecting them to
death and hideous suffering; weapons that affect the unborn for generations
to come through their genetic effects. Vast sums of money which could be
used for desperately needed infrastructure and social welfare measures are
being diverted to produce bombs and delivery systems which can only be used
for mass murder. Cancer and birth defects as a result of radiation from the
tests and bombs have already affected and will go on affecting people even
if these weapons are never used. In fact, the very first effects of the
tests were the damage of homes in the locality and appearance of radiation
sickness in the local population!

Secondly, and no less importantly, these explosions have radically
undermined our security. Immediately after the tests, L.K.Advani and Madan
Lal Khurana started making aggressive threats against Pakistan, while
George Fernandes pronounced China India's enemy number one. The result:
China re-targeted India with its nuclear missiles, and Pakistan carried out
its own nuclear tests. Before nuclearisation, border conflicts were
restricted to border areas in terms of their impact. No doubt that was
terrible for the people living and working in the affected areas, but at
least people in the rest of the country were relatively safe.

Now not one of us is safe: the threat of nuclear annihilation hangs over us
constantly. Even during the Kargil conflict, the RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya
called for nuclear bombardment of Pakistan, while their counterparts in
Pakistan threatened nuclear bombardment of India. These maniacs don't seem
to care that if one country attacks the other with nuclear weapons, the
other country will retaliate, and not only lakhs of innocent Pakistanis but
also lakhs of innocent Indians will be massacred. What is most frightening
of all is that the RSS is the parent organisation of the BJP. (We will
return to this point later.) So long as they are in power, no one in India
can enjoy a moment's security.

In fact, even from a purely military point of view these weapons don't make
sense. India had formerly enjoyed enormous superiority over Pakistan in
conventional weapons, but now the situation is one of nuclear parity. India
has lost its advantage, because there are no winners in a nuclear war. If
one side uses nuclear weapons, the other will respond in kind, and both
countries will be devastated. Secondly, as a result of expenditure on
nuclear weapons which cannot be used, army commanders are complaining that
their forces have to fight with inadequate and inferior conventional
weapons.

What is most instructive is that Kargil followed Pokhran (and Chagai).
Instead of working as a deterrent, nuclearisation has made it extremely
tempting for self-serving Pakistani rulers to spark off limited
conflagrations to draw the attention of the international community, scared
of a nuclear holocaust, to the Kashmir conflict. Far from deterring war,
nuclearisation has actually encouraged it! Just after the Pokhran blasts,
L.K.Advani advised Pakistan to take note of the changed geo-strategic
situation. They have taken his advice - but in a way which Advani never
imagined!

A Party With a Difference?

The BJP claim to be a 'party with a difference', free of corruption and
indiscipline, has been demolished by their thirteen months in power, with
unseemly squabbles between Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and his advisor
Mohan Guruswamy, accusations of 'massive financial irregularities running
into thousands of crores' levelled by Admiral Bhagwat against the Minister
of Defence, and so on and so forth. Their state governments too have had a
record which is far from clean, with the Shiv Sena/BJP government in
Maharashtra perhaps taking the prize for corruption and indiscipline:
accusations of corruption by social activist Anna Hazare, Matunga resident
Ramesh Kini murdered so that his chawl could be taken over, the BCCI
vandalised and World Cup smashed, Manohar Joshi's nephew illegally given
land reserved for a school in Pune and Municipal Commissioner Arun Bhatia
sacked when he ordered the demolition of the structures built on it - the
list goes on and on. The level of extortion in Mumbai - from businesses,
professionals, petty traders, even ordinary householders - has reached such
unprecedented heights that business is actually being driven out of the
city! In this respect, there is no basis for the claim.

In another respect, however, there is a vital difference between the
BJP/Shiv Sena and other parties. Because they are members of the Sangh
Parivar, founded by the RSS.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an organisation confined to men, was
formed in 1925. The core ideology of the RSS is that India is a 'Hindu
Rashtra' in which Muslims, Christians, communists, socialists, feminists,
liberals and anyone struggling for human rights are all aliens. They were
inspired by the German Nazi Party and explicitly endorsed the way in which
Hitler dealt with the Jews by sending millions of them to the gas chambers,
arguing that this was the way to deal with minorities. An activist of the
RSS, Nathuram Godse, murdered Mahatma Gandhi, accusing him of appeasing
Muslims. The notion of a 'Hindu Rashtra' is not only one in which religious
'minorities' have no place, but also one based on repressive hierarchies of
caste, gender, language and class. Equality and democracy have no place in
it. The conception of 'Hindutva' it propagates is a violent, intolerant,
Brahminical, exclusivist ideology, not the Hinduism practised by the
majority of the Indian population.

The RSS spawned a multiplicity of organisations whose number keeps on
growing - the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh,
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, etc. etc. They
formed the Bharatiya Jana Sangh to be their parliamentary wing. This was
part of the Janata Party government that came to power in the
post-Emergency elections of 1977, but later withdrew their support, leading
to the fall of the government. After that, the Jana Sangh resurfaced as the
BJP.

The Shiv Sena, the only ideological ally of the BJP, has a different
origin. It started as an organisation claiming to fighting for the
interests of 'sons of the soil' in Maharashtra. But its doctrine is very
similar. It too started life with a hate campaign against South Indians,
and at various times has turned its violence against Communists, Gujaratis,
Muslims, dalits and Christians. Their leader Bal Thackeray is also an
admirer of Hitler. For around a decade the Shiv Sena has collaborated with
the BJP, and can be considered to be part of the Sangh Parivar.

The analogy of a family is a good one, because it conveys that although
there may be individual differences amongst the members, there is also a
family resemblence between them. And as in any conservative upper-caste
Hindu family, it is the patriarch - the RSS - which is really in control.

The most important point to note is that the Sangh Parivar, which kept away
from India's epic struggle for freedom, is opposed to a secular, democratic
state based on equality and fundamental rights, and to the Indian
Constitution which embodies the aspiration for such a state. It seeks to
establish an Indian version of fascism, where minorities will face
extermination, sections like dalits, tribals, women and workers will be
subordinated and crushed, and everyone will be subjected to totalitarian
control.

Two recent events illustrate this agenda. The first is the disqualification
of Bal Thackeray from voting due to his hate campaign against Muslims in a
previous election. This kind of hate propaganda and encitement to violence
has a very strong resemblence to the rabid anti-Semitic campaigns of the
Nazis, which culminated in the mass extermination of Jews on the one hand,
and thecomplete destruction of democratic rights for all Germans on the
other. Propagating hatred and inciting violence against a community is not
a democratic right, because it interferes with the rights of others. The
second event is the issue of arrest warrants by the Maharashtra state
government against James Massey and George Ninan for calling on voters to
vote against communal parties and for secular candidates. This is not a
matter of spreading hatred and inciting violence against anyone, but of
exercising the democratic right to freedom of expression. The fact that
they were issued with arrest warrants for doing this is a shocking example
of the way in which democratic rights are being trampled underfoot by the
Shiv Sena and BJP.

So yes, it is true, the BJP/Shiv Sena are parties with a difference: the
only parties which can claim to have an explicitly totalitarian agenda!

Introducing a Saffronised Education System

Even before coming to power, the Sangh Parivar has been intervening in the
educational field. In their Shakha Baudhiks (intellectual sessions) they
present a communalised version of history. In the RSS-run Saraswati Shishu
Mandirs and Vidya Bharati, children are taught Brahminical norms and
communalised history. Some of the most eminent and respected historians in
the country have been attacked by the Sangh Parivar because their
intellectual integrity is not compatible with the lies propagated by the
Sangh.

After the BJP coalition came to power,the Ministry of Human Resource
Development, which includes the Department of Education, was given to the
extremist Hindutva supporter Murli Manohar Joshi. He has patronised RSS
historians who are busy rewiriting history from a Hindu communal
standpoint, and reorganised the Indian Council of Historical Research to
ensure that most members are pro-RSS.

The BJP openly presented its agenda in the Education Ministers' Conference
in October 1998. Mr Chitalangia, an RSS businessman who runs a chain of
schools on the RSS model, was invited to address the conference with a note
on Nationalising, Indianising and Spiritualising the education system. It
was proposed to make the learning of Sanskrit compulsory and teach
household management to girls. Although these proposals were defeated for
the time being by secular educationists, we must not forget that this kind
of education is being taught on a large scale in RSS schools. For example,
text books in RSS/BJP-run schools refer to Muslims as 'temple-breakers'.

The involvement of the RSS in education is deeply disturbing. On the one
hand, it involves corrupting young minds with the poison of communal
hatred. On the other, it involves brain-washing them to accept unscientific
and irrational nonsense without ever encouraging them to use their critical
faculties. Hatred plus irrationalism add up to a fascist mind-set. This was
demonstrated very vividly in the aftermath of the Pokhran tests, when VHP
and Bajrang Dal activists declared they would build a temple on the site
and distribute (radioactive) Pokhran dust all over the country. The idea of
worshipping nuclear bombs that use a technology known for more than fifty
years, and their complete ignorance of the dangers of radiation, are a
result of this kind of 'education'. If the BJP comes to power again and its
fascistic brand of education becomes the norm, India will go backwards into
the dark ages while the rest of the world goes forward to the 21st century.

Atrocities Against Muslims

The BJP came into the limelight in the late 1980s, when L.K.Advani started
his Rath Yatras preaching hatred against Muslims and leaving a trail of
blood behind him. The open incitement to violence against Muslims
culminated in the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the massive
anti-Muslim pogroms of 1992-3 which left the community deeply traumatised
and the rest of the country appalled. This was the first open declaration
of war against India's secular democratic Constitution, the first step
towards turning this country into a theocratic, fascist state.

The Sangh Parivar's complete contempt for the law is demonstrated by the
fact that L.K.Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, both prime accused in the
Babri Masjid demolition case, became Home Minister and Human Resource
Development Minister respectively in the BJP government, while Bal
Thackeray, deprived of his voting rights by the Supreme Court in view of
his role in inciting communal violence, is the de facto power in
Maharashtra.

How long are we going to allow ourselves to be ruled by criminals?

Violence against Muslims has continued, although on a smaller scale. During
1998,it was reported there were 629 anti-Muslim riots in which 207 people
lost their lives. In Randhikpura, Sanjeli and Bardoli in Gujarat, where
Muslim young men had married Hindu young women, all the Muslim families in
the villages were terrorised and driven out for the 'crime' of allowing
these marriages to take place. Instead of protecting the victims, the BJP
state government set up a police cell to monitor inter-religious marriages!
The VHP has continued work on the Ram temple they plan to erect at Ayodhya,
confident that they will be able to go ahead with it regardless of the law.
And communal riots took place in Ahmedabad even as the country prepared to
go to the polls.

However, the intensity of the violence against Muslims has declined, and
the BJP has for the moment dropped its agenda of mosque-demolition and
temple-building. One possible reason is that the bomb blasts following the
post-Ayodhya riots frightened the Sangh Parivar into recognising the danger
of continuing to target such a large minority. Another possibility is that
some of the BJP's allies, fearing for their Muslim vote banks, insisted
that the temple-building plans be put into cold storage. Whatever the
reason, the important point to note is that if at any time in the future
the Sangh Parivar is in a sufficiently strong position, they will resume
these attacks with full force, and a bloodbath will follow.

Atrocities Against Christians

The reduction in attacks on Muslims doesn't mean that the Sangh has been
idle: they cannot survive without someone to attack and persecute! In the
months during which the BJP was in power, attacks against Christians far
outnumbered the total of such attacks in the preceding fifty-odd years
since Independence. Quite a record! We cannot enumerate all the instances
here for lack of space, but will merely give a few examples. Sister Rani
Maria was hacked to death in Indore. Father Christudas was paraded naked in
Dumka. B.L.Sharma Prem of the VHP congratulated the rapists of nuns in
Jhabua for performing an act of patriotism. Tribal Christians in the Dangs
district of Gujarat were subjected to a reign of terror, with dozens of
attacks on churches and other Christian institutions and individuals on
Christmas Day alone. In an incident which shocked the entire country,
Graham Stuart Staines, a doctor who had been caring for leprosy patients in
Orissa since 1965, was burned alive along with his two little sons by a mob
shouting Bajrang Dal slogans.

Reports from Gujarat make it clear that the BJP state government was
hand-in-glove with the criminals. The central government, while being more
cautious, did its best to cover up the crimes. Home Minister Advani gave a
clean chit to the state government in Gujarat as well as the Bajrang Dal,
absolving the latter of involvement in the Staines murder even before an
enquiry had taken place. Defence Minister George Fernandes said a foreign
hand was behind the gruesome murder of Graham Staines and his two children.
And Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, while deploring the violence,
called for a national debate on conversions, thereby implicitly blaming the
victims.

The excuse for the violence was the claim by the Sangh Parivar that forced
conversions to Christianity were taking place on a large scale. L.K.Advani
complained that conversions were changing the demographic composition of
the country. Ashok Chowgule of the VHP claimed that Graham Staines was
murdered because he was carrying out conversions. This excuse bears no
relation to reality. In the first place, the census shows that the
proportion of Christians in the population has been stable or even falling
slightly. Secondly, not a single forced conversion to Christianity has been
reported, nor is it likely that a community which is such a tiny minority
would resort to such methods. In fact, the only forced conversions reported
are those carried out by various arms of the RSS under the guise of
'reconversions' to Hinduism! Thirdly, Graham Staines was a doctor, not a
priest, and therefore not even qualified to carry out conversions;
investigations showed that not a single patient in his leprosarium was a
Christian. When we look behind all these false claims, the only 'reasons'
for the attacks on Christians are the lies and irrational hatred propagated
by the Sangh Parivar.

=46or the Sangh Parivar, attacks on minorities are not an attempt to gain
support or win votes. In fact, the attacks on Christians have probably had
the opposite effect. But fascism needs scapegoats. The Nazis exterminated
six million Jews, and also other minorities like Gypsies. Persecuting and
killing minorities is part and parcel of the nature of the RSS and its
family.

A.B.Vajpayee: Is Our Democracy Safe in His Hands?

It is often said that Vajpayee is different from the other BJP leaders, and
especially from the more rabid elements in the Sangh Parivar. It is true
that he presents a picture of moderation. Yet if we look closely, we find
that at bottom he is an RSS man, who cut his political teeth by betraying
freedom fighters.

Take the issue of conversions, for example. The right to practise and
propagate the religion of your choice is guaranteed in the Constitution.
=46orcible conversions are already ruled out. So when he calls for a debate
on conversions, he is questioning the Constitutional right to voluntary
conversion. He is also implying that there is a good reason for persecuting
Christians, because they are carrying out conversions. He may not like the
methods of his brothers in the Sangh Parivar, but he justifies their
actions.

In fact, there is a division of labour within the Sangh Parivar. If we
might take an analogy, they are like several brothers who meet a woman out
alone at night. Some brothers shout, 'Rape her, kill her!' Other brothers
rape and kill her. And another brother, who has been standing by with his
eyes shut and his hands over his ears says, 'You shouldn't be so violent.
But it was her fault, after all, wasn't it? She shouldn't have been out
alone at night.' In the same way, the RSS and VHP spread their hate
propaganda and incitements to violence far and wide, the Bajrang Dal and
Shiv Sena carry out the programme of arson, rape and murder, while
Vajpayee, while making a show of diapproving, actually provides a
justification for their actions. They are, after all, part of the same
family.

But in questioning the Constitutional right to practise and propagate the
religion of one's choice, Vajpayee does something worse.. He is taking the
RSS programme of undermining and destroying our democracy one step further.
This right is important in itself, and there is good reason for its
inclusion in the Constitution. It is a challenge to the notion that an
individual's entire identity and destiny are determined by the caste and
community into which he or she is born. It is a statement that we are free
to forge our own identity and destiny. This is why it is anathema to
advocates of Hindutva. As Arun Shourie admits in his book Missionaries in
India, 'Today, spurred by the new =ABLiberation Theology=BB,the church is
spurring movements among so-called dalits, etc=8A (E)ncouraging, projecting,
assisting =ABdalit leaders=BB=8Awould certainly disrupt Hindu society.' Peop=
le
like him want to keep dalits and tribals 'in their place', at the bottom of
a rigid caste hierarchy.

Secondly, the right to propagate a religion is linked to the right to
freedom of expression. Most of us are not involved in converting people to
different religious beliefs, but many of us do try to convert people to
belief in human rights, the equality of all people regardless of sex,
caste, etc., democratic rights, and so on and so forth. Taking away the
right to propagate a religion is a first step towards taking away the right
to express ourselves freely and be heard by others. In fact, attacks by the
RSS/Shiv Sena against painters, musicians, films, writers, journalists,
cricket matches, etc., etc. indicate a very clear trend towards trying to
control everything we say, do, hear or see. They have even resorted to
closing down pool bars! Presumably they feel that detroying mosques,
burning churches and killing minorities is a better form of entertainment
than playing pool, and should be made compulsory for everyone!

Similarly, the right to convert to a religion is linked to the right to
freedom of association; take one away, and the other will be in danger. We
are liable to lose the right to form trade unions, women's organisations,
dalits organisations, cultural groups, etc. The state will have the right
to decide what we believe and whom we associate with. In fact, as in
Gujarat, they will decide even whom we may or may not marry. They will be
able to interfere with every aspect of our lives.

That is what Vajpayee is suggesting when he calls for a debate on
conversions. He is questioning our freedom to have our own beliefs, express
ourselves freely, do what we like so long as we don't harm others, organise
ourselves to fight for our rights, or simply associate with people with
whom we share certain interests. He is suggesting a replacement of our
democracy with a totalitarian state. Our democracy is certainly not safe in
his hands!

Secular Allies or Supporters of Communalism?

The sad truth is that today India is in danger of losing its status as the
world's largest democracy. If we wish to safeguard our democracy, we must
ensure that the BJP and Shiv Sena do not come to power in the coming
elections.

But what about their allies in the so-called National Democratic Alliance?
These people claim to be secular. Is it safe to vote for them?

On the one hand, it is probably the case that the participation of these
parties in the government moderated the actions of the Sangh Parivar, which
would certainly have been even worse if the BJP/Shiv Sena had come to power
on their own. On the other hand, it is their support which allowed the BJP
to come to power at all, with only 176 seats and 32 per cent of the vote.
And they were unable to stop some of the most horrific crimes carried out
by the Sangh Parivar.

It seems that when a so-called secular party becomes part of a communal
alliance, it loses its secular identity, which is swallowed up by the
communal identity of the alliance as a whole. If parties and independents
allied to the BJP are elected, they will help the BJP to form a government
and continue with its sinister agenda of destroying our democracy. It is
not safe to vote for them, or for parties which might form a post-poll
alliance with the BJP.

A Secular Alternative?

But what is the alternative? The majority of people in our country are not
supporters of the BJP or Shiv Sena, but many see no alternative.

It is true that the record of the secular parties is not very impressive.
One reason why the Sangh Parivar has succeeded in shaking our democratic
system is that its base was so narrow to begin with. Leaders of the
anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984, conspirators behind the demolition of the Babri
Masjid as well as the anti-Muslim pogroms of 1992-3, are not only still at
large but in positions of power. What kind of signal does this send?
Obviously that minorities can be attacked with impunity. Innocent civilians
in insurgency-affected areas like Kashmir and the North-East have for
decades been subjected to rape, torture and murder by state security
forces. This is justified as being part of the struggle against militancy
but, on the contrary, has the opposite effect. Women in large numbers are
sexually harassed, gang-raped, even tortured and killed in their own homes.
The abysmal rate of convictions in such cases makes it clear that violent
crimes against women are not regarded as crimes at all. Untouchability is
still widely practised; in rural areas, dalits are frequently massacred.
Tribals are displaced from their homes and subjected to the worst forms of
abuse and exploitation. Millions of children labour long hours in
conditions of virtual slavery, deprived of their right to education, health
and childhood itself. Most agricultural labourers and unorganised sector
workers do not in practice have the basic right to freedom of association,
since they are victimised the moment they try to unionise and fight against
starvation wages and appalling conditions of work. Equal rights and
opportunities for all seem a long way off.

In other words, the vast majority of the population have always been denied
their fundamental rights, and we cannot blame the BJP alone for this. The
secular parties too are responsible, some more than others. But there is
still a basic and fundamental difference between them and the BJP/Shiv
Sena. If parties that claim to be secular act in a communal manner, we can
call them to account, but if communal parties do the same they cannot be
called to account. If parties that claim to defend the Constitution fail to
do so, we can blame them; but if parties which have declared themselves to
be against the Constitution are elected to power and destroy our democracy,
we have only ourselves to blame.

So we do have a choice in this election. Whether we vote or not, we affect
the outcome, and are responsible for it. If we want to defeat fascism, we
must make sure that parties with a totalitarian agenda do not come to
power. We must not vote for them or their allies. And we must vote for
secular candidates who have a good chance of winning their seats, because
if we split the secular vote and allow a communal candidate to win the
seat, we are indirectly helping the cause of fascism.

Beyond the Elections: A Programme for Democratic Rights and Social Justice

However, it is not enough simply to elect a government which calls itself
secular and democratic. If we want to restore and strengthen the democratic
foundations of our society, we must put pressure on them, both before and
after the elections, to put these principles into practice. We must demand
from them:

=B7 Religious Minorities: Prosecution of all those involved in communal
violence. Compensation for the victims. Action to prevent such violence in
future. Dalit Christians and Muslims to be recognised as dalits and given
the same benefits as other dalits. Equal rights and equal opportunities of
minorities to be protected.

=B7 Border Areas: Respect for the human and democratic rights of people in
insurgency-affected areas like Kashmir and the North-East. An end to state
terrorism in such areas.

=B7 Gender Justice: Violence against women and girls, including female
infanticide, rape and sexual harassment, domestic violence and dowry
murders, to be severely punished. Pass the Women's Reservation Bill.
Discrimination to be eliminated in accordance with CEDAW. Equal rights and
equal opportunites for women.

=B7 Dalits: Instances of violence against dalits and the practise of
untouchability to be punished severely. Discrimination to be eliminated, by
punishing those who practise it. Equal rights and equal opportunities for
dalits to be ensured.

=B7 Adivasis: Tribals not be moved from their land in the name of developmen=
t
projects except with their consent and proper compensation. Their human and
democratic rights to be respected.

=B7 Nuclear Weapons: Agreement with Pakistan for mutual roll-back of both
countries' nuclear programmes.

=B7 Unorganised Sector: Right to organise and bargain collectively without
fear of victimisation for all workers in the unorganised sector. Pass the
Agricultural Workers' Bill. Minimum wages to be raised to the level of a
living wage and implementation ensured.

=B7 Organised Sector: Right to organise and bargain collectively without
government or employer interference for all employees in the organised
sector. Right to information and consultation on all restructuring measures
that will affect the workforce.

=B7 Food and Water: Revamping of the PDS to make essential commodities
available to all. Prices of essential foods like pulses, onions, potatoes
and tomatoes also to be controlled. Clean drinking water to be available to
all.

=B7 Creating Jobs: Creation of jobs by state investment in the social sector
and support for urban and rural workers' cooperatives setting up new units
as well as taking over existing enterprises that are being mismanaged.

=B7 Child Welfare and Education: Free nutritional supplements to pregnant an=
d
lactating women and pre-school children if required, free milk and mid-day
meal for poor school-children. Education to be free and compulsory for all
children upto the age of 14, which will also make child labour illegal.
Corporal punishment to be banned.

=B7 Health care: Adequate health care to be accessible to all, regardless of
income.

=B7 Housing: A government programme of low-cost housing for the homeless to
be undertaken on a large scale.

=B7 Freedom of association and freedom of expression to be guaranteed. All
those who attempt to interfere with these rights to be punished severely.

=B7 Law and Order Machinery must be impartial and fair.

=B7 Clean administration: Corruption-free, efficient and transparent public
administration.

These are very basic, minimal rights and entitlements. We can certainly
argue that a government which cannot provide them does not have the right
to govern.

Saving Our Democracy

True to its nature, the BJP has tried to gain sympathy by pretending that
the opposition has somehow wrongfully brought down its government. In fact,
it was the BJP's own ally, Jayalalitha and the AIADMK, which brought down
the government. And the Opposition was merely carrying out its function as
an Opposition when it voted against the government in the vote of
confidence. Since when has it been the duty of an Opposition to keep its
opponents in power? The allegation is obviously nonsense. But the BJP
operates with the belief that if they repeat their lies enough times,
people will believe them.

In any case, this has given us a chance to rescue our democracy and
strengthen it before the BJP has destroyed it completely. And we must make
the most of this opportunity.

We must:

USE our votes;
NOT VOTE for the BJP or Shiv Sena or any of their allies;
VOTE FOR secular candidates who have a good chance of winning;
DEMAND that they commit themselves to a secular democratic programme;
=46OLLOW UP these demands after the elections.

(Lokshahi Manch consists of individuals and groups who are alarmed at the
growth of totalitarian politics and wish to restore and strengthen
secularism and democracy in India. It is not linked to any polical party.)