“I Cannot Find any Reason to Condemn Him” 

The world stood aghast when they heard of Father Stan Swamy’s death. Does an innocent man need to die in chains? That is what everyone asked. The passage that Fr. Frazer Mascarenhas, the Principal of St.Xavier’s Mumbai, read out from the Bible during the memorial service for Fr. Stan Swamy were the words of Pontius Pilate, “I cannot find any reason to condemn him”. And yet, no consideration was shown by our authorities for his innocence, his age, his fragility, his ailments, his pain. It is too clear that the State wanted make an example of him. If this could be done to Stan Swamy under global gaze, what cannot be done to anyone? Get ready, lesser men, no matter what your cause! 

Sympathizers in Delhi described Stan’s death as “state-sponsored murder”.  Ramachandra Guha called it “judicial murder”.  Vasvi Kiro from the field accused the central government of having “murdered” an 84-year-old priest. Jean Dreze described it as the “culmination of a series of acts of abominable cruelty on the part of the Indian state”.  Dil ki doori, Delhi ki doori!  Tears!

UN is alarmed. The US asks India to respect Human Rights activists. US Rights bodies see the tragedy in the context of the “egregious and ongoing persecution of India’s religious minority communities”. The Bar Association of India alleges that there has been an absence of “compassion and humane approach”. They point out, it amounts to a “failure of the Rule of Law”. The public describe it as an instance of  “custodial death”.  

“Due Process Has Been Followed” Cold Official Reply

The official response to these allegations is that “due process has been followed”, not that what was right was done. Was not “due process” followed at Tiananmen Square? In Xinjiang? In Hong Kong? Nazi camps? Holocaust? Hiroshima? Jallianwala Bagh?

No death of an individual in recent times has caused such worldwide distress as Father Stan’s. Even the most insensitive person would wonder what made our leaders allow the entire world to take note of his innocence and remain unbending till his death. A message has gone out to the world: India is not going to allow anyone to interfere in what she considers an “internal matter”, neither violation of Human Rights in Kashmir nor planted evidences in computers in Koregaon. Is there nothing like World Opinion? Is justice in Tibet, Myanmar or Afghanistan merely an internal matter? 

The “Tyranny of the Elected” (N. V. Ramana)

CJI N.V.  Ramana says, there is the human dimension to be considered in every case that comes before the court.  That was exactly what was missing in the case of Stan Swamy. He was 84 and ailing.  Ramana’s warning goes further.  He says that elections are no guarantee against the tyranny of the “elected”. There is every possibility that some elected leaders are over-sensitive to criticism. “Criticisms and voicing of protests”, the Chief Justice insists, “are integral to the democratic process”. The electorate may be illiterate, but they are intelligent. They like to hear an independent voice. If every criticism of the government is sedition, rousing of “disaffection”, anti- Hindu, anti-Bharat, what is the meaning of democracy? Akhil Gogoi was in jail for a year-and-a-half for alleged Maoist connections, until proved not guilty. He is released. Rumours say that all NIA effort was to persuade him to join the BJP, not to investigate the truth. No contradiction surprises us in India today. Our very ability to feel pain has gone dead.

Weaker communities continue to be harassed. A certain Erendro Leichombam in Imphal tweeted on May 13 “The cure for Corona is not cow dung & cow urine. The cure is science and common sense…” He was arrested. In UP protesters belonging to minority or Dalit groups get four or five cases against them, on the spot:  under sedition, national security and others. Assam has quickly taken after UP: 12 encounter deaths in 2 months, several of them tribal people. In Bengal, it was Mahadalit houses that were put on fire recently. The Supreme Court found the Telengana Preventive Detention Law “draconian”. In Chhattisgarh, extrajudicial killings of villagers continue, alleging Maoist connections. In Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti says, the experience has been of “suppression and oppression”.  Comprehensive studies reveal that everywhere Muslims, Dalits and STs are disproportionate jailed. 

In the light of all this, any statement on Human rights by India in the international fora will sound hollow. It is in this context that Stan Swamy’s faint voice echoes down the hearts of millions of people around the world. Paul of Tarsus, imprisoned by the Romans, admitted he was chains, but not his message. Nor will Stan Swami’s message be. 

Diverting Public Attention 

For a sense of timing, there is no one like Modiji: like lockdown against CAA protesters, the choice of new ministers from the weaker sections just when the public sympathy had turned towards the weakest! He does not have a single word of sympathy for Father Stan, but has astutely drawn attention to his new ministry which will include 12 ministers from the SCs, 8 from the STs, and 27 OBCs; and further, 11 women too. Distract and defeat; defame and destroy. 

For a while, more ethnic groups feel represented, new regions and marginal groups feel affirmed…yes, for a while, before they realize that under the Ruling Regime, ministers are but tools, mere faces to be counted. Even senior ministers need to be flatterers to hold their position; all the more,  “junior” ministers who are hired and fired as the PMO staffed by Nagpur-and-Gujarat teams decide. Wait till more unpleasant tasks are passed on to them to test their loyalty. “Theirs is not to reason why, theirs is to do and die” (Tennyson), like our men who died on the Ladakh front. 

The primary duty of these “junior” ministers will be to serve the cause of Hindutva, promote the interests of the Party in the coming elections, to tame dissenters among their own people, and implicate all social activists in one sedition case or the other, and ultimately to offer themselves as “scapegoats” to defend the Top Leader, if the need arises. Even an acceptable person like Harsh Vardhan was given no choice. Despite their regular adulation exercises, neither Prasad nor Javadekar was spared when the Big Leader needed to shift the blame. Further, he has to think of the UP elections. It is time to take advantage of the dent showing in caste politics. Mayawati’s charm has dwindled, people say.  So, ambitious upstarts from the lower classes are looking for a Party that can give them a lift. Appointment of seven new ministers from UP is a sign that from now on all attention of the BJP is on UP elections.  

It is in the same light that we must understand Mohan Bhagwat’s recent condemnation of lynching in the name of Hindutva. He never made any such statement during the height of the lynching spree. He knows that if the entire Muslim community votes in one direction, the ruling regime’s fate can be shaken, as it happened in Bengal. Things are not well in other places as well. For example, in Uttarakhand, as Pushkar Dhami comes in, the state is getting a second Chief Minister within four months. Over two terms, the state has seen seven Chief Ministers!  One-man Rule leads the nation stumble. 

Kautilya’s Advice to the Present Leadership

“One wheel cannot move the chariot,” Kautilya argues. L.N. Rangarajan’s version of “Arthashastra”, Kautilya (Penguin, Gurgaon, 1992), says that the Ruler alone cannot guide a state to success.  He needs others’ advice (1.7.9) (Kautilya 151). Kautilya was clearly against the King grabbing people’s wealth for himself or his cronies (Ibid 73). When we learn that Mukesh Ambani’s wealth doubled to $85 billion during the Covid year, we feel embarrassed. It would seem that in the Rafale deal too his role may come up again, if the authorities in France pursue fresh evidences.  In Kautilya’s time the proportion of the highest income-earner to the lowest was  800 to1 (Ibid 40). Today the difference seems to be higher, and still rising. And the Ruling Party prospers with 76% of the recent election donations going to them. The King and the Cronies seem to co-prosper.

Kautilya insists that the king should not overtax the people lest there be negative reactions (5.2.70) (Ibid 71). Do the BJP’s petrol prices have something to do with overtaxing, “lootraj” as Congress calls it? And the general discontent in the country?  In Kautilya’s view it is the duty of the ruler to prevent “disaffection”, not the subjects’ duty not to fall into it. Moreover,  “…the king should be diligent in foreseeing calamities, try to avert them before they arise” (8.4.50, 8.5.21) (Ibid 94). Here is where we feel certain that our All-knowing Leader failed in a big way, shifting responsibility to others. And most of all, Kautilya firmly believes that “Power comes from the countryside, which is the source of all activities” (7.14.19) (Ibid 59). He would have fought for the farmers today who are struggling for their zamin and zameer (conscience). 

And very interestingly Kautilya has this evaluation of Jyotish, centuries before modern times, “Wealth will slip away from that childish man who constantly consults the stars. The only guiding star is wealth itself; what can the stars of the sky do?” (9.4.26) (Ibid 25). This message should be given to Indira Gandhi National Open University that has launched a postgraduate programme in astrology. And despite the protest of 1000 scientists, 350 academics have come forward to defend the decision. They called the protesting scientists “ambassadors of western ideologies” who were against “pro-Bharat” education. This, in spite of the fact that Modi asked people to trust science during the vaccination drive. Yes, there are highly placed officers and leaders who take an anti-science stand leading the people to obscurantism. Yogernger Kumar IAF pleaded in court that his “inner consciousness” would not allow him to get vaccinated! Is the nation in safe hands? 

“Using” the Weaker Communities for Negative Ends

Kautilya (Chanakya) is often referred to as Machiavellian. He is truly Machiavellian, when he says, “Every neighbouring state is an enemy, and an enemy’s enemy is a friend” (Ibid viii). Modiji is a fervent believer in this principle: Pakistan and China enemies, Japan and America friends. Where we shall end up, in this power game, we are uncertain. Another Chanakyan suggestion was to “use” Mlechhas (ethnic aliens like tribals) for fighting, spying, and clandestine operations (Ibid 36). “Instrumentalizing” the weaker communities for harder tasks is the cruel norm that has remained to our own days, e. g. to face the bullets on the Ladakh front, or to face law courts with Babri Masjid charges. 

Appointing a few SCs, STs and OBCs to ministerial positions does not compensate for the gross injustice that millions of their colleagues continue to suffer… much less when they will be used for negative ends. The core message given to them indirectly is this: 1) accept subjection happily; that is just your Karma; 2) Manusmriti alone will bring you redemption. If even the privileged few, chosen for ministerial ranks, accept “subjection”, what can the others expect, people ask. Yes, there seems to be no escape from this fate under the present dispensation.

Speaking on the anniversary of the Declaration of Emergency, Amit Shah expanded on the tradition of democracy in ancient India, among the Kambojs, Kalingas, and Lichchavis. They too were tribal communities. These are the traditions to which we ought to return. They constitute the core of the Indian genius. But unfortunately Amit Shah’s image does not add to the stature of India’s democracy, being the Officer-in-Chief enforcing an Undeclared Emergency. Much less does Modiji’s whom ‘Reporters Sans Frontiers’ has recently put among “Predators Press Freedom” along with Kim Jong-un, Carrie Lam, Bolsanaro and Orban. What he has done to India’s reputation embarrasses every Indian, pulling down the nation to the 142nd position for Freedom of the Press among 180 nations. These leaders have betrayed India’s ancient democratic values, incarnate best in tribal traditions. 

Moreover, they had covered the tribal belt with Eklavya Vidyalaya schools, reminding the students that their natural gifts and acquired skills will have to be sacrificed to the interests of the Majoritarian Community. Keeping alive the memory of Ekalavya who had to sacrifice his thumb to give precedence to the Pandavas in archery, the message goes clear to tribal students that their competence will have to be trimmed to suit the interests of the Dominant Class. 

Thumps Up to the Mighty Hero

This strategy has gone deep down into the awareness of tribal communities: the natural resources in their land will have to be sacrificed for the benefit of corporates in whose service they can seek to have a menial place! This was the strategy that Father Stan Swamy resisted with his life. All glory to the Mighty Hero! When we pay our respects to him, “Thumbs Up” to his wider team to whom we want to assure ‘we are with you’. May the team grow wider until it embraces the Prime Leader of the nation who ought to be a Rajarishi, a wise ruler (Kautilya121), whose happiness should lie only in the happiness of his fellow-citizens  (III.i) (Ibid 70).