Federal structure of nation, rights of deprived sections under attack: Krishna Jha

Ludhiana, September 9, 2019: There is concerted effort on the part of the RSS patronized BJP government to undermine democracy and impose mono culture on the Indian society.
Speaking in a seminar Krishna Jha, a historian and social activist said that the concept of democracy developed in India as a part of the freedom movement in which people from all sections of the society, different caste, creed, religious and ethnic groups participated and overthrew the British empire. This led to formation of our constitution which guaranteed right to vote to all irrespective of gender, caste and religious beliefs. Ours is the only country where such rights given in one go. But the present rulers have no value of this as they not only did not participate in the freedom movement but opposed it by burning the tricolor, opposing the quit India movement and the Salt Satyagraha. The attacks on minorities and Dalits is part of their ideology to subjugate them. They are distorting history and imposing monolithic culture on Indian society.
Jha said the country is still witness to torture, mob lynching, and even murders with no remorse either in the minds of perpetrators or the government. Education system is being changed to deprive the marginalized and unprivileged citizens from getting quality education. The funds for SC/ST fellowships and scholarships for students in post matric and M Phil, PhD, and post-doctoral research have been constantly declining since the BJP government came into power in 2014. It has been slashed from 602 crore to 283 crore in 2019-20. The fees for the SC/STs has been hiked three times, unlike for the other sections.
Further, she said they are coming out with obscurantist ideas like use of ‘gau mutra’ & ‘panchgavya’. There is concerted effort to build pseudo-nationalism where there is no right to freedom of expression. Any one questioning them is labelled as anti-national. All this is being done in connivance with the local and foreign multinational corporations. That is why the economy of the country is in doldrums and there is ever increasing joblessness. Medium and small scale enterprises and traders are suffering. To take away people’s attention from these the society is being communalized and polarized. Article 370 has been abrogated with this in mind. Home Minister’s statement that article 371 in other states will not be abrogated shows bias.
She added over 19 lakh people in Assam have been excluded from the NRC list. The home minister is out rightly saying that Hindus will be absorbed while Muslims will be shunted out. The federal structure of the country is being undermined by taking away the rights of the states and imposing center’s decisions. This will have serious repercussions on the unity and integrity of the country.
Anil Rajimwale, a scholar and social activist said that the BJP is distorting the basic tenets of assimilation in Hinduism and misusing religion for narrow political ends. There is need to organize joint movements against these forces otherwise nothing will be left to fulfill the desires of our predecessors and freedom fighters.
The talks were followed by discussion in which Dr Arun Mitra, M S Bhatia, Charan Singh Sarabha, Ranjit Singh, Shubhdeep Kaur, Advocate Hari Om Jindal participated. Student & youth leaders Deepak Kumar, Saurv Kumar, Dr. Tanya, Dr. Vinod Verma, Dr Jasvinder, Lalit Kumar and Rajeev Kumar expressed their opinion.