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Beware the ‘Urban Naxal’, folks. They’re in your cities, your neighbourhoods, schools and colleges. They’re brainwashing your children and recruiting young minds for their violent anti-fascism movement. They’re intellectuals, smart, well-read sikular Leftists. Their agenda is clear – woo the weak by falsely catering to their needs while using them to actually fulfil their own purposes. There are training camps all over the country. If you spot JNU Diploma in sight, exit the premises cautiously and alert the authorities. They’re going to overthrow the government and kill your leaders. Steal your wealth and properties. They hate you. They hate the country, and they’re ready to strike.
Gotta catch ‘em all.
Garbage people and narratives have flooded the airwaves and social media since the arrest of five people – Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao and Gautam Navlakha – on Tuesday morning. Got to hand it to them, it was a meticulously planned event, effort and smarts we wish the police would put solving crimes (you know, like Kathua, Unnao, mob lynchings, caste-based violence, gender-based violence, religion-based violence) too. Coordinated teams of Pune police raided the homes and offices of lawyers, trade unionists, writers and human rights activists across Ranchi, Hyderabad, Delhi, Goa, Faridabad and Mumbai.
This event will go down in Indian history (if the government is prevented from rewriting it that is) as the switching on of a loud, garish siren of warning. Let’s call a spade a spade here. This was another in a sequence of efforts to criminalise critics of the government, more so, the failings of the government. ‘Anti-national’ lost its charm after it went mainstream and reclaimed by the very people it was aimed against, as Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha pointed out, which is when new phrases were weaponised to take its place. The two most effective ways to control a crowd is by religion and fear.
Here we see fear being doled out by the use of a word that can diminish a lifetime of achievements and forever taint a person’s standing in the eyes of society – Naxal. What a loaded word. Unlike anti-national, which still had a kind of vagueness to it, this is so specific. It triggers in people’s memories whatever tidbits of information – factual or strung together fragments into a working narrative – they have about the Naxal insurgency. What an astoundingly sly move to forever discredit your critics.
Humour can be the best coping mechanism through dark times, and these are dark indeed. Still, we can’t help but chuckle at the coincidence of it all. Not only are we all bracing ourselves for the 2019 elections but it just so happens that on August 27 a parliamentary report basically stated that demonetisation was a failure that resulted in the loss of at least one percentage point in GDP growth (a report BJP banned). This was news on almost every station. It was also only a day ago that reports quoted the police stating in court that Sanatan Sanstha, a Hindu right-wing group planned terror attacks and blasts and were involved in throwing petrol bombs outside cinema halls because they screened Padmaavat.
We used to joke about how the most powerful countries and economies in the world today are run by dictators. It has never felt truer that it does today. This is all so textbook. It’s obvious that due to our lack of Achche Din, the BJP is scrambling to maintain their dominance sans any real opposition. But over the last few years, people have woken up. Anger has grown and murmurs of discontentment bubble and burst in the form of countless protests, marches and movements across the country by common people. But who can be pointed at? Who can be the scapegoat so the government can flag a warning to anyone that’s even considering voicing their unhappiness with the Hindu Rashtra?
So let’s take a moment to learn about the people that have been made criminals and silenced in this latest move to muzzle dissent. Sorry, we mean the people that were plotting to kill our Prime Minister.
I. Arun Ferreira
An alumnus of St. Xavier’s College, Ferreira is a Mumbai-based human rights activist and lawyer. In 2007 he was arrested and acquitted on charges of being a Naxal operative and sympathiser. It was his work with NGO Navjawan Bharat Sabha that was deemed suspicious and viewed as “covert Naxalite activity” according to Times of India. It is reported that he was charged with sedition along with 11 other cases filed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Arms Act. After his 2011 acquittal he was arrested again and granted bail. Unhindered, he completed a law degree from Siddharth Law College and starting working as a lawyer in 2016 with advocate Suresh Rajeshwar. Together they’re a part of the Indian Association of People’s Lawyers and the Committee for protection of Democratic Rights.
II. Sudha Bharadwaj
An extremely accomplished woman, Sudha Bharadwaj is a human rights activist and lawyer who is a member of and National Secretary at the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). Born to distinguished Economist parents, she gave up American citizenship to live and work in India. A graduate from IIT Kanpur, she chose to live and work in Chhattisgarh practising public interest law and has been there for close to three decades now. She’s an advocate for the civil and human rights of iron ore workers, tribal people, labourers and Dalits, also fighting against the land acquisition on their behalf.
III. P Varavara Rao
Known by many as VV Rao, he is a revolutionary writer, poet and critic who has always been a voice for the people against the governments in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where he hails from and played an active role in the movement for the formation of the state. He has been jailed on a number of occasions and acquitted in several cases, including during the Emergency. As per reports, he’s a self-declared community, Maoist ideologue and heads ‘Veerasam’, an association of revolutionary writers.
IV. Vernon Gonsalves
An ex-academic, Vernon Gonsalves has worked with some of the most prestigious colleges in Mumbai such as HR College of Commerce and Economics and Akbar Peerbhoy College of Commerce and Economics. He is a social activist who has always been critical of the establishment and began writing mostly after 2013 after his acquittal in 17 cases filed against him. This was after spending almost 6 years in various prisons after being convicted under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Arms Act.
V. Gautam Navlakha
A human, civil liberties and democratic rights activist and journalist, Gautam Navlakha has a longstanding association with People’s Union for Democratic Rights. He is also an Editorial Consultant for the Economic and Political Weekly. He has often travelled to J&K and written about the violation of rights of the people in the region, making it no surprise that he’s a villain in the eyes of the government. Along with Bharadwaj, he has been vocal for the repeal of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, citing its misuse, ironically.
In case you didn’t figure it out already, #MeTooUrbanNaxal .
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