| by Kath Noble
( December 5, 2012, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) We really
should have learned by now that suppressing the peaceful activities of young
people, however much we disagree with them, never actually works. There are
always repercussions.
 |
The Indian police created a massive public outcry a couple of weeks ago when they arrested a 21 year old girl for making a totally innocuous comment on Facebook. Why, she asked, should the city of Mumbai shut down for a day to mark the death of a politician? A friend who ‘liked’ the post was also indicted. They were first accused of ‘deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs’, then ‘statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes’. After spending a night in a cell, during which time the cops were presumably scouring their legal textbooks for something a bit less obviously untrue, the students were finally charged with ‘sending false and offensive messages through communication services’.If the government does not recognise that it was wrong to intervene, it needs to be told. The public may already be on the verge of losing its voice due to the sheer number of reasons it is being given to cry out, but this one is just as important as the others.
The objective of the exercise was to let people know that
some opinions are simply not acceptable. They will not be allowed to pass, and
the response will not come only in the form of words. There will be action too.
Followers of the politician mobilised both official and
unofficial agencies to get their point across to Maharashtrians. An angry mob
gathered outside the police station in which the girls were being held and
goons attacked a hospital owned by one of their relatives.
They counted themselves lucky to be locked up.
Such is the legacy of Bal Thackeray, founder of the Shiv
Sena. The man was never so much as Chief Minister, but he was tremendously
influential in Maharashtra. And he was even more controversial. A populist in
the style of Adolf Hitler, who he sometimes professed to admire, he continually
railed against outsiders, and he openly encouraged violence against them. After
his first Dusshera rally in Mumbai in 1966, his supporters went off to burn South
Indian shops and restaurants, and they never looked back. They were responsible
for the first political assassination in the state after Independence too – the
1970 killing of communist party leader and trade unionist MLA Krishna Desai.
And in 1974 they murdered Dalit leader Bhagwat Jadhav, announcing yet another
target group.
Mumbai is now best known for the 26/11 attacks, but there
have been many worse atrocities in the city. For example, riots killed several
times as many people in 1992 and 1993. And a commission set up by the state
government blamed the Shiv Sena for the worst of the crimes – its MLAs even
testified that Bal Thackeray had personally called them and ordered them to get
Muslims killed.
Analysts have suggested that his frequent obnoxious
outbursts were not sincere – unlike Adolf Hitler, he did not really believe
what he said, only exploited sentiments that he knew would make him popular.
But that is unlikely to be much comfort to the victims.
The Shiv Sena has converted an awful lot of people to its
cause over the years, including police officers.
Fortunately, Maharashtra is still part of India. And public
anger in the rest of the country at the arrest of the girls had a near
immediate effect. Responding to a petition filed in Delhi, the Supreme Court
called for an explanation from the state, and the responsible central ministry
issued new guidelines on the use of legislation designed to limit freedom of
speech.
This is long overdue, since the Indian police are renowned
for their eagerness to wilfully misinterpret the law when it happens to suit
the powers-that-be.
Sri Lanka, meanwhile, is busy dispensing with such checks
and balances.
The impeachment of the Chief Justice has been proceeding at
top speed in the last few days, presumably because the Government has realised
that the whole episode is going to be deeply embarrassing and had better be
completed as soon as possible. Indeed.
Since we are prevented from commenting on the proceedings in
the interests of fair play – ha! - let us simply hope that we do not forget
Shirani Bandaranayake the moment she is ejected from her post.
For the Supreme Court has a lot of work to do.
The Sri Lankan defence establishment is renowned for its
achievements on the battlefield, but even its supporters agree that it doesn’t
always understand how to handle ordinary people.
Its opponents are convinced that it is intent on genocide.
I am reminded of its attempt in 2007 to evict from Colombo
all migrants from the North and East. The Government argued that it was very
difficult to identify terrorists, so in order to stop bombs going off in the
city they had to impose restrictions on Tamils. Numerous measures were
generally accepted as reasonable in the circumstances, such as mandatory
registration and regular search operations, but then the Government decided to
start sending people away. Several hundred Tamils were loaded onto buses in the
middle of the night and sent to Vavuniya, on the basis that they had no ‘valid
reason’ to be in Colombo. It was appalling discrimination of a kind that was
also very unlikely to be of any use in the campaign against the LTTE. Worse, it
pushed Tamils further into Prabhakaran’s open arms. Acting on a submission by
the Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Supreme Court put a stop to it, and the
Government apologised for what it admitted had been a huge mistake.
This was vital recognition that security matters cannot be
exempt from oversight, even during times of war.
In peacetime, such reviews of Government action can and must
be intensified. And the Supreme Court must start with the recent attacks on
students in Jaffna.
The Government continually tells the world that complaints
about militarisation in the peninsula are hugely exaggerated. It says that the
military can and must be present throughout the island, and that it is taking
steps to reduce the number of personnel in Jaffna. This may well be the case,
but statistics are not the only thing that matters. Even a single unit can be a
problem if its members do not behave appropriately.
And it is clear that the powers-that-be in Jaffna have no
idea about appropriate behaviour.
According to the eyewitness report of MP E Saravanapavan, on
the night of November 27th, the Army and Police forced their way into two
hostels of the University of Jaffna, claiming that they suspected students of
preparing to light lamps to mark the deaths of LTTE cadres on Heroes’ Day. Some
of the young people called their parents, and the message got through to the
parliamentarian that trouble was brewing. When he arrived at the scene, he
found army officers in the process of beating up the editor of Uthayan, who he
promptly took to the hospital. The situation calmed down and the crowd
dispersed. Then on November 28th, the students reassembled in the campus to
protest the crackdown. They sat holding posters, some with their mouths covered
with black cloth to imply that they were being gagged. Saravanapavan states
that when they moved from the gate in a procession, they were set upon by the
Army and Police. Seven students were seriously hurt. Four were arrested.
Opinions vary over whether the students were even marking
Heroes’ Day, as the defence establishment asserts, or whether they were simply
celebrating the Hindu Festival of Lights, Karthikai Theepam, which happened to
fall on the same date this year.
That is hardly the point.
Of course it would be preferable if Jaffna youth broke from
practices begun by and associated with the LTTE. Heroes’ Day is not the best
time to remember the dead, at least not without proper acknowledgement of how
the LTTE contributed to their passing.
But there is absolutely no chance that simply telling young
people that they should not do it is going to work.
In a politically charged atmosphere like post-war Jaffna,
when the defence establishment issues orders, it only succeeds in further
alienating people from the Government. And when its orders are accompanied by
the use of force, the result is even worse. Instead of supporting
deradicalisation, as is needed to ensure that Nanthi Kadal really was the end
of the Tamil insurgency, it is playing into the hands of the extremists, giving
them plenty of material to use in their propaganda.
Let us remember that this was about lighting lamps!
If the government does not recognise that it was wrong to
intervene, it needs to be told. The public may already be on the verge of
losing its voice due to the sheer number of reasons it is being given to cry
out, but this one is just as important as the others.
The youth are a special category in any society, as this
country knows only too well.
Kath Noble’s column may be accessed online at
http://kathnoble.wordpress.com. She may be contacted at kathnoble99@gmail.com.
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