Maoist simpatico discourse needs to be confronted on issues of violence, rule of law, victimhood
That the usual suspects would allege a “right-wing conspiracy” was only to be expected when police,after five months of investigating the Bhima-Koregaon riots in January this year, arrested five so-called Dalit/Maoist activists ranging from an academic at Nagpur university to a well-known radical causes lawyer and unearthed a letter/documents from their possession which, among other things, divulged inter alia their stated desire to assassinate the Prime Minister of India, block the BJP’s march of electoral successes and in general feed into the narrative of victimhood cultivated by the simpatico around their cause. But before we get to the heart of the issues that inform the discourse being peddled by those sworn to the overthrow of the Indian state, it would useful to keep in mind that even the lawyers of the activists who have been arrested have not said that due process was not followed in effecting the arrests. And we would also do well to remember that police submitted before a Sessions Court the letters and other incriminating documents it has seized from the laptop/possession of one or more of the Maoist sympathizers and the court, in turn, has accepted prime facie their genuineness and remanded the five accused in police custody for interrogation.
It is not our case that police in India does not lend itself to framing innocents on occasion or that the lower judiciary is exemplary in the dispensation of justice at all times. That out of the way, however, let’s also be clear that there are thousands upon thousands of hardworking police personnel and officers of the court who do a very trying job under circumstances in which many of us would give up without a fight.
As for the ultra-left radicals and their urban and sometimes urbane sympathizers, the first issue they need to resolve is that of their support — implicit or overt —for the violent means espoused by Maoist terrorists to achieve their purported ends. It is, in a word, unacceptable. India is a liberal-democratic state and for all its flaws the state apparatus has a legally, constitutionally sanctioned monopoly over violence. There is and can never be any equivalence with non-state actors. Secondly, creaking and decrepit it may seem on occasion, the legal system is open to all comers including those ultra-left activists who may feel hard done by. But alleging conspiracy when decisions go against one is s hypocrisy taken to a whole new level. Last but not least, the hatred towards those who have a different point of view to the extent of wanting to eliminate them suggests a sense of deep-seated psychological entitlement. India needs have no sympathy for these disturbed, vicious bunch of malcontents.
Courtesy: Daily Pioneer
