Prasar Bharati’s Blackball Needlessly Made CPI(M) A Fake Martyr In Cause Of Free Speech

Prasar Bharati, the autonomous body that oversees state-owned Doordarshan and All India Radio, scored a self-goal the other day when it asked Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar to reformulate his speech on the ground that some parts were not appropriate for an Independence Day speech.

By doing so, it has made Sarkar into some kind of free speech martyr, which the Communists decidedly are not. By needlessly showing him the yellow card, Prasar Bharati has indirectly validated his over-the-top statements.

The Indian Express has published excerpts from his speech, presumably the parts that Prasar Bharati was not happy with, and these show how the people of India have been denied an opportunity to show up the CPM as a divisive party.

The following are segments from the speech, followed by my comments on the flaws in Sarkar’s argument, and how parts of it are not in good taste.

Sarkar says: Unity in diversity is India’s traditional heritage. Great values of secularism have helped in keeping Indians together as a nation. But today, this spirit of secularism is under attack. Conspiracies and attempts are underway to create an undesirable complexity and divisions in our society; to invade our national consciousness in the name of religion, caste and community, by inciting passions to convert India into a particular religion country and in the name of protecting the cow. Because of all these, people of minority and Dalit communities are under severe attack. Their sense of security is being shattered. Their life is in peril. These unholy tendencies cannot be harboured or tolerated. These disruptive attempts are contrary to the goals, dreams and ideals of our freedom struggle.

Comment: While one need not take exception to the broad claim that divisive forces are at work, one wonders what is Sarkar’s basis for claiming that attempts are being made “to convert India into a particular religion country,” when Hinduism is largely a non-proselytising religion, and the threat, if any, is in the other direction, where Islamists and Christian evangelists are making huge efforts to convert Indians. Also, what is the point in suggesting that the lives of minorities and Dalits “are in peril” based on random incidents of cow-related violence, when his own party has been killing RSS workers in Kerala. And surely there is at least as much insecurity among Hindus as the minorities, especially when adverse demographic change (from a Hindu viewpoint) is imminent in large parts of eastern India, and the Pandits have been driven out of the Kashmir Valley.

Sarkar says: The followers of those who were not associated with the Independence movement, rather sabotaged the freedom movement, were servile to the atrocious, plundering and merciless British, aligned with the anti-national forces, having decorated themselves today in different names and colours are striking at the root of unity and integrity of India.

Comment: Again, one wonders how the roles played by various players before 1947 is relevant today. The Communists themselves were singing hosannas to Stalin and his pact with Hitler, and called World War II as a war between imperialists. They then changed their tune when Hitler attacked Russia, and suddenly it became a “people’s war”. The Muslim League, BR Ambedkar, and many other political groups were not part of the Quit India Movement for reasons of their own. So, if Sarkar wants to rubbish the “followers of those who were not associated with the Independence movement”, he should begin with his own party, and also the others who were half-hearted in their participation in the freedom movement.

Sarkar says: Today, the gulf between the haves and have-nots is widening. The nation’s vast resources and wealth are being concentrated in the hands of a few. A large majority of our people are suffering from poverty. These people are the victims of inhuman exploitation. They are being deprived of food, shelter, clothing, education, healthcare and security of job for assured income. This is contrary to the aims and objectives of our Independence struggle. Our current national policies are squarely responsible for this state of affairs. Such anti-people policies shall have to be reversed. But words alone will not achieve this. For this, we need the deprived and the suffering Indians to arise, become vocal and protest fearlessly, collectively.”

Comment: One can’t object to this statement, for it is about his ideology, however much one may disagree with it. But one wonders if the CPM believes in using non-violent means to change policies, when its whole class ideology is based on violence, and the party still cannot get itself to denounce the genocides of Stalin and Mao. His party’s behaviour when in power – whether in West Bengal, where it ruled for 33 years, or in Kerala, where it has alternated in power with the UDF - does not support the claim that the people’s lot has improved much under its rule. In West Bengal, Muslims – on whose behalf Sarkar made this provocative speech – are worse off than elsewhere, according to the Sachar report. An Indian Express report quotes an independent study on “The Living Reality of Muslims in Bengal” as saying that “Bengal Muslims stand deprived of basic amenities such as tap water, drainage, equal opportunities in employment and even LPG cylinders”. West Bengal, it notes, has displaced “combined community and class exclusion”.

Sarkar’s speech is another case of selective outrage, devoid of balance. Prasar Bharati lost an opportunity to discuss Sarkar’s wayward speech by holding a discussion on its contents, something that would have served the nation’s interests better.