Ever thought about,
Those distant lands,
Which you call the conflict zone ?

Ever thought beyond,
The geopolitics and elections ?

Do you know,
There are millions,
Besides Trump and Salman and Khameini and Putin ?

They were there,
In Syria, in Yemen,
In Afghanistan, in Iraq,
In Libya, in Sudan…..
In such endless places,
They were there,
And they are there,
Waiting, for their ultimate death,
The Common People.

You don’t talk about them. Why ?
You celebrate the conflict. Why ?
You normalize millions of death. Why ?

One day, you’ll have to answer all these why’s?

While everyone is speaking and writing against the CAA and state violence in Jamia, I felt the need to revisit my basic lessons of world history. As lot has been said already by so many people, I’ll just share the fourteen basic elements of Fascism given by political scientist Dr Lawrence Britt.

1. Powerful and continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the recognition of human rights
3. Identification of the enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause
4. Supremacy of the military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is protected
10. Labour power is suppressed
11. Disdain for the intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections

Does the above points strike a cord in your minds? If yes, how many ?

Hope that the answer will startle us all !!

The new draft of Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 was presented by Home Minister today in the Lok Sabha. This Bill although is similar with regard to the new citizenship provisions contained in the Bill of 2016, it differs in the scope of its implementation. While the provisions of the Bill were to be applied across the nation previously, now certain areas of North East have been excluded. These areas include the Inner Line Permit (ILP) areas of Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and the newly declared state of Manipur. It also excludes the areas of sixth schedule which by implication include almost entire of the state of Meghalaya, more than half of Tripura and three autonomous district councils of Assam.

The Bill intends to provide citizenship to six non-Muslim communities viz Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who are being persecuted in the neighboring countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Now talking practically, it’s very clear that there are hardly any Muslim immigrants from the west that is Pakistan, whatever little they are, it’s just Hindus and Sikhs. Moreover, there hasn’t been any mass exodus this side since the partition.

The actual problem lies on the eastern side where a lot of immigrants , both Hindus and Muslims, crossed the border illegally even after the partition and more so during the Liberation war of 1971. Due to porous border on the east, the illegal immigration continued in the states of Assam and Bengal which was demanded to be curbed via the Assam Accord of 1985.

The ruling BJP used this very fault line provided through the Assam Accord, to built its rhetoric of driving out the Muslim ‘termites’. However, the NRC excerise in Assam almost backfired for the ruling party as they found very less illegal Muslims and more indigenous tribals and Bengali Hindus who could not prove their identity.

The majority of North East states opposed the CAB, as they wish to preserve their identity and culture and were against granting citizenship rights to any illegal immigrant whether Hindu or Muslim. They held strong demonstrations early this year, forcing government to stop short of introducing the Bill in Rajya Sabha.
In this newly drafted Bill, government has very cleverly kept most of the NE states out of CAB ambit, as mentioned in the opening para. So, now practically only Assam remains in the NE which has to deal with all the burden to newly declared citizens. Although protests are going on in the streets of Assam, but now on with the back out of other states the movement is obviously weakened and now the government can aggressively push through it. By doing so only the electoral fortunes in Assam are at stake unlike the previous draft with threatened all the seven states going against BJP.

Now the people getting citizenship via this Bill will largely be Bengali Hindus, which is going to help BJP gain sympathy in West Bengal and at the same time sharpen the binary of Hindus vs Muslims. Here, it is to be noted that Mamata Bannerjee is already considered a Muslim sympathizer and against the Bill, so this stance will help BJP mobilize Hindus in its favour in the Assembly elections. Also it will increase a clamor for an NRC in the state of West Bengal as it also contains “substantial” illegal Muslims. Given such circumstances and the electoral history of BJP in states like Tripura and Assam, it may hope for good electoral dividends in West Bengal as well.

Besides Bengal, the CAB will alter the demography of Assam as well , thus increasing the Hindu Bengali voters, which by default will be BJP supporters.

I am Sardar
The one who belonged to freedom struggle
Gandhi’s disciple, Nehru’s friend
Peasant’s advocate, India’s unifier

A long time has passed
Having left this mortal world
But have returned again today
In the idol form, the unity one

Besides the bank of Narmada
Standing tall and large
Looking helpless at those peasants
Who became homeless by my very own dam

Let’s not talk about those peasants today
As I am a symbol of unity now
Talks of which are spread from London to York
Newspapers filled with my very images

Thousand kids run in my remembrance
Taking pledge again and again
Youth debates on my dreams
And Netas tweet on my anniversary

At that instance, I think
What kind of unity is this
Which in the last seventy years
Couldn’t reach Ayodhya and Assam

Hindu-Muslim, Right-Left
Arya-Dravidin, Bihari-Gujarati
Why are they fighting among themselves
Who associated my name to these contradictions
And who gave them right
To built their political palace
On the foundation of my dreams !!

We are outraged,
We want justice, instant justice !!
Kill them !
Hang them !
Burn them !
Or better lynch them !
Just like the Saudi’s do,
Or for that matter,
Any dictator in the Arab does.

No, we won’t question,
We won’t question the police,
And the government and the politicians.
Actually we can’t,
We lost that ability long ago.
But we can’t wait,
For the judicial process,
It’s way too long,
Nirbhaya’s convicts still alive ,
After seven years.
In fact we don’t trust democratic means anymore,
They are all way too slow and inefficient.
So, we want ‘instant justice’.

And thus came the Friday morning,
The investigator turned into jurist,
And served ‘justice’ with the bullets,
‘Instant justice’ , without any judge.

Hail the police,
Hail the government,
Hail the public,
Hail the social media,
And last but not the least,
Hail the mob mentality!!

Let’s Make America Great Again !!
But how ?
First of all, stop talking of this climate thing.
But it’s our responsibility, isn’t it ?
The hell with responsibility,
Let Europeans and Asians take care of it.

Little Greta has come to York;
Having crossed the Atlantic!
So, what ! I moved out of Paris earlier
She’s just a kid, not a big deal
We need to focus on TRADE !!

And how do we do that ?
Well, we first need to put allies in place
Let’s start with Canadians and Japs.
They’re done with, whose next ?
Chinese and Indians, they exploit us much !!

These thick skinned Asians don’t bulge much.
But we need to make America Great!
Call on those Mid Easterns
Ban the Iranians
We’ll sell oil by ourselves.

These Iranians are making much noise of it !
That’s Good !! Now arm the Saudis and Israelies
And what about these liberal Europeans ?
Let them bark, they’ll fall in line,
After all I’m the one who funds NATO.

Elections are round the corner sir !
Haven’t we made America Great yet ?
Yes sir , but the media…..
Oh ! this media, call on my good friend Modi
Howdy Modi, welcome to Houston!!

The impeachment!
Not again, these bloody democrats
It’s PRESIDENTIAL HARRASSMENT !!
Let me survive this time,
And I’ll do MAGA !!

Dark cold night,
An obscure village,
Far away from the highway.
People sleeping peacefully,
Unaware of the impending storm.

Dozens of militia,
Armed with swords and guns and knives,
Stormed the village, thus breaking its peace,
Terror struck villagers, ran for their life,
Each house searched,
And all the men gathered,
Near the temple.

Thus began the midnight revenge,
The poor unarmed villagers,
Cried for mercy, prayed to God,
But to no avail, as the God,
Helplessly watched from the temple,
The assassin’s slitting the throats,
One by one, until no men remained alive.

The militias were jubilant,
At the sight of thirty four corpses,
Greeting each other Lal Saalam!!
Yet another revenge taken,
And the violence of the Oppressed justified!!