Mahitosh Mandal

"Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it." – Karl Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach" (1845)

"In the twentieth century, we tried to change the world too quickly; the time is to interpret it again." – Slavoj Žižek, "Don't Act. Just Think" (2012)

On the occasion of Lenin's birthday on 22 April 2020, I posed ten questions, via Facebook, to the activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)(CPIM) regarding the contemporary politics in West Bengal. While most of the audience who engaged with the post shared my concerns, there surfaced a handful of self-proclaimed supporters of the Left Front who tried to obstinately defend their position, sometimes at the cost of fabricating and distorting historical facts. They went to the extent of trying to pull down my mask, whatever that might have meant, as I had given the disclaimer that I was posing those questions from an Ambedkarite subject-position. In this short article, feel free to treat it as an "opinion piece,"I address my questions by way of claiming that the edifice of the so-called Marxist Party – in Bengal and the Soviet Union, among other places, admittedly there are exceptions – is built on white lies, unacknowledged crimes and flawed theoretical suppositions. My point is not simply that CPIM does not stand a chance of regaining power in upcoming elections in Bengal. I argue that it is undesirable and that it might have disastrous consequences if CPIM, in its existing avatar, comes back to run the government.

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Rahul Bansode

At this hour, the entire world is facing the Covid-19 pandemic, which has brought everything to a standstill. The number of those infected with coronavirus across the globe has crossed almost 46 lakhs with over 3 lakh deaths. World's most developed countries like USA, Britain, Spain, Italy and many more others have been devastated by corona virus. In India as well, this virus made the government announce a lockdown and many are discussing this lockdown might be further extended, in some form or other.

It's better to look back into history when we see darkness all around the world. History may provide some ray of hope. As Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar said, "They cannot make history who forget history". This ongoing covid-19 pandemic reminds us of the bubonic plague, the so-called "Third Pandemic," which erupted in 1855 in the Chinese province of Yunnan. The disease traversed the globe over the next several decades, and by the beginning of the 20th century, infected rats traveling on steamships had carried it to all six inhabited continents. The worldwide outbreak eventually claimed some 15 million lives before petering out in the 1950s. Most of the devastation took place in China and India during this Bubonic Plague.

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Gurinder Azad

(SAVARI and Round Table India are doing a series to put together the Bahujan perspective on the Coronavirus pandemic)

Anu Ramdas: Gurinder, thank you for taking the time for this. My first question to you is about Punjab. In the background of the pandemic, we know Punjab receives a lot of international travelers because of its very large diaspora. Can you give us an idea of how the state prepared to minimize or restrict the virus entry through international travel to Punjab? 

Gurinder: Now, international flights are not there, they have stopped. The Indian government has stopped them, now there is no travel as such. But many people had come back to Punjab in recent months. As far as the diaspora is concerned, they managed well actually beforehand. But there was only one case, which I need to mention, about one Baldev Singh. He was from a rural background and he went to Italy and Germany. He was a preacher, a Sikh preacher, and he went with two companions and returned and then visited a festival called Holla Mohalla in Anandpur Sahib of Punjab, which has its own kind of a legacy of celebrating. He went there and, he died, unfortunately, of heart attack and, Al Jazeera and BBC they called him, the first case or zero patient of Coronavirus in Punjab, who infected 40,000 people. So that false propaganda was made. And, this is how Punjab, came into the limelight, on this issue. Whereas the fact-finding as conducted by a few friends of ours, found that, you know, he was such an innocent person, you know, unnecessarily he was dragged into the whole picture. As if he was a careless person and he intentionally hid this, that he's a Corona positive patient and lots of false propaganda was made around him. But there are arguments now.

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Roshan Padhan

When they say everyone is equal before law, it is the biggest lie in India. If we look at some news reports in one Odia newspaper, Sambad, this is very evident. While the Odisha government is boasting about its strict and successful implementation of the so-called lockdown, its burden is being disproportionately borne by the poor Dalits and Tribals. After the first phase of lockdown was over, and the migrant workers had run out of food and money, they had completely lost faith in the government. As the Odisha government made no efforts to bring them back, they started returning on their own. Most of the news reports focused on how they were flouting the lockdown and entering the state at night through agricultural fields and sea routes, and successfully criminalized them.

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ഡോ. എം.ബി. മനോജ്

ലോകത്തെ ഇന്ന് ഒരു മഹാമാരി പിടിമുറുക്കിയിരിക്കുന്നു. കൊറോണ എന്ന കോവിഡ്-19 എന്ന അവതാരമാണ് പ്രസ്തുത മഹാമാരി. രണ്ടാംലോക മഹായുദ്ധാനന്തരം ലോകം ഇത്രമാത്രം പ്രതിസന്ധിയിലൂടെ കടന്നുപോകുന്ന ഒരു സാഹചര്യം ഉണ്ടായിട്ടില്ല. ഒരു വൈറസ് ആകുന്നു ഇതിന്റെ പ്രധാനപ്പെട്ട കാരണക്കാരൻ. ലോകം അതിന്റെ ഒരു നൂറ്റാണ്ടിനടുത്തുള്ള അനുഭവത്തിൽ യാദൃശ്ചികവും അപ്രധാനവുമായി കരുതിയ സന്ദർഭങ്ങളിൽ നിന്നാണ് ഏറ്റവും വലിയ പ്രതിസന്ധിയിലേക്ക് വലിച്ചെറിയപ്പെട്ടിരിക്കുന്നത്. മരണം ഒന്നേകാൽ ലക്ഷം കഴിഞ്ഞിരിക്കുന്നു. രോഗബാധിതർ പതിനെട്ടു ലക്ഷത്തിനു മുകളിലാണ്. പുതിയ മേഖലകളിലേക്ക് രോഗം പടർ‍ന്നുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നു.

സമ്പന്ന രാഷ്ട്രങ്ങൾക്ക് കൊറോണ വൈറസിന്റെ പിടിയിൽ നിന്നും രക്ഷപ്പെടുവാൻ സാധിക്കാതെ വന്നിരിക്കുന്നു. ഇന്ത്യ അടക്കമുള്ള വികസ്വരരാജ്യങ്ങൾക്കും അവികസിത രാജ്യങ്ങൾക്കും ഇത് അതിശയിപ്പിക്കുന്ന ദുരന്തയാഥാർത്ഥ്യമായി മാറിത്തീരുകയാണ്. ഏറ്റവും സമ്പന്നമായ, ശാസ്ത്ര സാങ്കേതിക മേഖലയിലും ആളോഹരി സാമ്പത്തിക മാനദണ്ഡത്തിലും എത്രയോ മുകളിൽ നിൽക്കുന്ന അമേരിക്ക, താരതമ്യേന ഒരു വികസ്വരരാജ്യം മാത്രമായ ഇന്ത്യയോട് മെഡിക്കൽ സഹായവും മരുന്നുകളും ആവശ്യപ്പെടുന്നു. ഒരുപക്ഷെ ഇതര വികസിത രാജ്യങ്ങൾ, ഇനി ഇതര വികസ്വര രാജ്യങ്ങളോട് ഇത്തരം അഭ്യർത്ഥനകൾ നടത്തിയേക്കാം. രണ്ടര ലക്ഷത്തോളം ആളുകൾ അമേരിക്കയിൽ മാത്രം മരണപ്പെട്ടേക്കാം എന്നായിരുന്നു ഏതാനും ദിവസങ്ങൾക്കു മുമ്പുള്ള അമേരിക്കൻ പ്രസിഡന്റിന്റെ ഒരു പ്രസ്താവന.

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Shiva Thorat

Among the many distractions and distortions the masses have been struggling with, recognising the politics of Lalu Prasad Yadav, the leader of Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) has been a significant one. For 14 years, Lalu Yadav has been imprisoned for his involvement in the Fodder Scam. The complexities around conflicts between social groups, never cease to exist.

It is always the dominant community’s opinions that control the resources of a society which lacks equity. In thepast six years, the Modi-Shah government has been doing nothing but executing a tasklist decided by the Sangh Parivar back in 1990. On December 07, 2017 NDTV blog published Lalu Yadav's interview ( https://www.ndtv.com/blog/lalu-yadav-on-why-and-how-he-arrested-lk-advani-on-october-23-1990-1784734) with a disclaimer that 'facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV'. But I do, believe that what Lalu Yadav did in 1990, was exactly the need of that time. I already mentioned in my earlier article, that it is not a coincidence that upper caste identities are almost always taking a stand against the constitution.

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Tejaswini Tabhane

I once wittily remarked that I am an economist till the time you do not ask me what will be the GDP projection for the next quarter. This remark does not merely come from my dislike of macroeconomics as a subject, but for the overemphasis, these few numbers get over the socio-political realities of the oppressed who fill the fuel in the engine for the growth of these numbers. Here, it is an attempt to present two different economic logics from two supposedly opposite spectrums of Indian politics. I would try to show how the interests of these two logics converge as they essentially represent the interests of the same castes and class in Indian society.

What the 'Fascists' dictate

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Biswajit Bhoi

What does the crisis teach us about what needs to be done to meet the sustainable development goals?

So far, the spread of Covid-19 infections has been growing at an exponential rate across the globe. There is no doubt that in some months or years, countries of the world will be able to manage the pandemic which is said to have originated in China. At present, over half of the world's population is under lockdown. In India, the total number of coronavirus cases has climbed up to over 37,000 and has taken the lives of over 1200 patients. We have entered the phase 3.0 of the total economic lockdown, as announced by the PM Narendra Modi Ji with advice from the experts, which has lasted for over 40 days. It is hoped that these actions will lead to controlling the spread of the virus for the time being. However, the Covid-19 crisis has thrown up some serious fundamental questions for the entire world to ponder over.

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Sruthi Herbert 

(SAVARI and Round Table India are doing a series to put together the Bahujan perspective on the Coronavirus pandemic)

Anu: The pandemic has thrown up so many conflicting discourses, tell us about the most troubling ones for you?

Sruthi: I want to start talking about the immorality of our times that this pandemic exposes. Decades of prioritising the economy over the society - as if the economy is separate and above the society instead of it being a part of society and has no existence without it -  has led to policymakers weighing the cost of letting the pandemic run its course as against a lockdown. The argument being, the virus disproportionately affects the elderly and the vulnerable, and therefore, healthy adults can be at work and keep the economy running. This is implied when Trump (and others) openly wonder whether the cure might be worse than the disease. The underlying tones of eugenics suggested that the workforce that does not contribute to the economy is dispensable. On the other hand is the apparently benevolent argument that the toll on the economy would be worse if there is no lockdown and therefore, the lockdown is the wise option. Here too, we do not go past the primacy given to the economy over people’s lives. It is depressing that we haven’t seen any leader call this out as an immoral choice. This is the immorality of the times we live in, what decades of pursuit of economic growth as an indicator of a country’s development has done to our thinking.

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 (SAVARI and Round Table India are doing a series to put together the Bahujan perspective on the Coronavirus pandemic)

Shashikant Humane

Anuradha Bele: Dear Kaka, thank you for taking the time for the interview with RTI. We look to seniors like you to give us guidance about how young bahujans can channel their energies to minimize the hardship which are brought on bahujan masses due to the pandemic and the lockdown measures. So what would you like to talk to the young bahujan, in the present situation?

Shashikant Humane: The important thing is that one has to take the initiative and set an example and that one should be, you see, capable of sacrificing something from their own pocket so that others would follow. Correct? And the important thing is we individually, and with some associations - we have got so many associations in every district I believe - so the heads of the institutions should come forward, put their own efforts, their own money and work as examples for the people. And though this thing is for some short period, we have to keep in mind such things may come in the future also. For that, those associations or those progressive people from our community, should keep this thing in mind and start funding for such things.

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Daulat Siraswal

(SAVARI and Round Table India are doing a series to put together the Bahujan perspective on the Coronavirus pandemic)

Pradnya: Jai Bhim Daulat, How do you look at the pandemic and the ongoing lockdown? 

Daulat: Jai Bheem, Corona (covid19) is currently widespread in the world. We cannot deny the fact that in India, although it has fewer patients than other countries, the situation may still be worse in the days to come since it runs on a logic that “more tests mean more patients”. Its day to day outbreak is going to be unambiguously visible.

The first announcement regarding the lockdown was for 21 days, which ended on 14^th April, however, it has again extended until 3^rd May 2020. If the situation persists like this, we do not have any idea how it is going to be, if it is extended for an indefinite period we cannot predict what it will look like.

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N. Sukumar and Shailaja Menon

(The following article is in response to Arun Anand’s (CEO of Indraprastha Vishwa Samvad Kendra, an RSS affiliate) write-up in The Print (online 14th April 2020). We sent a mail on the same day to contest the false claims but there has been no response a week later.)

In the last few years, political exigencies have forced the RSS to widen its social base and go shopping for icons that would enable their socio-cultural agenda to flourish. From Narayana Guru and Ayyankali¹ in Kerala to Rani Gaidinliu² in Nagaland, the net has been cast wide. Amit Shah sought to reconfigure Onam as a brahmanical ‘vamana jayanti’ leading to an uproar in Kerala³. Similarly, the BJP’s overtures towards Tamil icons in giving saint Tiruvalluvar new attire with saffron robes, vibhuti and rudraksha caused a lot of ripples in the political arena⁴. Hence, one should not be surprised at the continuous efforts being made to appropriate one of the tallest leaders in modern India, B. R. Ambedkar-who always critiqued the religio-cultural politics of organizations like the RSS. The latest in this vein is “Why RSS considers Ambedkar as one of its own icons”⁵ published on Ambedkar’s birth anniversary-14th April 2020. The article is based on Dattopant Thengadi's reminiscences of Ambedkar as mentioned in his book- “Dr. Ambedkar aur Samajik Kranti ki Yatra”.

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