Prof. M. K. Bhat
The ideological war between communists and Sangh Parivar reached to its pinnacle with the erasing of 5 feet tall fibre glass statue of Vladimir Lenin which was unveiled by CPIM politburo member Prakash Karat a few months ago in college square at Belonia in South District of Tripura. Whether erasing was an outcome of public fury against the misrule of communist party or the handiwork of BJP or communists to defame the newly elected Government needs to be denounced at every cost. Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to be praised for condemning the vandalism of statues. The same sentiments were expressed by newly elected chief minister of Tripura and various political parties across the spectrum. The ministry of home affairs government of India issued two advisories to states asking them to take strongest action against people indulging in such acts of vandalism and directed state governments to book such elements as per the provisions of law. Unluckily some try to use these stray incidents as political fodder for their survival. In order to consolidate their political base they add more than required importance to such incidents. It may be held that no ideology can be raised to ground by demolishing a few statues and moreover monolithic societies have never ever remained at peace within themselves, Pakistan is a big example in this direction. The acts of statue vandalism are just a burden on the exchequer and wastage of public money .It needs to be made clear to one and all that loss of public property is an anti-national activity.
The irony is that there is no common policy for: installing of statues, defining their stature or expenditure to be incurred for their installation. They are mostly erected nowadays with an intension to further political interests and not national interests and get justified by concerned political parties. While installing statues no proper evaluation of the stature of the personality is done and it is mostly governments rather than people liking. In recent years political parties have resorted to loot of public money by installing statues of their political leaders irrespective of their stature and at times statues of election symbols at the cost of tax payer were installed at various places. Certain political leaders even installed their own statues when they are still around. This gimmick may have some influence on the conscience of public but mostly these statues eat the dust when their protégé is out of power and bear the shit of birds.
The vandalising of Lenin statue on the one side and the other side killing of RSS workers in Kerala or Tripura is equally undemocratic and deplorable. Such incidents are the activities of political parties or their stooges while as common Indian denounces every such activity and remains least eager to compete in this arena. The erasing of the Lenin statue was followed by an attack on Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Periyar and B.R .Ambedkar etc. This competition of demolition of statues tells the lowest level of our political leaders and their lack of opposing opponents on performance or ideological bases. The poor state of mind of all those involved in such acts of vandalism have no place in any democratic setup.
It is not for the first time that statues were raised to ground in Agarthala and other parts of the country. In 1993, Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi statues were desecrated by the communist regime in Tripura, the elephant statues of Mayawati Government were desecrated by Samajwadi party when it came to power in UP. The Lenin statue was built by a private group and erased by people with no high understanding of any political ideology. It may be worthwhile to mention here that the tyrant regimes world over got such responses from oppressed public after the latter got new air to breathe. The statue of Lenin, Stalin, Sadam, Hosni Mubarak and Qaddafi etc were raised to ground at one or other period of time in their own countries. The violence committed by CPIM at various times is no less. It was evident at Singur and Nandigram earlier which led to the defeat of communist rule in West Bengal, the killing of RSS workers in Tripura and Kerala cost them Tripura government and Kerala is likely to follow. They have a history of suppressing the genuine feelings of opponents, whenever they are in power.
Statues in India are mostly erected on ideological lines out of the tax payer’s income. It has more to do with personal interests rather than the propagation of nationalism. One fails to understand why the statues of certain leaders are found at every square and many freedom fighters/ martyrs have yet to get their space on any square. Moreover, there is a need of some criteria to justify the installation of the statue of any icon. There are various shades of the same personality at times e.g. Lenin was a mentor for many but he oppressed his own people during his rule. His regime was quite authoritarian, responsible for political oppression and mass killings but that does not justify erasing his statue especially in a country like India which is known for its compatibility with different ideologies. It may be held that no Indian with a pride in his history can resort to such acts of vandalism.
Communism failed globally because of its lack of compatibility with the changing economic scenario worldwide. It was based on the basic belief that exploitation leads to the concentration of economic power. This has undergone a drastic change in the recent years, nowadays the creation of wealth is not in the form of Bourgeois control of the capital and means of production, rather it is possible through creative ideas and innovation. The information technology simplified things has helped in the dissemination of knowledge. It is the fertility of mind not matter that can help one to be on the top. Instead of class struggle, there is struggle of ideas and knowledge. Innovative people rule over others.
The degeneration of communist ideology and the suppression by secularists paved an ample space for Hindutva ideology to flourish. It is a hard fact that RSS was never given enough space for putting its view point across, rather it was dubbed as rustic communalist and contrary to this, people of Owasi ilk were given a free hand for political purposes. Hindutva ideology was not only denounced but treated like a stigma over the past sixty years of our independence. The writings of various right wing thinkers were not considered fit for public in the post independence era.
Contrary to the imported socialism of communist parties, the Indian socialism rest on the Upnishadic principle of “one in all and all in one”. Hindus see world around them with the mind of a man and the vision of God. They believe in compassion among humans and also regard other living things as the existence of God. The Hindu view of life is based on the principle of ‘Sarvav Sukhinov Bhavantu’ i.e. let everyone live in peace. It does not try to demean one to appease the other. It teaches prosperous individuals to take care of the less privileged ones. It has never tried to propagate a monolithic ideology. It firmly believes that a human cannot be happy by materialistic things alone. The material things may help his body while as the other two constituents i.e. mind and soul require intellectual pursuit and spirituality respectively.
The time is ripe to think for the betterment of society rather than getting obsessed by Statues /rejected ideologies. The time tested ideologies embedded in our culture need to be invigorated for the betterment of India and there seems no scope for getting swayed by things alien to our culture and philosophy.
(The author is Director (MAIMS) Guru Gobind Singh Indiraprastha University Delhi)
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