Opinion Rules of law

You can burn buses,trash facilities,harass shopkeepers,cost poor workers their daily livelihoods,inconvenience law-abiding citizens going about their daily lives,put policemen’s lives in danger. But don’t fear. You will face no punishment. The Congress Party,the principal power at the Centre and in Andhra Pradesh,will deploy its own MPs to let you off the hook. They would even go on fast for a day or so. The Chief Minister will oblige. Lawlessness is better than losing votes to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) or the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).Has the Congress lost all shame,all sense of responsibility? How would the police feel the next time they face rioters,as no doubt they will when the results of the Srikrishna committee report on Telangana are released on January 6? Political parties try and control student unions on campus assiduously. The ‘student leaders’ are trained early to disobey the law,knowing that when they grow up and become leaders,they can continue their lawless behaviour. Come January 6 and they will be out again. The Congress has lost control of its Andhra political machine,so it is ready to abandon all responsibility for governing the State and enforcing the rule of law.In Rajasthan,the Congress is doing no better. The Gujjars can block rail and road traffic and inconvenience people. Instead of restoring rail traffic,a minister goes and wallows in apologies to the Gujjars. They don’t relent. Why should they? They know truculence works. If they really want to have their way,they too will burn a few buses or rail carriages. Lawlessness is a valued political currency in Congress Raj.Contrast that attitude with what has happened to Binayak Sen. He has been charged with sedition and sentenced to life imprisonment. The evidence is probably flimsy. I am in no position to judge but the offence,such as it is,has not involved any violence on his part and none is alleged. He is alleged to have associated,aided and abetted Naxalites by visiting them in jail and passing on letters. The fact that Mamata Banerjee has publicly shared the platform with Naxalites is not somehow an offence. But then she is protected by the Congress,so all acts of lawlessness are fine.Even so,the point is that the Rule of Law requires certain systematic behaviour on part of the rulers. This is why I do not mind what is happening to Binayak Sen. He may be innocent,though one has no right to presume it. Another trial on appeal alone will tell. But the point is that if you have done something which falls foul of the law,the test should be in a court of law.Yet the Binayak Sen case raises issues about the attitude of many progressive people. They are in political sympathy with him. He is a good man and he has been treated pretty badly before being brought to trial by the Chhattisgarh government. But many who presume his innocence also have a lot of sympathy with what the Naxals are doing. They feel that the tribals whose interests the Naxals represent have been abandoned by the Indian State and that the Naxals have a legitimate campaign. This may be on anti-capitalist grounds or on the grounds of questioning the legitimacy of the Bourgeois State. From such a perspective,it is even possible to argue that even though Binayak Sen may be complicit with the Naxalites,he should be celebrated as a freedom fighter,and still get off. That is a perspective one has to question. Binayak Sen has a legitimate case for appeal. His human rights have been violated and he should have redress under the Constitution. But the right of appeal and the protection of fundamental rights are a part and parcel of the Bourgeois Capitalist Indian State. If you doubt its legitimacy,you should not avail yourself of its facilities. To be a Naxalite and resort to the Rule of Law—a patently Bourgeois institution—is not admissible. To support such doublethink is to be one of Zhou Enlai’s ‘useful idiots’.

Let Binayak Sen have his appeal and prove his innocence. That will be a great tribute to the Indian State.