Had the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution been alive today, they would have probably been hanging their heads in shame.
Enshrining the Right to Freedom of Expression as a constitutional guarantee was one of the many safeguards and liberties that the wise men of the Constituent Assembly had deemed fit to bestow upon the soul of a nascent state and its citizens. But 64 years since the inception of the Indian Constitution, the very spirit of free speech and expression appears to be in a much-maligned state — courtesy a bunch of imbeciles purporting to be politicians.
The latest addition to a fairly long list of hate mongers and occupants of the ‘hall of shame’ in Indian politics is Tapas Pal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party member of parliament from West Bengal. His public exhortations to TMC supporters to “kill” and “rape” activists of the rival Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPM) are an affront to the socio-political ethos of the world’s largest democracy.
On June 15, while addressing a gathering at Choumaha village in Nadia district, Pal’s diatribe crossed all limits of civil discourse, scruples and political sanctity. Outraged at the death of a Trinamool party worker in political violence and reacting to news about some other party activists being injured in a separate incident nearby, Pal spewed venom: “Let me warn all you CPM activists, none of you will be spared if you act smart or try to intimidate TMC supporters. I call upon TMC men to slit the throats of CPM supporters ... I will get TMC men to rape CPM women.”
Shocking, abominable and unfortunate.
But perhaps more shocking than these utterly insensitive comments is the fact that Pal, who also happens to be an actor in Bengali cinema, has been let off by his party, following a cursory letter of apology. Addressing mediapersons in Kolkata on Tuesday, Mukul Roy, the TMC secretary and the party’s leader in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of parliament), said: “The Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, has been pained by such comments. She is shocked.” One would like to ask the Bengal CM that if she indeed is “pained” and “shocked”, then how can Pal continue to be a member of the party even after making such outrageous comments that are unprecedented in the state’s political history? And then again, the CM’s “pain” and “shock” and Pal’s subsequent “apology” came only after the national media went viral with footage of Pal’s statements, stoking a huge nationwide furore.
Pal’s statement is no isolated incident. In the past, there have been innumerable instances of politicians indulging in hate mongering and trivialising rape. During the last parliamentary polls in India, former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, even tried to justify rape with his infamous “Boys will be boys” comment. Then again, one of Pal’s own party MPs and a silver screen personality from Bengal, Deepak Adhikari, while sharing his experience at being a rookie in politics, had gone on record, saying that his predicament was like being raped: “When it’s inevitable, enjoy!”
How crass and insensitive can one get!
But apart from the utter moral, intellectual bankruptcy that such comments signify, there is a much bigger danger that lurks behind and that is, using a crime as heinous as rape as a tool for coercion in public domain — virtually seeking public endorsement for such a barbaric act, the ultimate infringement of an individual’s dignity.
Tools of political manoeuvring
Committing rape and outraging the modesty of women have been used as tools of fear and coercion during wars for ages. History is replete with such crimes committed largely by marauding groups of invaders. Even then, there can simply be no justification for such an act under any circumstances.
And now, imagine an elected member of parliament in a democracy publicly exhorting his party workers to commit rape and murder on rival party activists as part of a political discourse in an entirely non-combative set-up and within the framework of civil society and an entrenched political system! Shocking to say the least and it bears all the forebodings of a severe gangrene of the mind silently gnawing at the very core of a collective consciousness of the prevalent social order. It makes us wonder that just as booth capturing or rigging are used as tools to subvert the opinion expressed through ballot boxes, to suit a certain political agenda, similarly, can rape be used as a tool to exact revenge or suppress the voice of the “other” — that particular shade of opinion that one is uncomfortable with? This is where Pal’s comment hits us with gale-force. By asking his partymen to actually commit rape and murder, Pal has taken the criminal aspect of such acts way beyond the realm of natural jurisprudence and has actually sought to tag some sort of a socio-political legitimacy to them. The overriding idea being: Rape and murder are justified as tools of political manoeuvring! One Pal or a Mulayam is unlikely to rock India’s moral compass. Nonetheless, raising a strong voice of protest to such mindless acts as Pal’s is vitally important. Scratching Pal’s parliament membership and primary membership of the party could have been definitive steps in that direction. But will the TMC be bold enough?
Ever since TMC came to power in Bengal in 2011, there have been numerous instances of ruling party leaders resorting to hate speech and inciting party workers to violence, thereby vitiating the political atmosphere. Even voices of protest from amongst a section of the state’s intelligentsia have often been stifled in a shocking display of shrinking intellectual space. A healthy democracy must always allow enough scope and space for diverse shades of opinions to flourish. When an elected member of parliament comes up with such an act of gross misdemeanour like Pal’s, it calls for exemplary punishment to nip all such cancerous trends in the bud. But by merely accepting an apology for such a serious offence, the TMC top brass has sent out a dangerous signal — that anything is acceptable in the name of CPM-bashing. It is a sign of growing arrogance that the ruling dispensation in Bengal seems to have fallen prey to.
And if that is the case, then the kind of electoral price that the Left has had to pay in Bengal for its couldn’t-care-less attitude should always serve as a stark reminder to the TMC and its ilk.
