Monday Musings: Urban Naxals and the Teltumbde arrest drama

Is the government trying to scare pro-Dalit, anti-caste, pro-tribal intellectuals by locking them in jails for months and years together?

It is a matter of deep satisfaction that a person of Anand Teltumbde’s scholarship has focused so much attention on the cause of Dalit empowerment, history, politics and caste issues. If India is to move forward towards becoming a caste-less, merit-oriented equitable society, then more and more Indians need to contemplate and focus on these very issues.

Teltumde has been charged with being an ‘urban naxal’- a new term coined by the right-wing which seeks to suggest that there are many people living in the cities who are secretly supporting seditious activities through their links with Maoists- specifically, the banned CPI (Maoists) who believe in the violent overthrow of the state establishment. (Sanket Wankhade/HT Photo)

It is hard to imagine that a person with Teltumde’s credentials would ever choose to engage in seditious activities.

Hailing from a Dalit family, Teltumbde grew up in a village in Yavatmal district and went on to become one of India’s foremost writers on caste and Dalit issues with an illustrious track record in other fields. An alumnus of the prestigious IIM-Ahmedabad, Teltumbde was a professor at IIT Kharagpur and is presently a professor of big data analytics at the Goa Institute of Management. He has authored numerous books, essays and articles on caste issues and has been very active on the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights and the Democratic Rights Movement.

Married to the sister of Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh president Prakash Ambedkar, Anand Teltumbde’s brother, Milind, is a known Maoist associated with the Maharashtra unit of the CPI (Maoist).

He is an accused in the Elgar Parishad – Bhima Koregaon riots case in Pune with the charge of having Maoist links. Among the organisers of the Elgar conclave were former judges from the Supreme Court (SC) and Bombay High Court. The police charge is that this conclave received funding from Maoist organisations and instigated the Bhima Koregaon caste riots in January, 2018.

On January 2, Pune Police hastily arrested Teltumbde and produced him before a Pune court which termed the police action as illegal and in contempt of the SC. The Dalit scholar was immediately set free as the SC had granted him freedom from arrest till February 11.

Teltumde has been charged with being an ‘urban naxal’- a new term coined by the right-wing which seeks to suggest that there are many people living in the cities who are secretly supporting seditious activities through their links with Maoists- specifically, the banned CPI (Maoists) who believe in the violent overthrow of the state establishment.

The ‘urban naxal’ lexicon has also become a part of the government discourse, and the police administration, especially in Maharashtra has been pursuing it with great vigour.

To be fair, there is definitely substance in the argument that there would be some among a city’s denizens who would indulge in the seditious activities undertaken by the Maoists. This is similar to the ‘sleeper cells’ of terrorist groups. But is correct to condemn all pro-Dalit, anti-caste, pro-tribal, pro-human rights, civil rights activists, journalists, writers, intellectuals and students from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University and Central University, Hyderabad as hubs of urban naxals?

Right-wing ideologues and their supporters are certainly entitled to their version of ‘urban naxalism’, but when the State itself takes such a position, there is a cause for deep concern. One unfortunate fallout of this is the tendency of the police to go on an overdrive, destroying the lives of innocent intellectuals and their families in the process.

What is happening in India today is very similar to the McCarthyism campaign in the US during the late 1940-1950 period when hundreds of Americans were targeted by the public and the State for being Communists or communist sympathisers.

The manner in which Teltumbde’s arrest backfired on Saturday is an embarrassment not just for the Maharashtra Police but also for the BJP government.

Is the government trying to scare pro-poor, pro-Dalit, anti-caste, pro-tribal intellectuals and civil rights activists by arresting them and locking them up in jails for months and years together even as the wheels of justice move slowly, as they do in India? If this is the game plan then it has already been exposed horribly, showing the government in poor light.

abhay.vaidya@htlive.com

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