Time for all good Indians to step up: Swami Agnivesh

The situation in India is deteriorating in every area. It is time for all those who love India and its democracy to join hands and hearts to protect it, according to Swami Agnivesh, a Vedic scholar and social reformer.
‘We cannot afford to rest on our past laurels. The challenges are right now here, and therefore let us ask each one of us how are we going to feel challenged to face these new situations,’ he asked at a media interaction in New York City recently.
This is the substance of his speech:
‘When you talk about Indian politics and the Indian situation, I’m really very, very apprehensive about the developments taking place today in India. Ever since Narendra Modiji took over as prime minister of India, or even when he was campaigning, he was asked repeatedly by the media whether he was ready to apologize for the carnage which took place in 2002 in Gujarat where innocent men, women and children were brutally done to death after that Godhra incident.
‘In a very contemptuous way he said, ‘Well, if you are driving a car, and a puppy comes under our wheel, we feel a little sad about it.’ It was sheer contempt he was showing. Instead of really apologizing he added salt to the wounds.
‘After he became prime minister, he has been targeting Muslims and Sikhs and Dalits and Adivasis, and other poor people. They looked on him expecting him to uplift the poor farmers, laborers, or even small traders and businesspeople. But he has disappointed each of these sections. Today when there are hardly 6-7 months left for his term, he is getting desperate. In his desperation, he is trying to bring up all those issues which are communally potent, like the Ram temple issue, or of Sabarimala, where women are being denied their equal right to go inside and worship as per the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court.
‘Amit Shah, Modi and the government people are opposing the Supreme Court judgment and thereby opposing the Indian constitution they swear by.
‘What happened to the economic development? Though they boast of India being the fastest-emerging economy in the world, promises of development all stand shattered. I work among the poorest of the poor, particularly in the unorganized sectors, which is 500-million strong – 93 percent of all our labor force, which constitutes Dalits, Muslims, Sikhs, lower caste people, and also Adivasis. Women constitute nearly half of them. They are being denied even the minimum wage. In India for a whole day of hard labor of 12 or even more hours of work, there is no real good minimum wage. Not a living wage, not a fair wage.
“I have been fighting for the cause of liberation of the bonded labor. Whoever is being denied a minimum wage would be considered bonded labor, which means a modern day slave.
‘Nearly 100 million children of school going age, are working full-time or part-time, and are being denied their basic fundamental right to a childhood.
‘The bottom half of our total population is being deprived of their human dignity, human rights, and whatever is being trumpeted as development.
‘Only the rich are getting richer: the Ambanis and Adanis and some other crony capitalists. And they are giving a false idea of development through the GDP, gross domestic product, which does not give you the real picture. In fact the Indian economy is in for a very bad future.
‘They unleash violence against their critics. Human rights activists are put in jail on trumped-up charges. They have been charged with sedition.
‘Even I, who has been an upholder of the Vedas and the Upanishads, have been dubbed as an urban Naxal. I will not be surprised if I am also put in some prison.
‘Sadhana, a coalition of progressive Hindus, who invited me, has been at the forefront of a campaign against the shortsighted parochial Hindutva, which has done so much harm to the great tradition of Hinduism, which has been universal [and] authentic, a heritage which we all have inherited.
‘We who are opposing the violent, hate-mongering ideas of Modi and RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] are under threat. We will be either called anti-national, anti-Hindu or charged with sedition.
‘This is the hour of reckoning. We should all be ready to stand up and be ready to be counted. Unless we do that we will not be a true Hindu or a true Muslim or a true Sikh or a true Christian. In the US and in India we should join hands and say no to the Modi regime... Many Hindus I met feel so very ashamed and embarrassed when they are asked questions about the Hindutva elements playing havoc in India, with the power in their hands at the Center and in as many as 20 states in India. And they [the members of the ruling group] have no scruples left. They are going in for power in a brazen way, in a very dictatorial way.
‘They have amassed huge wealth buying up media channels, buying up newspapers, and just dictating everything. It’s like an undeclared emergency in our country. We fought against Indira Gandhi’s Emergency and I was in Ambala Central Jail for 13 months. But now we find an undeclared emergency in the country and fear has been generated in the minorities. There is no real religious freedom left, particularly for the minorities. A particular brand of Hindutva is being foisted upon us. People are being told that this is our nationalism. They are equating their brand of narrow Hindutva with nationalism – Hindu nationalism, Hindu rashtra. This is unacceptable.
‘I am sure that in the days to come, the poor of India, the farmers, the laborers, small businesspeople and right-thinking people will rise to rebuff Modi regime. By May 2019 there is going to be a real upsurge at the election, a people’s revolt, a peaceful revolt against the Modi government. I’m sure his government will be thrown out.
But for those who will come in their place, we should not take for granted that the people who have voted them into power will let them have their own way. No. They will have to be sincere to the Indian constitution, to all the promises made, and bring about an egalitarian society without any play for communal forces or casteist forces or capitalist forces. India does not need this neo-liberal policy in the name of globalization.
So my journalist friends here, my social activists and human rights activists here in the US, I call upon you to join hands with us who are fighting a running battle on a daily basis in India. Please contribute with all your might. Let not the Hindu American Foundation get away giving a false picture – some of them, I don’t mean each one of them. But they are giving a false picture of India, of prosperity, the well-being of everybody etc.
‘I met some Congressmen and informed them about the true picture in India. They were surprised. They were being just taken for a ride by some of the spokespersons of the Hindu American Foundation. They were being given all the rosy pictures. And now that they have got access to some authentic voices, I am sure they will listen. The State Department has given us a very serious hearing and they want to invite me again very soon. There is great scope here in the United States. If you raise your voice it will be heard back in India, in all corners of India.
‘Your newspaper articles and your other media voices will be heard loud and clear. That will empower our people, those voiceless people, disadvantaged communities. They are waiting for your solidarity. So please be clear. Unless and until we bring about radical transformation in the lives of the poorest of the poor in the world and in India there is no future for humanity.
Vasudaiva Kutumbakam should be our battle cry. And we tell everybody – Indians, Hindus, everybody – look, whoever subscribes to Vasudaiva Kutumbakam will be considered to be truly spiritual and true upholder of the ethical, moral and spiritual values of the Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Christians. This is high time … that we feel challenged and we stand up, ready to be counted.
I have spent 50 long years since 1968 when I was initiated in Haryana Gurkul Jhajjar. That was March 25, 1968 and now it is 2018. All of these 50 years I have devoted for the struggle for the poorest of the poor, the most marginalized, and the voiceless. And when I look back I feel it is the grace of God that gave me the strength when I was put in prison 11 times and [survived] six attempts on my life. If I have survived that’s simply because of grace of God. I want to continue this struggle. I am 80 years old now and whatever few years I have left of my life I am dedicating it to the service of humanity and the highest ideals of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam.