Politics from the barrel of a gun

Brahmeshwar Singh, the slain “Mukhiya” of the killer brigade Ranvir Sena, is called “a Gandhian thinker and farmers’ leader” by a minister in Nitish Kumar’s Cabinet.

Mukhiya orchestrated the brutal murders of about 300 people in Bihar, mostly landless dalits and Muslims, and was a prime accused in 29 massacres. Are we surprised? Yes, if we are still surprised by shameless lying. But should we be?
After all, violence is not a good thing. So we must not admit to using violence as a currency of power. For good measure, claim to be a Gandhian. In one shot you can claim integrity, dedication to the nation, moral correctness and a non-violent temperament.
But the truth is, Gandhians don’t exist in today’s Indian politics. Violence oils our political machinery. Indian politics is so dependent on systemic violence that political parties can’t mention it. When violence becomes an indispensable political language in itself, how could we speak about it? We can only talk of discrete incidents, the larger picture must never be revealed. Given half a chance we screech in horror about how violence has no role in a free democracy like ours. We have learnt to speak the language of civilised nations.
So when CPI(M) leader M.M. Mani mentions that the party has a history of killing political rivals, a deeply embarrassed CPI(M) swiftly rebukes him, threatens punitive action and removes him from his post of Idukki district secretary. All lies, they announce, the CPI(M) had nothing to do with the murders.
And everyone else pretends to be shocked and horrified as well. Including Narendra Modi. All saviours of democracy must strongly oppose the CPI(M)’s “politics of murders” he declared.
The CPI(M) is not the only party that uses violence as a political tool. Every successful political party does it. A prime reason for Mamata Banerjee’s victory in West Bengal was her promise to end political violence in the state. Never mind that the Trinamul Congress was itself slaughtering opponents and CPI(M) sympathisers with impunity, including village schoolteachers. And after coming to power, the goonda raj continues. It’s just had a change of guard.
Every political party has this dark underbelly, the ostensibly invisible engine of violence that drives it to power. From the mighty omnipresent Congress to regional powers like Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, goons carry the party on the barrel of their gun.
Not surprisingly, the administration is an integral part of this fierce power politics. The police are crucial handmaidens for their political masters. No wonder police reforms are forever pending, in spite of a Supreme Court order. And whether it is the Border Security Force’s atrocities on peasants and “suspected smugglers” or the Army’s atrocities protected by the AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) in the Northeast or Kashmir, citizens just learn to live with brutal state violence.
Our wonderful democracy flaunting perfect freedoms, equality and justice has deep and bloody roots. It’s not just about quaint debates in Parliament. And these roots are bloodiest in the villages, where democratic governance dries up and traditional feudal power relations still rule, where you could even get killed for voting for a candidate of your choice.
Which is why private militias like the Ranvir Sena could flourish in Bihar for so long. Bihar has a gory history of sena rule, sprouting from the agrarian conflict over land rights, voting rights and the utter deprivation and oppression of landless peasants, the poor and the lower castes. These private caste-based armies of landlords protect the interests of the usually upper caste landlords by driving the fear of death into the heart of the severely underprivileged. (Except the short-lived Lal Sena, which was formed by the Naxals in the 1970s to take on the landlords and fight for the landless peasants’ right to life, land, freedom and dignity.) And whether it is the Rajput’s Kuer Sena, the Kurmi’s Bhumi Sena, the Yadav’s Lorik Sena, the Bhumihar’s Brahmarshi Sena, the Rajput-Pathan alliance’s Sunlight Sena or any other band of goons, how long they survived was directly proportional to the political and administrative support they had.
And the Ranvir Sena, headed by Mukhiya who was shot dead last week, managed to not just keep afloat, but also evade justice for decades. A militia of upper caste Bhumihars and Rajputs, they carried out scores of massacres, like the infamous Laxmanpur Bathe (at least 58, maybe 61, killed) and Bathani Tola (21 killed) where dalits and Muslims were slaughtered as the police looked the other way. The Ranvir Sena killed women and children with glee — splitting pregnant woman’s bellies, snapping the spinal cords of children, slashing babies to death with swords — as a ritual cleansing act. Because, explained the Mukhiya (who the minister called “Gandhian”), female snakes breed snakes, and snake-babies grow up to be snakes.
The brutality was not just because they were dalits or Muslims, the traditional “other” of upper caste Hindus, but apparently also because they had the support of the Naxals, who were stepping in to protect them the way they knew best — by revenge killings. Thus, the cycle of murders and the proxy blood feud went on. And instead of a triangular fight between the illegal militia, the Naxals and the government, the government and the Sena united to fight the “legitimate” enemy, the Naxals.
Of course, any ruthlessness is acceptable once you link it to the Naxals.
Which is perhaps why there has been a systematic denial of justice in these cases. Mukhiya himself was accused in 29 massacres, arrested but out on bail as the cases dragged on. Just before his death, the Patna high court had acquitted them on the Bathani Tola massacre. Political violence must go unpunished, it’s part of the game of politics. So H.K.L. Bhagat died peacefully, never convicted of the Sikh massacre he was accused of masterminding. In Bihar, as soon as the suave governance-guru Nitish Kumar came to power, he got rid of the Justice Amir Das Commission that had been set up to probe the Ranvir Sena’s political and administrative patronage. Justice Das has since stated that the Ranvir Sena had links even with the present government.
Let’s look beyond the simplistic reasoning about Maoists being the greatest internal threat. Maoists are a part of the problem. But the biggest threat is our culture of using violence as an indispensable political tool. It can demolish democracy. But which vote-fearing political leader would dare talk about cleaning the Augean stables?