the Asianindependent 1st to 24 Pages June Edition

6 June 2019
ASIA
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Understanding the importance of
Dravidian legacy of Karunanidhi
Kaliangar Karunanidhi would have
turned 96 today. A man of remarkable
wit and a literary icon, Karunanidhi was
one of the most successful political personality
of India. If the Bahujan movement
in north India can learn a few
things about the Dravidian politics, I am
sure, it would help them positively.
The Dravidian legacy of legendary
Periyar today rules Tamilnadu where
whether the ruling party or its opponent,
both hail from the same ideological persuit
though, it can be said with authority
that AIDMK
under J Jayalalitha
diluted the
Periyarist legacy a
lot and inducted
the brahmanical
practices and
interest inside the
movement. Yet, in
terms of pro people
policies, both
parties gave
Tamilnadu a solid
economic base.
Karunanidh was
much senior to not
only Jayalalitha
but also her mentor M G Ramachandran.
A close associate of another legend Anna
Durrai, Karunanidhi never compromised
on his personal beliefs just for the sake
of ‘votes’. He remained a staunch atheist
all his life, like his leader Anna and
Periyar.
Unfortunately, the Bahujan politics
in the north particularly those claiming
to be the family of either Jaya Prakash
or Lohia remained entrenched in religiosity
and religious symbolism. Rather
than critiquing brahmanism and fighting
against caste hierarchy, the north Indian
parties actually ‘welcomed’ those brahmins
who joined them without leaving
their ‘caste’ interest or idea of caste
supremacy.
I have always advocated the idea of
understand Periyar and his hugely successful
socio-political movement for the
north Indian Bahujan parties but then
they failed to protect even Periyar due
to savarna protest in
Uttar Pradesh. it is
not that the
Periyarist movement
or Dravidian
parties do not have
draw backs and like
any other party,
Karunanidhi was
also blamed for
having a political
family but it is also
a fact that DMK
cadres were deeply
motivated towards
Karunanidhi and if
M K Stalin follow
his father’s trait then it is certain that he
is going to run the state for a longer
term.
The father of the Dravidian movement,
Periyar was an iconoclast, an
amazing personality of reason, a thorough
rationalist and an absolute nightmare
for brahmanical elite. I am using
nightmare in logical sense and not in
terms of any violent methods but purely
argumentative ways. They launched the
self respect movement and language
was an important part of it, related to
Dravidian identity. At the time, when
the government is trying to impose
Hindi on people who do not have Hindi
as their main language, it is important to
understand why Tamilnadu opposed it
and why Nehru respected that sentiment.
We respect the rights of the non
Hindi speaking people to speak against
imposition of Hindi. While, it is a growing
fact that Hindi has been used by a
huge number of people and with active
state sponsorship and commercial venture,
it has reached to wider sections of
people across South Asia, it is equally
important that Hindi or the values in the
name of Hindi or north India are not
imposed on people. Every state has its
own language and some of these languages
including Tamil, Bangla,
Marathi have much more powerful literature
than Hindi could ever have.
An argument is being given that people
should learn more languages but
why the argument is for non Hindi
speaking people. Why not for the Hindi
speaking people. The importance of
English language or that of Europe is a
well known factor as far as internationalism
is concern and therefore most
of the people want to learn them.
People dont want to learn Hindi for
the sake
of learni
n g
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
social and human rights activist
something and that is the irony.
Language represent our values, our
identity too and therefore, it is essential
Voices of dissent emerge
in SP against Mayawati
Lucknow : Voices of dissent
against Bahujan Samaj Party
President Mayawati have started
emerging from the Samajwadi
Party after the BSP snapped its
alliance with the SP on Tuesday.
Senior party MP Ram Gopal
Yadav said that the Samajwadi
Party was bigger party than the
BSP and if the Yadav community
had not voted for BSP candidates,
the party's tally would
have been around four to five
seats.
Ram Gopal Yadav said that
Mayawati had been wrongly
informed by her candidates that
Yadavs did not vote for them. "I went around
the state during the elections and nowhere
did anyone complain about this. I have seen
SP workers campaigning for BSP candidates
and vice versa. There it is wrong to allege
that BSP did not get SP votes," he said.
Aparna Yadav, younger daughter-in-law
of Mulayam Singh Yadav, said that she was
"pained" to hear the statements of Mayawati.
"Jo samman nahin pacha pate, wo apmaan
bhi nahin pacha pate (Those who cannot
digest honour, cannot digest dishonor
either)," she tweeted. Aparna Yadav, incidentally,
belongs to the Shivpal Yadav faction
and has been supporting his party. She had
contested and lost the 2017 Assembly elections
as the Samajwadi Party candidate from
the Lucknow Cantt seat. She told reporters
later that it was wrong to blame the
Samajwadi Party for the poll debacle.
Samajwadi MLA Hari Om Yadav
said that it was the Samajwadi Party
that had suffered losses in the alliance
with the BSP.
"If the SP had contested on its own,
it would have got 25 seats and BSP,
on its own, would have got zero seats.
Mayawati should actually be grateful
to SP cadres for winning 10 seats," he
told reporters.
The BSP had won zero seats in
2014 while Samajwadi Party had won
five seats which increased to eight
seats after the bye-election victories in
2018.
Samajwadi legislators, meanwhile, said
that the alliance did not percolate down to
the grassroots level and therefore SP suffered
losses.
"We will convey our views to the party
president whenever he convenes a meeting.
We supported BSP putting aside past hostilities
but we have emerged as a loser," said a
legislator from central Uttar Pradesh.
for Indian state to respect the sentiments
of the people, accept the diversity of
India both linguistically and culturally
as making it a unified one nation, one
religion, one language idea would only
create crisis and will never be accepted
by people.
Idea of India is enshrined in its constitution
where it celebrate the vast linguistic
and cultural diversity. Let the
north Indians also learn
some new languages of
India. We cant develop
hatred towards people in the
name of languages and cultures.
Urdu paid a price of it
when linked with Muslim
identity and religion rather than a language
which was born in India and
enriched our culture. Similarly, all
Indian languages strengthen our cultural
value system and idea of India. The fact
is that Despite so much of variety the
idea of India unite us and that idea is
that we all are Indians despite diverse
faiths and different languages and cultural
traits, all have equal rights hence
all attempt to impose one language, one
culture, one religion value system on
vast majority of people must be discarded
in greater public interest and in the
interest of our national unity.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social
and human rights activist. He blogs
at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com
twitter @freetohumanity
Email: vbrawat@gmail.com
It was an experiment that
failed: Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow : Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on
Wednesday admitted
that his alliance with
the Bahujan Samaj
Party (BSP) was "an
experiment that
failed".
"I have been a
science student.
There are experiments
and sometimes
they fail... But
at least you realize
what went wrong.
But, today, I will say
what I said when we announced the alliance -- respect to Mayawatiji
is respect to me," he said. He added: "As far as the alliance is concerned,
if we have to contest alone in the Uttar Pradesh by-elections,
I will consult my party leaders on our future strategy." BSP President
Mayawati announced on Tuesday that her party would contest the
coming by-elections in 11 Assembly seats alone and would review
her decision to call off the alliance "only if the Samajwadi Party can
bring an improvement in its cadres".
The 11 seats have fallen vacant after the legislators of BJP, BSP
and SP got elected to the Lok Sabha. This is the first time the BSP
will be contesting by-elections. The party, in the past, has not contested
by-elections, terming it a waste of time. The BSP, in the recent
Lok Sabha elections, contested 38 seats but could win only 10 whereas
the Samajwadi Party contested 37 seats and won five. Political
analysts say that while Mayawati gained from the Samajwadi Party's
Muslim and Yadav voters, her Dalit vote base did not help
Samajwadi Party at all. However, Mayawati claims that her party
candidates did not get Yadav votes.