JNU student and anti-CAA activist Sharjeel Imam being taken to court in Delhi. (Express)
The latest issue of RSS mouthpiece Organiser has once again focused on nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens. On its cover, it has a picture of Sharjeel Imam who is under arrest on charges of sedition for allegedly suggesting in a speech that Assam could be cut off from India.
In an editorial titled, ‘Decoding the Sharjeel mindset’, the weekly has argued that Imam’s speech has exposed how CAA-NRC protests are part of a sinister design to establish an Islamic State.
“Finally, the veil of democratic, peaceful protest against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Shaheen Bagh and other similar places has fallen and the real face is exposed. The video of Sharjeel Imam, the IIT-turned-JNU activist, and his subsequent arrest has rattled many who wanted to showcase national flags and national anthem to cover up the radical narrative that was being played out in the name of CAA protest,” the editorial says.
It said Imam’s actions depict “a classic communo-jihadi mindset” that is being perpetrated in the name of opposing CAA. “Invoking the ‘Tarikh’ — history from the Muslim point of view — is nothing but what Dr Ambedkar had analysed in his book on Pakistan — the invasion to make entire country Islamic. Women and children getting trapped in this narrative is… dangerous for the future unity and harmony of this country. The Sharjeel mindset should be understood and countered… Mere State response on the ground of treason will not work in such case, but a creative and constructive societal response is needed to deal with the people infected with the Sharjeel virus,” it says.
Project Arab Spring
In another article, Organiser has drawn parallels between the Shaheen Bagh protests and the Arab Spring. “Is there an uncanny similarity between how things developed in Arab Spring in West Asia and how things are shaping up in the name of anti-CAA protest in India? Is there a veiled attempt to create a civil war kind of situation in India in the name of opposition to an Act passed by Parliament? Are some trying to create a Syria kind of devastation in India? The answers to these questions are chillingly an YES,” the article asserts.
It has gone on to record the upheaval unleashed by the Arab Spring in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and how it led to Islamist forces appropriating power in the region.
”Many of the countries where Arab Spring originated have been devastated in never-ending civil wars, became testing grounds for global powers to wage their proxy wars and have witnessed violent rise of radical Islamist extremist organisations. The rise of violent Islamic terror organisations like ISIS would not have reached such cataclysmic level had there not been an Arab Spring in the MENA region which created the perfect fertile soil of chaos, anarchy and social turmoil for foreign intelligence backed extremist groups to sneak in and corrode states from within,” it says.
Delhi’s Decline
Organsier has also given space to the upcoming Delhi polls and argued in an article that the city’s infrastructure and governance has actually declined under the Arvind Kejriwal government. It argues that the foundation of Delhi — as a world-class city in terms of transport infrastructure — was laid by the Vajpayee government.
”The last five years , however, have been the exact opposite as we fail to find any new tangible development projects by the Aam Aadmi Party-led government which insists on going back to age-old model of freebies… The defeat of AAP in the MCD elections and then in Lok Sabha elections of 2019, mark an underlying silent trend of disenchantment. This disenchantment is partly because of their failure at governance and partly because of them discarding their agenda,” the article says.
The article attempts to empirically examine the delivery of promises made by the Kejriwal government, and their claims on issues such as education and healthcare. However, while concluding, it arbitrarily tries to toe the BJP campaign line for Delhi: “The Delhi of 2020 will have to make a choice — whether to go with AAP, a party that supports those who want to break India and is involved in relentless minority appeasement, or to go with a party that will put the focus back on the development of the national capital.”
deeptiman.tiwary@expressindia.com