"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men -- not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.
This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it -- and rather successfully. Cassius was right. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."
Good night, and good luck."
Those who are not aware of the background of this historic speech, the facts were as follows: in the 50s in USA a Junior senator from Wisconsin called Joseph McCarthy exploited the popular fear of communism to persecute and destroy hundreds of lives on the merest suspicion of endorsement of communism, in a worst example of "you are with us or against" Senator got literally dozens of Hollywood stars blacklisted from work since he suspected them of communist affiliations. It took a group of courageous journalists headed by the charismatic Edward R Murrow at CBS to finally halt this crusader and for senate of pass strictures on him. But the damage to a large extent was done.
So why am I quoting this now? Because I fear... because I fear that India is passing thrugh the age of unreason that Mr. Murrow warned about. and our perdicament is even worse than US since our so called underdogs and their champions are engaged in McCarthysm... the last word being symbol of persecutionn and suspension of democratic right under the pretext of national security or as in the case of the civil activism movement in India under the pretext of eradication of corruption. Since I am impressed by Mr. Murrow's speech above I am going to take lines from there and try to draw parallels with today's IAC movement headed by Arvind Kejriwal.
* We must not confuse dissent with
disloyalty.
I think in Mr. Kejriwal's war on corruption the right to dissent has become the first casualty. In a campaign largely run for the benefit of rating hungry media , asking the IAC team for temperance, evidence and respect for democratic process is largely being labeled as high treason. I am yet to see one instance where even a respected scholar/politician or writer has disagreed with IAC and is not labelled as agent of UPA or BJP by IAC. That IAC does not agree that there can be more than one solution to the problem of corruption is bad enough, the fact that they will not brook dissent in their crusade is truly alarming.
* We must remember always that accusation is not proof and
that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.
If right to dissent is the first casualty then the right to defend is suddenly seen as an obstacle rather than necessity in the path to freedom from corruption. Rather than taking one case of corruption to its logical conclusion Mr. Kejriwal and his team are just moving from expose to expose. That itself is acceptable as strategy if not to be appreciated, the fact that IAC expects leaders to step down on the basis of the merest accusations from their teams and the defense for this is "if we allow them to continue they can taint the evidence " show both a lack of faith in the system and a lack of tolerance for the burden of proof that constitution has placed squarely on their shoulders as accusers. In the recent Reliance controversy Mr. Kejriwal said the fact that government allowed Reliance to raise the prices is itself an evidence of wrong-doing (aur kya wajah ho sakti hain?) well Sir, that is for you to prove and that too beyond a reasonable doubt. In the Khursheed case when Congress released a statement supporting Khursheed Kejriwal asked is it Khursheed's NGO or Congress's ? Well sadly Sir, this still is a free country and just as you have a right to level accusations the government has a right to defend their own if they choose to.
*We will
not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an
age of unreason
Sadly this is where exactly we seem to be going. An age when the anger of common man is clouding his reason, when demanding retribution is equaled to patriotism and where "sab chor hain saale" seems to be the motto of most lives. Things are bad, no doubt about it, but do they require us to suspend democracy? To call 78 year old men "haramzaada" and make unsubstantiated allegations against leaders running national parties? Does this chaos asks us to suspend courts and wheel in the guillotines? Well, I am afraid of dealing with government machinery which is alternating between corrupt and moronic by turns, but I fear more of waking up to that day when the machinery is run not by principles that can be debated and contested but by a handful of totalitarian self righteous individuals. Because with the existing machinery I at least have a hope for waging a long battle and score a victory. In the 2nd instance I will be named as a traitor for questioning and driven out or worse still punished.
*t we are not descended from fearful men -- not from men who
feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were,
for the moment, unpopular.
If defending communism was unpopular in fifties in the states, then defending UPA and BJP is tantamount to committing political suicide yet that is exactly what I want to do, because I have in my heritage an old frail man who was not scared to lift a fistful of salt by himself. The common opinion about defending these people is "they have had it good for so long, now they don't deserve their constitutional rights" well I ask you in a country that denies constitutional rights to powerful, rich connected people like Rahul Gandhi and Nitin Gadkari, does an ordinary man like me has any hope? Well the counter to that is if you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to be afraid of, well my counter is someone wants me to be afraid of all they have to do is say I am wrong instead of proving it in the current system.
*This is no time for men who oppose Senator
McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve
The common public is divided about IAC in the following way, those who actively support it and those who think IAC cant cause any harm, it is to that 2nd group I plead, this is not the time to be on the sidelines, this is not the time to say their intentions are honorable , it is about methods now not about intentions.
*we cannot
defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
In the remarkable movie people v/s Larry Flynt, Rev, Falwell says the freedom to speech was not intended for a scumbag like Larry Flynt , to which Larry Flynt (who is truly a scumbag) replies " yes but a society that protects a scumbag like me will protect all of you", here is the thing about freedom and the principles on which our constitution is founded and there is no escaping from it. You don't have to like the victim in order to stand up for them, if I want to oppose Congress and UPA and if I think they are thugs I will devote my life to finding a way to defeat them constitutionally. What I will not do is suspend their democratic rights to defense and representation and then hope that mine will be protected too.
*"The fault, dear
Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."
Yes, it is we the people of this country who have allowed the politicians to run rampage in first place and then allowed some charismatic individuals to exploit our fear and loathing for them for their own ends. And if IAC proves to be the case of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" then the fault indeed is ours Brutus.
Does it mean I want no voice raised against corruption? Does it mean I think our politician are prince among men? No and no, all I want is for us to check passion and the natural desire of vengence at the door and follow that one cause , that one wrong to be righted with the zeal and dedication of the truly great civil rights activists. This is not the time to be timid against our politicians, but I don't think the only other option is to outsource your conscience to team IAC.
Jai Hind.
