“Leh-based activist Sonam Wangchuk, along with 150 concerned citizens walked for a month, from Leh to New Delhi and then see what treatment they received! They were detained by the police before finally being released! If this treatment could be meted out to him and his fellow activists, then one can well imagine the fate of lesser-known activists, who also want to voice their concerns.”
Humra Quraishi
On this Gandhi Jayanti, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres focused on Mahatma Gandhi’s message of non-violence, peace, and equality. Voicing deep concern over the violence, hate, and killings spreading out, he went on to state: “From Ukraine to Sudan, the Middle East and far beyond, war is creating a hellscape of destruction, destitution and fear. Inequality and climate chaos are undermining the foundations of peace. And hate whipped up online is spilling over onto the streets.”
Antonio Guterres looks and sounds genuinely concerned, perturbed, and pained by the escalation in the ongoing destruction and human havoc. The killings only increasing in and around Palestine and Lebanon. Tragedies compounding. And there seems no stopping! Hundreds and thousands are now getting displaced in Lebanon, fleeing to nowhere of sorts! Even if they manage to find refuge and shelter in Syria, it is going to be tough and tougher for them. Survival of the so-called survivors is getting almost impossible!
Can this war be stopped or halted? Can the so-called superpower America play a positive role in saving the lives of thousands or there’s just about doom? And what about the Arab rulers-spectators to this hellish havoc? Maybe the political rulers of the Arab nations haven’t heard of the cliché along the strain that today’s it’s you, tomorrow it could be me or us!
On why the Arab rulers sitting un-reacting, several years back well-known Arab academic- diplomat, Clovis Maqsoud had told me: “There is a broad strategic dependence of the Arab States on the US, based on the false assumption that the US is the only power that can make Israel respond to the Palestinian issue. This dependence is flawed because Israel has flouted all international norms. Israel is the only country that has never declared its boundaries since 1967. It has not acknowledged that it’s an occupying power and has given itself the license to expand its settlements. This meant violating the U.N. resolution of the 4th Geneva Convention that does not allow any occupying power to alter the boundaries of the country it occupies… At the same time, the US has chosen to make Israel its principal ally and this has given Israel the license to defy the UN convention with impunity.”
And today, if I were to take you somewhat backward, I had heard much more from Noam Chomsky when I interviewed him in New Delhi in 2001. Noam Chomsky detailed: “The threat of terrorism is not the only abyss into which we peer… an even greater threat is posed by the expansion of the arms race. The term arms race is inappropriate because the USA is, for now, competing alone. Its goal is to achieve ‘full spectrum dominance.’ These plans have been available in government documents for some years and the projects outlined are being developed… The plans for militarization of space are disguised as ‘Ballistic Missile Defence’ (BMD)”.
Noam Chomsky went on to say, “It is well understood that BMD, even if technically feasible, must rely on satellite communications, and destroying satellites is far easier than shooting down missiles. This is one reason why the USA must seek ‘full spectrum dominance’, such overwhelming control of space that even the poor man’s weapons will not be available to an advisory… The goals of militarization of space extend far beyond. The US Space Command is explicit about this. Its Clinton-era publications announce the primary goal prominently, ‘Dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect US interests and investment.’ Armies were needed ‘during the westward expansion of continental United States.’ Of course, in self-defense against them!”
The Arab masses openly talk of the “rising dangers in their midst… dangers of the ‘invisible army’ of the American and Allies.” Armies marching ahead, intruding, destroying, in keeping with the well-planned and more than well-executed policies of the mighty nations hell-bent on expanding their expansionist plans… unleashing military might on the human forms and psyches and whatever infrastructure comes in the way. All sorts of ploys and tactics were in place for proxy rulers to silence the existing rulers or to halt any of the timely interventions of those men who could intervene!
The former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif El Islam, during an interview given to me for a national daily, had detailed the lack of unity amongst the Arab nations or rulers: “If I would be given a chance to rule Libya then my priority would be to get the Arab countries together, bring about unity amongst the Arab countries for that alone can save us from being humiliated by the Israelis and the Americans… the US being a super-power, it considers it to be its right to impose embargoes or bomb and attack another country. And all those small countries who bear the brunt of all this have no choice but to view this as a form of aggression and view the US as an aggressor. It’s one of those realities we have to live with… We are totally against Israel. We don’t even recognize it to be a State!”
And as human disasters continued to be heaped, there seemed no relief in sight. Those destruction videos and photographs could hit our souls but don’t seem to bother any of the rulers of the day!
And here in our country, some very disturbing buildups. Though nothing really should disturb one in these dark-trying-turbulent times!
Can the citizens of this democracy hold long and short marches for a cause? Can the non-violent aggrieved citizens voice their concerns? Are they allowed to protest in non-violent ways? Will the citizens be in danger of arrests and detentions and humiliating experiences if they dare march or walk or run to put forth their demands to the sarkar in New Delhi? Quite obviously, I’m writing this in the context of the Leh-based activist Sonam Wangchuk, who along with 150 concerned citizens walked for a month, from Leh to New Delhi and then see what treatment they received! They were detained by the police before finally being released! If this treatment could be meted out to him and his fellow activists, then one can well imagine the fate of lesser-known activists, who also want to voice their concerns.
Hate speeches and hate speech givers going about uncontrolled… unleashing! Not just the proclaimed Hindutva brigades but even particular chief ministers of BJP-ruled states in the country. And there seems no talk of a halt on this. None of the communal brigades and characters are banned though they are talking of divides and are seen coming up rather too openly with provocative communal comments.
And what’s bothering the common man in the country is this latest – Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh walks out of jail on 20-day parole! Out, yet again!
What about the likes of Umar Khalid who has been languishing in jail for years at a stretch and has no breather for him? Why?
LIVES DO MATTER – YOURS AND MINE!
Leaving you to introspect on these words of Lebanese poet-philosopher-commentator Kahlil Gibran:
“One day you will ask me which is more important. My life or yours? I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.”
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