Youth’s Turning to Bhagat Singh: Inspiration Not Any Ideology Of Terror But Greatest Revolutionary Of Our Freedom Struggle
By Ram Puniyani for New Age Islam
23 December 2023
The parliament breach on December 13 was the result of a
plot hatched between four individuals who were aiming to air their plight
because of unemployment in the country. Among the four, there was an e-rickshaw
driver, a farmer, a government job aspirant and a daily wage worker. They were
given the visitors’ pass by Pratap Simha, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP
from Karnataka. The two of them who entered the parliament had hidden the spray
bottle used in the break inside their shoes. The breach occurred on the 21st
anniversary of the 2001 terror attack on the parliament.
Around the same time, a man and a woman – Amol Shinde and
Neelam Azad– sprayed coloured gas from canisters while also shouting slogans
like “Tana Shahi Nahi Chalegi” outside the parliament premises. Azad is
from Haryana’s Jind and has many degrees to her credit, M.A, M.Ed, M.Phil and
has also cleared the National Eligibility Test. Yet, she could not get any job.
Slogans shouted by them were against dictatorship, for protection of the constitution
and rising unemployment. They also shouted ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Vande
Mataram‘.
These individuals were part of a social media group, ‘Bhagat
Singh Fans Club’, where they came in contact with each other. Their inspiration
for these actions stemmed from socialist revolutionary Bhagat Singh’s similar
actions in the central assembly hall in 1929. Bhagat Singh with his friend
Batukeshwar Dutt had thrown a bomb from the visitors’ gallery while making sure
that nobody was hurt. They also threw leaflets in the assembly against British
colonial rule.
Bhagat Singh/ File Photo
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While the four people have been booked under the Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), this incident is the most powerful attempt
to bring the issue of rising unemployment to national attention.
As a recall, Bhagat Singh and his comrades had resorted to
this method as they knew that their voice would not be carried by the media.
There is an uncanny similarity to the current situation where the ‘mainstream’
media, appropriately called ‘Godi media’, is totally apathetic to the concerns
of the common people. The problems of rising prices, poverty and unemployment
has not been its concern at all.
When Modi was campaigning in 2014, the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) promised that they would be creating 20 million (two crore) jobs
per year. The real picture has been the complete opposite. The first major blow
to employment came with demonetisation when crores of workers lost their jobs
in the small-scale rural sector. In most of the unorganised sectors, working hours
have gone up from eight to 12 hours per day. Meanwhile, the founder of Infosys,
N.R. Narayana Murthy, advocated for 70-hour work weeks.
A report in the Economic Times pointed out that “the overall
rate (of unemployment) rose to 10.05% in October from 7.09% in September and
[it was] the highest since May 2021. Rural unemployment jumped to 10.82% from
6.2%, while the urban rate eased slightly to 8.44%”.
“Last month, Indian tech-services outsourcing firms,
including Infosys and Wipro, announced plans to halt hiring of college
graduates, potentially leaving thousands of fresh engineering students without
jobs,” the newspaper reported.
This is taking place against the backdrop of shrinking
democratic spaces for protest; the universities are preventing the student
unions’ elections and blocking the seminars which may be critical of government
policies.
While it is an open-and-shut case of frustrated students or
youth expressing their anguish, albeit through wrong means, the government has
levied the draconian charge of UAPA against them.
Rahul Gandhi attributed the attack to rising unemployment
and inflation while the home minister has not made any statement in parliament,
despite the opposition demanding it. Prime Minister Modi, rather than seeing
the obvious, said that this act is a “serious breach” and there is a need to
find the elements behind it.
It is true that the chink in the armour of the security
system in parliament has been exposed; it’s vulnerable to even minor attempts
like that of these young individuals. On the other hand, it has highlighted the
need to address the issue of unemployment rather than seeing it as some sort of
a conspiracy.
It is clear these individuals are not part of any terror
group. Mercifully, none of the involved youth is a Muslim, neither do they
belong to any terror-related organisation. The latter would have given an
unfortunate boost to the efforts of those out to intensify Islamophobia.
The incident should serve as a reminder that it is not
enough to just pay lip service to Bhagat Singh. Singh’s concern for the
deprived sections of society needs to be highlighted. Let us remember that mass
movements were central to his ideology. The path of violence was abandoned by
him. He had come to the conclusion that we can achieve independence only
through mass mobilisation.
In 1929, his attack was intended solely to make the ‘deaf
hear,’ not to harm anyone. It is heartening to note that our youth are turning
to Bhagat Singh for guidance in the current troubled times and that many groups
in the name of Bhagat Singh have sprung up.
The entire episode should be approached with the right
spirit, unlike the attempts by Godi media to portray them as villains. The aim
of the youth is crystal clear; their inspiration is not from any ideology of
terror but from the greatest revolutionary of our freedom struggle.
While there’s no doubt that the four adopted a wrong method,
their anguish should be recognised. Their aim of revising our ‘employment
generation’ policy needs to be given a serious look, rather than searching for
a conspiracy.
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Ram Puniyani is president of the Centre for Study of
Society and Secularism.