Urban Naxal: Labeling to malign

Eminent historian Ms. Romila Thapar

“We were all born Indians, lived as Indians all our lives. (The five arrested) activists are fighting for good causes and terming them urban naxal is a political move,”  the eminent historian Romila Thapar said. She asked government to define the phrase “urban naxal”, saying either they do not understand the meaning of the term or the activists like her do not.

She petitioned the Supreme Court against the house arrest of five Left-leaning activists Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha and said these are the people who are fighting against social injustice. The five activists have been under house arrest since August 29. Supreme Court in its judgement on Sept 28, 2018 refused to interfere with the arrest of the five rights activists.

“We were all born Indians, lived as Indians all our lives. These activists are fighting for good causes and terming them urban naxal is a political move.  First ask the government to define the term urban naxal and then tell us how we fall into this category.", she said. 

Politicians including Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have referred to the five activists as “urban naxals”. “Any democratic institution cannot take law into its hands. It has to go through a certain procedure. Arrests are the last step of a probe it is not the first step of an investigation,” Ms. Thapar said. "Arbitrary arrests on implausible charges means the police can walk into our homes and arrest us — either without a warrant or a warrant written in a language we don’t understand and then accuse us of activities about which we know nothing.”

Read the source article

When the state takes itself too seriously, it begins to suspect all dissent. Labelling helps in defining and maligning opponents. It also helps obfuscate the issues and distract public attention.  It is a political strategy of “labelling to malign”. Urban Naxal is today’s label and Anti-National was a label popularized by BJP in the recent past. We are now at a juncture when disliked dissent is sought to be suppressed through legal subterfuge and clever naming. Labels such as anti-national and urban Naxal are glibly employed by Modi regime that seeks to become overbearing both in law and the sphere of ideas.