The state has no authority over the people and the people are not the slaves to the state. If the state acts in a way that arrests the body of the people, the people have a right to ask why their bodies are detained. The state cannot take away the freedom of people, and if it has to arrest the body of people, it is duty bound to tell them why their bodies are arrested. This issue is legally solved when the writ of habeas corpus was given the highest importance when the British legal system evolved. In the constitution of India, the writ of habeas corpus is incorporated and it is the part of fundamental rights.

The RSS/BJP led state government is acting in a way that is a murder of democracy and human rights in the state of Maharashtra. Over 3000 people have been arrested and the number might run into many thousands. They are not only arrested but are also beaten up and in some cases tortured as it is coming into the open. The rule of law is the basic concept in the modern political system, but this rule of law is turned into the rule of caste by RSS/BJP government ruling the state of Maharashtra. This is for a number of reasons.

The FIRs are filed against two terrorists, Bhide and Ekbote, who incited the villagers against one another by posing the false interpretation of the history. Instead of arresting these two miscreants, the RSS/BJP Government is shielding them and no arrests have taken place so far. Prakash Ambedkar who is leading the agitation has claimed that there is the directive from the PMO not to arrest them. Why not? The law should be the same for any criminal. They are not some special people, but the ordinary criminals who instigated riots and communal hatred. The RSS/BJP Government must arrest them, but it will not.

Four leading activists who stood up against the Brahminical orthodoxy, caste system, and Brahmin-instigated communalism were killed in the open and their killers are not yet found when the pieces of evidence are pointing out clearly in the certain direction. Why has the state failed to arrest the killers of Dabholkar, Pansare, Kalburgi, and Gauri Lankesh? It is not the failure of the state, but the machinations of those in power to safeguard the criminals that help them to retain their power.

Coming back to the youths, women, and juveniles held by the state after the peaceful protests that have launched by the people at large throughout the state of Maharashtra, the state can arrest people either to prevent or mete out justice. In case of these arrests and the brutality of the police, it is nothing shorter than the state-sponsored terrorism. The state cannot terrorise the people, the constitution of India and the law does not give that right to any state or union government. India is a not a terrorist state where we clampdown on the citizens without following the rule of law.

The likes of Bhide and Ekbote smacks of Naxalism. Their activities are anti-state and anti-government, but when the anti-Bahujans are ruling the state of Maharashtra, where can the Bahujans go to ask for the justice? The maturity shown by the OBCs, awakened Marathas in the certain quarters of the state of Maharashtra, and the Dalits in the wake of conspiracy to create rifts and riots among the Bahujans by the Brahmin-orthodoxy represented by the killers of Pansare, Dabholkar, Kalburgi, and Lankesh and instigators of the riots in Bhima Koregaon, is laudable. The orthodox elements in the country should realise that in the present context there is no scope for supremacy of one caste over another and that we have a constitution that treats each one of us equally and any tweaking of that principle will destroy over the beloved country.

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist

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