The State watched silently while the nation was on the boil after the arrest of Dr Anand Teltumbde, a management professional based in Goa, scholar and a civil rights activist, in the wee hours of Saturday.
In sheer contempt of Supreme Court orders not to arrest him till February 11, and in a well-planned operation, Teltumbde was taken into custody after Mumbai police swooped down at the Pune airport at 3.30 am. While leaders, activists, scholars and social media across the nation slammed the government in what they termed as an insult to law and intelligence of ordinary citizens, an eerie silence gripped Goa. The big picture was unfolding in distant Pune, but Goa remained completely insulated from the developments. The leadership and the faculty of Goa Institute of Management refused to respond to the many attempts that were made to contact them. There was no word from the alumni either.
The political class, which is otherwise busy in scoring brownie points, remained focused on their petty street fights. If one was highlighting references made to Jesus and Parrikar, there were others soaked in political strategizing, with some even advising Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to give up charge while he was undergoing treatment in AIIMS, Delhi. When questions were doing the rounds over “josh” it appears that the men that matter remained “behosh” on a sensitive like this.
Teltumbde had just finished his fiery speech in Thrissur, Kerala where he took the platform to speak on the subject: “Is India a democratic country?” He touched a raw nerve highlighting BJP’s attempts to create a unified existence on behalf of Hindutva. He spoke of the nation’s serious limitations even after 70 years of independence where even basic democratic rights were denied to women, children and several sections of the society. The dark underbelly lay exposed. Severe economic disparities, poverty, unemployment that India is going through and dalit attacks were touched upon. And to justify how hollow the nation’s economic democracy is he brought to the fore the fact that “36 per cent of the country’s wealth is owned by 1 per cent of corporate”.
A much criticized writer, Teltumbde has authored many books on various issues relating to contemporary peoples’ movement with particular emphasis on Left and is a noted scholar on the subject. Arresting Teltumbde in this manner only reflects a sense of desperation to silence voices of dissent. If Supreme Court has cautioned against tampering with the safety valve of society, these are nothing but moves to the contrary. This again brings us to the question which Teltumbde had just answered in Kerala: Is India a democratic country?
