the goan I network
PANAJI
Prof Anand Teltumbde on Friday once again spoke out against the lack of “democracy” in India stating at the 10th edition of the Goa Arts and Literature Festival (GALF) that while India had never been a democracy, today it had become a “criminocracy.”
Prof Teltumbde, known above all for being arrested purportedly for his critique of the Narendra Modi-led government, was speaking at the “Ambedkar Memorial Lecture Series” held at the GALF on the topic Ambedkar and Democracy. Friday was Teltumbde’s first ever appearance at the GALF where he spoke about how it was imperative that a democracy held on to and propagated the ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity.
Elaborating on these three foundation stones of any democracy, Teltumbde said that one could not imagine any liberty in India. He said that the police could come to any citizen’s house to arrest them at any time. “Don’t be under illusions,” he warned.
He further said that as far as equality was concerned, Indian society was the most unequal of any society in the world, on account of the caste system. He added, “The caste system is getting amplified with the Hindutva wave.” He stressed that for India to ever be called a democracy, there had to be complete
annihilation of the caste system. And that this had to come from society at large, and not the Dalit community, for it was not the Dalit community that invented the caste system.
As far as fraternity was concerned, Teltumbde said that Indian society was more steeped in the caste system now than any time in the past, and that three surveys conducted in the country had proved this.
He went on to add, “Nothing has changed after Modi came to power. In fact everything is accentuated. Now, people actually take pride in speaking about their caste. India has never been a democracy, but today it is a criminocracy. Those who deserve the Bharat Ratna are being incarcerated in jail.”
The professor who holds a position at the Goa Institute of Management (GIM) concluded by saying that India had never been a Hindu country as there was nothing like a “majority.” He added, “India was a country of minorities.”
When asked whether his outlook was entirely pessimistic, Teltumbde expressed that there was so much power concentrated in the hands of the rulers that an old style revolution was not viable, and that the way out was to create a voice along with the lower strata of society.
Teltumbde also referred to the Hyderabad encounter of the police with the alleged rapists and said that the entire country had been reduced to lawlessness.
