Renowned historian and author Ramachandra Guha called the nation-wide arrests of human rights activists a ‘corporate-political plot’ by the Narendra Modi government and his capitalist friends.
During an interview on Hindi news channel NDTV, Guha said that the current government “intends to remove all the intellectuals, lawyers, human rights activists and journalists who can represent the Adivasis and address their problems.”
When anchor and journalist Ravish Kumar asked why so many activists and journalists were outraged over the arrests, a visibly anguished Guha said, “The government’s game plan is to give access of Adivasis’ resources to capitalists. Expel Sudha Bharadwaj..expel the courageous journalists..then no one will be left to fight for the rights of Adivasis.”
Terming activist and advocate Sudha Bharadwaj as the “purest Indian democrat”, Guha said, “From my understanding of Sudha, she is a non-violent person like (Mahatma) Gandhi. She thinks before she speaks and has never supported violence. She has only worked for poor labourers, Adivasis and the Dalit community, for their relief. She has helped several human rights activists and even journalists. She is a very respected person and the last person you would call an ‘Urban Naxal’. I think of her as the purest of Indian democrats.”
Guha also accused the Modi government of creating an atmosphere of fear among the middle-class urban population with the term ‘Urban Naxals’.
He said, “The modi government has shown the dream of a prosperous society like Singapore to urban middle class people…and the government tells the people who’s creating hurdles in this development? The ‘Urban Naxals’..who are instigating the Adivasis?..this term ‘urban naxals’ is only being used to scare and confuse the urban middle class”
Speaking on the raid at Anand Teltumbde house, Guha said, “I believe he is the most renowned Dalit intellectual we have. No one else has the same understanding of Ambedkar’s life and thought as he does. He is the leading Ambedkar scholar in India today.”
“On one hand Modiji says that Ambedkar is my role model, I have opened Ambedkar’s museum and on the other hand, his government attacks the most well-known Ambedkar scholar. I just don’t understand,” Guha added.
Guha asserted that the BJP government wants to grab the Adivasis’ land, since the government’s ‘corporate friends’ want to extract minerals from it. He said, “The corporates fully supports this government and this government in return supports the corporates. These arrests are being conducted only to make easy the loot by the capitalists”
“There is no constitutional way through which the government can acquire the land. But capitalist cronies of the government want those minerals. Now the government doesn’t want people like Sudha Bharadwaj and reporters to be present there..this is a corporate political plot,” he added.
A distressed Guha then said, “If Mahatma Gandhi would have been alive today, he would be standing with Sudha Bharadwaj..Gandhi ji would be defending Sudha Bharadwaj in court today.”