PUCL regrets: It failed to start national campaign against "menace of fascism"

By A Representative
Ravi Kiran Jain, national president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), even as coming down heavily on India’s opposition parties, saying they have “no will or capability to face the ugly situation which has emerged on unprecedented political victory of Narendra Modi”, has regretted, it too has failed start any campaigns against the "menace of fascism".
Even as insisting in a statement in the PUCL Bulletin (June 2019) that in the current scenario "the role of PUCL becomes extremely important”, he said, it failed to launch anti-BJP campaigns, as decided at its National Council meet in Allahabad in September 2015.
The three campaigns it was to launch starting with 2016 were a nationwide campaign for securing the dignity of the individual in practice, a campaign against great threat posed by the divisive and fascist politics of the RSS and BJP, and a meaningful and effective reform of the criminal justice system.
Pointing out that “unfortunately, PUCL has not been able to make headway towards the implementation of the launching of the three campaigns “, Jain said, “The obvious reason is that we have not been able to ‘take human rights to the masses’.”
According to Jain, “Let us remember that in absence of a powerful people’s movement for dislodging non-issues, based sheerly on communal and casteist sentiments and without creating a political consciousness of the real issues among the masses ‘for securing the dignity of the individual in practice’, it is not possible to fight the menace of fascism.”
“It is high time that we (PUCL) reach masses to start a people’s movement against the rise of the ugly face of fascism”, he concluded.