Skip to main content

Drumming up protest: Sangh labour union 'left high and dry' at Jantar Mantar grounds

By Liaquath Mirza 

Have you recently come across any news coverage which covered Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh’s (BMS) protest rally at Jantar Mantar? If you did indeed, then I must congratulate you for unearthing this news despite best efforts by the Government to hide it from public eye.
You are indeed one of the very few who managed to avoid the toxic foam of Yamuna and took a deep dive to get to the bottom of reality. Kudos to you for keeping yourself abreast of what is happening in Bharat these days. The protest took place at Jantar Mantar on 17th November 2022.
For those blissfully unaware souls let me provide a bit of a context here. The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) is one of the oldest trade union bodies, a Sangh Parivar family member tasked with trade unionist activities while keeping the working class in Hindu fold.
The wise men of BMS have a difficult task of perpetual performance of balancing act between two opposing forces -- capital and labour. This act becomes even more difficult when one of their brethren occupies the throne and rolls out plan after plans, Niti after Niti to liquidate, sell and privatize government assets. The operating motto here is that the government has no business to be in business and … even beyond.
And so for the past eight odd years BMS is caught in a nut cracker situation with capital from above and labor from below cracking hard at it to its breaking point. The point at which keeping its working class flock together looks to be increasingly difficult unless some show is staged for the benefit of its constituency.
I must say I chanced upon it while scrolling through my subscribed feeds on YouTube. I am now completely dependent on digital news magazines and a few YouTubers for my daily staple of news. I logged out of the toxicity of Facebook insta and twitter long years ago to save myself from going crazy.
I uninstalled WhatsApp, unable to endure the toxic good morning and the dazed good night messages, pictures and sermons which were interspersed with ‘Mera Bharat Mahan’ and Hamara Hindu Hriday Samrat propaganda pieces between good morning an good night.
The feeds emanate from a certain IT cell and get cascaded by Whatsapp uncles, chachas, chachis, mamas, and taus among families and friends groups. Even office whatsapp groups are not spared. These messages clog the internet highways and cloud the gullible minds.
Though I miss the UNSESCO and UNICEF recognition certificates given to our anthems, our culture and to our supreme leaders, they were like funny pages of dailies providing comic relief amidst the heavy stuff.
But I digress. Let me circle back to the hot news at hand. While scrolling through my subscribed feed of YouTube I chanced upon this video clip which had a catchy title and angry saffron clad people milling about in the background. I could provide the link here but I desist from doing that in order not to be seen as promoting this channel.
The 20-odd minute episode was hilarious all through. BMS office bearers were thoroughly confused. The cheeky interviewer was thoroughly enjoying himself playing the devil’s advocate, posing impertinent questions while poking holes into the flimsy arguments put forth by the BMS representatives. They were squirming like caterpillars at the mischievous questions while steadfastly refusing to denounce their supreme leader on camera.
I was reminded of the Panchatantra tale of a monkey’s tail caught in a wedge. The stupid monkey forcibly removes a wood worker’s wedge while his tail is left dangling between the half cut logs. The wedge comes out and the half open log snaps shut catching the monkey’s tail in between leaving the monkey howling and screaming in pain.
The 20-odd minute episode was hilarious all through. BMS office bearers were thoroughly confused
I see an analogy between the two -- BMS dharna dilemma and the monkey’s meddling in the panchatantra tale. The only difference is that the Monkey was free to howl whereas poor BMS blokes can’t even scream in agony.
The poor chaps of BMS came across as trying very hard not to take one misstep on the tight rope act lest the Hriday Samrat’s heart is hurt. As it is the supreme leader is hard at work converting vile ‘gaalis’ hurled by his enemies into vitamins and nutrition. To have to stomach gaalis from family and friends would be a bit too much even for him. Et ‘tu Brutus?
The tragicomedy that unfolded in the video peaked my interest to scout for some more news on the event. But Google’s powerful search engines returned just a clutch of news items and trickle of YouTube videos in .0006 seconds. None of the so called news channels dared to cover the event barring a small clip from NDTV (but how long will NDTV go on? Wait and watch... or better still don’t and ban TV news altogether from your life like I did).
The YouTuber in his conversation mentioned that jammers were alleged to have been fixed at the venue so that the outdoor ‘shor’ (noise) made by the dharna does not cross Jantar Mantar. TV OB vans were conspicuous by the absence.
The wise men and women of the idiot box were busy with their postmortem of the sensational murder case that is still doing the headlines and occupying the ticker tapes. In that case there is sex, there is depravity, there is psychopathy and to top them all there is religion of the accused. Lots of masala, lots of drama. And most importantly a green signal from the kitchen cabinet to exploit, beat and repeat.
Poor BMS was left high and dry on Jantar Mantar grounds despite their feeble efforts to drum up a protest and come across as a responsible union of the mazdoors. As Arundhati Roy says, peaceful protests need an audience to enact a spectacle. Here bloodline of broadcast was cut off at its root successfully leaving the heads of BMS scratching their heads.

Comments

TRENDING

Reducing emission? India among top nations whose coal as energy source going up

By NS Venkataraman*  The State of the Global Climate report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that the year 2023 was the warmest year on record, with the global temperature of 1.4 degree celsius above pre-industrial 1850-1900 base line.

Lockdown 'total failure' of science more than of politics: Open letter on 4th anniversary

Counterview Desk  In an open letter to fellow academicians, scientists and medical practitioners in India, marking the fourth anniversary of India's lockdown (25 March 2024), the Managing Committee* of the Universal Health Organisation (UHO) has insisted on the need to "repair two years of immense damage to science".

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Magnetic, stunning, Protima Bedi 'exposed' malice of sexual repression in society

By Harsh Thakor*  Protima Bedi was born to a baniya businessman and a Bengali mother as Protima Gupta in Delhi in 1949. Her father was a small-time trader, who was thrown out of his family for marrying a dark Bengali women. The theme of her early life was to rebel against traditional bondage. It was extraordinary how Protima underwent a metamorphosis from a conventional convent-educated girl into a freak. On October 12th was her 75th birthday; earlier this year, on August 18th it was her 25th death anniversary.

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

'Wrong direction': Paris NGO regrets MNC ArcelorMittal still using coal-based steel

By Rajiv Shah  A new report by Paris-based non-governmental research and campaigning organization, Reclaim Finance, has blamed the MNC ArcelorMittal – formed in 2006 following the takeover and merger of the western European steel maker Arcelor (Spain, France, and Luxembourg) by Indian-owned Mittal Steel – for using use “climate destructive” metallurgical coal for its projects in India.

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Attack on foreign students: Gujarat varsity's reputation, ranking at stake, say academics

Counterview Desk  Expressing anguish over the attack on international students in Gujarat University hostels, a letter claimed to have been signed by 122 current and former academics has asked the Gujarat Vice Chancellor, Dr Neerja Gupta, to provide emotional support to the attacked students and to ensure their physical safety.  

As double engine takes backseat in Odisha, BJP is pitted against 'firmly rooted' BJD

By Sudhansu R Das  BJP has got 25 years to build its party base in Odisha. After 25 years, it felt helpless and insecure to fight elections on its own strength. The party was almost crazy to have an alliance with the ruling BJD in Odisha.  Looking for alliance at the time of election shows that the party has not groomed its grassroots level workers into potential leaders.  The state BJP leaders woke up and convinced the Central leaders that they are capable of going solo; the alliance was stillborn. The question is can BJP defeat BJD which is firmly rooted in Odisha after launching piles of populist programs in the state.