Program Report

People for Secular Democracy Exhorts All Secular And Democratic People in Karnataka to Jointly Fight Against Terrorism And Communalism Program Report of the Awareness campaign against Communalism & Terrorism conducted by People for Secular Democracy, a group of few IT professionals

It was the first of its kind in the IT industry in Bangalore wherein a few techies came forward to highlight and create awareness among the people about the twin menace of communalism and terrorism, which is corroding the very fundamentals of the highly diversified Indian society. These divisive thoughts are essentially creating reverberations in various sections of the society. Information Technology is a field where large chunk of people are working and spending greater part of their life around computers and away from social initiatives and activities. This is also a media which spreads like fire any news whether true or manipulated. As somebody told passiveness is the strongest activism which nurtures divisive thoughts like communalism and terrorism, People for Secular Democracy's initiative is to underline the importance of bringing walls of resistance against gaining upper hand of divisive line of thoughts in society.

Communalism, Imperialism, terrorism – different divisive tendencies are highlighted on the photo exhibition.

On Saturday, February 7th at SCM House, Bangalore People for Secular Democracy conducted the program with the sole aim of cognizing the youth and other sections of society about the eroding values of Secularism and to stand united to fight Terrorism, Communalism & Imperialism.

Introductory talk by Karthik

Book Exhibition

The program started by 3.00 pm with Mr. Karthik from People for Secular Democracy speaking about the initiative, its need and the purpose. People for Secular Democracy condemned Terrorist attacks in Mumbai and various other parts of India, moral policing of Hindutva and the Mangalore incident, Israel's Gaza massacre, and called to a form a united force and raise a prolonged struggle to counter these anti people and fascist tendencies.

"Mile Suru Mera Tumara", the popular song in Dooradarshan gave the right starting of the event afterwards as it reminded the diverse nature of the country and upheld the "Unity in Diversity" of country.

Naveen and students from AC3 performing skit performances

Students from AC3 were active with solo and group

The event started with a handful of cultural programs. The vibrant and vernal skit presented by Naveen and team from Ambedkar community centre (a centre in the slum area of Sudarshan layout, Bangalore) was highly appreciated. It caught the essence of the implications of Hindutva forces functioning in our daily lives and cultural arena and called for constant vigilant against these atrocities. After this, the children from Ambedkar community presented one group song which stressed that this world is created by farmers and workers. Then, Saraswathi from the group presented one solo song also. The Ambedkar community group bluffed the kind of arguments that inabilities are inherited in Dalits and other marginalized sector by their vibrant performances.

Breath taking performance of Arul

Lingaraju enthralled the audience

This has been followed by Lingaraju's two beautiful songs in Kannada which acclaim the unity in diversity nature of the society. Kuppaswamy also sang a song in Kannada. He had a beautiful voice

which enthralled the audience. Arul performed a beautiful and breath taking dance to the tunes of a song glorifying the diversity culture of India.

Audience is seen concentrated on the talks

Kuppaswamy gave a mastery performance

Dr. Nagmohan Das High court justice and Dr S Chaterjee from Indian Instiuste of Astro Physics were chief guests of the event. Around 4.00 pm, Dr S Chatterjee gave a very good talk on the subject “Communalism, Terrorism and Social Justice”. He portrayed a historical analysis of the Indian society and underlined the evolution of Hindutva in the country and its fascist symptoms. He reminded the European Fascist experiences and cited its Indian counterpart’s dangerous and inhuman face which is essentially marginalizing the sections of society to poverty and destitution. Dr. Chatterjee started the talk with his own personal experience on the recent terror attack in Mumbai and argued that both terrorism and communalism are two sides of the same coin, and has to be countered by continuous struggle and campaigns and spreading awareness in the society. He appreciated People for Secular Democracy for coming up with an event of this stature and urged its members to continue these efforts with the same vigor.

Dr S Chaterjee and Dr Nagmohan Das giving the keynote speeches

Dr Nagmohan Das described the essence of Indian constitution. He underlined the concept of secularism as the pillar of India and how it is really important to preserve a diverse society - which has 350 identified languages, more than 1000 dialects, different ethnic groups, religions, castes,

races etc. He underlined the need of being united against the both communalism and terrorism. He questioned the portrayal of terrorism with a certain religion alone and opined to identify all kind of divisive thoughts has to be termed as terrorism. This included Hindutv’as talibanisation, Islamic terrorism, Separatism, criminalization in different sections of societies etc. He strongly condemned these attempts and warned the implications of US imperialism and linked its contribution to the terrorism. After the talks, the audience asked few questions to the speakers like the possibility of a constitutional amendment by a rightist government in future to take away Secularism, how to increase the awareness among people against Communalism & Terrorism, the question of Indian Nation etc. The speakers explained very lucidly manner the answers to these and asked the audience to study various facts about history and to think and analyze themselves the various scenarios in a rational manner.

Dr Vijoo Krishnan reciting the pledge to audience

Mementoes are given to the artists

Dr Vijoo Krishnan, former HOD of political science in St. Joseph College and currently a social activist also underlined the need to understand the real face of terrorism and told it cannot be identified with any particular community by giving examples of the different terrorist organizations in India for long. He read out the following pledge to which everyone from the Audience stood up and repeated: “We as patriotic Indian citizens hereby pledge to stand united against all divisive forces that are inimical to the unity and integrity of the country. We pledge to remain vigilant against any attacks on our secular traditions and the very edifice of the Indian constitution. In the times of terror and communal violence we shall make all efforts to conscientise the society against these evils and strive to strengthen harmony in the country. Against terror and communal ism we remain solidly united. The people united shall always be victorious.” Dr Chatterjee and Dr Nagmohandas also distributed mementos to the cultural event participants Naveen, Saraswathi, Nirmal, Sateesh, Mani, Santosh, Jeeva, Veeramma, Prabhakaran, Arul, Lingaraju, Kuppaswamy.

Audiences clarifying their questions with Nagmohan Das.

Ram ke Nam screening over the big screen.

Finally, Krishnakumar from People for Secular Democracy expressed vote of thanks to Dr Nagmohan das Dr. S Chatterjee, the participants of the events and to the audience. Around 6.30 pm, as sun was setting in the west, group was active and screened Anand Padwardhan's acclaimed documentary "Ram ke Nam". The documentary was a right end to the whole days event as it essentially highlighted the realities and the political dirty games played by the Hindutva communal forces since 1949 and the events during the Rath yatra of LK Advani which later culminated in the demolition of Babri Masjid. A photo exhibition with 27 pictures and cartoons showing the after effects of Terrorism, Communalism & Imperialism was also there through out the entire event. The pictures spoke through their artistic works by hanging in the entrance of the hall and posing questions and showing the consequences of these. The event saw people from different sections of the society; different age groups and different professions come together and vindicated the still existing secular values in the hearts of the Indians. The event was staggeringly supported by the audience and suggested to continue with these efforts and pledged to extend their support to the initiatives of People for Secular Democracy.

People for Secular Democracy distributed the book “The Real Face of Terrorism in India” published by them, to all the people who came to the program. An e-version of the booklet is published on the blog http://seculardemocracy.blogspot.com. Those who want hard copies, please send a mail to [email protected]