The Hindu Business Line : Permanent struggle

IN HIS speech at the UN the other day, marking the 60th anniversary of the world body, the US President, Mr George Bush, Jr, while outlining the task before the international community in combating global terrorism, said: "The lesson is clear. There can be no safety in looking away or seeking the quiet life by ignoring the hardship and oppression of others. Either hope will spread or violence will spread, and we must take the side of hope".

The most important inference here is that the struggle against violence born of oppression is a permanent one, that any let-up in the effort will lead to the spread of such violence in organised civil society hurting, among other things, the normal processes of economic growth and development which, in turn, harbour within themselves the means to reduce oppression and check the spread of violence.

The second inference is that the war against "oppression" must be waged sensibly, in that the target should not be the "people" themselves but those who are ranged against civil society as a whole, where such a society is preferably run (as in our case) as a parliamentary democracy. Clearly, this is a tricky proposition because, all too often, well-wishers of the democratic principle, in their enthusiasm to do something good for society, pursue policies that directly lead to an increase in the oppression of the poor by the rich which, not surprisingly, strengthen the roots of violence in society.

There is no dearth of example here, most of them, unfortunately, flowing from the misguided and misdirected actions of successive US administrations perpetrated all over the planet, where the intention has been clearly above board but the results disastrous frequently leading to the use of violence on a massive scale to support tottering dictatorships which have brought economic ruin to the peoples concerned. Obviously, when Mr Bush says that the struggle against the forces of violence cannot enjoy any respite, his exhortation must be seen to include the struggle against such dictatorial and undemocratic regimes (that of Gen Pervez Musharraf, for instance, which was born out of a coup that toppled the democratically-elected government of Mr Nawaz Sharif), a struggle which, unfortunately, does not seem to be a part of the US global agenda as of now. But this is only one side of the coin — the external side. There is an internal side as well, that which involves struggle within countries against the forces of violence.

Here the battle is against those political and social groups which choose to operate outside the legal confines of society; in other words, a struggle against those who would want to disturb the peace by committing unlawful acts even if their declared objective is to reduce what they choose to see as "oppression" in society.

In a country like India at the present juncture, such struggle is manifested in the ongoing campaign to combat Maoists and Naxalites who, in recent times, have stepped up their offensive resulting in the loss of life of scores of innocent civilians and Government personnel all over the country. Clearly, should the authorities decide to wear kid gloves in dealing with this type of terrorism, there is little doubt that (in the words of Mr Bush) hope will succumb to the forces of violence, making life even more difficult for the average citizen. And it is not only the Maoists and Naxalites, whose views are essentially rooted in political, social and economic ideology, who are the main disturbers of the peace in a society like ours.

Increasingly, there are the religious fanatics who have succeeded not merely in marrying sectarian views to their personal political prejudices but also in organizing violent activity transcending national and continental barriers. It is clear that the effective combating of such activity on a continual basis by governments across the globe is a stupendous task.

It is also apparent that without such vigilance, hope for a better life for the average citizen will be extinguished sooner rather than later, which is an unacceptable denouement for inveterate optimists who outnumber the doomsdayers by an appreciable margin in today's society.

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

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