To protest against the open daylight murder of the rationalist – Narendra Dabholkar in Pune (Maharashtra), New Socialist Alternative (CWI-India) along with various other progressive political grouping under the banner of the Peoples’ Solidarity Concerns – Bangalore staged a protest at Town Hall in Bangalore on 26th Aug. The protesters also condemned the attack on the students of FTII{{1}} and KKM{{2}} activists in Pune by BJP/ RSS{{3}} student wing – ABVP{{4}}. More than 100 people turned up for the protest.
The protest was addressed was addressed by political activists and progressive personalities from Bangalore that included M Venkataswamy (Samata Sainik Dal), Prof. G K Govind Rao, Dr. K Marulasiddappa (ex-chairman of the Karnataka Nataka Academy), Chandrashekar Patil (Kannada Writer), Nagragare Ramesh (People’s Democratic Front) and Jagadish G Chandra (New Socialist Alternative) among others.
Both the killing of Dabholkar and the attack on activists and students at FTII shows the open contempt of the Hindutva forces that seek to stifle all democratic/ progressive voices in society. Narendra Dabholkar, who was well known in Maharashtra for struggling against all irrational and superstitious nonsense that is being propagated by India’s innumerable godmen, astrologers and their ilk, was gunned down on 20th Aug. The protest that followed in parts of Maharashtra against the killing has forced the Congress led govt. in the state to pass the Anti-Superstition Ordinance for which Narendra Dabholkar had fought all his life.
Yes, ‘Whole India Needs anti-superstition law’ for what ever worth it is. But more importantly it is time to weed out the ideologies that want to keep the society in the past and represent the forces of dark reaction. India’s Capitalism intertwined with feudal interests wants all the superstition in the society to be intact. Down with Capitalism & landlordism!
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[[1]] Film and Television Institute of India [[1]]
[[2]] Kabir Kala Manch – Pune-based cultural group of Dalit protest singers and poets, Kabir Kala Manch, was falsely branded a Naxalite in 2011 & have since been hounded by the Indian state [[2]]
[[3]] Bharatiya Janata Party/ Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [[3]]
[[4]] Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad [[4]]