“If I say anything, I will be branded “anti-national”. Dissent against the ruling party is considered anti-national.”Aparna Sen, Filmmaker
Writing an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemning the unabated rise in mob lynchings across the country, being heckled for doing so by TV personality Arnab Goswami in a clip that has gone viral, receiving praise from some for having the courage to speak truth to power and getting trolled by others as “anti-national” and “urban Naxal”, filmmaker Aparna Sen is having quite some week. The Quint caught up with Sen at her residence in Kolkata for an interview on what prompted her to write the letter, and everything else that has followed.
The following are excerpts from the interview.
As one of the 49 eminent citizens who wrote an open letter to PM Narendra Modi criticising the increasing occurrence of mob lynchings across India, what is your demand from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre?
Aparna Sen: My demand to the Prime Minister as a free citizen of India is, “Please, Mr PM, why don’t you launch a campaign against mob lynchings? You’re very good at campaigns.” He started a wonderful Swachh Bharat campaign. Can’t he do the same with lynchings – ‘Stop Lynchings’?
On the floor of Parliament, PM Modi has condemned these lynchings. Now, all we’re asking is that we want to see some action on the ground. How can he do it? It’s true that law and order is a state subject – he can give strict instructions to the states.
He has been elected PM for the second time despite the decline in the economy, despite the lack of promised jobs, people are ready to listen to whatever he says. All he needs to do is come on television and say “Stop lynchings,” have hoardings everywhere, start a campaign. It is possible to do that if the will is there – but then, one has to question, “Is the will there?”
In a clip that has been circulated widely on social media, TV personality Arnab Goswami is shouting at you over the phone while you were addressing your press conference. What is your reaction to being heckled by him in such a manner?
Aparna Sen: I would not engage in a shouting match with a person like that. I’m not interested in whataboutery. Why (does he) not talk about the issue at hand, that we’re dealing with right now? That is, in fact, the ideal way to try and deflect.
How do you react to being trolled as “anti-national” and “urban Naxal”?
Aparna Sen: The ruling country in any party, we feel, is not synonymous with that country. It is just the party in power. So, criticising that party is not criticising the nation. How then are you “anti-national”?
Only the other day on a TV channel, I was called an “urban Naxal”. Now, I would like to know whether these people understand the meaning of the words ‘Naxal’ and ‘Maoist’.
Maoists and Naxals do not wish to uphold the Constitution, they want a breakdown of the Constitution and they use violence. We, on the other hand, are constantly trying to uphold the Constitution by saying that everybody has equal rights, the right to life and through Article 19, the right to free speech of which dissent is an integral part.
So, we are upholding the Constitution, we are actually doing the nation a signal service.
Certain TV anchors have been alleging that you and the others who signed the letter are biased against Hindus.
Aparna Sen: One of the things that we were asked is, “Why have you not said that Hindus are also lynched?” What are Dalits? Are they not Hindus? The National Crime Records Bureau report says that there have 840 instances of atrocities against Dalits in 2016, and a definite decline in the percentage of convictions. The Citizen’s Religious Hate-Crime Watch recorded that Muslims, who are 14 percent of India’s population, were victims in 62 percent of the cases, which is a large majority of cases.
The open letter to PM Modi refers to the phrase “Jai Shree Ram” having become “a provocative war-cry.”
Aparna Sen: Not all, some fundamentalist Hindus, are defiling the name of Ram, by saying “Jai Shri Ram” while lynching people. If they use it as an expression of love, put your arm around somebody and say “Jai Shri Ram,” then that’s another matter.
There is also the predictable allegation that all of you are speaking up to further the interests of some political party or the other. How do you respond to such accusations?
Aparna Sen: I am not affiliated with any party. I have criticised the Congress government, I have criticised the CPM government for their excesses, I have criticised Mamata Banerjee every time she has done something wrong ever since she came to power, the latest instance being my support of the NRS junior doctors who were marching against her. I joined the march, carrying protest banners.
So, nobody can say that I am partisan and any party is paying me. I don’t need to be paid by any party, I’ve been working all my life.
What is the broader message you are trying to convey to all Indians?
Aparna Sen: Whose idea of India shall we go along with? Shall we go along with a homogeneous idea of India, where everybody says the same thing and prays to the same god? Or are we going to go along with the diverse, pluralistic, secular India that we’ve grown up in and grown to cherish, which one of the icons of this country Babasaheb Ambedkar put into the Constitution, the founding fathers put into the Constitution.
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