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 Students from AC3 were active with solo and group
performances

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 seculardemocracy@gmail.com