Let us please not emotionalize politics

जाने माने समाजशास्त्री शम्सुल इस्लाम के मेल के प्रत्युत्तर में'मुक्तिकामी छात्रों-युवाओं का आह्वान' के संपादकअभिनव सिन्‍हा ने श्री इस्लाम को एक पत्र लिखा है जो निम्नवत् है -

To Shamsul Islam

Dear Comrade,

It would have been better had you read Mr. Teltumbde's response to us. Because what we did is only respond to his critique line-by-line. Moreover, we haven't called him cheat or dishonest even once we also never mentioned a thing about his birth, etc. It was he mentioned his birth, or family. We in fact said that there was no need to do that on a platform of ideological, political discussion. May be you should have quoted us. Moreover, if we didn't get the opportunity to inform him that he was self-obsessed, he too did not inform us during the seminar that we're self-obsessed Marxist. In fact, he said in his second statement that he agrees with much of what had been said in the paper and also by me and Sukhvinder. Again, may be, you should have watched the video of the entire debate.

We had said during the seminar that Anand Teltumbde (AT) has drawn our attention to many facets of the problem of Dalit liberation and also the onslaught of Hindutva. However, that in no way prohibits us from a logically rigorous and valid criticism of the approach and method of Mr. Teltumbde. We are not concerned with personal likes or dislikes. What we're concerned with is ideological critique here.We should not mess politics with emotions. Walter Benjamin had once said, "Fascists aesthetize politics. Communists respond by politicizing aesthetics." The same could be said about emotionalizing politics. So, let us pls not emotionalize politics.

'मुक्तिकामी छात्रों-युवाओं का आह्वान' के संपादक अभिनव सिन्‍हा,

Moreover, we never said that Ambedkar and AT are not of consequence. We presented a critique of Ambedkar's politics, philosophy and economics with his quotations; we presented a critique of his understanding of caste question and its solution with proper references. Rather that eulogizing Ambedkar, you should concentrate on the concrete critique that we've presented. In fact, Mr. Teltumbde himself shares that critique of Ambedkar and agrees that he completely failed to understand caste question and failed miserably to provide any solution to it. I am completely clueless at what point are you defending Ambedkar and at what points are you defending AT. In our paper, we've given the due credit to Ambedkar. However, we're not for uncriticality about anything. We devoted the major part of our paper to a critique of Indian Communist movement and its failure to understand the caste question. The smaller portion was devoted to a critique of Ambedkar. However, this raised a storm among the Dalit intellectuals and also among those Leftists who are victim of a "collective guilt conscience" on the question of caste and Ambedkar, as if we have tampered with something sacrosanct, a holy cow. We did not expect such an attitude from genuine Marxists. However, we are sorry to say that we were wrong.

If, after reading the rejoinder of Mr. Teltumbde and our response to him, you think that the debate has been reduced to "gupshup", why bother about it, Sir? The teaching about "doing creative work" is well-taken…however; we do not feel the need to show a report card of our work among workers, students, etc.

Finally, we would like you to comment concretely on our key paper and our statements (that can be found in the video), rather that rhetoricizing and trivializing the whole issue in the name of empty sounding hollow calls or plea for considerate approach towards Ambedkar and AT.

In the end again, we would like to inform you that we're going to organize an open debate in Delhi on this question. We invite all to join. The whole debate will be video graphed and open. The question of Ambedkar, AT's writings will be included. AT too will be invited. You too are invited. Let us debate on all questions in the open, among a wide audience in Delhi. We'll host and will own all expenses. Rather than, shooting in the dark, let's debate openly the question of caste, Marxism and ideas of Ambedkar. We stick to our point and we'll defend it there.

We hope you'll consider our proposal.

With Warm Revolutionary Regards,

Abhinav.

बहस में सन्दर्भ के लिये इन्हें भी पढ़ें –

Personal attacks are bad for healthy and scientific debate

To the Self-proclaimed Teachers and Preachers : debate on 'Caste Question and Marxism'

क्या डॉ. आंबेडकर विफल हुये?

कौन कह रहा है कि सच को माने बग़ैर हवा में क्रान्ति की जाय?

क्रान्ति के शत्रु को ही लाभ पहुँचाती है क्रान्तिकारियों की आतुरता

विचारधारा और सिद्धान्त जाति हित में बदल जाते हैं !

बहस अम्‍बेडकर और मार्क्‍स के बीच नहीं, वादियों के बीच है

दुनिया भर में अंबेडकर की प्रासंगिकता को लोग खारिज करके मुक्ति संग्राम की बात नहीं करते।