Ujjal Dosanjh: Time to raise voice against fascism

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 2

In a veiled attack on the government, Ujjal Dosanjh, former Federal Minister of Canada, said the present situation in India was responsible for creating inequality and division among different strata of society.

“Their intention is to divert people’s attention from basic issues, whereas the need of the hour is to create equality, prosperity and enhance religious amity and friendship,” he said while talking to Chandigarh Tribune here today.

Incidents of lynching and killings of rationalists, scholars, Dalits, Muslims and even cops, who tried to protect the minorities, have been reported in the past several years.

“They are not us. If you create emphasis on one particular religion, they become other and we become us. You make people believe that they are lesser than us. That is how fascism begins and people must raise their voice against it,” he said. On detention camps being set up in Assam, he said people must speak against such camps.

Hitler did not start sending Jews to gas chambers directly. He started first by breaking windowpanes of shops owned by Jews and later, by inflicting atrocities on them.

Talking about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), he said India was not a signatory to the Geneva Convention, “but it clearly states that if someone is a refugee, you don’t discriminate against him or her on the basis of race, caste, creed, religion or nationality. You accept them on the basis of whether they are persecuted or not”.

“They are talking about persecuted minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Shias and Ahmadias are also being persecuted in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Why are they saying that they will accept only Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Christians. They should not discriminate against refugees on the basis of religion, race, caste and creed,” he said.

In ancient India, Parsis and Jews came from all over the world and India is to home to the oldest synagogue in Kochi. “Refugees should be given asylum on the basis of the Geneva Convention and not on the basis of religion, caste, creed or race,” he said.

“My great grandfather was hanged by the Britishers in the Lahore conspiracy case in March 1916. I learnt values from the founders of the country. I have no political interests, but as a kid born and raised in India and as someone whose family had made sacrifices for the country, I just want to see India thrive and provide social and economic justice and equality to all,” he said.

On immigration of youth even from well-to-do families, particularly from Punjab, he said youth tend to settle down in foreign countries due to inadequate opportunities here and hassle-free life there.“Every year, nearly 20-50 million dollars are being sent to foreign countries from India. Whereas, it was the other way around when he went to England in 1964,” he said.