“Two And A Half Men” is a US TV sitcom that aired on CBS for 12 seasons from 22 Sept 2003, to 19 February 2015, starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer and Angus Jones, the series was about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper. Akhilesh Yadav refers to the sitcom to pan BJP govt.
Akhilesh Yadav, former UP CM writes an open letter to fellow Indians in light of the prevailing chaos and confusion across the country, especially the storm brewing in West Bengal and elsewhere owing to the brazen misuse of the CBI and other Constitutional institutions by the BJP-led NDA government:
To all my fellow Indians,
I write to you today because ‘two and a half men’ and the media that has been corrupted by the sycophantic portrayal of these men, are on the brink of destroying our nation and everything it stands for.
As citizens of this great country, regardless of our religious identity or caste, we all live by a single tenet – that we are a sovereign, socialist, secular democratic republic. This is enshrined in our Constitution and it has been a guiding force for our national identity since independence.
Today the attack on the state of West Bengal is not only an attack on the values and tenets of our Constitution but also an attack on the dreams of our founding fathers, the very same founding fathers who the BJP is desperate to co-opt into their narrative, because they have no link whatsoever to our Constitution and therefore to the values it espouses.
In fact, all of the founding fathers stood in direct opposition to the views espoused by the BJP and their ideological forefathers, the RSS.
Today, our sovereignty, our natural resources, and indeed our youth are being sold to the famous few-industrialists who fund the BJP as long as they deliver policies that benefit them. Our communities are being broken apart and are being stripped off their aspirations. Social equality is a distant dream and the government responsible for the highest unemployment level in the past 45 years is telling unemployed youth to become an easily disposable cog in the ‘Geek’ economy because creating jobs is too much work.
Every minority community in this country lives in the fear of lynching, mobs fuelled by rumours, spread by BJP IT Cells-Internet Terrorist cells.
In the last 24 hours, it is clear that the democratic republic that allowed our young people to move across state lines, to be assured of legal framework and strong institutions that protected them and their rights, where elections were free and fair, and leaders who represent the least privileged amongst us have been elected- that democratic republic is being systematically hollowed out and destroyed.
The developments in Bengal are a cause of concern for all citizens, regardless of their political affiliation.
I write this letter to my fellow Indians with the hope that we can protect and preserve our constitutional values and the institutions charged with upholding them. pic.twitter.com/0v14IrmONB
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) February 5, 2019
The formula is simple-unfriendly politicians in power are to be embroiled in legal battles, buried under false charges, attacked as anti-national and seditious, and their states set aflame using whatever sectarian methods are at the disposal of this government that dreams of staying in power for 50 years.
This is just one of many nakedly political attacks being orchestrated across the country by the ‘two and a half men’ who run this country. You may well believe we need a strong man in charge of this country and that this type of person can deliver us from corruption and chaos but our prime minister is far from a strong man. To quote his own Cabinet minister and colleague Mr Nitin Gadkari, “one, who cannot manage his home, cannot manage the country.”
In attacking Mamta Banerjee, these ‘two and a half men’ forget her past. Here is a woman who was dragged from Jyoti Basu’s office by the hair for demanding action against rapists and put in jail. Here is a woman who defeated the old patriarchy of the Communist Party in their bastion. Here is a woman who took on large industrial interests so that farmers wouldn’t lose their lands.
I believe it is for all Indians, regardless of their politics, their religion, their caste or the region they belong to, to agree to two things: That the rule of law requires strong institutions, not weak officers who are weaponised against political opponents; and the elections should be fought at the polling booths, not using midnight raids, trumped-up charges, and lies.
I call on our judiciary, the CBI, the IAS, the IPS and all our national institutions to prevail against the constant attack on them and to fight back with integrity. I call on them to stand up for due process so that they don’t act as the ‘election agents’ of a particular party. I call on our fellow Indians who work at these institutions to stand up and be counted and I pray that our fellow Indians who work in the media will speak truth to power without fear and favour.
You can disagree with me, you cast your vote for the person who can represent you best, but please don’t allow this motley group made up of ‘two and a half men’ to erode the very basis of our country.
Akhilesh Yadav
National President, Samajwadi Party
05 February 2019
Image source: Mujeeb Faruqui/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Frank Huzur is the author of “Tipu’s Story”, a biography of Akhilesh Yadav, and the Editor of Socialist Factor magazine.