Ram Puniyani
Rihai Manch, a forum for getting
justice to the falsely implicated youth in the cases of acts of terror has
currently (June 2013), a protest Dharna (sit in) to demand the arrest of police
and IB officials responsible for the death of Maulana Khalid Mujahid, to
implement the R.D. Nimesh Commission report and to release the innocent Muslim
youth implicated in acts of terror. This campaign is getting broader support
from more human rights groups and affected community. This is the major effort
by a civic society group to democratically protest against the insensitive and
biased state machinery, to pressurize it to come to the path of justice.
The Samajvadi Party, Akhilesh
Yadav Government in UP, had earlier claimed to be the major champion of the
cause of Muslims, to the extent that the main leader of this party Mulayam
Singh Yadav was derogatorily called Mulla Mulayam. But as he came to power last
time also during his regime many a communal episodes, violence, took place
under the very nose of the Government. Currently also Akhilesh Yadav‘s regime
is marked by over 27 episodes of major riots. On the top of that this
Government in its election promise had said that the innocents, implicated in
the acts of terror will be released. On the contrary, the death of Maulana
Khalid Mujahid in the police custody has raised sufficient doubts about the
intentions of the Government. Even R.D. Nimesh Commission report was kept in
the cold storage from last one year, and now when it has been released finally,
the government is refraining from taking action, hiding behind the argument that
it will be discussed in future Assembly session before action is taken on the
report. As such Government has full prerogative to take action at Cabinet
level. People fear that this commission report may also face the same fate as
the other commission reports, which are generally put on the backburner or put
in the cold storage.
Ashsish Khaitan, one of the
journalists with dogged determination, sensitivity and honesty, has floated a
portal, Gulail (Slingshot) (Facebook page here) to highlight the investigative reports related to
the framing of innocents by authorities. Many an officers have falsely
implicated innocents, despite knowing the truth, to enhance their own career
prospects or to due to the biases which have gripped the large sections of the
law enforcement agencies. These agencies regard that only youth from one
religious community are responsible for the acts of terror. Khiatan also opines
that putting forward the truth of such cases is also not of much use; as in
such cases reports of honest investigations are overshadowed by the biased
reporting and opinions in the print, T.V. and social media. He is pinning his
hopes on judiciary and the people’s campaigns for getting justice. The ongoing
dharna in UP is drawing the attention of the social groups and is being sustained
for over two weeks by the social activists and the pained and anguished
community, whose young ones’ are being incarcerated and have to suffer not only
the future career prospects but have also to get the blame, which ostracize
them from social life. In this direction various efforts have been undertaken
in the past but after temporary response and restraint the investigation
agencies lapse in to their usual prejudiced actions.
Not only can this be seen in the case of UP, but overall one sees the wide gulf between the promises and actual actions of the so called ‘secular parties’. While in Maharashtra the Congress coalition came to power with the promise of implementing Shrikrishna Commission report of 92-93 riots, after coming to power on this promise it put forward the usual excuses and the guilty police officers and political leadership continued to be in their positions of power despite sufficient proof of their involvement in instigating and participating in the riots., As for as justice to the victims and action against the guilty is concerned Samajvadi Party seems to be no different. The R.D. Nimesh Commission has given the full truth based on which it can proceed to punish the guilty police officers, but that’s what is being avoided. The credentials of so called secular parties are more are less similar, be it the Congress or be it the Samajvadi Party, they have very opportunistic attitude as far as the justice to minorities is concerned. While communal parties are out to do away with the rights of minorities and deny them justice through and through, these so called secular parties have dual character. They promise and are unable to deliver as their calculations are built around the vote bank politics.
This is due to multiple factors.
One is that these supposedly secular parties are also being trapped by the
considerations other than the values of secularism. So, controlling of communal
violence, which is possible if there is adequate determination to do so, is not
being done effectively. The second reason is the communalized state machinery,
the investigating agencies, police and bureaucracy. How to investigate the
cases, how to frame the innocents is an easy enough job, which the authorities
do and their Khaki uniform empowers them to do it with ease. It is precisely
due to this that the fate of inquiry commission reports has not been
significant one. Starting from Madon Commission of inquiry into Bhiwandi riots,
to Shrikrishna Commission and Liberhan Commission reports, the outcome, taking action
based on the report, is close to zero as the implementing authorities,
political leadership is opportunist and lacks the strength to stick to
principles.
So where do we go from here.
While the communal forces are out to proactively browbeat the religious
minorities, the secular formations do not have the spine to ensure justice and
equity. Its’ here, that the social activism which has prominently come up
during last two decades in particular, needs to be strengthened. The activist
groups have taken up these issues seriously and the initiatives by social
activists is a major landmark in this direction. One wonders, why are the left
parties, which should be principally secular to the core are shunning these
efforts. Their joining these efforts to get equity and justice to minorities
will put pressure on the parties like Congress and Samajvadi to try to become
sincere in their efforts.
The intensification of efforts
through judiciary and popular protests has to be intensified. The rot set in
our democratic polity due to the infiltration of communalism through different
mechanisms has been a very dangerous one to the values of our Constitution. It
is time that we as a nation introspect and get over the biases and prejudiced
behaviors towards weaker sections of our society. The path to social progress
is paved through amity and justice. Professional attitude in investigation of
acts of violence, communal amity and justice for all are the prerequisites of
social progress, progress of society in the real sense.
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