Assam: Ethnic Communal Divides to the Fore

Ram Puniyani

The recent (May 01, 2014) violence in Kokrajhar, Baska killing 32 Bengali speaking Muslims is one more reminder of the seeping Bodo-Muslim tension in the region. This violence is being attributed to Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), whose legislator Pramila Rani Brahma allegedly stated that her party candidate and Assam minister may not win in the present elections as according to her knowledge Muslims had not voted for him and have voted for a non-Bodo candidate. This is what seems to have provoked the violence, but surely this is tip of the iceberg as the problems between two communities are much deeper and are in a way continuation of the same reasons which led to the violence in the region in July 2012. This is also related to the subtle threat for the forthcoming Assembly elections of 2015.

Kokrajhar District (marked in red)

The fear being expressed by the party of Bodos is that a defeat of their candidate will spell the doom for their demand for the state of Bodoland, which is high on their agenda. While the dissatisfaction amongst Bodos and the travails of Bengali speaking Muslims have been simmering for a long time, they got painful expression in the form of the violence in July 2012 in the Bodo Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD) Kokrajhar, Chirang, which are governed by Bodo Territorial Council and part of Dhumri. This violence led to killing of sixty people and displacement of nearly four lakh people.

The region is gripped by the problem, due to the misconception that the Bengali speaking Muslims in the region are infiltrators from Bangala Desh. While the BJP, Modi, are projecting that the present elections are being fought on the issue of development, at every conceivable moment there is the propping up of the communal issue. In his speeches in eastern part of the country, Modi has been accusing Bengal Chief minister that she has more time to look after the Bangla Deshi infiltrators than the people of Bengal. In Assam, he went on to suggest that rhinos were being killed in Kaziranga National Park to find room for infiltrators. He also gave a threat that the infiltrators should pack themselves up as they will have to leave on 16^th May, the day election results will come out and he is sure to become the Prime minister of the country.

The problem in the Assam region is a festering wound on the body politic of India. In Assam under the pressure of problems related to jobs and other livelihood issues have been given a communal tilt by the parochial forces which gave the slogan ‘Assam for Assamese’ quite on the line of Maharashtra for Marathis by the sectarian Shiv Sena in Mumbai. The first casualty of this propaganda and the attitude which was generated due to this; was the Nellie massacre (1983), in which nearly three thousand people, mainly Bengali speaking Muslims, were butchered by Luhang tribe. The massacre occurred in the midst of Assam agitation, which was demanding cleansing of the electoral rolls of ‘illegal immigrants from Bangla Desh’. A Tribhuban Prasad Tiwary Commission was instituted in the wake of massacre, but its report was never made public. Agitation of Bodo’s led to creation of Bodo Territorial Council (BTC), giving most powers to Bodos in the four districts, Khokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalgiri; three of which have undergone the massive violence in July 2012. The claim that Bodos are majority and need to preserve their ethnic identity and interests in the area, does not hold any water since the estimate of percentage of Bodos in this area varies from 22 to 29% only. With full powers given to them under this council they have marginalized other sections of society very badly. The other point of view is that despite the formation of Bodo Territorial Council, the Bodos did not surrender their arms, which was one of the conditions for accepting the demand of this regional council.

The study of population statistics will make it clear that the beginning of coming of Bengalis speaking Muslims in Assam was due to the policy of British. There is a long history of Bengali speaking Muslims in Assam For example there were close to one lakh Muslims in Assam in 1931. In the beginning Bengal was the very populous and politically most aware area. Assam at that time was sparsely populated. British undertook a ‘Human Plantation policy’ in the beginning of twentieth century. The basic idea of British policy was three fold. One was to ensure the shifting of people from the overpopulated Bengal to Assam. Two, it aimed to reduce the incidence of famine and unrest in Bengal, and three British wanted to habitat Assam and collect revenue from that area.

Irrespective of the propaganda about Bangla Deshi infiltrators, research based on population statistics of last century shows that Muslims in the region are settlers from pre partition Bengal to begin with. Later there was some migration at the time of partition in 1947 and still later in the after math of 1971 war with Pakistan, leading to formation of Bangla Desh. Shivam Viz in Myth of Bangla Deshi and Violence in Assam (http://kafila.org/2012/08/16/the-myth-of-the-bangladeshi-and-violence-in-assam-nilim-dutta/) shows that the migration has taken place over a period of time and the increase of population stops after 1971.

The Assam accord of 1985 granted citizenship rights to all these who had settled in Assam till then. This accord recognizes all those living in this area as the legal setters and so most of the Muslim fall in that category. Not to deny that that some small number of illegal immigrants, the ones’ forced to migrate for economic reasons may also be there.

Despite these facts, the issue has become a big fodder for communal politics, which keeps harping on ‘Bangal Deshi infiltrators’. Here also they go on to say Hindu migrants from Bangla Desh are refugees while the Muslims are infiltrators. Even the 2012 violence was labeled by communal forces as strife between Bodos (Nationalists) and Muslims (foreigners!). The plight of the Muslims who speak Bengali is pathetic as not only they are marginalized and looked down upon, many of them do not even have the voting rights and some of them are put in the category of D voters, i.e. doubtful voters and so are not allowed to vote. There is an active hate industry blaming that the ruling party is encouraging infiltration for the sake of votes while in reality the economic migrations which are associated with the regional disparities like Nepali’s coming to India have also come down heavily with Bangla Desh economy looking up in last few decades.

The present violence is definitely and outcome of the communal venom spread through the election speeches and unresolved issues of the two communities. The Bodos not surrendering arms, after formation of BTC, as promised by them has been the major ground for violence. It is here that we need to concentrate. The demand for giving licenses to minorities for self protection has been in the air but probably better option is to disarm the Bodos, as per the accord which led to the formation of Bodo Regional Council. The human tragedy of such proportions needs and urgent response and long term measures from the state and central Government. The reconciliation between two communities must be given top priority, adequate rehabilitation along with the development of the region, the lack of which is given the direction of ‘Hate other’ by the tendencies demanding separate Bodo land.

Read More

Polarization with a difference: Muzaffarnagar Violence

Ram Puniyani

Communal violence has been the bane of Indian society, more so from last three decades. One can see its coming up prominently from 1893 to begin with and then it went through different phases. It became stronger after 1937, peaked in 1946 and then the post partition holocaust shattered the lives of lakhs of people. After a gap of a decade it started coming up again from 1961, Jabalpur violence, later anti Sikh violence of 1984 was not just violence, it was genocide. At different levels after this we see the big surge, Meerut, Maliana, Bhagalpur, Mumbai, Gujarat (post Godhra) being the worst of them. Pre partition it was both communal parties Muslim League-Hindu Mahasabah, and the communal patriarch RSS, which were major players in this dastardly game. This phenomenon led to the polarization along religious lines. This polarization was the hallmark of this violence which kept going up. The stereotypes about ‘other’ community kept worsening up; still the intercommunity rupture was not total or complete. The intensity about adverse sentiments about ‘the other’ went going up gradually, remaining at subcritical level till probably 1992, after which the ghettoisation of minorities started becoming a prominent urban phenomenon, and the misconceptions about minorities became a major part of social common sense. The other observation was that the communal violence, which is the superficial manifestation of politics in the name of religion, is predominantly and urban phenomenon. Many a social scientists made it the fulcrum of their understanding and blamed urbanization as the bane of our society, which was responsible for this type of violence.

As the matters stand after the recent Muzaffarnagar violence, it is clear that communal violence being a major phenomenon in urban areas was just a phase of this process. Having polarized the urban populations, the agenda of communal outfits has now targeted the rural areas. Its implications surely are going to be more disastrous for our nation as a whole and it is time that the dangers are assessed of the trajectory of this process. There are many factors about Muzaffarnagar violence, which should make us sit up and take notice. So far the communal violence in different parts of the country benefitted the RSS-BJP in a major way and the litmus test of this was the increased social presence of RSS affiliates in those areas affected by violence and increase in political strength of BJP in electoral arena. Gujarat is a classic case where after the post Godhra violence, BJP has dug its heels in the state, and RSS affiliates are ruling the streets.

As the political players calculate on the political chess board, this time there were two players who thought they will benefit. On one side from the usual beneficiary, the BJP associates, which in the aftermath of 84 Kosi Parikrama, activated its workers in this game of polarization. The other player, the Samajvadi party, probably calculated on the similar lines, if Hindu polarization benefits BJP, Muslim polarization should benefit Samajvadi party was their thinking, which let the violence happen. It is also true that since Samajvadi party came to power a year and a half ago, communal violence has gone up in Uttar Pradesh.

In this case of Muzaffarnager violence, it started as three boys got killed on the pretext of teasing of a girl or a skirmish on the road (there are two versions of the beginning of the episode). There was enough time to see the dangers of such an inter-religious violence and control the same. But that was not to be. The officers in violation of the rules and even the imposition of 144 in the area let the Mahapanchayat of over a lakh people take place. The caste-communal outfits are patriarchal to the core and slogan-theme ‘Bahu Beti Bachao’ (save daughters and daughters-in-laws) was enough for the village Jats to turn up in large numbers with weapons. Communal propaganda is taken to the higher pitch. And so the communal violence enters the villages. And here the BJP communalizes the social space. Though it did not have much base amongst Jats, this occasion was cleverly manipulated to introduce divisive politics. Two factors were made use of. One the image of Modi as the savior of Hindus. Now Jat goes from the caste identity to Hindu identity. In communal politics religious identity is the foremost. The Muslim crowds also confront, play some role in violence but as is the usual case the partisan police machinery does not do its job in an objective manner and the result is a lopsided violence more against minorities, displacement and increase in the sense of insecurity amongst minorities follows.

The Samajvadi party’s gamble will pay or not, time alone will tell. During the reign of Samajvadi party the monster of communal violence has been permitted to come out as is obvious from the observations that during Akhilesh Government every month nearly two acts of violence have taken place. How come during previous regime of BSP, the monster of communal violence had been restrained? Same officers, same people. Surely it is up to the ruling Government to let the violence take place or not. Communal forces, BJP and company, always keep instigating it and looking for opportunity to unleash violence. In UP the additional factor of course has been the presence of Amit Shah, who is on bail and who has the experience of Gujarat carnage, his role will have to be watched, but as such the RSS-combine machinery is in place and can take such assignment on the drop of a hat. While at one level, the instigation used was to propagate that ‘our’ daughters, daughters-in-laws are not safe, on the other hand a BJP MLA uploaded a video clip showing some people dressed like Muslims killing two young men brutally. This was a video shot few years ago in Pakistan when two young persons were lynched by the mob with the suspicion that they are dacoits. It went viral on the social media, which is reaching villages in good measure, and created a hostile atmosphere.

As such earlier Jats and Muslim has affable relations, but from some years few tensions cropped up and the recent violence drove a deep wedge amongst these two communities and violence could spread to the villages. The tragic factor is the propagation of Modi, as a ‘strong’ leader who can save us (Hindus). The major back up of communal forces is to promote an autocrat, on the backdrop of the massive propaganda that majority community is not safe due to the miniscule minority. So Modi is supposed to fill the gap of a powerful leader which can protect the majority community. All this is far from true but popular perceptions have gone on and on and the contestation to these misconceptions has neither been effective nor far in reach.

Lesser said about the role of police and administration the better. The administration has powers enough to ensure that such violence does not take place and if at all it takes place, it can control it in a day or two. Many of those in top echelons of administration-police have a biased mindset, and this if supplemented by the calculating Government, that violence will benefit their electoral prospects, the tragedy takes no time to flare up. UPA Government had promised to bring a Communal Violence Prevention bill. The subcommittee of NAC did lot of home work has submitted a draft of the bill. Surely there may not be a consensus on the draft, but probably by putting it to the grill of different mechanisms, the grain of the draft can be saved from the chaff to ensure that the officers and those in seats of power who do not do their job as per the norms of Constitution are punished. The provision for punishment to the officers guilty of dereliction of their duties, acts of commission and omission are a must. The political leadership has to be taken to the task for its inaction at the crucial time. The communal forces have to be combated at ideological, social and political level if we wish to have the country with communal peace and amity. 

Read More

Kandhamal Violence -5 Years Later

Ram Puniyani

This August 25, 2013, it will be five years, since the biggest anti Christian, violence, biggest communal violence in the Adivisi area, will complete five years. What has been the plight of the victims of the violence after this ghastly tragedy? What is the state of justice to the victim?

Kandhamal violence began in 2008, after the trailer of the same was seen a year earlier in 2007. The pretext was the murder of Swami Laxmananand, Lakkhanand, who was working in the area from last four decades. He was part of the RSS combine, VHP-Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and was involved in the programs like Ghar Vapasi, the forcible conversion of Adivasis to Hinduism. RSS combine asserts that Adivasis are originally Hindus who had to flee to forests to avoid being converted to Islam in particular. This is a political construct and has nothing to do with the social history. The credit of his murder of Swami was taken by the Maoists, who said that this act was done to stop his activities related to spreading hatred in the area. Immediately after the murder, Pravin Togadia of VHP took out the procession with the body of Swami through a long circuitous route spanning 270 Kilometers. It was on this route that anti Christian violence and destruction of Churches and damage to the property of Christian community took place. It is reminiscent of the Gujarat pattern, where the bodies of Godhra tragedy were taken in a procession to Ahmadabad by the functionaries of VHP-BJP., and the violence followed.

The victims of Kandhmal were poor Christians, most of who were dalits and living below the poverty line. Nearly three hundred Churches were destroyed and four hundred Christians were done to death. With this thousands of them had to leave the areas and were forced to live in the poorly equipped refugee settlements. This violence was targeted against the minority Christian community, it violated the fundamental right to life, liberty and equality guaranteed by the Indian Constitution, and affirmed by many international covenants. The pattern of violence shows that the attacks were targeted, widespread, in the district of Kandhamal. Their execution was done with meticulous planning and preparation. The violence was preceded by various activities and the planning meetings were held by the perpetrators prior to the violence. Apart from this meticulous planning the financial and other forms of assistance were secured months prior to the violence. The violence meets the criteria of ‘Crimes against Humanity’ as defined in international law. The blatant brutality of the violence makes it fall within the definition of ‘torture’ under international laws.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

The winter following the carnage was very intense and the facilities to combat the nature’s fury were far from adequate. The relief came much later but not adequately from the Government sources. Church tried to step in as a stop gap measure. But initially the Government blocked this humanitarian relief on the ground that it will be given only to the Christians. On the intervention of the Court, Government was forced to permit the Church to offer the aid to all the victims. This also partly reminds one of Gujarat. Here also the state washed its hands soon enough and then the religious organizations tried to fill the gap!

The state of justice delivery system as such is abysmal. The communalized state apparatus blocks the justice at various levels. The story of this obstacle begins from the registration of cases, then to investigation and then to the court procedures, the role of public prosecutors and the willpower of state. The whole chain shows that justice is hard to get by especially the way our democracy is being eroded by the communal ideology under various garbs. At this stage the National Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Law Network came forward and brought out good reports showing us the mirror of the prevalent injustice in Kandhamal. A People’s Tribunal was also set up under the Chairmanship of retired Justice AP Shah. Most of these reports indicted the communal forces for their aggressive stance and held the state Government responsible for various acts of omission and commission. Unlike in Gujarat, the BJP, which was part of ruling coalition, was dumped by Biju Janata Dal after which Biju Pattnaik, the Chief Minister could frankly speak about the role of BJP and company in their involvement in instigating the violence against Christians. The role of Hindutva organizations in the carnage was officially acknowledged by the Chief Minister. In response to a question posed in the Legislative Assembly, the chief minister of Orissa, Naveen Patnaik, admitted, on the basis of state’s investigation that “members of the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal” were involved in the violence. As per the Chief Minister, police arrested 85 people from the RSS, 321 members of the VHP and 118 Bajrang Dal members in the attacks. He said that only 27 members from these groups were still in jail.

Even till date the work of rehabilitation and justice to the victims is far from adequate. Nationally there are so many pressing issues of violations of the rights of minorities that Kandhmal issue has not been so much brought into focus by the human rights groups, which is a bit unfortunate. Despite other pressing demands on the time of social groups, one must appreciate the dogged and determined work of some of the activists who are pursuing the struggle for dignity and rights of the victims of Kandhamal violence.

John Dayal, President of All India Catholic Union and member of National Integration Council points out that “The Chief Minister Pattnaik appointed two judicial commissions… the commonality between the judges of these commissions is the haste in which they have expressed their high regard for the late VHP leader, Swami Laxmananand and their belief that the violence is not religiously motivated but a conflict over land issues between the Tribal Kondhs, mostly Hindu, and the Dalit Panos, many of whom have converted to Christianity, and who are demanding Scheduled Caste status.” Like most of the commissions of inquiry these commission are also working at a snail’s pace to prove once more that a delayed report usually becomes useless as for as delivery of justice is concerned.  The Christian community was so disgusted with the attitude of the commissions that initially they boycotted them but later seeing no other platform to express their pain and anguish have decided to be part of the same.

Today five years down the line the process of rehabilitation is far from satisfactory, a small number is yet to get the compensation. The compensation received is too inadequate to rebuild the life afresh.  As far as justice is concerned while the inquiry commission reports are too slow, the fast track courts which were set up have been suspended. The proceedings of the cases is going on in an atmosphere where the guilty are openly threatening the witnesses, and many of them are reluctant to give evidence out of fear of the accused, who are on bail despite several serious  charges against them.  Quite like Gujarat where many a witnesses turned hostile! In this scenario the state is backing off from rebuilding the Churches destroyed during carnage. The plea being offered is how a secular state can spend money on the places of religious worship. Again quite like Gujarat! When state is unable to protect a place of worship, why should it not come forward to build it?  

Kandhmal is yet another reflection of the impact of communal forces within our system, the difficulty in rehabilitation for them and the lack of adequate justice for riot victims. This is what is the major phenomenon eroding our democratic plural ethos. More and urgent efforts need to be put in for these hapless victims of the carnage.

Read More

Communal Violence: Who is to be blamed?

Ram Puniyani

A friend with dogged determination to show that the BJP is a lesser culprit of communal violence and that Congress is the major party to be blamed, listed the major communal riots in India and showed that most of the time when violence took place, it was Congress which has been the ruling party. He asks, so why get stuck with one episode of Gujarat violence and put it as a major point against Narendra Modi or BJP for that matter? Others also regularly point out that the role of Congress was no different in anti Sikh pogrom of 1984 in Delhi, when so many Congressmen were involved at various levels in anti Sikh pogrom. If Modi justified Gujarat by saying ‘every action has an opposite reaction’ Rajiv Gandhi also told us ‘when a big tree falls, the earth shakes’. So why single out Modi-BJP being worse than Congress on the scale of ‘who is more responsible for communal violence’.

Gujarat - 2002

The story so far has been that in India the communal violence began with the British implementing the policy of ‘divide and rule’ and for achieving that they did introduce communal historiography, looking at Kings through the prism of ‘Kings’ religion’, this vision of history being taken up by the declining classes of landlords and Raja-Nawabs. These declining sections of society laid the foundation of communalism, Muslim and Hindu both. Hindu communalists blamed Muslim kings for temple destruction and forcible conversions, while Muslim communalists claimed that they were the rulers of the country. This distorted version of the past created an atmosphere of mutual hate amongst Hindus and Muslims. The communal violence gradually went up as communal parties, Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha along with other communal formations created an atmosphere of mutual hate. Still they did not get success in the electoral arena.

During the British period while the blame can be put to the communal history introduced by British and their subtle moves to play one community against the other, the communal forces cannot be exonerated for their role in perpetuating violence. The police authorities that time played the role of a neutral observer. What is important here to see that there are multiple agencies that played different types of role in the tragedy of Hindu Muslim violence? The blame at this stage has to be apportioned to British policies (especially there introduction of communal historiography and the policy of ‘divide and rule’), to the communal forces in equal measures. At this stage the police-administration cannot be blamed for the role in violence.

Things gradually started changing. After independence the role of Administration-Police gradually started becoming partisan. The research of Dr. V.N.Rai, police officer of repute, showed that no violence can go on unless the administration, political forces included, wants it that way. The major blame has to go to the communal forces, who not only kept on spreading canards against minority community but some of their elements used communal violence to polarize the community along religious lines. The polarization along religious lines did help the communal forces to consolidate themselves in the social-political and electoral arena. Many a politicians from other parties also sometimes used the violence to either retain the power or to come to power. The inquiry commission reports during this time uniformly tell the role of communal forces. Jagmohan Reddy Commission on Ahmadabad riots of 1969 talks of the active participation of RSS-Jansangh leaders, Jan Sangh is the previous avatar of BJP. Major blame has to go to these forces, though they were not in power.

In Bhivandi Jalgaon riots of 1970 Justice D.P. Madon states that ‘section of Hindu elements particularly RSS and some PSP men were bent upon crating mischief, and they could succeed because of the passive police’. Justice Joseph Vithayathil on Tellicherry riots of 1971 points out that the anti Muslim propaganda was begun by RSS-Jan Sangh which changed the situation leading to communal polarization. In 1979 Jamshedpur riots, the report of commission of inquiry says that Samyukta Bajarangbalis Akhada Samiti, related to RSS was the one which deliberately created the dispute on the issue of route of procession and the members of Samiti raised anti Muslim slogans leading to violence. Justice Venugopal on Kanykumari 1982 riots makes the observation about the role of RSS in spreading rumors etc., the rumors acted as instigation to violence. Justice Srikrishna Commission also makes it clear that the BJP ally Shiv Sena’s role in Mumbai violence was very stark.

So the question is if there is some ruling party, should it be totally blamed? The violence is an outcome of divisive propaganda, communal instigation, role of police and the attitude of the ruling party. They all have separate blames to take. While the ruling party, which has been Congress most of the places has to be blamed for its soft handing of violence, sometimes overlooking the violence, and sometimes being the active instigator as in the example of Delhi in particular. The role of police is very central. The police which was neutral at the time of British rule today has gone to become the most partisan player in this tragic phenomenon as seen in the Dhule riots of 2012 in Maharashtra. Here the role of the Hindu mob was not needed as police did the firing on its own and killed the hapless minority victims.

So how do we compare BJP and Congress as far as communal violence is concerned? BJP is the political child of RSS. Communal propaganda, rumors, polarization, instigation and violence has been led by RSS combine from the front by this organization and its affiliates, the different progeny of RSS. Gujarat is the ‘total’ example, while in other episodes also it has played the crucial central role. Not being in power does not mean it has not played the central instigator role. This argument that Congress has been mostly in rule so it is to be blamed for violence has been cleverly constructed for propaganda purposes. While Congress cannot be exonerated for its role in the violence, its role cannot be compared with that of BJP in any sense. Barring one example of the tragedy of Anti Sikh violence, where the role of Congress was central, in other cases mostly its acts were that of omission, while BJP and company have central role in most acts of violence.

Anti-Sikh Riots - Delhi 1984
Courtesy: Wikipedia

Role of Congress in 1984 anti Sikh pogrom will be a permanent blot on its own inheritance of pluralism and secularism. It has tried to rectify it by apologizing for the same and its plural character is also reflected by its prime minister who is a Sikh, having the longest uninterrupted reign as PM after Nehru.  As such BJP cannot be compared with any other political party as it is a political child of RSS, which is working for Hindu nation. Some social scientists have very well given the contrasting nature of the politics of Congress and BJP. Aijaz Ahmed points out that BJP is programmatically communal while Congress is pragmatically-opportunistically communal. Mukul Kesvan in one of his recent article says that Congress is inherently plural and is opportunistically communal, while BJP is ideologically communal and opportunistically secular.

Notwithstanding the fact that communal violence is a multi-factorial phenomenon, two wrongs don’t make a right, Congress needs to tighten the total link from bottom to top, and rectify the factors which have been leading to communal violence. The communal propaganda, the laxity of laws, the impunity with which the guilty officers get away. It needs to bring in anti communal violence bill to see that this sub human phenomenon is put to rest. The propaganda emerging from RSS combine stable is totally misleading to say the least. 

Read More

Myanmar Communal Violence- a Set back to Democratic Process

Ram Puniyani

Most of the countries of South Asia have faced the barbaric problem of violence targeted against religious minorities. The form of this may have been different, but the outcome has been similar, the brutality against religious minorities, violence against innocent human beings. The current times (Mid 2013) may be one of the worst when in the spate of short span of we are witness to violence in Pakistan, Bangla Desh, India and Myanmar, more or less running parallel. Many a times when talk about violence involving Muslims has been under discussion, some propagandists have tried to associate Islam with violence and so the strife. Similarly some others may say that Hinduism permits violence as in Gita or so and so is the problem. In popular perception Buddhism is the religion of peace. The truth is that while the religious precepts are for morality, the part of religion invoked for violence has more to do with contemporary political issues, which are given the garb of religion. While Lord Gautama Buddha is surely the major apostle of peace, one has seen violence by Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka, Thailand and now overtly in Myanmar (March 2013).

Troops are keeping a vigil, martial law has been declared to stop the communal rage which has lasted for three days in Meikhatila in Myanmar. This violence has involved the Buddhists and Muslims.  Here the official toll stands at 31 dead, while the unofficial figures are higher.  A state of emergency has been declared in this state. As usual a trivial incident involving the argument between the Buddhist couple and a Muslim owner of gold shop resulted in the triggering of simmering dislikes and discord between these two communities resulting in violence. While one Buddhist monk has also been killed the major victims of the violence are Muslims. This bring to our memory the communal clash of June -July (2012) in Rakhine State in western Myanmar. In that violence officially 110 people were killed and it left 120,000 people homeless. Those killed and left homeless were mostly stateless Rohingya Muslims.

Interestingly the communal strife was under the wraps during the preceding dictatorial regime. With the efforts to bring in democracy in some form these strife’s are coming to surface due to the diverse and plural nature of Myanmar society, which is majority Buddhist but has substantial number of Muslim minorities. Rohingiya Muslims are probably the most persecuted minority in the world. Being a substantial number in Myanmar, they are from Indo-Aryan group, who settled in this part over a period of last couple of centuries, during the British rule, primarily. While the majority Buddhists are of Sino-Tibetan stock.  Muslims live in the Western state of Rakhine state on country’s Western border.  They have been adversely affected by the 1982 citizenship law, which has deprived them of the citizenship; there is a total violation of their human rights due to this unjust law. They are subjected to forced labour and have to work for the Government without any pay.  The UNHCR has noted that since 1991 their freedom of movement is restricted. They are treated like second class citizens. Facing this adverse situation of gross violation of their rights many of them are trying to flee to Thailand, Malaysia and other places amongst others.

In 2012, June-July the violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims was triggered by the rumour of rape of a Buddhist girl. As such it was a case of Muslim boy and Buddhist girl falling in love and eloping to get married. The boy was murdered and two of his friends who helped him to elope are facing death sentence.

Overall this reflects the unsolved problem of secularization and democracy in the region. The common factor in whole of South Asia is the migration of people for economic reasons, and with independence coming many of the dominating communities wanted to associate citizenship rights based on religion. Due to this some communities got deprived of citizenship formally or informally. Some were relegated to second class citizenship in practice. In Sri Lanka, the large number of Tamils who had gone there as plantation labour was denied equal rights and denied equality leading the extreme reaction in the form of formation of Liberation Tiger of Tamil Elam (LTTE).

In Myanmar 5% of the people are Muslims. Many of them had been the residents of this region from centuries. Denying them full citizenship defies all the logic of a modern democratic state. During the regime of military junta, which ruled the country for decades, a wrong precedent has been set, that of linking citizenship with religion. It requires deeper investigation as to why many a monks have an anti Islamic attitude. One knows similarly many a monks had played anti-Tamil role in Sri Lanka. There must be deeper societal processes which are at work and are usurping the democratic norms of equality of religions. One knows that democracy is coming up in Myanmar after long decades after long battles, but still the remnants of the communal divide are dogging this nascent democracy. In a way this is also the colonial legacy which subtly promoted the divisiveness in the society.

With this violence in Myanmar coming to the fore the whole South Asia has to wake up and come to the grips of the legacy of the colonial past, a legacy perpetuated due to economic and political policies of rulers, rulers who have in a short-sighted manner resorted to abuse of religious identity for their political goals. Some political tendencies have thrived on the identity of religions and spread the ‘Hate’ about ‘other’ community. It is retarding the process of development in each of South Asian countries and also putting strong brakes on the same. South Asia should have been striving towards the process of formation of South Asian Federation, which can expedite the processes leading to peace in the sub continent. Regional peace in turn is a prerequisite for development of the regions. We need to look beyond the narrow religious identities and promote the freedom of religion, equality of religions and dignity and honour for people of all the faiths for a better environment in those countries and a more congenial atmosphere for enhancement of human rights of weaker sections of society.

Read More

Dhule Violence: Changing Anatomy of Communal Violence

Ram Puniyani

The violence in Dhule Maharashtra seems to be the new face of communal violence in India. As per the report of a major national daily (Jan 26, 2013), the evidence with the newspaper shows the evidence of police looting and destroying the property. The video clips in possession of the civil society groups also show one police official exhorting the rioting mob to move on. So far even if it was there it was not so blatantly clear. One sensed the partisan nature of police as discerned through different inquiry commission reports, but this type of role of police is a new and downhill chapter in the history of communal violence in India.

Communal violence has been a major menace to our nation, from last more than a century, and more particularly from last three decades. Rise in communal violence can be correlated with the British policy of ‘divide and rule’. This policy was achieved by them by introducing the communal view of history through different books by British authorities. The communal version of history was taken up by the Muslim and Hindu communalists to suit their political agenda of opposing the political, social and economic changes which aimed at Liberty Equality and Fraternity. The communal forces spread hatred against the ‘other’ community, the result being that the communal perceptions started being part of the ‘social common sense’, hatred for ‘other’ community became the foundation on which the communal violence took place or was orchestrated. This in turn strengthened the communal forces in different areas, and increased the levels of misconception for the ‘other community’. This parallel and opposite process went on till the tragedy of Partition, which was the biggest act of communal politics, the outcome of British policy of ‘divide and rule’.

During British rule the communal violence was a communal riot. In this both Hindus and Muslims were pitched against each other in an inhuman way, regarding; perceiving as if they are doing something for their religion. The political agenda of retrograde forces wore the cloak of religion. While communal forces made merry, the innocents suffered and the police took a neutral stance. They were trying to balance out without taking any sides while controlling these acts of violence. This neutrality of police started changing after Independence, when gradually the communalization of section of police force started taking place and its overall neutrality started getting eroded by the day, to the extent that later a section of police started helping violence in a pro active way. And over a period of time, those who are supposed and are duty bound to protect the innocent citizens, became partisan. Shooting the minority community members and throwing them in canals (Meerut Malyana 1987), or burying them in the field and growing cabbage over them (Bhagalpur 1989) was painfully observed.

A whole ‘Riot mechanism’ gradually came up in which the communal forces instigated, the so called secular forces looked on or subtly helped and the police took sides with majority community. At the same time the political leadership, bureaucracy, and police who are supposed to protect the innocent citizens, failed to do their assigned job and still got away without getting any punishment. This impunity gave a signal to them all that they can carry on with this game of marginalizing the minority community and reap the harvest of communal politics on the electoral arena.

This ghastly situation is taking a further turn for the worst. And now it seems the communal forces and the communal foot soldiers are having an easy time as sections of police force are blatantly communalized. Police not only has become the active player in the game, police is shamelessly providing a cover to those indulging in violence. This painful fact comes to surface in the recent violence in Dhule, 6 January 2013, where over 40 people from the minority were shot above knee, in abdomen chest, neck face and back, out of which six died, three had to undergo amputation and remaining one’s are recuperating with serious injuries. The citizen’s inquiry committee which went to Dhule for fact finding was shocked out of its wits to find as to how the event which required a simple intervention from the police grew into the tragic incident. The mater was too trivial; the victim came to police chowkie to complain and with a request to intervene. Police constables on duty, apparently told the victim to go and settle the issue himself. The victim a Muslim auto rickshaw driver came with few more youth, the youth from other side also collected and stone throwing began. The clips, taken on video; show that the police acted as a cover for the Hindu mob which charged towards the Muslims. The police force also seemed to have begun to violate the police manual in letter and spirit. The mandatory loud speaker announcement, use of tear gas, lathi charge to be resorted before firing was done away with and a straight firing was resorted to. The police training says the firing should be to disperse the mob, begin with firing in the air and then below the knee. In Dhulia the police thought it is a redundant exercise, so the firing was a targeted one, above the knee, above the waist, in abdomen, chest, face, neck and back.

The victims who fell to the police bullet were left to be taken to hospital by friends and relatives. Police claims they were attacked seriously, acid was thrown on them. The civil hospital record shows that all the injuries suffered by police were minor. Some of them were admitted to hospital wards to show that they have been attacked seriously. No case of serious acid attack on the police, no case of serious injury, which requires hospitalization! The mob burns the houses; mostly those of Muslims, few Hindu households are also burnt. Police did not entertain any FIR of the victims. Next day morning the area is washed clean to wipe out some remaining evidence. Those wanting the FIRs to be filed were told that since they are themselves culprits of violence, filing FIR will go against them. A rumor was floated that combing operation will be done in Muslim areas. The victims in Hospitals take early discharge fearing that they will be charged as being the rioters in the violence.

The civic administration did not set up any relief camp for those whose houses are burnt. Ration was distributed knowing fully-well that those whose houses are burnt cannot cook as all cooking vessels and utensils are burnt. The political leadership, Chief Minster and co. is apathetic and it takes them 10 days before driving down a distance of few hours to assess the situation, to address the woes of victims and to announce the much needed compensation. The compensation announced is meager for reasons best known to the Chief Minster.

What trust the victims will have in such state machinery? A feeling of utter neglect and helplessness is prevailing amongst the victims. Some relief has been provided by the community organizations. That does not help the matters beyond a point.

The violence in Dhulia comes in the backdrop of violence in Akot, Raver and other places in the region, over a short span of time. There is an urgent need for better relief, setting up of Police-Civic society Mohalla committee, sensitization of police in communal matters and to counter the misconceptions widely prevalent about the minority community. Who will undertake all these? Can Government think out of the box and take initiative in this direction? Who will get justice to the victims? And will the Central Government muster courage to bring in the Communal Violence Prevention Bill, which was presented in National Integration council. The draft bill can be modified by standing committee before finalizing. This bill should at least ensure that the section of political leadership, bureaucracy and police will not be spared for their acts of commission and omission due to which violence occurs and keeps simmering.

Read More

Babri Demolition: Two Decades Later

Ram Puniyani

Twenty years ago (December 6, 1992) on this fateful day, Babri Mosque was demolished. This demolition remains a major blot in the history of India. It was the act of demolition by communal forces which reflected the changing polity of India and it in turn further changed the polity in a very adverse direction. Liberhan Commission showed that it was a pre-planned act orchestrated by Sangh Parivar, which gloated over it and celebrated it as Hindu Shaurya Diwas (Hindu Bravery Day). RSS combine and many an ideologues sympathizing with its ideology projected and are projecting this demolition as a major act of Nation building! While those committed to democracy and secularism see this day as a day which shamed Indian democracy; secularism and opened the floodgates of further communal polarization in a very intense way. What emerged from this tragic day was the strengthening of communal forces due to which BJP emerged as the major party at electoral level, which further communalized our culture into a narrow sectarian one. The values of divisiveness and intolerance towards weaker sections grew further.

 While the communal forces led the onslaught, the so called secular party, the Congress did everything to let the things go on, as a passive onlooker or an active colluder. Congress failed to protect the mosque and showed its week knees to the extent that many started equating Congress with BJP. It started being said that what BJP does openly during the day Congress does it covertly, by the night. These two major parties have ruled the Indian political space. In this BJP is programmatically communal and Congress is opportunistically communal. Not to be left behind during this demolition and in the aftermath of demolition, the violence which followed; the acts of violence which took place later and the role of police which was revealed during all these episodes has come as a shocker in a very blatant way. During demolition police failed to do its allotted duty and during violence it either looks the other way round or assists the rioters. In the aftermath of the violence, its role is again suspect. While the major victims of violence are the minorities, uniformly police arrests more from the minority community in large numbers. Despite some noble exceptions, many police personnel are most willing to violate the process of law to support the majoritarian communalism.

 The violence has a pattern. While the Muslims are 13.4% according to 2001 census, the number of victims from Muslim minorities is close to 90%. The strong persistence of biases against them acts as the fertile ground on which the violence takes place. Most sections of society, including political leadership of many parties, large sections of those in bureaucracy and police have strong biases against these hapless minorities, due to which the starting point of their action is in presuming that they are criminals. What follows next in the form of their action, quite conforms to this pattern.

  

The violence has been leading to polarization of communities along religious lines. This polarization is so strong by now that starting from schools, colleges and some work places, where per chance some Muslims find employment, the segregation along religious lines is becoming discernible. This polarization has led to the rise of communal forces to bigger electoral power is very visible. In Mumbai, as Shiv Sena took the lead in violence, it did come to grab electoral power in the aftermath of violence. Simultaneously the inquiry commission reports, which have come out so far, Srikrishna or Liberahan, get their place in the cold storage. While the communal parties in power treat these reports with disdain, the Congress shows no interest in getting them implemented, the calculations of vote bank comes to the fore and we painfully see the work of judiciary, the inquiry commission reports, adorning the library shelves, and that’s about all. Had there been the rule of law, the perpetrators of hate speech, those who lead the communal violence would have been behind the bars rather than roaring in the streets and being upgraded to be called as Hindu Hriday Samrats (Emperor of Hindu Hearts). It is no coincidence that after the 92-93 Mumbai carnage Bal Thackeray, who led the violence, and Narendra Modi who was at the centre of 2002 Gujarat pogrom, both came to be anointed with this pre fix of Hindu Hriday Samrat.

Babri Masjid - a Rear View
Courtesy: Wikipedia

 The impact of communalization process is also visible in section of judiciary. In states like Gujarat, the cases had to be shifted out of the state to see that the justice is done. In case of Ayodhya judgment of Allahabad High Court, we saw the situation where two of the three judges resorted to the ‘faith’ of the people to divide the ‘disputed’ land amongst three contending parties. This was something neither asked for by the litigants nor can stand on the legal grounds. The divisive violence has been leading to the formation of physical ghettoes where the sunlight of progress and liberal value can hardly reach despite the best efforts of the social workers committed to the cause of education and reform. In Mumbai in particular Mohalla Committees did play some positive role and do continue to play the same in some form, thanks to the affirmative action by some police officers of impeccable reputation and the social workers committed to the cause of peace in society.   

Unfortunately the response of state and the social groups to mitigate such a downward shift of the polity has not been adequate. While Government has set up National Foundation for Communal Harmony, its agenda and resources are too limited to address the mammoth task of spreading the awareness about the values of secular democratic values to most of the sections of society. The school text books, NCERT, have been improvised but these do not reach all the students, the state boards have yet to follow it. The sensitization efforts of the state, sensitization of bureaucracy and police are far from adequate. The need to look at their syllabi is most urgent. Surely they have a lot of time to spend for their basic job of policing or becoming the part of steel frame of the country but the aspects of education related to national integration have also to be taken more seriously and need to be integrated in to their curricula. The communal violence bill which can go a long way to prevent the occurrence of violence is again lying in the freezer of the government.

  

Social groups have their own limitations. While some social groups have focused on getting justice and have praiseworthy results, still the journey is too long due to the structural problems created due to spread of communal ideology and mindsets, which are dominating the social space. The emphasis on awareness program, though are there, these remains patchy, ad hoc and are not reaching the people where it should reach. The programs for secular values, in the arena of culture, street theatre, songs, films, though have taken off well, remain nascent. We have a long way to go for national unity, which is very much needed at the present time. The act of nation building is to follow the path of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. This whole exercise of Babri demolition has been the one of attempts to break the national unity, in a serious way. To put salt to the wound the communal forces are getting more legitimacy, one hopes that the lessons of Babri demolition are taken seriously by the society and state to reverse the trends initiated by this ghastly tragedy. 

Read More

Persistence of a Sore: Communal Violence Today

Ram Puniyani

The events taking place in different parts of the country in October-November 2012 have been very disturbing to say the least. It is the continuance and recurrence of communal events, communal violence in different parts of the country, in UP, Assam and Hyderabad in particular. In UP since the Akhilesh Yadav Government has come to power there has taken place a series of acts of violence in UP. Since Samajwadi Party took over the reins of the state in March 2012, in the past few months’ communal violence took place in Mathura, Pratapgarh, Bareilly, Meerut, Allahabad and Lucknow. The latest in the series has been the tragic events of Faizabad, where On 24 October 2012, when the immersion procession of Durga was going on, a girl was molested by few miscreants. Making this as a pretext few people started stone throwing in the nearby areas. A rumor was spread in Faizabad that Muslims are doing the stone throwing. The mob went on to burn nearly 25 shops of Muslim traders. They also rampaged the office of bilingual (Urdu and Hindi) paper Aap Ki Takat. This paper is continuously giving the message of Peace and calling for Hindu-Muslim unity. They also vandalized the mosque.

According to activist Yugal Kishore Sharan Shastri, this was a pre-planned attack. The editor of the paper Manzar Mehdi feels, this is an attempt to silence the voice of peace. The police took long time to reach the spot and did not intervene effectively. Similarly the fire brigade also took four hours to reach, by which time the shops were totally destroyed.

  

In the far off Assam, the recurrence of violence resulted in the death of six people, and it seemed whether there is going to be recurrence of the tragic incidents of July 2012, when nearly four lakh, mainly Muslims, were displaced and sixty people died. Assam violence was a bit different than others as here the number of displaced were much more and it seemed that there is a plan to get the Bodo areas cleared from the presence of the Muslims. Here one also saw that in the process of rehabilitation the Government is having a lopsided approach and Muslims are not being rehabilitated as many of them do not fuilfil the criterion of proper records due to various reasons. This was one case of violence where apart from police playing its role of a mere onlooker, the propaganda, based on misconceptions was made the base of violence. It has been propagated that Muslims are infiltrators, Bangldeshis and have been encroaching the lands of Bodos. Lot has been written to dispel this myth. Muslims have mainly been coming from Bengal from 18th Century due to the British policy of reducing the pressure on overpopulated Bengal and to ensure that the stretches of Assam, having low population density are populated. Since the perceptions have made a deep root in social common sense, the violence against Muslims, the citizens of Assam-India have gone on and communal forces have taken full advantage of that.

The third incidence is from the Southern state of Andhra, where the historic monument of Charminar is being vandalized by putting up renovation of Bhagyalaxmi temple, which is abutting the Charminar. This violates the norms of Archaeological Survey of India. The plea of ASI that the changes in temple may damage the Minar and that this an illegal act is falling on the deaf years and government has been letting the act of desecration of Charminar going on, much to the annoyance of the people of old city of Hyderabad and historic Charminar area. There have been minor skirmishes due to which many a people have been injured and the area saw the curfew for some time.

Courtesy: The Hindu

As protests roil Charminar, Hyderabad’s heritage slowly vanishes

A note on the Charminar Photograph

These three incidents are very typical of as to what goes on to make a communal violence. There is preplanning in these acts, as is clear in all these cases. The pretext and rumours about violation of the modesty of women, is very much visible in the case of Faizabad. In case of Faizabad, apart from intimidating the minorities, burning their shops, the ransacking of the office of bilingual paper, Aap Ki Taqat is very symbolic. This paper is bilingual, Urdu and Hindi. Its belief is that Hindu Muslims are brothers and Hindi-Urdu are sisters. It has been talking of peace in Ayodhay and is opposed the communal politics which led to Babri demolition. In UP while the Samajvadi party (SP) is very much in the total control of situation, how come violence is taking place? SP has been always claiming to be secular and in past many a times it has come forward to protect the values of secularism. There seem to be deeper forces which are beyond the control of SP, or does SP sees a political benefit in letting violence happen remains to be seen. It is painfully obvious in case of UP, Faizabad also that police machinery is not interested in controlling the violence, even when it can. It either helps the rioters or looks the other way round when the violence is taking place. In Hyderabad one sees the use of historical places to incite the communal tension. How systematically communal forces built up the Ram Temple campaign leading to demolition of Babri Masjid is a sad reminder to what can happen in Hyderabad. In Ayodhya also Babri Masjid was a monument under control of ASI, but with political hysteria built around it, it was demolished in the broad day light with state, police very much in the know of things.

The multiple factors which lead to communal violence remain unaddressed so the recurrence of these acts of violence goes on in such a painful way. Social activists and scholars have pointed out the role of communal forces, state machinery, irrespective of who is in power; the role of rumours, the ‘social common sense’ targeted against minorities persists. It is very sure that unless the problem is dealt with in its totality the country will keep suffering the pain of this violence and minorities in particular will keep suffering. It also reminds us as to what is the state of our democracy and the need for an effective and balanced Communal Violence Bill? No democracy can be satisfactory unless the minorities are safe and secure and are having equity in economic matters. These incidents are reminders to all those having faith and longing for a peaceful, secular, democratic society that we need to work against those who operate on communal ground, we need to ensure that social misconceptions are removed and an atmosphere of amity is created and that pressures have to bring in Communal Violence prevention Bill to punish the acts of commission or omission by political authorities and the police forces..

Read More

Striving for Just Society

Ram Puniyani

The verdict of magistrate Dr. Jyotsna Yagnik, sentencing Dr. Maya Kodnani, Babu Bajrangi and others to long imprisonment (31 August, 2012) has come as a big relief to the victims of Naroda Patiya, for whom it was like return of Eid to their houses. Naroda Patiya had witnessed horrific carnage and acts of rape in 2002 and this judgment will give a solace to the victims and their near and dear ones’. This judgment came as a culmination of the mammoth efforts of the human rights activists, the victims, the witnesses and the team of legal activists who stood all the opposition form every conceivable quarter to ensure that justice is done in the case. The adage that ‘there can’t be peace without justice’ has been redeemed with this court judgment. 

This judgment also puts right various misconceptions deliberately propagated by communal forces. First and foremost was that the Gujarat violence was a reaction to the Godhra train burning. By now this is believed by most of the sections of society, more so by the communalized sections of society all over and more so in Gujarat. The judge made it clear that “thousands of persons…attacked weaponless and frightened victims with intention, pre planning while sharing common objects”. It was not a spontaneous reaction to burning of train in Godhra. Rather Godhra train burning was used subtly as a justification for the preplanned pogrom. Communal forces tried to pass it off as ‘natural anger’ which the state could not control. Contrary to this perception, now court has ruled that it was a deliberately planned carnage, using the Godhra incident as a mere pretext to consolidate communal polarization in the state of Gujarat.

India has witnessed so many communal riots, acts of violence. Lately these riots have been assuming the form of well organized pogroms. This finding of Human Rights groups and the report of Citizens for Justice and peace gets validated through this judgment, for sure. So far the trend has been that the innocents have been killed in the violence and the perpetrators of violence have gone scot free. Now it seems that with the human rights defenders tightening their belts can set right the adverse trend, where guilty were getting away without any punishment. In this case human rights defenders have put in all the efforts to reverse the prevalent trend due to which the perpetrators of crime were more or less sure that they can get away with their crimes and consolidate their politics. 

For once the message is loud and clear that the automatic mechanisms of justice delivery system are not effective and a super human efforts by dedicated human rights defenders like Teesta Setalvad, Gagan Sethi, Harsh Mander, Yusuf Muchala, Mukul Sinha, Govind Parmar and many others like them, working through different angles, supplementing each other’s efforts can ensure that justice is done. They had to plug the leaks in the system to ensure that victims are protected, witnesses are protected, the complaints, FIRs are properly recorded, and to see that all the hurdles to justice are overcome. 

The first question which comes to mind is, will this state of affairs continue like this where nothing short of super human efforts, protecting-sustaining the victims and witnesses against heavy odds will be needed for getting justice. Society and the nation needs to plug the loopholes in the policing system, in the bureaucratic apparatus and in the attitude of political leadership so that the justice delivery becomes a matter of routine rather than an exception. Victims of so many riots, pogroms are still awaiting justice, Bhagalpur, Delhi and Mumbai to name the few, still have not got the justice. 

This brings to our attention another aspect of the violence, those who led it. Dr. Maya Kodnani came up through Rashtra Sevikasamiti, an organization subordinate to Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, RSS. One notes incidentally that in RSS worldview, women don’t have a swayam (Self) as is manifest in the name of Rashtra Sevikasamiti. Also that Maya Kodnani was sitting MLA, and after the pogrom and her role in it, inciting the mob, distributing fuel and armaments, she was promoted to the level of minister and once she was charged with the role in violence, she was dumped from the ministry and disowned by the state Government. Section of RSS followers in VHP etc. are protesting against the judgment. As such the standard technique for RSS stable is that, once its members-followers undertake the crime, murder of Gandhi, burning of Pastor Stains, or play their part in terror attack, they are declared not to be having any association with the parent organization, whose ideology they are living and breathing through their actions. Kodnani for certain reasons did say that she was victim of politics! What does this mean? While this statement is a mystery, one hopes the meaning of this victimhood comes out one of the days in future. 

Babu Bajrangi is another character, whose revelations in Tehelka were nothing less than shocking. He said they have been given time for three days, and that his team-associates are playing not the test cricket but one day match, where high score is to made in short time. And that after killing the hapless Muslims he felt like Rana Pratap. One wishes he knew that Rana Pratap was not killing in the name of religion, he was fighting other kings for power and that in his army there were Muslims soldiers as well. One of the his army generals who died while fighting for Rana Pratap was Hakim Khan Sur, whose tomb is there in the Haldi Ghati even now. How distortions of medieval history are done deliberately to incite hate becomes clear again. 

And what is happening to the conscience of Narendra Modi, who has been the major beneficiary of the carnage of 2002? Any remorse, any tears for at least those who were reporting to him during the carnage, whom he promoted for their role in the violence and now are being punished by the due process of law? 

One hopes that we recast our laws and system to ensure that the violence is punished in due course and that this punishment acts as a deterrent and ensures that in future such inhuman dastardly acts don’t repeat themselves. This welcome judgment also leaves a few questions, what about those who faulted in the discharge of their duties to protect the innocents, to register their legitimate complains, and to nail the guilty as a matter of their assigned duty? We do need to work towards a system where to begin with such hate crimes don’t take place, and if by chance such a tragedy is engineered by some political forces, we have the system in place which can check it right away and punish those who are either conspiring, or executing or are not controlling those dastardly acts. One hopes that the human rights defenders will be on their tip toes to come forward with such yeomen efforts to have a society with justice and peace.

Read More