Color Coding of Communal Politics

Ram Puniyani

As per the reports from Ahmadabad (12^th April 2015) the uniform at Shahpur School, where most of the students are Hindus, is saffron and the color of uniform in Dani Limda school where almost all the students are Muslims, the color is green. This is absolutely shocking! One knew that the ghettoization of Muslims in Ahmadabad is probably the worst in the country but whether the things will go this far was unbelievable. The process of communalization which worsened after the 2002 Gujarat carnage is seeing a new low with incidents like this one.

Surely this is the most blatant expression of communalisation- segregation-ghettoisation physical and psychological, which the country as a whole and Gujarat in the most extreme form, is witnessing. While the communities do many times prefer to stay in the localities frequented by their likes, the situation in most of the north Indian metros and even to some extent in smaller towns also is very bad. The segregation of communities along religious lines has gone up to the frightening levels all through. In Ahmadabad, particularly post 2002 carnage the majority of nearly 12% of Muslim population has been forced to live in Juhapura and Shah Alam area, both predominantly Muslim areas. Irrespective of the socio-economic profile the Muslims are not permitted to buy houses in mixed localities. The banks don’t extend their credit card facilities in these areas and neither does eating outlets deliver pizzas etc. in these localities.

In India the phenomenon of ghettoisation of Muslim community has run parallel and as an aftermath of the communal violence. Once the violence occurs in a particular city that city is affected very severely and its fallout is seen in other cities as well. In the cities where major communal violence has been witnessed, this has been the invariable accompaniment. The cities like Mumbai, Bhagalpur, Jamshedpur, Muzzafarnagar in particular. In cities like Delhi also this phenomenon is clearly discernible to the extent that even the Muslim faculty members of JNU, the prestigious University with the tag of a liberal institution, also prefer to live in the Muslim majority areas. The builders in the major cities make it a point of not selling the housing units to the members of minority community. I know of a faculty member of the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai being denied the house on the ground of religion.

Talking of Mumbai, it is probably the most cosmopolitan city with high cultural diversity. In this city the famous film star and social activist Shabana Azmi was denied the house in a mixed locality and similar was the plight of another well known film star Emran Hashmi. There is a long chain of phenomenon leading to such situations where the religion becomes the central marker of one’s identity, overtaking the national identity, and so the right to access to housing of one’s choice is practically ruled out. These are unwritten rules which are part of social practices.

As far as ghettoization is concerned, currently we are faced with a debate featuring this phenomenon as talks are on to plan make separate colonies for Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir Valley. This plan is being opposed by different quarters as this will definitely lead to ghetto like situation for Pandits. The Kashmiriyat culture, the core point of Muslim-Hindu amity in the Valley has already been undermined due to the strife raging in the valley from last over two decades. On the top of that such a scheme of the Government will further enhance the divisive spirit in the state.

As such segregation of communities along caste/sect lines is a dominant feature in Pakistan as well, as the dominant political discourse has revolved around complex sectarian divides. The ghettoization of African Americans in United States goes back to the injustices done to these sections in America. Lately one hears a lot about the urban ghettoes in countries like where the immigrants from ex-colonies, not getting their due in the society subsist in the in the poorer areas.    

How do we deal with such a situation where the divisiveness created by communal politics is ruling the roost? On a visit to Singapore I saw the massive housing colonies in different residential clusters. I was told that within these housing complexes, there is an quota system of allotment of housing units in the same complex along ethnic lines. Different ethnic groups, Malays, Chinese and Tamils have been allotted certain percentage according to their proportion in the population. This does encourage different groups to interact with each other on various occasions and promotes amity between them. What do we do in the face of a situation where the schools are choosing uniforms according to the religion of the children, and how come the percentage of children is overwhelmingly Muslim or Hindu in particular areas? This is due to physical segregation and is contrary to the spirit of communal harmony and the values ingrained in the basics of Indian Constitution, the spirit of Fraternity. One has to counter the myths, biases and prejudices about the ‘other community’ as these stereotypes form the base of communal violence, which in turn paves the way for segregation and ghettoization which further leads to ‘cultural demarcation’, the way these two schools show. What type of future society we can envisage with such stereotypes entering into our education system. The physical and emotional divides which are coming up are detrimental to the unity of the nation as a whole.

The communal violence has brought to fore the religious identity without bring in the values of tolerance and acceptance for the ‘other’. I remember having watched V.Shantarams’ 1946 classic Padosi (neighbor) and leaving the theatre with moist eyes, wondering whether Hindus and Muslims can ever live like this again, whether the composite culture which India inherits has any chance of survival in the prevalent divisive political scenario!

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Aligarh Muslim University, Raja Mahendra Pratap and Attempts of Polarization

Ram Puniyani

 

Those resorting to communal politics have not only perfected their techniques of polarizing the communities along religious lines, but have been constantly resorting to new methods for dividing the society. On the backdrop of Muzzafar nagar, where ‘Love Jihad’ propaganda was used to enhance the divisive agenda, now in Aligarh an icon of matchless virtues, Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh is being employed for the similar purposes (Nov 2014).

The attempt by BJP and associates to hold the memorial function in his honor within campus was successfully deflected by the Vice Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) University with the plan for a seminar befitting his contribution to the freedom movement of this AMU alumnus. BJP dug up this icon from pages of history and gauzing prevalent respect for him after the lapse of decades after his death. The answer to why now at this particular juncture is very revealing. Mahendra Pratap died on 29 April 1979, and now out of the blues BJP seems to have felt that his Jat, Hindu identity can be pitched as a flag of their politics. Pratap was a freedom fighter extraordinary, a journalist and a writer. He was a humanist, believing in International federation of nations transcending the national and religious boundaries. He was a Marxist who called for social reforms and empowerment of Panchayats. He was president of Indian Freedom Fighters' Association He was also the first one to form the provisional Indian Government in exile by establishing it in Kabul in 1915. Just to recall the Indian National Congress adopted the goal of complete freedom for India much later in its 1929 session. This Provisional Government was called Hakumat-i-Moktar-i-Hind, and was constituted with Pratap as the President, Maulvi Barkatullah as prime minister and Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi as interior minister. 

After independence he also participated in the electoral arena where he defeated Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Mathura in the 1957 Lok Sabha election. His commitment to being opposed to communal forces could not be more evident than this opposition of his to the leader of Bhartiya Jansangh, Vajpayee. Ironically same person is being lifted up as the icon, who opposed their politics. BJP leaders like Yogi Adityanath are claiming that had Mahendra Pratap not donated the land the AMU would not have come up. This is contrary to the facts. The predecessor of AMU, Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College was formed in 1886, with a land bought from British cantonment (Nearly 74 Acres) and much later Pratap had leased 3.04 acres of land, this is called Tikonia ground and is used as a playground by the City High School of AMU in 1929. He joined the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College in 1895, but could not complete his graduation. He left MAO College in 1905. MAO became Aligarh Muslim University in 1920, which regards Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh as an alumnus. In 1977, AMU, under V-C Prof A M Khusro, felicitated Mahendra Pratap at the centenary celebrations of MAO.

He wasn’t born when MAO was established, and there is no record of any donation of land from him. Mahendra Pratap’s father Raja Ghanshiam Singh of Mursan had got a hostel room constructed, which continues to stand as Room Number 31 in Sir Syed Hall (South).

BJP demanded that Mahenra Pratap’s birthday should be celebrated as AMU celebrates the birthday of Sir Syed, the founder of the University RSS Functionaries and BJP leaders put pressure on the VC. VC pointed out that AMU cannot celebrate birth day of every donor or alumnus, while recognizing their contribution to the building up of the University. As such already AMU in recognition of Pratap’s contribution to the University has put up his photo in University along with the photo of Sir Syed.

On November 17 (2014), BJP chief of UP  Mr. Laxmikant Bajpai and general secretary Swatantra Dev Singh visited Aligarh and directed their district unit to celebrate the birth day of Mahendra Pratap’s within the MU campus. The raja is a also Jat icon, In popular perception AMU is seen as a Muslim institution. The Jat-Muslim conflict instigated by communal forces, which erupted in the form of violence in Muzaffarnagar continues to affect in western part of UP. The BJP through its machinations allegedly wants to restore the glory of a Jat ‘king’. As such the idea is to appropriate one more of icons and in the process if the state government puts curbs on the celebration, the BJP can benefit by accusing the state Government of “Muslim appeasement”.

As the matters stand VC, Gen. Shah’s suggestion of celebrating the birth anniversary of Raja Mahendra Pratap by organizing a seminar on his contribution to freedom movement of India is a welcome initiative. The situation seems to have been diffused for the time being. BJP had planned a rally outside the gate of AMU, which would have precipitated the unwarranted incidents.

This whole episode has many lessons for the society. To begin with, the national icons are being modulated to suit the interests of communal politics. Be it Sardar patel, Swami Vivekanand, Mahatma Gandhi or in this case Raja Mahendra Pratap, they are being presented in the light which suits the communal politics. In case of Mahedra Pratap, who was a Marxist internationalist; is being presented as a mere Jat leader. He was a person who opposed the politics in the name of religion, as is evident by his electoral fight against BJP’s previous avatar, Bhartiya Jan Sanghs’ Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Secondly BJP associates are manipulating people’s identity as primarily being religious identity, Hindu or Muslim. In case of Muzzafarnagar, the Jats who were instigated in the name of ‘love Jihad’ came to stand more for Hindu identity. This identity is then made to stand opposed to the ‘other’ religious identity in particular, the Muslim identity and sometimes Christian identity. Same game is also being experimented in parts of Delhi, where Dalits are being made to pitch against Muslims, in a way two deprived communities being made to fight for’ their’ religion’ on the pretext of some issues related to faith.

The communal politics not only manipulates the identity of the people but also that of the icons, as is clear in the case of Raja Mahendra Pratap. The third major lesson for society to learn is that the search is on to find more and more issues to pitch one religious community against the other to strengthen the politics of a particular type. While the top leadership will talk of moratorium on violence, the associates of the same leadership will stoke the processes which will lead to the process of violence in due course.

A great amount of restraint is needed to ensure that we learn the values of the icons, e.g. the likes of Mahendra Pratap teach us the basic lessons of love and amity, peace and universal humanism. To use the techniques of conflicting religious identities is a gross violation of human morality, irrespective of the religion in whose name it is done.

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Hate Crimes and Communal Polarization

Ram Puniyani

The Modi Sarkar has been installed in power from last three weeks or so (May 16, 2014). While there is lots of hope from this government by sections of society, there are other types of fears which have started getting actualized and the consequences of that are being felt with great amount of horror. After the morphed images of Bal Thackeray and Shivaji were uploaded on social sites a well planned attack on Muslim minorities was orchestrated in Pune. In this attack the rampaging mobs not only paralyzed the city, they also attacked mosques and torched at least 200 public and private vehicles. The culmination of this was the public lynching of an IT professional, Mohsin Shiekh, an IT manager from Sholapur, a resident of Pune. He was brutally killed by a mob of Hindu Rashtra Sena, led by Dhanajay Desai. This is ‘Hate crime’ of worst order.

While this act has shaken the minority community and civic society groups have condemned it, the Prime Minister of the country has chosen to keep mum on the issue for a long time. Maharashtra Government is treating it as a law-and order problem, which defies all the logic. The overall observation is that a large section of the minority community is feeling terrorized ever since the Modi Sarkar has come to power. In Pune region, from last two weeks or so the minority homes and prayer halls are being vandalized and a section of supporters of the ideology of ruling party is feeling emboldened to no end. It is in this backdrop that murder of the Pune techie, who was wearing the Muslim identity has come as a warning signal for those who want to strive for communal harmony, national integration and the affirmation of the rights of religious minorities to live with equal honor and dignity. This incident has intensified ripples of fear leading to many from the minority community shaving off their beards.

In some ways this seems to be repeating the experiment in communal divide brought in by communal forces in UP, Muzzafarnagar. One recalls that a fracas of road accident was given the expression of ‘violation of the honor of our girls’, ‘love jihad’ and a video clip was uploaded by BJP MLA. This led to the horrific violence and the consequent polarization of communities along religious lines and a massive victory of BJP in UP. Amit Shah has been credited with the victory in UP and now in the wake of forthcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra on one side the state BJP unit wants same Amit Shah to come here to Maharashtra and on the other the forces like Hindu Rashtra Sena have unleashed the anti minority programs like the heinous crime against the Muslim techie in Pune.

Communal violence and crimes have been the real polarizing factors in our society. Even in the preceding Lok Sabha elections, while apparently it seems that the agenda of development has given the victory to Mr. Modi, the fact is that communal polarization was working in the background. That’s how Modi brought forward the issue of article 370, Bangladeshi immigrants and the pink revolution. How much role this polarization played in the general elections is a matter of conjecture. All said and done communal polarization has been a major tool in the hands of communal parties. In Gujarat we saw the polarization brought around the Godhra train burning leading to Gujarat violence in which over 80% of those who got killed were the one’s from minority community. This violence brought in the polarization and the BJP government which was tottering till then became firmly planted in the seat of power.

It’s true that the issues which lead to communal violence-polarization keep changing over a period of time, while some of these continue to haunt in an ongoing fashion. In colonial India the major issues related to taking a procession with music band in front of a mosque, the issue of pork being thrown in mosque and beef in the temple were the other major ones. In Godhra, it was a accidental burning of a train propagated as terrorist attack, in Mumbai it was the victory celebration over Babri demolition. While some of these issues are kept in the forefront, the others issues’ related to temple destructions in the past, alleged cruelty of Muslim kings, the jazia, the myth of ‘spread of Islam’ by force provide the backdrop. The issues like conservatism of a threatened community, the Uniform civil code (polygamy), Article 370, misrepresentation of increasing Muslim population have been firmly planted in the ‘social common sense’. The attempt of historians and social activists to prove and propagate that all these are not correct, the truth lies somewhere else, remains on the margins of society, accepted by only few critical people and those giving a deeper thought to social issues. The well oiled machinery of RSS has ensured that the myths and distorted version of history and lop-sided version of Muslim community today; continue to be the part of main stream thinking. What Noam Chomsky said, ‘Manufacturing Consent’, was in the context of state, here the ‘social common sense’ manufactured by an organization of religious (Hindu)-nationalism is made the core part of ‘social common sense’, which in turn forms the basis of communal violence and thereby the polarization of communities along religious lines.

To add up to the existing armory of communal forces, the social media has come in handy as its reach has gone far and wide. In Muzzafarnagar, the video clipping from Pakistan where a mob wearing Muslim identity is mercilessly beating two thieves, was used. The communal forces presented it as if the Muslim mob is beating Hindu boys. Similarly Bajrang Dal activists in the past were caught while putting beef in temples in Hyderabad and hoisting Pakistan flag in Karnataka. With social media coming in handy now the outfits like Hindu Rashtra Sena are taking advantage of that and are trying to create the divisive atmosphere.

One notes painfully that with Modi coming to power the overall aggression of outfits like Hindu Rashtra Sena and authorities as such has worsened. In Kerala a college student and his associates were booked for putting Modi’s picture along with Hitler and Osama bin Laden. In Goa one person was interrogated for hours for a Facebook post which was critical of Modi.

Even before elections the ‘Book Police’ of RSS, in the form of Dinanath Batra succeeded in getting pulped the scholarly work of Wendy Doniger by Penguin. Now Orient Blackswan on its own has decided to withdraw the book by Megha Kumar ‘Communalism and Sexual Violence: Ahmadabad Since 1969’, and the History classic, ‘From Plassey to Partition: History of India’ by Sekhar Bandopadhyay. In all these violations of the freedom of expression, and the brutal Hate Crime by Hindu Rashtra Sena, the way the Prime Minister casually referred to this issue volumes about the shape of things to come.

While in Maharashtra the Assembly elections are forthcoming, such acts will definitely be feeding in to the electoral calculations of communal forces. It is mandatory that state Government has to rise above its opportunist inactivity to take the divisive forces head on. This needs to be supplemented by the proactive work to promote amity amongst religious communities. The peace march (15^th June) taken out in Pune by social groups is a very positive step to bridge the communal divides. What is also needed is to weed out the misconceptions, myths and biases about minority community; what is needed is to respect the diversity and plural nature of our country. It is time that such repressive atmosphere created by the electoral victory of BJP is combated against by all social movements and elements committed to plural, democratic, Liberal India.

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Modi on Rampage: Reckless Abuse of History

Ram Puniyani

History is not just the past. It is a potent weapon for various political agendas in the present. It can be clearly seen in the use of history in rise of Hindu-Muslim rightwing in India. As far as presently dominant Hindu national politics is concerned, this abuse of history can be seen in the type and period of History used. When Meenaxipuram, conversions of dalits to Islam took place in 1981, the message taken up was that of Islam’s spreading in India as a ‘threat’. With the rise of Ram Temple movement, the indication was towards the Muslim kings’ destroying Hindu temples and insulting Hindu religion. The Babri demolition and consequent violence had the underlying propaganda of temple destructions by Muslim kings. At the same time a slogan came up ‘Muslaman ka do hi sthan: Kabristhan ya Pakistan (only two places for Muslims: Pakistan or graveyard), asserting that India is meant only for Hindus. As we move a bit more towards Gujarat carnage 2002 we see the projection of ‘terrorism’ and Muslims on one hand and the projection of Miyan Musharraf as the symbol of Indian Muslims. In Maharashtra Shivaji was projected in various ways to show the tyranny of Muslim kings. Currently serials like Bharat ka mahan Saput Rana Pratap, and Jodha Akbar also give the same message.

Lately the present history, history of Modern India is under the chopping block of communal forces. On one hand the projection of Sardar Patel, with emphasis on his being anti-Nehru and the other various conjectures of this period are being dished out. It is being asserted that Congress ‘facilitated Partition’ (Narendra Modi while talking in Kheda in Gujarat). This is a very motivated statement. As a matter of fact the two major leaders who were handling the negotiations at that time, on behalf of Congress, were Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel. Mr. Jaswant Singh’s book on Jinnah, taking one sided view blames Nehru-Patel for partition. It was banned by Modi in Gujarat, as he won’t brook any criticism of Sardar Patel. Here with a forked tongue, two things are being said at the same time, Patel eulogized for his contribution and Congress being blamed for partition, unmindful of the fact that it was Nehru-Patel duo, which was acting together on the issue of India’s partition.

That way the tragedy of India’s partition is like a big canvass, and most of the commentators look at the part of the canvass which suits their politics and put all the focus on that. This focusing on one part of canvass, selective historiography, is due to the motives and political understanding of these commentators. Seeing the whole process will tell us a different tale. The partition tragedy cannot be located just in the final phase when the negotiations between British rulers, Muslim League and Congress were going on. Partition process was the culmination of a long process, which began with the aftermath of anti-British revolution in 1857. The first factor in the process of division was the British decision to implement the policy of ‘Divide and rule”, thereby to introduce communal historiography. The second major factor was the persistence of feudal classes despite the beginning of industrialization and modern education. These feudal elements, the declining classes, felt threatened by the rising, nascent democratic nationalism, as represented in the formation of various organizations of industrialists, workers and educated classes and the formation of Indian National Congress. These declining classes, Hindus and Muslims landlord-kings, were together in the beginning. One major step in the direction to break them along religious lines was Lord Elphinstone’s encouragement to Muslim landlords, Nawabs, and to recognize them as representatives of Muslims. This led to formation of Muslim League in 1906. In tandem with this Punjab Hindu Sabha came up in 1909, Hindu Mahasabha in 1915 and RSS in 1925. These communal organizations started getting support from section of educated elite apart from some upper castes and traditional traders. These communal organizations were against democratic nationalism and articulated religious nationalism.

A group photo of people accused in the Mahatma Gandhi's murder case. Standing: Shankar Kistaiya, Gopal Godse, Madanlal Pahwa, Digambar Badge. Sitting: Narayan Apte, Vinayak D. Savarkar, Nathuram Godse, Vishnu Karkare
(Courtesy: Wikipedia)

The third and major theoretical expression for partition comes from the ideologue of Hindu Mahsasabha, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who said that there are two nations in the country, the Hindu nation and Muslim nation. The separate country for Muslims was articulated by Chowdhary Rahmat Ali in 1930, Pakistan. This got politically consolidated in 1940 with Jinnah’s demand for a separate country in the form of Pakistan (West and East). Fourth important step in the direction was the fact that the demand of Pakistan suited the designs of British colonialist’s long term plan to have a base in South Asia. As Communism, Soviet block was progressing and inspiring leaders of many national movements, like China Vietnam in particular, colonialists wanted to counter this by having a political base in South Asia. In India, Soviet Union inspired the communist and socialist movement. People of the caliber of Nehru, Jaya Prakash Narayan and others were with Congress Socialist Party, an in-house organization within Congress. Seeing the influence of socialist ideology on the major leaders of national movement, the colonialists and imperialists were keen that India should not remain united. There keenness of partition encouraged the demand of Pakistan.

Congress at this point of time found itself in a trap. On one side the stalwarts of National movement, Gandhi and Mualana Azad were opposed to the partition in the deeper political way. Nehru and Patel; experienced the blockades put up by the Muslim League in interim government. The choice before this duo was either to go on with a Cripps mission plan, which gave very little power to the center, or to go for partition and have a strong Center in India. The calculation of Nehru was that without the centralized economy; country cannot progress. The Bombay plan, economic blueprint of industrialists, wanted the state to provide for heavy industries, as industrialists realized that they are not capable for setting up large industries. This was parallel to the vision of Nehru, who envisaged land reforms and industrialization to take India forward. Sardar Patel had the vision of the strong center so he was also not for the loose federation of states as provisioned by Cripps mission.

To blame Congress of facilitating India’s partition is nowhere close to the truth. But the way History, even the modern Indian history, is being bulldozed for the political convenience, and the eagerness to grab power come what may, sacrificing the truth, is not a big deal for the communal politicians.  

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Modi’s-Abusing History for Political Mileage

Ram Puniyani

The Politics of Modi' parent organisation RSS is based on distortion of history, medieval history in particular. to begin with the projection of kings through the prism of religion, to demonise Muslim kings based on distortions and falsehoods of History, and then in turn spreading hatred against Muslims of today has been the foundation of which RSS built it up. Taking the same method to further lower levels currently Narendra Modi is trampling, distorting the facts of history to project his ideology. In the last week, October 2013, he addressed two meetings and gave one interview which showed the levels to which he can fall to score political mileage.

Nehru, Gandhi, Patel

In Sardar Patel memorial inauguration, Modi said that Sardar Patel should have been the first Prime Minister of India. This was a dig at two major leadrs of freedom movement, Mahatma Gandhi and Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru. One recall that Mahatma Gandhi, father of Indian Nation, was the one who had the mandate of the whole nation, irrespective of region, religion, gender and caste. It was left to Gandhi to nominate the Prime Minister and he unhesitatingly named Nehru to be the first Prime Minister of the country. There might have been different factors weighing on the mind of Mahatma, as Sardar Patel and Nehru both were his closest disciples. He knew both of them thoroughly, and he made the choice. Patel went on to be the deputy Prime Minister and Home Minsiter, in which capcity he was instrumental in merging over 550 princely states in to Indian Union, a remarkable contribution to Indian nationalism. Nehru as Prime minister laid the foundation of all the policies related to industrial growth, education, foreign affairs and became the ‘architect of Modern India’, India on the path of Industrialisation and education, the foundations due to which today India has been catapulted to be one of the major economic powers in the world.

Surely, in such a marathon enterprise the contribution of his Cabinet colleagues should not be underestimated. While criticism of some of his policies is in order, the credit for trying to take India out of the feudal society, the society of blatant slavery of dominated castes and women, to the society with democratic values of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, were also laid under his indomitable leadership. Sardar Patel is being projected by Modi-RSS despite knowing that Patel was deeply committed to Indian Nationalism, staunch follower of Gandhi and a thoroughly secular person. RSS has none of this, RSS-Modi are totally opposed to the values, which Sardar espoused. The first thing which Modi tries to do in this direction is to emotionally undermine the role of Pundit Nehru. He went to the extent of saying in one of the interviews given to a Hindi daily, that Nehru did not attend the funeral ceremony of Patel. This is a total concoction. This blatant lie was immediately exposed as the Times of India, on front page had covered this event and prominently told the readers about the presence of President Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Prime Minister Pundit Nehru on the occasion. It also published the deep condolences of Nehru who said that Sardar Patel has contributed immensely to the process of India’s freedom and making of India. Congress Leader Digvijay Singh has posted the clip of the documentary showing Nehru attending the funeral. Also it was recalled that Morarji Desai in his autobiography Volume I page 271, Para 2 mentioned the presence of Pundit Nehru on the occasion. In the face of this Modi retracted his statement, and usual things about being misquoted etc were dished out.

It is surprising that RSS-Modi are trying to project a person as their icon, who had banned their organization after the murder of father of the nation. In his letter to the RSS Chief M.S. Golwalkar, Sardar Patel wrote, “All their (RSS) leaders’ speeches were full of communal poison. As a final result, the poisonous atmosphere was created in which such a ghastly tragedy (Gandhi’s murder) became possible.” (Excerpts from Sardar Patel’s letter, in Outlook April 27, 1998) Same Outlook issue tells us that RSS expressed their joy and distributed sweets after Gandhi’s death. One can add that by attacking the choice of Mahatma Gandhi for the Prime ministerial post, Modi is continuing the work of Hindu nationalism’s attack on Indian Nationalism started by Godse. This Hindu nationalist, Godse, attacked Gandhi for insisting on Indian Nationalism and now another Hindu Nationalist Modi is attacking Mahatma for his choice of the Prime Minister. This attempt of Modi to say that Sardar Patel Should have been the Prime Minister instead of Nehru, more than undermining Nehru is a direct attack on Gandhi. Not surprising! As Modi belongs to the Hindu nationalism school of thought for whom Gandhi and his ideology were not acceptable for their strong support for diversity of India. Here they also undermine Sardar Patel who was equally committed to the values of pluralism and secularism of India, in shaping which he contributed immensely. Patel was committed to actualize Gandhi’s dream of secular India, and for this he contributed all his life.

Neetish Kumar in another part of the country; pointed out two major things. One as to how Modi spoke lies about Chandragupta Maurya being from Gupta dynasty, while he was from Maurya dynasty. Second that Alexander came up to Ganges. As a matter of fact, Alexander returned from the banks of Sutlej. Modi displayed his knowledge or lack of it by saying that Taxila belongs to Bihar, while it is in Western part and is currently part of Pakistan. Modi’s these utterances were meant to play to the gallery in Patna meeting. The Patna meeting was called as Hunkar rally, Hunkar means speaking something vociferously and with arrogance, a sign of fascist mind set. Modi also exhorted the audience to ‘weed out’ opponents. This is the mindset of a fascist again who wants to eliminate the opponents. This is what Hitler did, weeding out Jews, Trade Unionists and Communist during his regime. While currently Modi is focusing on political opponents, his ideology of Hindu nationalism has spread the slogan of Pehle Kasai phir Isai. (First the Muslims, then the Christians) So here we are witnessing a dangerous scenario emerging. Attack on Indian Nationalism, by attacking the choice of Gandhi for Prime Minister’s post. A total distortion of history to play to the gallery, Goebbels style. And use of a language which fascists routinely do, of weeding out others.

At this point of time to compare RSS-BJP-Modi with any other electoral formation is dangerous as BJP is a different cup of tea, it is molded for Hindu nationalism, and Modi with his fascist tendencies is unable to conceal his fangs. Those equating BJP-Modi with any other party are doing a fatal mistake, which the country may have to regret later at the cost of loosing democracy. Let’s recall that Hitler also came to power through democratic means. Having once come to power, he was quick enough to abolish democracy and impose fascism through his multiple wings, storm troopers, foot soldiers on one side and the followers of his ideology in different forms, on the other. Warning bells are loud and clear, those wanting to live in a democratic Indian nation need to take it as a wakeup call.

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Love Jihad: From Illusory Slogan to Potent Weapon

Ram Puniyani

The country is yet to recover from the aftermath of Muzaffranagar violence (October 2013). This violence was engineered over a period of time in the areas of Western UP, where Jats and Muslims had thick social interaction, despite belonging to different economic strata. Communal violence has been instigated, engineered earlier on various issues like Cow slaughter, Babri demolition, ‘sexual assault on ‘our women’ amongst others. The primary weapon used to communalize this region was the community honor. ‘Muslim youth teasing and luring Hindu girls’ was made the central part of propaganda. While other factors like role of Sangh Parivar components in uploading the video clip, in mobilizing the Hindus in the name of Bahu-Beti Bachao, have been discussed, one needs also to look at the way this ‘saving our daughters’, Love Jihad, from the Muslims had been operated in the area.

For couple of years the deliberate teasing of the girls was planned in the area in and around Muzaffarnagar. Rumors abounded and the word Love Jihad was propagated. (Evil stalks the land: Anhad Report on Muzaffanagar violence). The falsehood of Muslim boy talking to Hindu girls to lure them to marry and so to convert to Islam was heavily publicized. The major concoction around which the riot was engineered also related to the Hindu girl being teased by Muslim boys.

The word “love Jihad’ which played a major role in mobilizing the Hindu community for violence, has a strange history. As such the two components of this word Love Jihad, who so ever manufactured it, have a very different meaning. Since 9/11 2001 the word Jihad has been employed in the popular media and has also become part of the ‘social common sense’. Contrary to the meaning of the word Jihad in Koran, which means striving, it came be projected as killing of non-Muslims. The word Love Jihad must be a creation of an evil genius and it has come to be used to further demonize the Muslim community. The propaganda has been that some Muslim organizations are funding Muslim youth, to lure the non Muslim girls, to marry them and to increase the Muslim population. These youth are given money to buy motorbike, mobile etc and lure the non Muslim girls.  

While doing Google search, if you type, ‘why Hindu Girls are’, the other sentence which pops up on the search engine is ‘are attracted to Muslim boys”! Recently in Maharashtra, a group “Hindu Rakshak Samiti has been claiming to save Hindu religion by breaking up the Hindu Muslim couples, if the girl happens to be a Hindu girl. Not that there are too many such couples, just a suspicion and these self appointed guardians of Hinduism pounce on the boy. A booklet in Marathi on Love Jihad shows a Muslim boy riding the Motor bike, with Hindu girl riding pillion. The word has been so popularized that even a Christian group in Kerala allied with the Sangh progeny, VHP to stop this non existing phenomenon.

In India the word began to be used in coastal Karnataka, Mangalore, and in parts of Kerala. It was Sri Ram Sene founded by RSS trained Swayam Sevak, Pramod Mutalik, which started attack on Hindu girl-Muslim boy couples. The marriages of such combinations started being looked at with suspicion and if parents were opposed to the marriage, Sri Ram Sene would help to take the matter to the court also. The pretext was that the girl has been forced to marry the Muslim boy. Funnily in the case of Sijalraj and Azghar the judge of Karnatak High Court, went on to give the ruling, that the facts (Love Jihad) had “national ramifications… concern security, besides the question of unlawful trafficking of women,”! So it ordered the Director-General and Inspector-General of Police to hold a thorough investigation into to ‘love jihad’. Pending that, the girl was asked to stay with her parents. The case was that of a simple Hindu Muslim marriage and the girl stood to her version and refused to bow to the social pressures. The police investigation showed that the ‘love Jihad’ is a cooked up one with no substance whatsoever.

In a similar case earlier the Kerala High court while hearing the appeal from two parents passed a similar order. Two Hindu girls had eloped and got converted to Islam and planned to get married. Kerala court also ordered the police authorities to investigate this phenomenon. The police investigation again showed that there is no such phenomenon as Love Jihad. The organizational promotion of such marriages is a hoax but has become part of social understanding.

Shri Ram Sene propaganda stated that over 4000 Hindu girls have been lured into conversions. This concoction was aggressively put across through various mechanisms. This laughable, figment of imagination spread like wild fire and frightened the parents. The trajectory of many of these girls who initially state about their love for the boy and voluntary conversion, changes many a times after they are forced to stay with their parents. Under a sort of emotional blackmail, some girls give in and later say that they were brain washed, shown a Jihadi CD and what not.

We have witnessed such acts in the form of propaganda in Gujarat in the wake of carnage, that ‘Muslim boys are luring Adivasi girls’. There Babu Bajarangi, who was also a major participant in carnage and is currently in jail undergoing life imprisonment, formed a goon-gang. This gang attacked couples and forced them to separate if they belonged to different religions. All this is presented as defense of religion! At another level inter-caste, inter-religious marriages are a normal natural part of a plural society. With rise of the communal politics, these inter-religious marriages are being opposed very dangerously. We have the case of Rijwan Ur Rehman married to Priyanka Todi, daughter of an affluent and powerful business magnate of Kolkata. She was forced to turn around under emotional blackmail from parents and relatives. The details were not known, what is known is that later Rijwan Ur Rehman was forced to commit suicide. In all such cases the role of police, state machinery, has been totally against the spirit and provisions of law, the protectors of law acting to support the things totally against the law.

Such campaigns against inter-religion, inter-caste marriages are not only against the spirit of national integration they also aim to control the lives of girls in the patriarchal mode. In addition the bogey against a minority is whipped up to aid the divisive politics. It is a double bonus for divisive politics. Since in patriarchal norms women are regarded as property of man and are made to live under the control structure defined by men, such an issue rouses high emotions. The agenda of communal politics targets minorities, Muslims at one level and promotes patriarchal norms at another.

 Over a period of time, from being just a mechanism to control the lives of Hindu girls, a tool to ensure that girls don’t have the right to choose their own life partners, this phrase has been used to instigate violence as witnessed in Muzaffarnagar. Most of the pretexts of communal violence are cooked up, gradually manufactured. This Love Jihad has by now become a dangerous weapon. On one side it demonizes the Muslim youth in the negative light and on the other it has the aim to curb the freedom of women. The politics in the name of religion, the politics of Sangh Parivar here in India or that of Taliban’s in Afghanistan, Islamic fundamentalists, or even Christian fundamentalists all operate on the same wavelength as far as crushing the rights of women is concerned. In line with this starting from Sri Ram Sene, to Babu Bajrangi to those orchestrating violence in Muzzafarnager, they all operate on the premise, that women are the property of men and their lives have to be controlled.

The truth is not the issue here; the myth has been drilled in to the thinking of society. This phrase has double edged nature, which is something we need to register and combat. This phrase has tragically become a powerful concoction in the hands of communal forces. 

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Explained Series: Books and Exhibition on Communalism Explained and Terrorism Explained

Ram Puniyani

Friends,

Violence under the garb of religion has been the major expression of the politics in current times. Sharad Sharma, and myself are working on ‘Explained Series’. The aim of the series is to present the phenomenon in the form of graphic presentations, Comic Books. Two books in this series are already out

1. Communalism Explained: Outlines the rise of Communal politics in India, The communal violence, Mumbai and Gujarat as case studies, India’s syncretic traditions, the distortions in history done by British, Communal Historiography, The values of Freedom movement, the agenda of communal politics-Muslim and Hindu, Impact of communal agenda on the human rights of workers, women, dalits, Adivasis and religious minorities, the struggle for democratic society and tasks for secular movement (Rs 300)


2. Terrorism Explained. This book is in the background of 9/11 2001 WTC tragedy and goes on to unravel the politics of control of oil wells, the setting up of Madrassas in Pakistan by US for creation of Al Qaeda, The Terror attacks in India, 26/11 2008, The Hindutva terror, path for Peace. (Rs 200)

Both these are available on

www.explainedseries.com

Selections from these books have been put into a Exhibition (30 panels). This exhibition will soon be available in plastic folders for exhibitions in various places. At present it is in the form of thick print outs. These are in Hindi and English both.

Please click the following link for viewing the panels

English Link

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByRns_V0ePB5dlQyNkVwYy11SEE/edit?usp=sharing&pli=1

Hindi Link

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByRns_V0ePB5VlZIaTRWOVYxb00/edit?usp=sharing

Do please forward it to other friends and groups. Your feedback will be welcome.

Ram Puniyani

www.pluralindia.com

Response to

ram.puniyani@gmail.com

mail@worldcomicsindia.com

arthprakashan@gmail.com

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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. 

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Whither Justice: Fabricated Cases and State

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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Will The Biases About Terrorists Remain Permanent?

Ram Puniyani

We have witnessed number of acts of terror in India, during last two decades. While those involved in the acts of terror have been coming from individuals of different religions, the net outcome of the actions of investigation agencies and police has been to arrest Muslim youth, to put charges against them and in most cases to release them after the charges are not proved on any ground. This pattern had a ‘mini-break’ for sometime after the Malegaon blast of 2008. The professional, unbiased and meticulous investigation of the Malegaon blast by the then chief of Maharashtra ATS, Hemant Karkare came as a big step in getting to the terrorists. Due to this; starting from Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pandey, Swami Aseemanand and many others belonging to the ideology of Hindutva nationalism are currently cooling their heels in the jails. Investigations into Malegaon and many other blasts are showing the imprint of these Hindutva groups and people. One thought that this major breakthrough into acts of investigation will change the mind set of police authorities and they will overcome their biases and do a more professional job in investigation into the acts of terror.

Alas that was not to be and guided by Pavlovian reflex, in a knee jerk fashion, police continues to repeat its pattern of giving statements immediately after the acts of terror in which the organizations like Indian Mujahedeen. Lashkar and others continue to be being named without a thorough probe. This is followed by the usual arrests and framing them. Recently first in the case of Hyderabad twin blasts on 21 February 2013 in which 17 people died and over hindered were injured. These bombs were kept on a bicycle and Indian Mujahideen were blamed for this dastardly act. Later in Bangalore on 17th April a bomb exploded 300 meters from the BJP office. For this blast a motorcycle was used. In this blast around 16 people were injured. It was propagated that the blast took place near BJP office! As usual Indian Mujahedeen were blamed. In this blast again there was an additional factor about propaganda that blast took place near BJP office, when in reality the blast was 300 meters away from the spot. Congress spokesperson Shakil Ahmad said that this blast and the propaganda of its being near BJP office will benefit BJP in the forthcoming elections, while another Congress spokesperson and BJP countered the statement of Shakil Ahmad.

In Bangalore blast, the preceding incidents are very disturbing and revealing. Just ten days before the Bangalore blast, on sixth April in Kannur (Kerala) a blast took place from the motorcycle and RSS swayamsevak A. V. Dileep Kumar who was carrying four kilograms of explosives died. One recalls that the RSS associates also got killed in blasts in Nanded, Kanpur and many other places. This Kannur incident was underplayed and not much is known about the investigation so far as such. It is interesting that police authorities who immediately named Indian Mujahidin have been totally silent on the Hindutva connection of probable terrorists, as by now the nation knows the involvement of Hindutva groups in many acts of terror. The real loser of these biases held by authorities and common people is the country as a whole. The real reason being that if we don’t nab the real culprits and remain trapped in the usual prejudices and biases, the real culprits will continue to carry on their nefarious work over and over again.

As such apart from other things on this trend of Muslim youth being arrested a good amount of documentation and people’s investigation has been done by various human rights groups. ANHAD held a people’s tribunal and published it report, ‘Scapegoats and Holy Cows’. Lately a significant report by Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association led by Manisha Sethi has published 'Framed, Damned, and Acquitted’. This report in a analytic way tells us the stereotypical manner of police investigation and actions and the plight of those who were arrested particularly by the Delhi Police Special Cell on charges of these youth being part of terrorist outfits. In most of these cases they were acquitted by courts. This report as such should have created awareness about the police methods and a pressure on police to mend its ways. The report also points that the biased atmosphere has been created as media is publishing the police version uncritically. This is in contrast to the journalistic ethics where the official versions have to be checked, cross checked and examined critically before publishing them. The human rights groups also have been struggling for getting compensation to these victims in good measure but to no avail so far. And then the question comes up as to what about the police officers who are guilty of these acts of wrongful investigation and implicating innocent youth, ruining their life in a serious way? Should they not be punished?

The pattern of police reporting is also very stereotypical and needs to be seriously criticized. The question is what the senior leadership is doing in the face of findings of these reports. Is it not important for the policy makers to take cognizance of such important reports and respond to them in the form of policy change for the investigation authorities? Amongst others another human rights group, Rihai Manch from Uttar Pradesh is also campaigning on this issue and trying to get the innocent youth released. UP Government had appointed a Nimesh Commission to investigate these cases, but for reasons known to itself the government is not releasing the report and is doing some patch work here and there.

While UP Government is dodging over the issue of implicating the Muslim youth, one of its ministers is having the taste of these biases in United States, where he was detained at Boston. While he is blaming Indian External Affairs Minister for this, he is forgetting that these biases against Muslims are equally widespread and before him, people of the stature of ex President Abdul Kalam and the celebrity like Shah Rukh Khan have faced similar situations. Is it not an indication enough for the UP minister to set his own house in order as for as the implication of Muslim youth in acts of terror are concerned. The real worrying point of all these incidents is the way biases against Muslims are becoming rooted more and more. What efforts are needed to counter this stereotypical nature of understanding security agencies and perceptions at popular level needs a serious course correction on urgent basis.

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