Uttar Pradesh diary: Roiling the communal cauldron to telling effect

Why burn Ravana’s effigy on Dussehra? If you must burn someone’s effigy, let it be the Prophet’s. This rabid statement made by Yati Narsinghanand at Hindi Bhavan in Ghaziabad’s Lohia Nagar on 29 September was greeted with cheers and claps by the audience, among them several women, some on stage with the infamous head priest of the Dasna Devi temple. As the video clip went viral, protests erupted not just in western UP but also across the country.

Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi lodged an FIR and demanded that cases be booked against the preacher under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) and the new version of the Indian Sedition Act. The police, mainstream media and BJP and RSS leaders did what was expected—nothing. The Supreme Court’s directions that police should suo motu take action on hate speech were also ignored.

Narsinghanand has been spewing hate speech against Muslims for years without facing any consequences, leave alone investigation. He probably considered himself above the law which would explain his amazement at being apprehended by the police on 5 October.

It seems snowballing protests and international outrage finally prompted Yogi Adityanath and the UP Police to act. On 7 October, the chief minister held a review meeting to assess the ‘law-and-order situation’, belatedly asserting that insulting the Prophet or gods of any religion was undesirable and would be punished.

In the same breath, he declared the government would not tolerate protest as a pretext for lawlessness. The police duly booked protestors and also lodged an FIR against fact checker Mohammed Zubair, based on a complaint made by the preacher’s aide, Udita Tyagi, who alleged that Zubair had posted an old clip to instigate violence against the 58-year-old priest.

In another video clip shared widely on social media, Narsinghanand can be seen belligerently questioning the manner of his arrest. How dare the police stop his car in the street? Such a thing had never happened when Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati or Akhilesh Yadav were chief ministers of the state.

So how could it when his apna aadmi (own man) was holding office in Lucknow? Power didn’t last forever, tell that to the CM, he said to the arresting inspector. Getting into the police vehicle, he asked if he was going to meet the DCP or the police commissioner.

Narsinghanand’s belligerence, impunity and vicious communal rhetoric has so far gone scot-free in a city that is 80 per cent Muslim. The temple, which historically opened to Hindus and Muslims alike during Dussehra, has a massive banner prohibiting Muslims from entering. Despite affirmations that the temple had not been attacked by protestors, BJP MLA from Loni Nand Kishor Gurjar said that police should have shot at least 10 to 20 people in an encounter. The BJP MLA from Deoria said protestors should experience ‘Israel wala mazaa’ (a repugnant reference to Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine).

Post the Lok Sabha results in June, political slogans of Sab ka saath, sab ka vikas, justice for Muslim women and a new deal for the largest section of the minority community, the Pasmandas (meaning ‘those who are left behind’) have been swept aside to give hard-Hindutva front and centre play. Fringe elements have been reactivated and second- and third-line BJP leaders have started speaking a more provocative and strident language.

Nand Kishor Gurjar, Gulab Devi, Gaurav Bhatia, Satish Gautam are the newer voices of an old communal agenda. Several TV anchors seem to hold a license to spread hate.

Dancing DJs in front of mosques, showering rose petals on kanwarias and a systematic campaign against Muslim traders and eateries selling non-vegetarian food are surfacing all over again. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat recently reiterated Hindu khatre mein hain (Hindus are in danger). With people being put in the slammer for the slightest perceived offence against the regime, outrageous bigots like Narsinghanand have been given a free pass for far too long.

Bigotry by the bar in Bareilly

Remember Ravi Kumar Diwakar, an additional district judge, who in earlier judicial pronouncements had hailed Yogi Adityanath as a ‘philosopher king’ and ordered sealing a section of the Gyanvapi mosque? Turns out he is the son-in-law of a BJP leader. In one of his latest judgements in the first week of October, he sentenced 24-year-old Mohd.

Aalim Ahmed under Section 376-2n (repeated rape), Section 506 (criminal intimidation), and Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code. In his 42-page order, Diwakar examined the term ‘love jihad’ in great detail, pronouncing that ‘the main objective of love jihad is to establish dominance over India under demographic war and international conspiracy by some anarchist elements of a particular religion.’

The judge overruled the woman’s plea that her complaint had been made under pressure from her parents and right-wing Hindu organisations. ‘According to this court,’ he recorded, ‘when the victim is not living with her parents, and is living alone in a rented house […] it is a mystery how she gets money to live alone in a house, to eat and drink, to wear clothes and to talk on mobile.’

His conclusion? ‘A huge amount of money is required. Hence, the fact of foreign funding in love jihad cannot be ruled out.’

The All-India Lawyers’ Association for Justice has called for urgent action against the Bareilly judge, stating that his conviction Order ‘is not only problematic for its right-wing views and its propagandising of anti-Muslim sentiments but for its questionable understanding of women’s consent.’

Indian Accumulation Service

What first appeared in the gossip column of a prominent Hindi daily in September soon acquired a life of its own.

It seems discreet inquiries were being made to track down people suspected of stealing Rs 50 crore of cash from the house of a retired IAS officer in Uttarakhand. The unnamed bureaucrat had taken the heist in his stride but his wife had taken it to heart.

Shared widely on social media— and with everyone on social media being expert journalists and investigators—it was not long before several names began to circulate. Soon the identity of the person became so obvious that the ex-bureaucrat emerged from anonymity to threaten legal action. Some were sympathetic, absolving him of corruption and claiming that the money came from fees accumulated by his singer wife.

Others wondered why the Central Vigilance Commission, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate had not stepped in to investigate such a large stash of cash. While mainstream media steered clear of the controversy, Dilip Cherian took it seriously enough to ask in his column in the Deccan Chronicle why no FIR was filed.

There was a time when the IAS Association in the state thought nothing of revealing the names of the three most corrupt officers picked through an annual secret ballot. Times sure have changed.

Oxygen therapy

In a scam of a different sort, senior citizens in Kanpur were told that oxygen therapy was the secret of Prime Minister Modi’s energy. A machine imported from Israel would make them young again, promised Rajiv Dubey and his wife Rashmi, both reassuringly young and handsome. It was only when their therapy centre Revival World closed down and the couple vanished that people approached the police.

One of the victims claimed she had already paid Rs 10.75 lakh to the couple. The swindlers made an estimated Rs 35 crore before they fled abroad.