Delhi violence: Minority feels cheated; why no FIR against Kapil Mishra for inciting violence?

In his speech in Ahmedabad, US President, Donald Trump dragged along the term “radical Islamic terrorism”. This is not the first time that he came up with this religious slant to terrorism. Surely he is well aware of the fact that no religion on earth allows terrorism, so to link the two is wrong and downright insulting and humiliating for the Muslim community the world over!

Also, if President Trump was keen to talk about various dimensions to terror, then he ought to have highlighted State terror, where politicians use the official and also the unofficial machinery under them to terrorize the hapless! Not to overlook the fact that he was rendering that particular speech in Ahmedabad, the very city that had witnessed the 2002 pogrom. Though eighteen years have passed by, yet no closure. Mind you, it was a pogrom, where hundreds of Muslim families were killed and destroyed by the right-wing brigades, let loose by those political master-planners manning the political machinery!

And though Trump did travel to Agra, but quite obviously couldn’t get to hear the latest news reports of state-unleashed terror in Uttar Pradesh. Right from last December till date, one report after another has been coming in revealing the tales of the police force hounding and pounding the civilian population.

And, ah yes, when President Trump landed in New Delhi, he couldn’t have realized that in one particular part of this capital city of India, in North East Delhi, civil strife and rioting and anarchy was going on in that blatantly communal way!

Seemingly well-planned and well-organised riots, after a particular Right-Wing politician, Kapil Mishra, issued a ‘warning’ saying that if the anti–CAA protestors are not removed from the protest sites then he would do things his way! Perhaps, implying that goon brigades will launch attacks on the peaceful protestors. No check on him! Why? Is this because he is from the ruling right-wing party and with that can get away with threats of doing things his way!

In fact, during last month’s electioneering in New Delhi, the speeches of Right-Wing politicians, the likes of Kapil Mishras, Amit Shahs, Yogi Adityanaths, Anurag Thakurs, Parvesh Vermas can be termed highly provocative and downright communal yet no halts nor counters. Why? Perhaps, it is naïve to have even expected any action as they are the ones governing, controlling the police force and the bureaucratic machinery!

In fact, last summer Parvesh Verma had also spoken of mosques coming up on ‘unauthorized government land’ in Delhi. Mind you, he had spoken of this with an obvious communal slant to it …. Within days of that, the chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission, Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, set up a committee to settle those allegations and came out with a statement, countering his claims. To quote him – “illegal constructions on government lands is an old problem in Delhi but making it an issue of a certain religious community is wrong. DMC does not support the illegal occupation of government lands but the way this issue has been raised seeks to use it to build an atmosphere against a certain community which is not acceptable. …Delhi Minorities Commission has set up a fact-finding committee to probe the claim of the BJP MP from West Delhi, Shri Parvesh Verma, about “mushrooming of mosques on government land” in NCT of Delhi, especially in his constituency. Another BJP MP from Delhi Shri Manoj Tiwari has made a similar allegation about other areas of Delhi….”

After the horrifying loot and targeted attacks in northeast Delhi, the alive are left wondering ---if this level of anarchy can take place in the capital city, that too when the President of America was visiting, then what must be taking place in smaller cities and towns! To say that there’s a fear amongst the alive would be an understatement.

Also, there is a disappointment from the newly formed AAP government. As the survivors point out that they had voted for the AAP candidates so that the “wolves” are kept at bay, but with the situation turning so communally charged, shows that the “wolves” are very much there! As several quipped - “So tell me what difference has come about. If the RSS men had won in the elections and were ruling here in Delhi they would have killed us as brutally as and ruthlessly they are doing so now! We are getting killed because of our Muslim identity yet no one out there to protect us! Our mosques broken into before getting destroyed by the Sanghi goons…complete anarchy! Where are the AAP men who promised to make Delhi a better place to live in! Where are the AAP ministers and chief minister? Why didn’t they come forward to take on the goon brigades? Our shops looted, homes ransacked, children and women targeted, men attacked, yet no one to protect us!”

Several others point out that if the very announcement of the CAA – NRC- NPR - can be so very lethal, with thousands getting targeted and ruined, then what would be the end result? What would be left of this democratic republic if its largest minority community sits devastated and destroyed? Either dead or dying or deadened or detained. Those left alive are at the mercy of the police -politician nexus.

The minority Muslim community in this capital city sits in fear of the RSS brigades overtaking, provoking and rioting in an organised way. Fear seems to become stronger because that vital trust in the government and in the police force stands more than eroded. The community has lost trust in policing ways. There is more than one incident of the police standing as mute spectators if not siding with the goon brigades. It was only weeks back the police force had heaped communal remarks on the protesting Jamia Millia Islamia students before assaulting them.

And if one were to focus on the Uttar Pradesh police force, one horrifying incident after another of the sheer brutality of the police force come to mine with the communal bias more than writ large.

This compels me to focus on these two related offshoots --- as it is the percentage of the imprisoned Muslims is higher vis -a - vis their population percentage, and with the ongoing arrests from the last several weeks in the State of Uttar Pradesh, backdrop of the anti –CAA protests, the numbers of the Muslims sitting imprisoned is sure to go up the graph.

Also, if the police can be barbaric and communal out there in the open, then what must be happening inside the prisons! Its a serious aspect, in the backdrop of the communal poisoning getting unleashed in all possible spheres! There ought to be an immediate focus on this – what is taking place inside the prisons, what treatment is meted out to the prisoners from the disadvantaged communities.

After these riots, anarchy and targeted attacks in the capital city, one is left wondering-does this right-wing government want this country to be without its minority population!

The surviving Muslims can’t help but recite these lines of Ahmed Rahi ( tucked in the pages of Anthems of Resistance, by Ali Husain Mir and Raza Mir- India India/Roli Books)

“Our lives were spent in despair; hope had begun to stir in our hearts

We thought our destiny would change, but alas, we were deceived.”

The views expressed in the article are the author’s own