Aims to create fear among Muslims, police look the other way as usual
The recent attacks on Muslim households and places of worship in villages and towns of Ujjain, Indore, Mandsaur, Dhar and Sheohar districts of Madhya Pradesh have become a familiar model of targeted violence against the minority community in BJP-ruled states wherein police inaction and collusion is all-pervasive.
In the name of the ‘Ram Mandir Nirman Nidhi Sangrah Abhiyan’ – the week-long donation drive for construction of the Ram Mandir at the place where Babri Masjid was stood in Ayodhya for over 450 years – is being seen as a clear pattern to fan flames of communal sentiments and incite hate and violence against the Muslims by the radical Hindutva forces in the state. The campaign is also being used as a pretext to create fear among Muslims and to deflect the attention of the public from the failures of the ruling BJP governments and the ongoing farmers’ agitation.
More than half a dozen incidents have occurred in the last week of December in the Malwa-Nimad region, a stronghold of the RSS. Media reports indicate damaged windowpanes, broken doors, walls scribbled with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and many Muslim villagers scared to return to their own homes.
BEGUM BAGH, UJJAIN
On December 25, about 300 members of the ruling BJP youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and other right-wing organisations reportedly shouted inflammatory slogans, prompting residents to object to their rally in the Begum Bagh locality, leading to stone-pelting and injuries to 11 individuals, with one person grievously injured. A day later, the Ujjain Municipal Corporation (UMC) came to remove ‘illegal structures’ in the area.
However, a local social worker Mohammad Ayub claims that, when UMC officials realised that the house they were about to demolish belonged to a Hindu named Meerabai, they instead demolished the adjacent 2-storey house of Abdul Hameed (Abdul Rafiq). Meerabai, who has temporarily given a room to Abdul to stay, says her neighbour is a working class person who built the house with hard work of 35 years. Begum Bagh is a locality near Ujjain’s famous Mahakal temple where several Muslim organisations staged a sit-in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in January and February last year.
Instead of taking action against right-wing goons, the police has so far arrested 18 residents of Begum Bagh, of whom about 10 members (including Ayaz Mohammad, Wasim Aslam, Shadab Akram and Altaf Aslam) have been booked under National Security Act (NSA) and 10 others have been booked on charges of attempt to murder, rioting, voluntarily causing hurt and giving false statement.
At least two of them are women and the police are on the lookout for two Muslim women, Hina and Yasmeen. It is not clear if any members of the BJYM / rally participants have been arrested yet, in spite of video evidence showing them pelting stones.
CHANDANKHEDI, INDORE
On December28, ‘clashes’ with stone-pelting were reported from Indore during a rally organised by right-wing groups through Gautumpura, in Chandankhedi, an area with sizeable Muslim population, leaving 5 people injured.
As reported by officials, around 200 people chanted ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans outside the mosque when prayers were being offered inside. This led to a heated exchange between the group of 200 people and Muslims, and to stone pelting. According to witnesses, some goons holding saffron flags scaled the mosque and tried to damage the minaret. Videos also showed goons trying to damage nearby houses and vehicles. A day after the incident, district administration began demolishing around 80 houses in the Muslim-locality of the village, for ‘widening the road’ and stated that this had ‘nothing to do’ with the violence the previous day.
DORANA, MANDSAUR
On December 29, around 5,000 men armed with swords, sticks and stones, and saffron flags, chanted slogans, played music on loud speakers and entered the village. About the same time, a large mob played loud DJ music outside the mosque, vandalised and looted properties for almost 3-4 hours in the Muslim locality, which constitutes one-fifth of Dorana population. The goons also placed a saffron flag on the mosque allegedly in full view of police.
A day before, villagers had petitioned the Superintendent of Police (SP) and sought protection, citing messages allegedly being circulated on social media which called all “Hindu brothers” to join the rally from Amlawad to Dorana village in large numbers with saffron flags.
Another message allegedly urged Hindus to teach the “descendants of Aurangzeb” a lesson for having stopped the procession from passing through Dorana on December 25.
Shahid Hussain Mansuri, a resident, said he was asked by a Police Inspector to remove flags atop their homes and mosque and remain indoors on the rally day, and be assured the police will take care. However, the police allegedly stood as mute spectators when the goons were attacking the Muslim locality.
Another resident Faqeer Mohammad said the mob ransacked houses, parked cars, CCTV cameras and even hit the cattle tied outside.
When constable Nazar Mohammad Mansoori came back home after his duty in nearby Mandsaur district, he found his house ransacked, vehicles damaged, and his brother’s grain shop looted. He rued, “Residents were sharing the videos on a WhatsApp group and all I could do was watching it helplessly despite being in the force myself.”
In a letter to the Dhar Collector on December, Abdul Samad, a local leader, has raised the concern of biked right-wing rally members shouting offensive slogans and brandishing lathis, dandas and sharp weapons against Muslims. He demanded legal action against the coordinator, organiser and participants of the rally.
Petrified at the manner in which they were targeted, many Muslims, including women, fled their homes and some hid in the fields. Mumtaz Bi said, “The men chased us into the fields, but returned after following us some distance.”
Civil society groups expressed grave concerns over the growing insecurity among the religious minorities, particularly the Muslim community.
National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), a broad forum of civil society groups, condemned the targeted and organised right-wing attacks on the Muslim community, their localities and places of worship.
“We clearly see a pattern in these crimes to incite hate and violence against the Muslims by certain Hindutva forces, with the BJP-ruled state government remaining lukewarm to the offences being committed.”
The relentless changes in legislation enabling targeting of minority communities, as well as the clear sense of impunity evident through the Babri Masjid verdict, the handling of the Delhi ‘Riots’ (2020) and similar incidents, further endanger an already vulnerable minority population, in particular, women, whose agency is held null and void, NAPM observed.
The spate of incidents takes place just as Madhya Pradesh added its name to the growing list of BJP-ruled states enacting anti-conversion laws. Taking the ‘Ordinance’ route, the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government enforced the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Bill, 2020.
Instead of admonishing the police for its partisan role, the CM Chouhan “warned” the “stone pelters” (read Muslims) that “Law will take its course against the miscreants, whoever they may be”.
However, political observers pointed out that with an eye on the upcoming local body elections in MP, the state BJP government has been using the incidents of communal hate to cover up its failures and the massive support being received for the farmers struggle in the state.
Apart from this, the way police force is behaving in such incidents has also become a worrying factor.
Former DG of Chhattisgarh police Mohammad Wazir Ansari questioned the MP police role in the recent violence. Ansari had also served in the state before the division of Madhya Pradesh in 2000.
Speaking with Radiance Viewsweekly, Ansari underlined that the Police department always assesses the situation whether a particular area is to be given permission or not to take out the procession.
“Why the police have given permission to the procession in the first place in an area where 100 per cent of the population is Muslims, and at the same time why didn’t police confront the procession for its highly inflammatory sloganeering?” he asked.
Without mincing words, the former IPS officer said, “As of now senior police officers have become spineless, their attitude and behaviour changed to the tune of new political masters.
In the last six years they (police) have been replicating what Modi was doing in Gujarat and the whole thing is done at the behest of the ruling party especially in BJP-ruled states, he added.
While referring to the example of Houston police Chief Art Acevedo, Ansari said the Police force is supposed to uphold the rule of law as they take oath of the Constitution but not of a particular party in power.
“The Indian police have no guts to stand against political pressure. Instead of upholding Articles 14 to 32 of the Constitution, and the rule of law, they meekly surrender before the political masters and become subservient to them,” Ansari said.
Echoing similar views, former Supreme Court judge Deepak Gupta also criticised the role of police. Referring to the razing of a house in Begum Bagh area of Ujjain, Justice Gupta said, “This is a mockery of the rule of law. There is no power to the police to demolish structures like this.”
Meanwhile, a team of rights group APCR visited the affected areas. The team comprising Sayyed Ali, Sayyed Javed Akhtar and S Mashood Ahmad met victims and assured them all help. Speaking with Radiance Viewsweekly, Sayyed Ali said the victims are in a state of shock as the police failed to protect them while allegedly siding with the Hindutva goons.