In the death of Maulana Umarji, the Muslim community in Gujarat has lost a brave soldier who bore the brunt of biased state machinery led by Narendra Modi. The reason for Umarji becoming a target of the BJP government was because he had campaigned for the Congress Party in the Assembly elections held before the Godhra incident and also because he was providing food and shelter for hundreds of Muslims languishing in refugee camps following the post-Godhra communal pogrom. The level of crookedness of the Modi government can be gauged from the fact that Maulana Umarji was framed with charges of train burning conspiracy, one year after the Godhra incident.
What was more disgusting was that even after he was finally acquitted by the judiciary after six years of incarceration, the media houses kept on televising the “breaking news” that the ‘mastermind’ of the Godhra incident was released. A puzzling situation being faced by the Muslim community today is: who will punish the police personnel who are implicating innocent Muslims with fictitious charges and who will rein-in the TV anchors, who are maligning the image of the innocent people like Maulana Umarji? The Muslims of the country have highest regard and immense expectations from the judiciary which has been impartial all along.
Syed Sultan Mohiddin
Kadapa, AP