The barbaric and merciless killing of nine Muslims in Gopalgarh in District Bharatpur of Rajasthan will go down in the history of independent India as yet another glaring brutality by communalised police force. The gravity of the killing increases as it happened not far away from Delhi. Delegations of the Congress, PUCL, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and other Muslim organisations have brought out the atrocities in graphic detail. Even BJP, which is basically anti-Muslim and has never been sympathetic to any Muslim cause feels appalled on the scale of police atrocities. Shahnawaz Hussain, BJP MP and former Civil Aviation Minister, has reportedly said that he was moved to tears to see the plight of the unnecessary firing by the police. He has squarely held the Congress Government of Rajasthan responsible for death and destruction over there. He further said that there are 43 bullet marks on the outer walls of Gopalgarh mosque and six on inner walls.
Most of the Hindi newspapers, as usual, are either silent or speaking tongue in cheeks. English newspapers are a bit open yet have not done what is expected from them. Urdu newspapers have reported the gory details graphically with telltale photographs. They have shown the desecrated inside of the mosque with bullet marks, blood splattered floor and even the burnt out human remains of innocent victims. There are reports of missing persons who are suspected to be burnt and their bodies disposed off.
It is unfortunate that most of such atrocities are happening in Congress ruled states. There is an angle of involvement of communal parties who always try to stoke fires of hatred to defame the government and then fish in the troubled waters to strengthen their vote banks. Elections in UP, the largest State, are round the corner; political observers anticipate more communal clashes and trouble which may bolster communal polarisation. The nation, the government and the well-wishers of the country who want promotion of peace and prosperity must be on guard, and proper action must be taken immediately. The Central Government must intervene, apprehend the culprits, dismiss the police officers who are responsible for the brutality and see to it that there is no repetition of such incidents which tarnish the good name of the country and make Indians hang their heads in shame. Otherwise we would lose the right to call ourselves a civilized and democratic nation.