Various socio-religious and human rights groups gathered at Jantar Mantar on 6 October to protest jointly against Dadri and Hamirpur lynching and unabated communal violence incidents in various parts of the country.
The message on the placards and slogans echoing at regular intervals during the demonstration was more than enough to feel the anxiousness and anger against the Dadri killing, silence on the part of the establishment and ineffective handling of the situation by the local and state governments and indifferent attitude of people in Dadri in response to the incident.
The protestors spoke in one voice to fight the divisive forces and restore communal harmony in order to thwart divisive polity and communal bigotry. The speakers also expressed concern over religious violence and increased number of communal incidents against Muslims, Christians, Dalits and Adivasis.
Engineer Muhammad Salim, Secretary General, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, while addressing the protestors, said that after the formation of the Government led by NDA, a particular type of atmosphere is building up across India. It appears as if there is no rule of the Constitution and there is nothing like law and order. There have been systematic and targeted attacks on the minorities, Dalits, Christian and Muslim women and other weaker sections of the society. A sense of fear and insecurity is being developed which is good neither for the people nor for the country. All those who were unable to make India a Hindu Rashtra during the time of Partition are continuously trying to achieve that end which is very dangerous for the country.
Mr. Ravi Nair, Director South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, while strongly condemning the horrific incident at Dadri, asked the people gathered there to raise the issue at the international forum along with what can be done in India to thwart such nefarious designs aimed at pushing the minorities on the brink and develop fear psychosis in the minds of the minorities.
Social activist and renowned lawyer Prashant Bhushan said that it can be said now that there is an RSS government at the Centre which was not at the time when Atal Behari Vajpayee was Prime Minister. The conspicuous silence of Narendra Modi is only because of his desire to become an acceptable international statesman. His foot soldiers are being encouraged to vitiate atmosphere and they are protected by the people on the top. He also suggested some guidelines and strategies against such deteriorating communal atmosphere and among them one possible way is to restore communal harmony in response to hatred and divisive agenda.
On this occasion leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, FDCA, SIO, APCR, PUCL, Indian National League, Lok Raj Sangathan, and United Sikh Mission also addressed the gathering to express solidarity.
Dalit leader, Uma Kant urged all the group leaders and protestors to jointly safeguard the Constitution in order to protect India from any communal onslaught. Sikh leader Gurpreet Singh said that the situation of Muslims today is that of what Sikhs had to suffer during and after 1984 riots. Singh questioned why Narendra Modi is silent here and why he is preaching and promoting love and peace abroad.
“We are shocked and outraged at the well planned and targeted violence against the Muslim and Dalit communities in different parts of the country ever since the NDA government assumed power in May 2014,” said the organisers in a joint statement. The organisers also demanded judicial enquiry into the lynching of Muhammad Akhlaq of Bisara village – Dadri and high level enquiry on the criminal activities of various Hindutva outfits like Samadhan Sena and the Sanatan Sanstha. They also demanded from the Union Government to takes serious action against Union Minister Mahesh Sharma and MLA Sangeet Som and other BJP leaders for attempting to justify this heinous crime and communally inciting the villagers further.