Our Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has informed the Nation that ISIS does not pose a threat to India. Early this month, while presenting three years report of his Ministry, he acknowledged that Islamic State (IS) has failed to set foot in India. He said, “India is the second largest country as far as Muslim population in the world is concerned (and) I can say with full responsibility that despite such a large population (of Muslims), the IS has not been able to set foot.” He also said, “Muslims have realised that terrorism is an attempt to defame Islam.”
The UHM had made similar comments in November last. After three days DGP national conference in Hyderabad he had said: “I’m sure the threat of radicalisation by ISIS won’t be an issue in our nation because people who follow Islam in India, love the country.” He also claimed improvement on Maoist terror front. It is good that IS is not an issue. But there are other serious issues like security of women and weaker sections which did not figure in the reports.
We welcome clean chit to Indian Muslims against persistent allegations of terrorism. Especially in the increasingly hostile environment, these revelations of a high ranking Minister, who is in the know of all events, are of great value and satisfaction. However, as expected, this message drowned in the din and demonising and belittling of Muslims for creating euphoria of Hindutva which is continuing unabated. Only the other day a Hindutva champion, Sadhvi Saraswati called the Modi Govt to hang meat eaters and the Hindus to store arms at their homes for the protection of “Bharat Mata and Gau Mata”.
Giving credit to security agencies, UHM said, “The Home Ministry has a major responsibility to provide security….more than 90 (suspected) IS sympathisers have been arrested in the three years of Modi regime.” He added, “I have stated clearly that no innocent should be troubled and none of the offenders should be spared.”
Certainly Indian Muslims hate the path of terror, but credit for this does not go to the Government agencies. Arresting young boys merely on the basis of suspicion and concocted allegations is not a creditable act. Had UHM informed the nation that the credit for the Muslims’ shunning the path of terror goes to the ideology of Islam, the path of peace and tolerance, he would have done greater service to humanity. Muslim religious and political leaders, intelligentsia, journalists and community organisations have played considerable roles in condemning acts of terror and keeping their frustrated youth from extremist activities. He should also tell the Nation, “Terrorism is an attempt to defame Islam” and gracefully withdraw his remark of 2009 identifying Muslims with terrorism.
Mr. SMN Abidi in his article, “Why the government must bat for Muslims” (The Tribune: 16 June) has counted several laudable instances of Indian Muslims taking a firm stand against the terror menace. He points out, “Ajit Doval, the National Security Adviser and ex-IB chief, has given more marks to the minority community than to security agencies for the negligible number of IS recruits in our country. He openly said that it was ‘Muslim parents who approached the police and intelligence agencies and sought their help in preventing their wards from joining IS’.”
On March 8, 2017, UP Police shot down a youth Saifullah in Lucknow, and alleged him to be an IS operative. His father Sartaj refused to take his body saying “if he was an IS operative and a traitor, he cannot be my son.” Even Mr. Singh had said, “Govt is proud of Sartaj. I am sure the house joins me.”
Last year, Engr Md. Naseer was deported to India from Sudan for alleged IS links. His father, M. Pakeer, voluntarily flew to Delhi from Dubai to record his statement before a magistrate corroborating how his son was drawn to jihad. In another case, NIA is using Mrs. Gulshan Bhanu’s letters to her son, Adnan Damudi, expressing her anger and disapproval for his activities, as key evidence against the son, an accused of being an online recruiter for IS. Muslims of Bombay had refused permission to burry 26/11 attacker as they were terrorists.
Besides India is the only country where thousands of Islamic scholars from all Masaliks (Islamic sects), signed a fatwa denouncing terrorism as “antithesis to Islam”. Huge public meetings were organised by Jamiat Ulma e Hind, all over the country to make Muslims aware of the terrorism being spread in the name of Islam by anti-Islam international vested interests. Jamaat e Islami Hind has also made concerted efforts to spread the message of peace of Islam and denounce terror tactics.
We blissfully thank UHM for his bold assertion about Muslims’ love to the nation and hate for terror. But, as regards security scenario, we want to assert that this contentment is not a perfect reason of satisfaction. A widely recognised reality is that security situation in the country is being wilfully deteriorated by spreading intolerance against Dalits and Minorities. The weaker sections are being targeted daily. There has been a massive escalation in violent incidences since 2014. Hindutva supremacist gangs are the chief perpetrators of these abuses allegedly with the backing of the people in power.
Lynching, stripping, flogging and humiliating people by the gangs of “unsocial elements” in the name cow protection, is widespread. Even dairy farmers are not spared and targeted while transporting milch cattle. In the pretext of eating or storing beef or slaughtering cow or even transporting cattle, terrible acts of violence are being witnessed. Cases of objecting and preventing Muslims to offer Namaz at their private places have been also recently reported. Even in the outskirts of the national capital, New Delhi, a Mosque was recently vandalised. Construction in and renovation of the Mosques has become difficult.
All the perpetrators of these terror crimes are Hindutva supremacist gangs. In most cases the authorities hushed up the cases to save the offenders and instead charged the victims. BJP-ruled state governments have given tacit encouragement to the violence by making statements and announcing policies which call for harsh penalties in the name of cow protection. Christians and Dalits are regularly under attack. Cases of gang rape are vitiating security environment for women.
Appointing a Hindu religious figure as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, who is alleged to have instigated his followers to exhume bodies of Muslim women from graves and rape them, emboldened the perpetrators of communal and caste violence. His pocket organisation ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’ has allegedly engineered a series of attacks on Muslims as reported by AIMMM. In many villages of the State, Muslims are being terrorised to migrate. Burning and looting of Dalit homes in Saharanpur by upper caste mobs, who shouted ‘the police are with us, the administration is with us’, is a recent incidence.
Contrary to his assurance, “no innocent should be troubled and none of the offenders should be spared”, we see hundreds of innocent Muslims in jails without any progress in their cases and criminals nearing the seat of power.
The Union Home Minister should also count these grave incidents of caste and anti-minority violence as a blot on the face of multi-cultural India and should prevail upon Hindu outfits to set record of national security right, without falling in political considerations, and follow his “Rajdharma” as the Mahabharata teaches: “You (King/Ruler) must act according to Dharma systematically and rule fearlessly. You shall treat all living beings equally without yielding to evil desires, anger or greed or prompted by personal ego or acting according to your own pleasure or displeasure. You should punish in accordance with law those who transgress the laws. You should take a pledge that by thought, word, and deed, you will rule the world, believing that creation is the very incarnation of the creator. You shall never allow yourself to become a despot.” (Shanti Parva : 59-106 and 107)
[The writer, a Civil Rights activist, based in New Delhi, works as a Journalist. email: [email protected]]