Over 100 prominent citizens write to Home Ministry, question alienation of Muslims, suppression of democracy

Amidst the lockdown, more than 100 citizens including social activists have written to the Home Ministry, to draw attention to the communalism which has permeated the police and the legal system. The citizens wanted to draw attention to the manner in which civil society and the democracy that it safeguards is being killed by framing, misusing and abusing the legal framework.

The letter points towards the pogrom in North East Delhi in March 2020 where there were speeches by BJP leaders who stood with Delhi police openly declaring that they would unleash violence in a matter of time. Indian as well as foreign media houses clearly showed the hand in glove camaraderie of the police with the RSS terrorists.

Over the next four days, targeted killings, rapes and plunder haunted colonies in North East Delhi. The pogrom of Northeast Delhi led to the death of over 53 people, many injured, 19 mosques gutted, houses and shops of Muslims were burned down. The economic damage of the pogrom has been estimated to be close to a billion US dollars.

It underscores how even during the lockdown, the BJP government is using draconian laws to crush any form of opposition to its power and show a blamelessness of the BJP/RSS or other Hindutva goons. “The lockdown has provided the police with a perfect cover to arrest and detain opponents of the government. The limited access of the detainees to courts and judicial systems during the lockdown has provided the prosecution and the investigative agencies a perfect cover to slap various charges on students and file uncontested FIRs,” asserted the civil society in the statement.

“What we found most appalling in the entire process of management of the Lockdown, was the pushing through of the Hindutva agenda of eliminating minorities, particularly Muslims,” said activists.

Here is the full text of the letter: