Can someone save Indian Muslims?

Perhaps it won’t be totally accurate to say that the countrywide struggle against CAA-NRC-NPR is just a fight of the Muslim community. It is indeed a crisis that lurks upon every Indian citizen who is disadvantaged, underprivileged and marginalised for decades, the lower castes, tribals, farmers, the poor, women, LGBTQ community, others.

However, the immediate target is a large section of Muslim population; they are the ones who are being killed and also being blamed for the unrest. More than 20 Muslims have been killed so far in UP alone for protesting the communally divisive Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA). Hundreds have been beaten to disabilities for life, the stories of custodial torture are so harrowing that it gets difficult to even read many of those reports.

Add to that Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s repeated public threats of getting rid of “termites — ek, ek ko chun chun ke” and the construction of detention centres in BJP-ruled states like Karnataka.

The students’ protest that began from Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university where I did my graduation and Masters from, amidst one of the most syncretic culture and ethos, was so barbarically crushed by the police that it sent shivers down the spine of anyone who saw the videos shot by the students while they were being mercilessly beaten. They were beaten up even in the library and in the bathrooms. The videos of the mayhem was essentially a desperate call for help, but no one turned up to save these young boys and girls, not even the Vice-Chancellor of the university who lives a walking distance away.

The next day, widespread condemnation emanated from campuses and civil society across the world but there was not a single condemnation of the alleged police barbarity from the government, not even one. Are these students already disowned and disenfranchised by the State even before the controversial National Register of Indian Citizens (NRC) activity has begun?

These dissenting students are termed traitors and rioters by the ideologues of the ruling party and all other so called “fringe” organisations associated with its mother ship — the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) — considered holy cows even in large sections of the media, which is now seen furthering the State’s narrative and its polarisation campaign for electoral benefits. It shamelessly calls these dissenting future engineers, doctors, lawyers and policy makers as ‘rioters’ and ‘traitors’. Some of them may even become tomorrow’s lawmakers as it happened to the Indian freedom fighters, nee “traitors to British empire”, who framed our Constitution later.

Are all of them traitors? Really? Aren’t they all scarred for life for being called traitors, before their career has begun? A law graduate is blinded in one eye; another student is an amputee now for the rest of his life. Not a single word of sympathy for them from their own government, no reassurance whatsoever. Is that the price fixed for dissent against the government’s decisions in the world’s largest democracy?

The most disconcerting aspect of the current police barbarity, be it in Jamia and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campuses or in Mangalore in southern India, and Uttar Pradesh, the worst affected state, is that this time there is nowhere to go for relief. In place of assurance, there are threats of further persecution from the State itself. Could you go to the same police to complain which has beaten or killed your family member?

Imagine going to lodge a complaint of looting and ransacking of your house at the very police station whose men ransacked your house, killed your son and brutally thrashed your aged wife or mother! Video clips captured from private CCTV cameras tell the story which the policemen are seen later smashing with their lathis.

When the state and its law-enforcing agency are brutal, there is still hope left for the people in our judiciary. The judiciary, has on many occasions in the past, not only come forward to the rescue of people, but have also taken suo motu cognizance and rapped the state for its excesses. This time though, there is an unprecedented situation, as the Apex Court first defers the hearing by the day, citing normalcy to be restored first, and then asking the applicants, victims of police brutality, to approach the respective high courts. Couldn’t that be ordered on the first day of the hearing itself?

However, the situation turns even more desperate for victims when a high court lists the appeal of an urgent hearing for the next month. Isn’t it amazing to see that the higher judiciary, which promptly intervenes when electoral democracy is threatened or perceived to be threatened, not showing the same urgency when lives and safety of students, largely from the Muslim community, are at stake? People would remember midnight hearings when the ‘collective conscience’ of the people was to be satisfied. Here, it was a question of a collective faith of people in judiciary, in protecting them from a hostile State.

The Chief Minister (CM) of Uttar Pradesh said he would take revenge from those who have damaged public property, another unique statement I have heard in my living memory. Can a state’s CM encroach upon the role of judiciary and carry out a sentence and that too without a trial or proof of anybody’s involvement in crime?

In a democracy the approach of the State to its people is supposed to be reconciliatory, not retributive, or even pre-emptive, even if there is errant behaviour on part of the people. Here, it was a case of disagreement with the government and people wanted to show their dissent. But, instead of giving them an outlet for their dissent, Section 144 was imposed which prohibits them from holding any protest.

There are other activists with stellar records of standing up for human rights, including a retired IPS officer suffering from cancer; they were all arrested for participating in the protest against the government.

Over 5,000 people have been detained in UP, and by now around thousand or more have been sent to different jails. About 124 people have been arrested for what UP police calls having posted “objectionable” posts on the social media. Isn’t ‘objectionable’ a relative term for invoking such harsh measures in the world’s largest democracy, that too in the digital era?

There are over 50,000 unnamed FIRs lodged by the UP Police against protesters, over 10,000 of them against people who protested peacefully without a single instance of violence in Allahabad, now called Prayagraj. The ground for these FIRs is breach of Section 144 which doesn’t allow a gathering of more than four people. It was imposed across the state.

Prima facie, the step appears to have been taken to pre-empt any protests. But that just didn’t work, and people came out across the country in large numbers to show their dissent. Then began the crackdown and the violence. It is not surprising that worst of the crackdowns happened in BJP-ruled states. UP earned the distinction of being the worst among the worse. Most deaths are from gunshot wounds which police initially claimed to be inflicted by cross-firing among the protesters.

Then began the ransacking of houses in Muslim localities in the middle of the night. It was said that protesters were hiding in those houses. Then the Chief Minister calls for revenge on the protesters by seizing their property to recover the cost of damage to public property which includes the cost of tear gas shells, bullets and even the sticks used by the police.

Then came the repeated warnings to people from police officers including the state’s DGP against taking part in any protest. The latest warning came that the police was monitoring social media for any ‘objectionable’ posts. The fresh entrant in the cacophony of the State’s narrative was the Chief of Defence Staff of India and the former Army Chief.

The former Army Chief was soon rewarded with the posting of the first Chief of Defence Staff, a position created for the first time in the history of India to put all the defence forces under a single command. Many would see it as a step towards authoritarianism in defence forces. The government perhaps now has to take just one person into confidence to wage a war. Does this sound reassuring in a democratic republic?

Is it prudent in a democracy to crush the dissent with such brute force? With a clampdown on people’s voices from all sides, and no avenue left to them for any relief, won’t it lead to unforeseeable repercussions? What makes the establishment believe so firmly that their fear will be sustainable? There is no evidence in history to support that belief. The fall of Saddam Husain and the Taliban are recent testimonies to the fact that no political fear is sustainable for long, especially when it is directed against your own people.

Police versus People/State versus Muslims

The extent of the penetration of communalism in the UP Police is on display and it is appalling. The police need to know that they are also part of the same society; there’s no guarantee that their future generations will be in police. Aren’t they setting a precedent that will bring the same horrors to their own children if they decide to protest against the government of the day?

The same applies to the current crop in judiciary, bureaucracy and the elected representatives of the government as well. The police definitely have the duty to counter civil violence, but if they are suspected of inciting that violence, then aren’t they also under threat of the same violence?

Protest versus Protest

Another unique and unusual thing happening in India is a protest march by supporters of the government for whom Section 144 is relaxed. These demonstrations are organised by supporters of the government, or by the government itself. In my living memory, I have not seen rallies in support of government policy by the party in power itself. Even during the Mandal movement of affirmative action for the backward class, the rallies and protest against the reservation for backward class did not have the people of the ruling party in it; it was the RSS and the BJP which did that. And they immediately triggered the Ram Temple movement to consolidate the Hindus in order to win back the backward classes.

These abuses are primarily targeted towards the Muslim community. There are public service films now on social media which supports the government and ridicules the dissenters, even a spiritual guru called Jaggi Vasudev, who has a large following, is making a video appeal in support of government and he literally scolds the students of the country telling them not to behave like illiterates.

It’s time to call spade a spade

The lawmakers of the ruling party have gone, met and assured support and compensation to the Hindus who were injured during the protest and violence, but they have refused to meet the families of Muslim victims, forget any compensation to those who have lost their lives, and their houses allegedly looted and ransacked by police. Can a people’s representative make such discrimination among the people?

A lawmaker from UP have told the media, “Why should I visit and compensate rioters?” No charge has yet been proven in any court of law against those who have been killed during the protests. A 72-year-old Muslim cleric in Muzaffarnagar has been stripped, humiliated and mercilessly tortured in police custody, his seminary has been ransacked, the students of the seminary arrested and tortured. A lot of them were minors, out of which 11 young students of the seminary have been sent to jail.

In spite of such a crackdown, majority of the Muslim clerics are refusing to say anything against the government out of dread. They are actually complying with the police and the State in requesting their community members to not protest and agree with the government’s move. These clerics know that their community members may boycott them. Imagine their fear of the State.

Most accounts of the killings tend to show that they were cold-blooded murders and did not die in police’s self-defence action.

The change that we see between 2014 and 2019 is that the persecution of Muslims has turned from a covert to an overt act; there is blatant abuse of State power directed against its own people. How else could you see this massive crackdown directed against one community, to alienate them from any recourse or relief provisioned for everyone in a constitutional structure?

It is completely unbecoming of a State. It is blatantly aimed at the Muslim community. The threats of persecution for standing up for their rights are rampant. Muslims are being told by the State to compensate for the damage caused in the protests and they are actually agreeing to it. The first cheque of Rs 6.27 lakh has already been handed over to UP government representatives by the community members people in Bulandshahar.

All the indicators of State persecution and an impending genocide of Muslims in India is apparent now. The world can choose not to acknowledge it. The National Human Rights Commission is also looking like a meek observer. Who should Muslims go to then? Who will save them? International advisories are termed as an infringement on our sovereignty.

Are we staring at a Myanmar kind of genocide? If we don’t stop it here, it will be pointless to condemn it after millions are persecuted. Can someone save Indian Muslims?

(The writer is a Jamia alumni, an electronic and digital media practitioner, a documentary film-maker and a TV producer who has worked with National Geographic, BBC and other national and international media. Views are personal and do not reflect those of National Herald)