Tag: shobha yatra

Nuh Police Chief Says No Weapons Will Be Allowed if Religious Yatra ‘Resumes’

At a ‘mahapanchayat’ in Haryana’s Palwal earlier this week, Hindu right groups had said they would “resume” the yatra on August 28.

New Delhi: While several Hindu right-wing groups have announced that they will “resume” the religious yatra in Nuh which was engulfed in communal violence on July 31, the district police have said that no weapons will be allowed if such a yatra were to take place, and gathering will not be allowed in “sensitive” areas.

Violence on July 31 had left six people dead, including the deputy imam of a mosque.

Nuh SP Narender Bijarnia told The Tribune that he is yet to receive requests for permission for such an event.  “I will, however, make it clear even if the yatra is allowed, we will not let it disrupt peace in the district. We will not let the procession pass through sensitive areas or allow carrying of arms. The number of participants too will be restricted. Those making communal or instigating speeches ahead of the yatra will be dealt with sternly. Police will be there to ensure law and order,” Bijarnia said.

The newspaper also quoted sources as saying the authorities were discussing the possibility of limiting participation in such an event to 100 people.

Bijarnia became the police chief recently, after replacing Varun Singla. Singla had been on leave when the violence broke out and was later transferred.

At a ‘mahapanchayat’ in Haryana’s Palwal earlier this week, Hindu right groups had said they would “resume” the yatra on August 28. According to The Indian Express, several speakers at this event challenged the administration “to stop them” from holding the yatra, demanding lenient gun licences for “self-defence”. One speaker even said the yatris should buy rifles, as “they shoot farther”.

‘I Feel Bad That They’re Scared’: Nuh’s Hindus Condemn Violence, Demolitions Against Muslims

Broken shacks, shanties and sign boards are the casualty of the Haryana government’s abrupt move to demolish “illegally constructed” buildings in the Muslim-dominated Nuh, which recently saw a storm of violence leaving six dead and injuring more than a hundred.

Nuh: Surrounded by rubble, the Shaheed Hassan Khan Medical College stands tall on its 95-acre land in Nuh’s Nalhar. The college currently faces a row of demolished homes, shops, livelihoods and dreams.

Broken shacks, shanties and sign boards near the college are the casualty of the Haryana government’s abrupt move to demolish “illegally constructed” buildings in Muslim-dominated Nuh, which recently saw a storm of violence leaving six dead and injuring more than a hundred.

After more than 1,000 structures were bulldozed in Nuh, local Muslims feel a sense of loss that goes beyond economics. It encompasses the powerlessness that they see as now intrinsic to their lives as Muslims in India.

Living life in harmony

Dharamveer Singh, 36, lives in the neighbouring lane from where homes and shops owned by Muslims were razed to the ground. Singh’s lane, where only Hindus live, remains untouched by the demolitions.

“We have lived among Muslims in harmony all our lives, we have never faced any verbal insult, let alone harassment and violence. I feel bad that their homes are broken, that they’re scared,” says Singh, a millets farmer. Twelve other Hindu families live in the same lane as him.

In Nalhar, Dharamveer Singh’s lane near the demolitions remains untouched. More than 10 Hindu families live here. Photo: Tarushi Aswani

Singh says that there is such amity and brotherhood between Hindus and Muslims in Nuh that beyond a point, religion stops interfering in their daily lives. Whether it’s business or banter about development, Singh explains that Nuh has never been a fertile ground for anti-Muslim hate. Though Nuh is Muslim-dominated, Hindus in the district said that the community has never asserted its dominance over the local minorities, which also includes the Sikh community.

The half-done Azimiya Masjid, which sits just opposite the college, is surrounded by hills of debris. Maulana Khalid, the imam of the mosque, is worried about the electricity pole which was mistakenly damaged during the demolition drive.

While the mosque was spared, all surrounding shacks and shanties near it were toppled. “This is an area where we have always respected each other’s religions. When the [Shobha] Yatra reached the mosque, we saw Hindus chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’ and waving swords and sticks. We offered them water respectfully, as they were doing their religious duty,” Khalid recalls.

Khalid also says that many non-Muslim patients from the hospital would come this masjid to bathe and get water when there was a shortage at the hospital. “There is nothing called Hindu-Muslim problems here, we have lived in peace and still want to,” he says.

The loss

Aas Mohammed, a security guard at the nearby medical college, recently lost a part of his home to the Haryana government’s demolition drive that closely followed the communal violence.

Mohammed, 57, whose son ran a tea shack near the college, also saw his own shop being flattened by the government’s bulldozers. “They didn’t even give us a minute to vacate or at least grab our belongings. They just tore it all down,” he said. Many homes and shops, like that of Mohammed’s, could not be saved.

Mohammed also says that his own amity with Hindus has always remained pristine. “We have seen tough times, when Muslim lives were vulnerable. I was here in 1992, when the Babri Masjid was torn down, and I am here today. We supported Hindus back then, made them feel safe,” he explains.

Shops just outside the Shaheed Hassan Khan Medical College were brought down by bulldozers. Photo: Tarushi Aswani

But today, as bulldozers in India are being deployed to flatten Muslim homes out of vengeance, Mohammed feels that the demolitions that happened in Nuh were in response to the violence that took place.

“How did my house become illegal overnight? I have an electricity meter installed for years at this address. Did the government install the meter at an illegal home?” he asks.

After seeing his 27-year-old home being reduced to debris, Mohammed is hurt but not hopeless. “This has damaged many Muslim homes and lives, but we will stand again, In Sha Allah,” Mohammed says.

Outsiders’ yatra?

Chandra Devi, 60, a local of Nuh, has been living in the area for decades now and has never seen anything even close to the fear she saw in the eyes of her Muslim neighbours, escaping violence they were uninvolved in.

“During the Bajrang Dal yatra, we could see how outsiders were instigating Muslims. These were not the Hindus we have here in Nuh. This is not Hinduism, Bajrang Dal has wronged even Hindus by using the religious procession to create chaos,” says Devi.

During its field visit to the affected areas in Nuh, The Wire was informed by the locals that the Yatra had taken place thrice before July 2023 – but it had never before met the same fate. Just as the previous years, this year too, local Hindus and Muslims offered cold water to the yatris, as they also remember offering to the kanwariyas. But Singh, Devi, Mohammed and Khalid believe that something triggered a change this year.

Hifz Ur Rehman, another local, traces the trigger to a video uploaded by Monu Manesar, who is known for his anti-Muslim social media content. In the video, Manesar had urged his followers to join the rally in Haryana’s Mewat. Manesar has not been arrested, but locals say young men from the area are being randomly picked up by the local police. As of August 8, Haryana’s information and public relations department said that 170 men were arrested in connection to 57 first information reports registered in Nuh. Locals have claimed that most of the boys being picked up by the police are Muslims; the police, however, have not released any names.

Mohammed Sajid, a biryani seller near the chowk where the violence unfolded, is also unsettled by the entire episode. While he believes that Manesar’s video and outsiders fanned the fire, he also believes that Nuh is resilient and such incidents cannot break decades of friendship between Hindus and Muslims.

 

Who Gave Weapons to People in a Religious Procession, Asks Union Minister

“This [carrying weapons] is wrong. A provocation took place from this side too. I am not saying there was no provocation from the other side,” Rao Inderjit Singh said.

New Delhi: Gurgaon MP and Union minister of state (independent charge) Rao Inderjit Singh has questioned why people joining a religious procession – referring to the ‘Shobha Yatra’ that passed through Nuh – were carrying weapons.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Singh said, “Kisne hathiyar diye unko is procession mein le jaane ke liye? Koi talwar leke jata hai procession mein? Lathi-dande leke jata hai (Who gave weapons to them for the procession? Who goes to a procession carrying swords, or sticks)?”

“This is wrong. A provocation took place from this side too. I am not saying there was no provocation from the other side,” he continued.

Singh also said that he had asked chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and the Union home ministry to send Central forces to Nuh as the police force was “insufficient”.

Social media is playing a role to instigate matters, Singh alleged.  “I have asked the police to probe who uploaded such videos. Someone said there were videos saying, ‘We are coming for this religious function, your daamad (son-in-law) is coming. If you can stop, stop it’. If such irresponsible videos are uploaded, it causes a negative impact.”

How the Era of Peaceful Prabhat Feris Has Been Replaced by Violent Clashes, Fake News

Wars do not begin with nukes and tanks and rockets. First, it is the fanaticism and false pride denying a chequered history of the land.

Saakhi is a Sunday column from Mrinal Pande, in which she writes of what she sees and also participates in. That has been her burden to bear ever since she embarked on a life as a journalist, writer, editor, author and as chairperson of Prasar Bharti. Her journey of being a witness-participant continues. 

The month of Chaitra used to be perhaps the most colourful season in the land of Utsav Priyah, which means, (people who) love festivals: the New Vikrami Samvat, Ugadi, Bihu, Gudi Padwa, and Chaitra Navratri follow one after another.

Often they coincide with the holy month of Ramzan and Easter. No more. Thanks to the bitter ethnic rivalries cultivated by various vested interests, all religious celebrations, especially those surrounding public celebrations, have an air of dread. Once towns with mixed populations had communities living peacefully for generations and had shared each other’s joyous (read raucous) festivals. They are now ghettoized along ethnic lines. Unseen miscreants have taken to painting ethnic slurs, attacking religious tableaus, silencing loudspeakers for azaan. Temples are reported to have been desecrated.

Since last year, for inexplicable reasons, several Ram Navami or Hanuman Jayanti shobha yatras have taken to slowing down outside mosques. The people, wearing saffron scarves, raised provocative slogans and brandished weapons before the yatra moved on. This has led to ugly confrontations.

This year the speed with which clashes in parts of West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra and Gujarat were followed by the social media going into an overdrive showed that the discourse was strategically planned and moderated by groups who fed an indoctrinated group with carefully clipped videos and hashtags for misleading narratives.

Was it a majority opinion or a narrative generated by machine-controlled bots and packs of trolls paid by certain parties? TV channels or newspapers offered little astute reporting on these communal conflagrations, that would connect cause and effect and offered solid proof of culpability or lack thereof.

This proliferation of a chain reaction in the digital space, triggering aggressive reactions, does not augur well. Provocative hashtags push user engagement with a flurry of retweets, likes, (often unsubstantiated) quotes et al, until real information gets lost in a jungle of hearsay.

Sadly though vicious chain posts are creating an air of dangerous excitement overall, they only aim at evoking laughter from peer groups and inciting the targeted groups who are already feeling cornered. In the protests and counter-protests that surface in the digital space, fake is real and real is fake, and reactionaries among both the Right and non-Right are left nursing huge grudges against each other.

Few people by now notice small reports about how the apprehended miscreants often turn out to be poor migrants. They were, they say, lured by a small sum to collect stones in certain corners, or help drive a tableau carrying a van fitted with a DJ and stop the van when asked to. Or else they are long-time residents in the area who have earlier suffered from similar clashes. They say when the crowds came threateningly close again with weapons and raised incendiary slogans, they reacted in self defence. That’s all.

All this while we all know in our bones that in the age of fake news, AI-generated bots and paid trolls, when such complex matters do go to the court, charges may be reversed on appeal. So everyone involved was equally to blame, which is no different from no one being to blame.

In the pre-smartphone, pre-WhatsApp group chat era, people used to have physical friendships. In parks, workplaces and even out in the forests, gathering fuel or fodder or fetching water, men and women surrounded themselves with friends. They could laugh and joke and rib each other without rancour. When they did, they entertained each other as lavishly as they could. And even death feasts had a jolly fraternal air where people confided to one another, became tearfully chummy and philosophical.

For a long time we, writers and journalists lived off this world. That is what made life and politics human and understandable to us and our readers.

In just two decades of the digital age and two years of COVID-19, friendships are gone! And it now feels communal faultlines and xenophobic deglobalisation is the natural state of human history. If we writers somehow climb over the mountains of disinformation, fake videos, fake news, messages from fake news busters, to see the tiny government schools we attended in the 1960s in a hill town barely 40 kilometers from the Chinese camps, it feels surreal.

We took out early morning Prabhat Feris, singing Gandhiji’s favorite hymns on August 15. Our next door neighbours were an erstwhile zamindar clan who had fled during Partition from Dera Gujranwala and had been kindly granted rich landholding by Nehru. The initial years were hard, but the sturdy Punjabi peasants, by the time their children and we were in school, were prosperous once again.

The younger brother’s wife who had had a total meltdown after settling in our hill town, nuzzled close to my mother, and on sane days, she and the older brother’s wife would recount to us hair-raising stories of the bloodshed they – the protected veiled women from a Haveli – had been forced to witness as they fled with just the clothes on their back.

It is obvious generations have been born in independent India who know nothing of what a Partition is really like. How it sears and scars our souls still. They love messages that threaten and often lead to bloodshed and revenge and ethnic cleansing. They giggle over hunger deaths across the Line of Control.

But on international matters we are encouraged to be perpetual fence sitters. Foreign affairs top dogs spewing venom at the opposition say how India can take on countries far richer and mightier than us. We believe in Buddha and being Vishwa Guru instead.

The big elephant on this subcontinent is that for 75 years the Partition of 1947 has shaped our minds and souls, our digital platforms, and shows in TV studios uniformly owned by corporate groups supportive of the government. It is obvious from their output that Partition did not only deform our land, it also destroyed and scarred souls on both sides of the border.

“Joy of victory” is a phrase the last nine years we have heard again and again in various Indian languages from Pakistan bashers. The digital wars they have gone on to unleash and foment are still deforming souls of those who are expunging 600 years of our history.

Wars do not begin with nukes and tanks and rockets. First, it is the fanaticism and false pride denying a checkered history of the land. This justifies the ‘othering’ of all those who have been witness to our shame. Bloodshed and decimation of everything, including art and culture, follows naturally as sparks fly upwards in virtual stadia without real viewers.

Mrinal Pande is a writer and veteran journalist.

Defaming Hinduism Through Vandalism

The Hindutva brigade has now made Ram Navami another occasion to resort to violence against Muslims. But, it fails to realise is that it only reflects poorly on the religion they claim to live by, uphold, and want to safeguard.

Violence continued on the second day of Ram Navami in Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal. Some newspapers made it the top news on their front pages. The newspapers – which considered this violence to be so extraordinary that they made it their top news – did not consider the incidents of Ram Navami violence across India just a day earlier as serious enough to run it on the front page. Whereas on the day of Ram Navami, once again there were reports of violence against Muslims from all over India. Have things come to such a pass that violence on Ram Navami is so normalised that newspapers want to push such news items to inside pages? 

Violence against Muslims on Ram Navami should still be news, and in fact, should be published prominently. When someone tries to condemn the appalling violence during these processions, there are voices that openly justify the violence in the name of Hindu victimhood, or Muslims as the instigators of such violence. No doubt, Hindus would be injured in such violence as well, but what we need to understand is that when violence breaks out, everybody, regardless of their religious inclination, gets hurt. 

Also read: Violence, Arson Mark Ram Navami Processions Across States; Rally Held in Delhi Without Permission

Social media is agog with videos and images from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and West Bengal where Hindutvawadis in Ram Navami processions with lathis, hockey sticks, swords, and guns are seen creating ruckus in Muslim-dominated localities. They are seen shouting slogans humiliating Muslims by entering their streets, climbing mosques, dargahs and hoisting saffron flags and vandalising them.

According to media reports, Union home minister, Amit Shah, has only called the governor and chief minister of West Bengal. That he has a ‘special concern’ for Bengal is evident, and why it is so, is not difficult to guess. But, why does he find the violence in all other states not worthy of his attention? 

There is no need to give details of the violence. There is a kind of boring uniformity about them. A large number of hooligans clad in saffron, armed with sticks, swords, and even guns pass through Muslim localities with DJs blaring out songs abusive to Muslims. Sometimes this goes a step further where they pelt stones and hoist flags on dargahs and mosques. They call upon the Hindus from these rooftops to establish Hindu Rashtra and openly incite them to kill Muslims.

Video screengrabs from Howrah, Mathura district and Jahangirpuri in Delhi, during Ram Navami processions on March 30.

The ‘Shobha Yatras’, organised on the occasion of Ram Navami, have become a platform for the open, shameless display of obscenity and violence which forms part of the Hindutva. It is not Ram’s glory that is sung here, it is an unadulterated hatred towards Muslims that is announced.

Many people say that even Muslims pelt stones during these Yatras. So for those Hindus participating in such provocative processions, such violence is justified on the grounds that they avenge the violence perpetrated against their forefathers 500 years ago. However, a Muslim reaction during these violent Ram Navami processions they say is uncalled for!

As evident from most places, those Hindus who take part in these processions commit violence with impunity because the police either openly support the majority community or choose to look away when violence breaks out in front of their eyes. When these incidents of violence reach courts, police have, umpteen number of times, said that it was Muslims who started the violence and Hindus had no option but to respond. In fact, this is what was said in the case of violence that broke out in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri last year. 

Also read: Two Days After Violence at Ram Navami Rallies, Parts of Bengal, Bihar Remain on the Boil

The violence and police’s complicity during Ram Navami is nothing new and has a history to it. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) used such violence tactically to tarnish the Muslim community and peddle their narratives about Hindu victimhood. A recent report brought out by noted lawyer Chander Uday Singh documents the violence during Ram Navami celebrations over the past several decades. The report concludes that the main reason behind such violence is because of the insistence on the part of those who organise these processions to allow them to take out their rallies through Muslim-dominated areas and through the lanes where mosques are present. It is also common practice to carry weapons during processions, the report notes.

What has changed since the BJP came to power is that Ram Navami processions now have the backing of the government, for the party made it a rallying point for advancing its Hindutva ideology. As a result, Ram Navami is now celebrated even in those states where there were no such events before, like in West Bengal. In Bengal, BJP has been behind these rallies to bring people from Hindi-speaking states to take out these huge rallies. 

I saw Ram Navami banners in Kerala a few years ago even after Ram Navami had passed. On inquiring about it, I learnt that such celebrations and processions are the latest imports to Kerala, aided by the BJP-RSS. Gradually, the BJP-RSS, riding on the shoulders of Ram, have taken their violent politics to different parts of the country. 

Also read: A Single Factor Is Common to All Communal Riots During Religious Processions in India

Nowadays, we can’t find any writer like Premchand, who wrote uncompromisingly against the violence perpetrated during Hindu festivals. Who can say that there is no justification for stopping processions in front of mosques and playing songs loudly? And who can say that Hindus involved need to introspect and change their thinking and actions?

Whatever is being done on the occasion of Ram Navami is stemming out of Hindutvawadis’ desire to expand their territory. And the way this is being done is through violence and targeting Muslims. On the one hand, they are resorting to violence during Ram Navami, and on the other, they are preventing Muslims, using violent means, from offering prayers during the month of Ramzan. 

This is a result of an inferiority complex among the Hindus who subscribe to the Hindutva ideology. Instead of seeking happiness and peace in the religion and its tenets, Hindutvawadis, filled with perversion, are drawing pleasure in attacking Muslims and Christians. Such acts of violence and insecurity only reflect poorly on the religion that they claim to live by, uphold, and want to safeguard. 

Apoorvanand teaches at Delhi University.

Roorkee Mahapanchayat: ‘Why Didn’t Police Crack Down Earlier,’ Ask Residents

Dada Jalalpur residents were relieved about the security arrangements in view of the Hindu Mahapanchayat but said similar actions on April 16 could have prevented communal clashes.

Roorkee, Uttarakhand: After a warning from the Supreme Court, the local administration cracked down on the Hindu Mahapanchayat that was planned in the Dada Jalalpur village near Roorkee on April 27,  prompting several residents of the village to ask why similar arrangements could not have been made during violence reported a few days ago.

The Supreme Court ordered that no “untoward incident” should happen during the Mahapanchayat – referring to anti-Muslim speeches and calls to violence that were made at similar events in the past. The mahapanchayat in Dada Jalalpur village was called by Mahant Anand Swaroop, who asked for a “Hindu awakening” in the face of communal clashes.

On April 16, the Dada Jalalpur village of the Bhagvanpur region of Roorkee in Uttarakhand witnessed violence during a Shobha Yatra on Hanuman Jayanti. For ten days after the violence, hardline Hindu religious leaders relentlessly campaigned for the arrests of Muslim residents and an invocation of the stringent National Security Act against those who allegedly pelted stones at the procession. The mahapanchayat part of their efforts to pressure the administration.

However, taking cognisance of the Supreme Court’s directive on mahapanchyats, the Uttarkhand police imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) – which prevents more than four people from gathering – in Dada Jalalpur. Security within a five-kilometre stretch of the village was also tightened to ensure no congregation takes place.

The police also detained Swaroop’s disciple Dineshanand – also an organiser of the mahapanchayat – was taken into custody, along with six others, to ensure peace in the region. Dineshanand is the state convenor of the Kali Sena, a religious organisation.

Some of his followers told The Wire that they were disappointed over the decision, some were also restricted outside the village.

While residents that The Wire spoke to were relieved over the security arrangements, they also hoped that peace is restored in the region.

“We are glad [the mahapanchayat] has been cancelled,” Habib* a resident of Dada Jalalpur said.

Also Read: Where Does Hate Reside in the Human Brain?

Some Muslim residents praised the district administration’s decision to impose Section 144 but felt similar actions could have been taken on April 16 to prevent communal tensions.

“It was this easy! If the police had taken stern action on April 16, our kids wouldn’t have wound up in jail for ten days,” Irfana* told The Wire. Her son was detained and later released after ten days.

The police have stationed smaller teams of police members across the village, with many policing the streets and resting in the courtyards of locals. Reportedly, the heavy police presence and the imposition of Section 144 will continue until May 5.

Speaking to The Wire, the additional district magistrate (ADM) of Haridwar P.L. Shah said, “As you know some people gave a call for a dharma mahapanchayat in Dada Jalalpur. We immediately implemented Section 144 in this village and the neighbouring one. There is heavy police deployment to protect the people. Me and my colleagues, including two SDMs and the rest of the police force, are here. There is no possibility of a dharma mahapanchayat in the village. We have been on alert since Tuesday.”

However, the blatant anti-Muslim statements propagated by Anand Swaroop and Dineshanand are stoking fears among the residents.

Bano* is sitting outside her house with her two daughters. Since April 16, she has been hiding with her family in the nearby field. They are scared to stay in their home. “Ours is the last home of the village. When the procession was leaving, it attacked our house. We managed to save ourselves. Since then, we have been hiding in the nearby field, occasionally coming back to check our home,” she tells The Wire.

Bano and her family have been hiding in a field after the communal violence that was reported in Dada Jalalpur on APril 16, 2022. Photo: The Wire

Bano’s husband Rihad* is an e-rickshaw driver. His vehicle which was burnt by a mob early on April 17. “Our cattle were also not spared. Our cows were attacked on their udders. They cannot give milk anymore,” Bano added, as Rihad looked on.

The family said the attacks were targeted to ensure their sources of livelihood are destroyed.

“The police have provided us protection this time, but where were they the last time? It just pains us,” Bano said.

As a visible rift emerges within the communities on the ground, some residents reiterate the need for peace.

Anmol, who runs a local shop in the village, feared that the tradition of Hindus and Muslims exchanging sweets on the others’ festivals may soon be lost. With Eid around the corner, both the communities are yet to move past what happened on April 16. “Nobody wants violence. It is sad that our neighbours won’t see us in the same light. Because of a few boys, the whole village is tensed,” he added.

Many Hindus refused to speak to the media. Some were disappointed over the “targeted attempt to silence Hindus” while the others stated that the atmosphere in the village was tense.

Speaking to The Wire, 70-year-old Sushila said, “These kids [who are accused of violence] have all grown up in front of us. We do not support the way in which things are unfolding. If Hindus have done something wrong they should be punished. Similarly, if Muslims have pelted stones, they should be booked. However, our culture and peace need to be intact.”

*Names changed to protect identities.

Watch | India Has Gone Too Far Down the Rabbit Hole of Communal Hatred

What does the increasing frequency of incidents of communal violence mean for India’s pluralistic nature?

Over the last few weeks, instances of communal violence in India have been reported with greater frequency that ever before.

On Ram Navami, celebrated on April 10, instances of communal clashes were reported from as many as four states. Moreover, the day also saw a row over non-vegetarian food being served on the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, and clashes took place outside a mosque in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri less than a week later.

Two weeks after Apoorvanand, a professor of Hindi at Delhi University, made a video for The Wire discussing how hatred for Muslims presents itself in Hindu festivals, he has returned to discuss the topic of communalism, noting that matters have gone from bad to worse.

Watch as he discusses the communal situation in India today and whether the country has gone too far down this particular rabbit hole.

Andhra Pradesh: Stone Pelting During Hanuman Shobha Yatra on Saturday, 3 Injured

Three people were injured and the situation has returned to normal after police intervened and pacified both the sides, police sources said on Sunday.

New Delhi: Stone pelting and clashes were reported during a ‘Shobha yatra’ on Saturday, Hanuman Jayanti, in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool after a procession led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) stopped near a mosque and religious slogans were raised by members of two different communities.

Three people were injured and the situation has returned to normal after police intervened and pacified both the sides, police sources said on Sunday.

The skirmish occurred on Saturday night while a religious procession was being taken out on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti, police sources said.

According to The News Minute, the procession halted in front of a mosque at around 7 pm for “an unusually long time”. The report says loud music was played and the police asked the VHP members in the procession to lower the volume of the music.

When some people in the procession began chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’, the Muslims in the mosque responded with “Allahu Akbar”. To prevent an escalation, the police ordered the procession to move on. The loudspeakers were switched on again again and this set off an altercation between the two groups. Stones were pelted by both groups at one another, leading to injuries.

The police then took the two sides to the local police station to quell the frenzy. Some tension prevailed even at the station but the authorities gave a stern warning to the two sides and brokered peace, the sources added.

Kurnool superintendent of police Sudhir Kumar Reddy rushed to Holagunda village to oversee the situation. Additional police force was deployed to prevent any untoward incident.

(With PTI inputs)

Jahangirpuri Violence: 22 Arrested, Main Accused’s Birth Certificate Shows He’s 16

Alleging police brutality, the family of the main accused – who is being portrayed as 22 in the media – has said the minor was home when the incident took place.

New Delhi: The Delhi police have arrested 22 people in connection with the communal clash broke out in North Delhi’s Jahangirpuri area on the evening of Saturday, April 16, after a Hindutva procession allegedly attempted to wave a saffron flag in front of a local mosque. By Sunday evening, more Muslim youth in addition to the 14 named in the FIR had been picked up.

On the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti, a procession of Bajrang Dal members undertaking a Shobha Yatra reportedly reached the mosque in Jahangirpuri’s Block C at 5 pm, when the incident took place. Speaking to The Wire, resident of the area Salman Khan said, “The mob with members of the Bajrang Dal went outside the mosque and tried to wave the saffron flag there. They were also dancing to loud music.”

“The shopkeepers in the area tried to stop the mob,” Khan continued, “while a few women got involved and asked the mob to go away. This turned violent where a few people were injured.”

“But the Delhi police took the matter into their hands immediately and made the mob leave. The situation is peaceful at the moment,” he added. 

The incident reportedly involved stone-pelting from both sides and even gunshots fired from a country-made pistol. Some vehicles were reportedly set ablaze during the incident.

“Things escalated and both communities started pelting stones at each other. They damaged public property and torched some vehicles,” a senior police officer said.

According to a report by NDTV, nine people were injured during the scuffle, including eight police officers and one civilian. Sub-inspector Medhalal Meena, one of the officers injured, reportedly suffered a gunshot wound to his hand.

Ganesh, another local resident who was sitting with Khan said that the violence broke out primarily on the main road, where the procession was taking place. 

“There was a mob that tried to do something outside a mosque but the police stopped it immediately. The local shopkeeper outside the mosque tried to stop the mob, which turned into a clash. But that happened outside the road. The situation is peaceful now,” Ganesh said. 

Giving his initial impressions, Vipin L.C., a member of the Communist Part of India – Marxist (CPI-M), who is also part of a fact-finding team consisting of members of the CPI-M and civil society activists, told The Wire that the Shobha Yatra procession had began early on Saturday and had remained relatively peaceful.

However, according to L.C., who is also a resident of Jahangirpuri, the processions had already made two rounds around the mosque since the morning and the Muslims present took objection to the third such round of rallying in the evening.

“Amidst this, the residents told the procession not to pass in front of the mosque,” he said, adding that the group was, at this point, chanting communal slogans and hurling slurs at the Muslim community, which allegedly sparked off the violence.

The fact-finding team has, as yet, not put out a report or a press statement on the matter.

By early afternoon on Sunday, 14 people had been arrested and the police had said that additional suspects had been identified on the basis of CCTV footage and videos uploaded to social media. Towards the second half of the day, more Muslim youth were picked up by the police.

A first information report (FIR) has been lodged in the matter under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 147 and 148 (rioting and rioting armed with a deadly weapon); Section 149 (offences by an unlawful assembly in prosecution of a common goal); Section 186 (voluntarily obstructing a public servant in the discharge of their public functions); Section 353 (assaulting a public servant); Section 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant); Section 307 (attempt to murder) and more, as well as Section 27 of the Arms Act (punishment for using arms).

According to the FIR, the incident kicked off when Mohammed Aslam (the main accused) began arguing with the Hanuman Jayanti procession, after which stone-pelting, fighting and violence ensued. While it is being reported in the media that Aslam is 22 years of age, his birth certificate, provided to The Wire by his family, shows that he is merely 16.

According to the police, Aslam fired the bullet that injured sub-inspector Meena and a country-made pistol was confiscated from him. However, Aslam’s sister-in-law, while speaking to The Wire, alleged that Aslam was at home when the incident took place and refuted the allegations that he fired shots during the incident.

Moreover, she claimed that Aslam was not allowed even to get dressed when the police arrested him and that she was manhandled by the officers when they did so.

According to a document accessed by The Wire requesting medical examinations of the accused, all 14 individuals who have been arrested are Muslim.

 

Heavy police deployment had been present in the area since Saturday night and personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) have reportedly been deployed since Sunday morning to maintain peace and keep the situation under control.

Heavy deployment of security forces can be seen in the area following the clashes. Photo: PTI

Following the incident, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to call for peace in the region.

Kejriwal has also reportedly been in contact with Delhi lieutenant governor (LG) Anil Baijal who said that all the necessary steps were being taken and that those guilty would “not be spared”, according to Dainik Jagran.

Pleading with the public not to pay heed to “rumours and fake news” on social media, Delhi police commissioner Rakesh Asthana also took to Twitter, saying that additional force has been deployed in Jahangirpuri as well as other “sensitive areas”.

Meanwhile, Union home minister Amit Shah reportedly met with Asthana as well as the special police commission (law and order) to get updated on the situation and told them to take all action necessary.

Several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Manoj Tiwari and Kapil Mishra, have alleged that the incident was a “conspiracy”. Mishra even said that today’s incident was a ‘terror act’, according to a report by India TV. 

The incident has come during a recent spate of communal violence from across the country, the most recent of which are the many attacks reported on Ram Navami, on April 11.

This is a developing story and is being updated with additional details as and when they come in.

(With inputs from Zakir Ali, PTI.)

Only the BJP Stands to Gain from Inciting Communal Riots in Saharanpur

A look at the sequence of events – compiled from news reports and residents’ accounts – shows that the riots may well have been pre-planned.

A look at the sequence of events – compiled from news reports and residents’ accounts – shows that the riots may well have been pre-planned.

Representative image. Still from 2014 Saharanpur riots. Credit: PTI

New Delhi: Images of arson and destroyed property flooded social media in the aftermath of communal clashes in Saharanpur last week. The riots triggered by BJP MP Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma’s ill-timed call for a “shobha yatra” (a procession) in memory of social justice icon B.R.Ambedkar, and Hindutva groups’ insistence to take it through communally-sensitive areas of Saharanpur – known for its exquisite furniture designs and the only wholesale cloth market in the region – left major parts of the town blighted for the second time in the last few years.

Saharanpur also witnessed a Muslim-Sikh riot in 2014 over a land dispute. The Muslim leadership of the town had stoked the fears of the community, which was already demoralised by the rise of the BJP. In the days following the clash, the BJP further polarised the city along communal lines and exacerbated the already tense environment of the city.

This time around, however, the riots in this volatile town broke out quite tactically, just a month ahead of the civic body polls, which will take place for the first time in May 2017. Saharanpur was declared a municipal corporation around ten years ago but elections for it kept getting stalled for one reason or another. Despite an unprecedented victory for the party in the recent assembly election, the BJP failed to make a mark in the city. It lost both the assembly seats – Saharanpur and Saharanpur Nagar – to the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance by a thin margin.

This means that Sharma, the MP, remained the only electoral representative for the party in the politically and economically-significant town. The civic body polls, therefore, have become the only chance for the saffron party to register its electoral presence in the city.

A communally polarised environment, which may result in the consolidation of Hindus, Jains and Sikhs who together form more than 53% of the city’s population as opposed to around 45% Muslims, may go on to help only the BJP.

A look at the sequence of events – put together from various newspaper reports and conversations with some residents of Saharanpur – which led to the riots shows that it may well have been pre-planned.

Ambedkar Jayanti was celebrated as usual by the Dalit groups of the area on April 14. Despite this, Sharma’s associates announced their plans to hold a shobha yatra” on April 20, which would start from the city’s premises and end in Sadak Dhudhli village on the outskirts of the city.

A report published in The Hindu clearly says that the Dalits of the village had objected to some Hindutva groups trying to organise a separate rally. A letter written by the Ambedkar Sewa Samiti to various administrative officials said that Dalits had already held a “vichar goshti” (seminar) on April 14, the day celebrated as Ambedkar Jayanti, and that it did not intend to organise any other programme.

Also read: As Hindutva Toughs Run Riot in UP, Will Adityanath Enforce the Law on His Own Cadre?

Muslims constitute almost 80% of the population in Sadak Dhudhli, with only a handful of Dalits living there. The BJP’s decision to end the procession in this Muslim-majority village, the Dalit residents suspected, may trigger animosity between the two communities.

All these factors, however, did not stop the Hindutva groups from calling for the procession. After initial objections, the Dalit residents of Sadak Dhudhli agreed to the BJP’s demand of organising the rally in their village, only on the condition that it would get all the required permissions from the administration. The BJP’s local leadership assured them that since the party is ruling currently, it would get the permission.

As it turned out, the BJP could not manage the required administrative go-aheads. But it decided to take out the rally in defiance of the law. Most Dalit residents of Sadak Dhudhli did not participate in the rally, a few reporters of the area said.

“Most of the participants were from outside. We did not recognise anyone,” said a Dalit journalist from Saharanpur’s, who declined to be named.

Getting permission to hold rallies in Saharanpur has been extremely difficult. Even the previous governments declined permission to political parties, given the communally volatile nature of the city.

Not only did the BJP mobilise for the illegal rally but, according to The Hindu’s report, its leaders insisted that the rally be taken through the Muslim-dominated regions of the city before it ended in Sadak Dhudhli.

Amidst the rising communal tension triggered by the procession, the Muslims of Saharanpur had prepared themselves for a fight. The procession was attacked with stones when it tried to enter the Muslim colonies. As the procession was stopped following the clash, the Hindutva mob went berserk and attacked the senior superintendent of police Love Kumar’s house. At the same time, they set shops ablaze and indulged in looting in different places.

Fuelling the hostility, Sharma immediately declared that he would take out the procession on April 23 and that “he would not allow Saharanpur become Kashmir” even as the SP formed a five-member probe team and sought to bring the situation under control.

In the days following the riot, many Dalit residents of the city have complained about the BJP’s efforts to communalise the political environment in the name of Ambedkar, who was one of the most vocal advocates of communal harmony.

“Normally shobha yatra is brought out during Ravidas Jayanti which mostly falls in the month of February. If the BJP was so serious in paying tribute to Ambedkar, why didn’t it take the procession through upper caste Hindu areas of Saharanpur; why only through Muslim-dominated regions? All of us know that the upper caste Hindus hate Dalits the most. They are the ones who have complained against shobha yatra in the past,” Inderpal, a Dalit activist in Saharanpur said.

In a similar vein, Balbir Singh Gautam, a member of the Ambedkar Samaj Party, was quoted in The Hindu, “I am sure the situation would have been different had they held a discussion with the administration and the Muslim community which had no objection to Shobha Yatra if it is done with permission.”

He added that even the Dalit-friendly BSP’s government had not given them permission to hold a shobha yatra during Ravidas Jayanti and because of this there was no procession in the last seven years.

A few journalists from Saharanpur The Wire spoke to said that Sharma had lobbied within his party to get an election ticket for his brother Rahul Lakhanpal Sharma.

“When he failed in his first attempt, he now wants his brother to become the mayor of Saharanpur. The social upheavals we see are the result of one person’s political ambitions,” said a senior journalist working for a Hindi daily in Saharanpur.

The BJP ran a campaign against deteriorating law and order in UP in the run-up to the assembly polls. However, it remains to be seen whether chief minister Adityanath will reign in his own cadres – who have flouted the law with confidence in the last one month under the BJP regime.