alamgir
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Hate & Violence Against Muslims
11. Muslims are subjected to hate speech, whose target is not only their personal dignity but their holy book and religion and Prophet of Islam. But the sad part of the story is that hate mongers are never brought to justice. A good example of such impunity is provided by an extreme Hindu xenopholic leader Bal Thackeray. Following are excerpts from his editorials of Marathi language paper Saamna during the time when Mumbai was engulfed in communal riots.
v December 5, 1992: ââ¬ÅWhich is this minority community? The Muslim traitors who partitioned the country and haveââ¬â¢t allowed us to breathe ever sinceââ¬Â.
v December 8, 1992: ââ¬ÅMuslims should draw a lesson from the demolition of babri Masjid, otherwise they will meet the same fate as Babri Masjid. Muslims who criticize the demolition are without religion, without a nationââ¬Â.
v December 9, 1992: ââ¬ÅPakistan need not cross the borders and attack India. 25 crore Muslims in India will stage an armed insurrection. They form one of Pakistanââ¬â¢s seven atomic bombsââ¬Â.
v January 8, 1993: ââ¬ÅMuslims of Bhendi Bazar, Null Bazar, Dongri and Pydhonie, the areas we call mini Pakistan... must be shot on the spotââ¬Â.
11.1 The Govt. of Maharashtra did not initiate any legal proceedings against him under S 153 (A) of the IPC. Some public spirited individuals and the organisations filed a writ petition in Bombay High Court for direction to the Government to prosecute Bal Thackeray. The High Court took a long time to hear the case and finally dismissed the petition on the ground that much time (2 years) had passed and it was unwise to ââ¬Årake upââ¬Â old issues all over again. The petitioners went in appeal to the Supreme Court which also swiftly dismissed their special leave partition on the ground that since the High Court had declined to take action, it was not wise nor in the public interest for the Supreme Court to do so.
11.2 Eminent jurists in India including Nani Palkhiwala, H.M. Seervai, Fali S. Nariman and Soli J. Sorbjee expressed shock and dismay over both the dismissals by the High Court and the Supreme Court. Here is the reaction of Sorabjee who is now the Attorney General of India.
Soli J. Sorabjee: ââ¬ÅIt is extremely unfortunate that the judiciary has not intervened in this case where the law has been openly flouted and communal hatred spread by Bal Thackeray through his mouthpiece Saamna. History teaches us that unless these pernicious tendencies are scotched they grow to become unmanageable monsters later on. The argument that a prosecution of persons responsible for spewing hatred would rake up past events is totally misconceived because there has been no rethinking or regret by the authors of the writings and there is every likelihood of such actions being repeatedââ¬Â.27
This episode presents a glimpse of how the judiciary in India has failed to come to the rescue of the victim Muslim minority in its hours of suffering.
12. One of the manifestations of extreme intolerance against Muslims on the part of aggressive religio-political Hindu nationalists and prejudiced and discriminatory attitude of the personnel of law-enforcement has been the periodic riots and pogroms targeting Muslims causing loss of life, property, honour and destruction of their places of worship. Tens of thousands of such riots have occurred in India since Independence. The number of major riots easily runs into hundreds.
12.1 This writer visited Jabalpur in 1961 and lived there for a month providing relief to the victims of first major anti-Muslim riots. I met the boy who had turned insane for having witnessed from a tree top the ghastly scene of all members of his extended family getting shot dead, while trying to escape from their torched house. Insanity was also the fate of a mother, a leaf-gatherer, whose only infant was snatched from her breast and trampled upon by Hindu rioters, who were avenging the death by suicide of a Hindu girl who had conceived from an illicit love (not rape) with a Muslim boy. Hundreds of Muslim girls were raped.
12.2 In 1969 this writer again visited Ahmadabad and lived for a month where a major riot had been engineered taking a toll of about 3000 lives. Inquiry report of Ajeet Bhattacharjea revealed lack of direction from the political bosses as the major source of massive loss of life and property. When Ajeet Bhattacharjee confronted a cabinet Minister with this and asked why was the police given the direction to be soft on rioters, the Minister admitted to having done so for fear of losing the coming elections to the Jana Sangh (Hindu Party).28
12.3 The 1978 Aligarh riots revealed a more disturbing feature than earlier inaction of police. The PUCL & DR Report found the PAC targeting Muslims, shooting to kill them in the name of controlling riots.29 This connivance, complicity and active participation of the administration and the police in riots with a view to teaching the Muslims a lesson acquired alarming proportions during 1980s and 1990s.
12.4 The following are some of the findings related to the role of the police and other agencies of law-enforcement system.
The following extracts from the Justice D.P. Madon Commission Report on Bhiwandi, Jalgaon & Mahad (1970) riots reveal the biases in the police:
ââ¬ÅPara 103.148 Discrimination was also practised in making arrests and while Muslims rioters were arrested in large numbers, the Police turned a blind eye to what the Hindu rioters were doing. Some innocent Muslims were arrested knowing them to be innocent. Some innocent Muslims who went to take shelter at the Bhiwandi Town Police Station were arrested instead of being given shelter and protectionââ¬Â.30
About Jalgaon riots of 1970 the Commission makes the following observations:
ââ¬Å104.34 The real reason for the inadequacy of the measures taken by the authorities was the communal bent of mind of some officers and the incompetence of the othersââ¬Â.
ââ¬Å3. No attempts were made to check the rioting and arson at Joshi Peth, though fifty-four Muslim houses were set on fire there and the flames could be seen even from a distance of two milesââ¬Â.
The Commission reported the following findings about the communally biased working of the Special Investigation Squad constituted to investigate riot cases in Jalgaon:
1. Para103.165 ââ¬ÅThe working of the Special Investigation Squad, Bhiwandi, is a study in communal discrimination.
2. The officers of the Squad systematically set about implicating as many Muslims and exculpating as many Hindus as possible irrespective of whether they were innocent or guiltyââ¬Â.
12.5 The Sixth Report of the National Police Commission (1981) also takes note of biased and partial behaviour of the police thus:
ââ¬ÅWe also heard of stringent criticism from many responsible quarters that the police do not often act with impartiality and objectively. Several instances have been cited where police officers and men appear to have shown unmistakable bias against a particular community while dealing with communal situations. Serious allegations of high handedness and other atrocities, including such criminal activities as arson and looting, molestation of women etc. have been levelled against the police deployed to protect the citizensââ¬Â. 31
12.6 Mr. N.C. Saxena IAS, who as Joint Secretary of the NCM inquired into the 1982 Meerut riots reported that ââ¬Åthe District Administration right from the very beginning perceived threat to public peace only from Muslims and therefore, they chose to take onesided action in pursuance of their thinking, observations and the reports which were received by them from the intelligence machinery. The orders from the senior officers in the district to the police could be summarised in one pharase: ââ¬ÅMuslims must be taught a lessonââ¬Â. The PAC and the police faithfully implemented this policy. Looting and arson, in this context, was considered legitimate and necessary, and was therefore ignoredââ¬Â.32
12.7 The Amnesty Internationalââ¬â¢s Report on Allegations of Extra Judicial Killings by the PAC In and Around Meerut, 22-23 May, 1987 makes the following observation about the PAC : Members of the PAC have repeatedly been accused of carrying out their duties in a partisan manner when employed to control rioting between the Hindu and Muslim communities. On a number of occasions PAC members themselves are said to have participated in violence directed against members of the minority community, including unprovoked and indiscriminate killings.33
12.8 The following are some of the conclusions of the NCM study on riots carried out in 1983 to find out the attitudes of district and police officers during riots:
ââ¬ÅMuslims are excitable and irrational people who are guided by their religious instincts. Hindus, on the other hand are law abiding and cooperate with the police in controlling communal violence.
ââ¬ÅState Government attaches a great deal of importance in ensuring quick control of rioting. Since Muslims are aggressive, therefore, in order to control violence, it is necessary that Muslim mobs must be taught a lesson through arrests, firing and third degree methodsââ¬Â.
12.9 Mr. V.N. Rai senior police officer presently holding the rank of I.G., BSF, who worked for a year on his dissertation ââ¬ÅPerception of Police Neutrality During Hindu-Muslim Riots in Indiaââ¬Â reports in his published dissertation (1996)34 the following:
(a) Police behave partially during most riots. In all the riots discussed in this study, they did not act as a neutral law enforcement agency but more as a ââ¬ÅHinduââ¬Â force.
(b) Perceptible discrimination was visible in the use of force, preventive arrests, enforcement of curfew, treatment of detained persons at police stations, reporting of facts and investigation, detection and prosecution of cases registered during riots. Muslims suffered in all of the above mentioned areas.
(c) An average policeman does not shed his prejudices and predetermined beliefs at the time of his entry into the force, and this is reflected in his bias against Muslims during communal violence.
(d) The inimical relationship between police and Muslims make them overreact in a confrontation-like situation
12.10 Justice B.N. Srikrishna makes the following observations in his Report on Bombay riots (1992-93):35
ââ¬Å1.6 The Commission is of the view that there is evidence of police bias against Muslims which has manifested itself in other ways like the harsh treatment given to them, failure to register even cognizable offences by Muslim complainants and the indecent haste shown in classifying offences registered in ââ¬ÅAââ¬Â summary in cases where Muslim complainant has specifically indicated the names and even addresses of the miscreants. That there was a general bias against the Muslims in the minds of the average policemen which was evident in the way they dealt with the Muslims, is accepted by the officer of the rank of Additional Commissioner, V.N. Deshmukh. This general police bias against Muslims crystallized itself in action during January 1993. (Ch.II)
ââ¬Å1.29 The built-in-bias of the police force against Muslims became more pronounced with murderous attacks on the Constabulary and officers and manifested in their reluctance to firmly put down incidents of violence, looting and arson which went on uncheckedââ¬Â. (Ch.II)
ââ¬Å1.11 The response of police to appeals from desperate victims, particularly Muslims, was cynical and utterly indifferent. On occasions, the response was that they were unable to leave the appointed post; on others, the attitude was that one Muslim killed, was one Muslim less. (Ch.IV)
ââ¬Å1.13 Police officers and men, particularly at the junior level, appeared to have an inbuilt bias against the Muslims which was evident in their treatment of the suspected Muslims and Muslim victims of riots. The treatment given was harsh and brutal and on occasions, bordering on inhuman, hardly doing credit to the police. The bias of policemen was seen in the active connivance of police constables with the rioting Hindu mobs on occasions, with their adopting the role of passive onlookers on occasions, and finally, in their lack of enthusiasm in registering offences against Hindus even when the accused were clearly identified and post haste classifying the cases in ââ¬ÅAââ¬Â summaryââ¬Â. (Ch.IV)
ââ¬Å1.14 Even the registered riot-related offences were most unsatisfactorily investigated. The investigations showed lack of enthusiasm, lackadaisical approach and utter cynicism. Despite clear clues the miscreants were not pursued, arrested and interrogated, particularly when the suspected accused happened to be Hindus with connections to Shiv Sena or Shiv Sainiks. This general apathy appears to be the outcome of the built-in prejudice in the mind of an average policeman that every Muslim is prone to crimeââ¬Â.(Ch.IV)
12.11 As in Ahmadabad (1969) the ruling partyââ¬â¢s Ministers were more interested in their political survival than in saving innocent lives through impartial law enforcement, in all other riots including the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the police does not consider itself a professionally independent body accountable to law, but a subordinate body which is to carry out policies of those who wield power, based on cynical calculation of political survival and consolidation.
13. The two decades (1980s and 1990s) after the incident of mass conversion of lower caste Hindus to Islam at Meenakshipuram in South India (1981), have witnessed the rise of militant Hindutva for consolidation of Hindus as a nation with the slogan earlier given by Veer Savankar for Hinduisation of polity and militarisation of Hinduism. The period witnessed competitive politics of Hindu communalism between the Congress and the BJP and its Parivar.
This has been also the phase of the rise of caste based political mobilisation of backwards, making upper caste Hindus develop a sense of siege within, and hence its aggressiveness against Muslims and now Christians. Under the same forces of competitive Hindu communalism the Sikh were taught the most bloody lesson in 1984, which witnessed State supervised genocide of Sikhs in Delhi & other places.
13.1 The period witnessed worst carnages involving Muslims including Moradabad (1980), Meerut (1982) Nellie (Assam) 1983, Hashimpura, Meerut (1987), Bhagalpur (1989). And Blood baths occurred at a large number of places in 1990 in the wake of Rathyatra and shilanyas and again at the time of the demolition of Babri Masjid on 6th December 1992.
All of them are attributable to Hindu politics of hate and revenge against Muslims and Islam for their supposed sins of 1000 year of Hindu-Muslim encounter in India including partition of the country. But the success of the politics of hate and revenge has depended entirely on the fragility and malfunctioning of the institutions of rule of law i.e. the administration, the police and the judiciary. Given the politics of hate and revenge, given the partisan role of the police and the administration as well as the communal prejudices and biases against Muslims in officers and personnel who man the law enforcement machinery, as noted by national and international human rights organisations and including official Commissions of inquiries and given the negligible representation of Muslims in the police and other wings of this machinery, and given the fact that the judiciary has failed to come to their rescue by delivering speedy justice, the lot of Muslims can very well be imagined.
13.2 The story of the cold blooded killings of Muslims (of Hashimpura (Meerut) and of the adjoining village of Malliana by the U.P.ââ¬â¢s Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) on 22-23 May 1987 and the manner the criminal justice system has been dealing with the case as well as the callousness of the people towards the case needs to be retold here. About the gruesome killings of Hashimpura the Amnesty International Report says:
ââ¬ÅOn 22 may several hundred men from the Hashimpura area of Meerut were seen being taken away in several trucks by PAC members. Witnesses said most were taken to local police stations but several dozen in the first two or three trucks were reportedly taken to the banks of the Upper Ganga canal near Muradnagar, shot and their bodies thrown in the water. By the last week of May, over 50 bodies had reportedly been found in the canal. Eighteen more were officially admitted to have been recovered from the nearby Hindon canal at Ghaziabad, although Indian journalists visiting Muradnagar and neighbouring places said that at least twice that number had been recovered; eye-witnesses said the bodies had been thrown in the canal by armed men in uniform. Two of the five survivors of the incident have testified that they were taken to the canal at Muradnagar by uniformed men who they identified as the PAC, who shot them and threw them in the canal. It is now believed that all the bodies found in the water were of men taken away from Hasbimpura although initial reports had indicated the bodies found in the Hindon canal were of victims of the killings which subsequently took place in Malianaââ¬Â.36
ââ¬ÅAccording to Indian journalists who visited Maliana immediately after the incident and interviewed eye-witnesses, houses of Muslims were looted and burned by the PAC and some of its inhabitants burned alive. At last 30 residents of Malaina are estimated to have been deliberately shot dead by the PAC in unprovoked and indiscriminate shootings, their bodies burned and thrown in wells or, some allege, taken away by the PAC and disposed of in secret. Dozens of others are still reported missing.ââ¬Â
ââ¬ÅEye-witnesses said that the PAC, led by senior officers, including the commandant of the 44th battalion, entered Maliana between 2 and 2.30pm on 23 May, took up positions around the village and announced they would carry out a search. Some villagers fled to the centre of the village, but said one man: ââ¬Åthey followed us there and took position on roof tops. They shouted abuses and warned that the firing would continue if we did not come out. But when we came out they began firing on us. Even women and children were not sparedââ¬Â. According to other press reports there was some resistance to the police action and stones were thrown at the PAC who then took up position and fired at people after telling them to leave their houses. The PAC are also alleged to have entered houses and shot the inhabitants, killing entire families. One survivor was quoted as saying: ââ¬ÅThey burnt out house to ashes.....They killed my children in front of my eyesââ¬Â. Another Yameen, a 30 year old fruit vendor, said he saw his 60 year old father Mohammad Akbar hacked to death, his body burned and his house set on fireââ¬Â.
ââ¬ÅInitially, the local administration described the incident as a ââ¬Åminor case of cross-firing in which a few people have diedââ¬Â.
The ghastly incident stirred the conscience of world community at the time. Indian media doyen Nikhil Chakaravarty compared the event with ââ¬ÅNazi progrom against the Jews, to strike terror and nothing but terror in a whole minority communityââ¬Â. In a joint statement signed by eminent citizens including I.K. Gujral, Rajindar Sachar and Kuldip Nayar demanded that ââ¬Åthe government must prosecute all those who have disgraced their uniforms. Their misdeeds must be treated at par with treason and tried by special courtsââ¬Â.
But the guilty ones have yet to be punished. On the contrary PAC commander R.D. Tripathi, about whom the AI Report had complained that no more than suspension had been ordered, is now enjoying promotion, though he had reportedly ordered the shootings in Malliana.
13.3 Out of 66 PAC Police personnel indicted by the CBCID Inquiry Report on the Hashimpura case, submitted in Feb. 1994,37 cases were filed in the Court of CJM Ghaziabad, from where the dead bodies were recovered, against 19 persons mostly of lower ranks on 20 May 1996 u/s 374/307/302/201 of the IPC (case no: 1267/96). But in spite of serious changes against these PAC personnel they were not produced before the CJMââ¬â¢s court in spite six times bailable and 17 times non bailable warrants having been issued against them between 31 January 1997 and 29 April 2000, though all along this period they continued to be in active service of the PAC, with known home addresses and postings. They surrendered only in May-June 2000, after this writerââ¬â¢s efforts succeeded in building enough pressure through the NCM and the daily Times of India,38 which gave first page coverage to the story of the Govt. of U.P. hiding the culprits. During the year charges have not been framed so far.
14. The demolition of Babri Masjid, a four hundred and sixty four year old mosque, by the Sangh Parivar in broad day light in the presence of the entire law-enforcement machinery of the State and under full glare of the world community does not signify denial of freedom of worship to Muslims, which they have continued to enjoy even in the temple town of Ayodhya, but is symbolic of how Muslims as a community have been institutionally treated by the Indian State and its organs and agencies ââ¬â rendering their survival with distinct identity precarious.
The world community needs to focus attention on how the law, the law courts and the law-enforcement agencies have unfairly treated the Muslims, the Sikhs and the Christians.
It is not only that the guilty ones have not been brought to justice even after the passage of about two decades, the victims have not been paid adequate compensation under law. Ex-gratia payments have been made applying differing standards in similar cases. It is only the Sikh victims of 1984 killings in Delhi who have been paid compensation of Rupees two lakhs with interest in compliance with Justice Anil Dev Singh of the Delhi High Courtââ¬â¢s judgment holding the Government liable to pay compensation for its failure to protect lives of innocent persons guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.39
The NCMââ¬â¢s recommendation, endorsed by the NHRC, in response to the representation of the Minorities Council for application of the judgment in all other similar cases of victims of riots at other places irrespective of their community affiliation has failed to make most of State Governments take any steps in this direction.
14.1 How Muslim victims of riots along with others, are treated is exemplified by the case of Hashimpura (Meerut). In its affidavit of 13 March 1997 filed by the Govt. of U.P. before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court, it says that Rs. 40,000/- (paid in two instalments) paid to the next of kin of those killed was adequate.
14.2 Human Rights Watch/Asia in its Report on Communal Violence And The Denial of Justice In India (1996) had characteoised the communal riots 1992-93 as ââ¬Åorchestrated events which depended on the connivance or outright participation of police and other officials and political leadersââ¬Â had warned that unless such complicity is publicly known and unless guilty are punished they will not be deterred from engaging in violence again.
14.3 That the role of the state security forces like the PAC in U.P. continues to be blatantly partisan and brutally communal has been once again demonstrated by the incidents of killings, loot and arson against Muslims that occurred in Kanpur on 16, 17 & 18 March 2001. The following are the findings of a womenââ¬â¢s Delegation comprising All India Democratic Womenââ¬â¢s Association, National Federation of Indian Women, Peace & Justice Commission of the CBCI, Womenââ¬â¢s Unit of the Indian Social Institute and Muslim Womenââ¬â¢s Forum:40
ââ¬Å.......it is the minority community, which has been victim of communal violence of loot and arson perpetrated by sections of the police and the PACââ¬Â (report Part-I para2).
ââ¬ÅDuring the curfew period the PAC looted and burnt shops. In one incident confirmed by the Commissioner, looted articles were actually later removed under his supervision from a PAC van. In several incidents groups of the Bajrang Dal accompained by the police attacked minority shops and burnt several masjids......ââ¬Â. (Para6)
Similar investigative report about the partisan role of the police and PAC was published in The Times of India, New Delhi of 23,24,26 and 27 March 2001 by Akshay Mukul. It is indiscriminate and wanton use of firepower by the PAC that caused the death of at least fourteen persons in Kanpur.
14.4 It must be borne in mind that the PAC generally carries out the orders of the district administration and the political executive, as earlier reported by NC Saxena. It is ultimately the political direction to teach the Muslims a lesson that is responsible for such governmental lawlessness.
Senior journalist Mr. Nikhal Chakravarty once told this writer that the PACââ¬â¢s organisation owed its existence to the fears harboured by the Congress leaders in U.P. about likely trouble from the Muslims in the wake of the partition.
15. This climate of impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of crimes against humanity and the lawlessness and selective application of laws by the Union & State Governments in India, has emboldened those like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad the Shiv Sena and its other allies in the Sangh Parivar to treat themselves as not only above the law, but a law unto themselves, which has made them declare that whatever the orders, injunctions and directions of the courts of law, they would build the Ram Temple at the exact site where Babri Masjid stood, accordign to a schedule that their Religious Assembly has announced during the Mahakumbh at Allahabad in January 2001. One stalwart of the VHP Justice (Retd.) Devki Nandan Agarwal has appreciatively pointed out how the apex court has been indulgent to the contemmers in the case related to demolition of Babri Masjid. He is therefore confident that the court will not punish anyone for now building the Temple without waiting for disposal of the case. It has been repeatedly claimed by Hindu leaders that the order of the District Judge, Faizabad in 1986 for opening the gate of Babri Masjid was the result of complicity of the Court with the executive.41
From the initial attachment order of 1949 to the judgment of the Supreme Court in 1994 which gave legal sanction to the makeshift temple unlawfully built after demolition of the mosque, the quality of most of the rulings, directions and judgments in Ayodhya-related cases have bee questioned by eminent jurists like Justice (Retd.) V.R. Krishna Iyer, Justice Hosbet Suresh, Mr. A.G. Noorani and Mr. Soli J. Sorabjee, who is now the Attorney General.42
15.1 It may be in order here to draw attention to the findings of Prof. Satish Saberwal and Prof. Mushir-ul-Hasan that ââ¬ÅMuslims of Muradabad in 1980 were up not only against the police but also the judiciary......as judicial action on the granting of bail and the like were generally such as to let the Hindus off lightly and to come down hard on the Muslimsââ¬Â.43
In view of this uncertainty of the course of law, the assurance given by the Prime Minister of India that ââ¬Åthe law will take its course, should any organisation attempt to disturb the status quo (at Ayodhya)ââ¬Â does not carry any conviction with Muslims and other minorities. There are apprehensions that a section of the Muslims may start thinking in terms of seeking desperate remedies. In the event of the aggressive Hindu nationalists trying to impose their will by force, there are chances that it will give rise to large scale violence, which may not remain confined to Ayodhya.
We would like to warn the world community of the potential threat that Hindu-Muslim conflict over issues like Ayodhya poses to peace in the region. Unless the police and the judiciary are reformed for impartial and humane law enforcement and for speedy delivery of justice and unless all the guilty ones are speedily brought to justice and victims of violence are adequately compensated, there is no hope of any amicable solution of contentious issues through dialogue.
This continued atmosphere of communal animosity and violence will further deprive Muslims of equality of opportunity and equal participation in the common domain of polity and economy and further subject the cherished features of their identity to assimilationist pressure.
11. Muslims are subjected to hate speech, whose target is not only their personal dignity but their holy book and religion and Prophet of Islam. But the sad part of the story is that hate mongers are never brought to justice. A good example of such impunity is provided by an extreme Hindu xenopholic leader Bal Thackeray. Following are excerpts from his editorials of Marathi language paper Saamna during the time when Mumbai was engulfed in communal riots.
v December 5, 1992: ââ¬ÅWhich is this minority community? The Muslim traitors who partitioned the country and haveââ¬â¢t allowed us to breathe ever sinceââ¬Â.
v December 8, 1992: ââ¬ÅMuslims should draw a lesson from the demolition of babri Masjid, otherwise they will meet the same fate as Babri Masjid. Muslims who criticize the demolition are without religion, without a nationââ¬Â.
v December 9, 1992: ââ¬ÅPakistan need not cross the borders and attack India. 25 crore Muslims in India will stage an armed insurrection. They form one of Pakistanââ¬â¢s seven atomic bombsââ¬Â.
v January 8, 1993: ââ¬ÅMuslims of Bhendi Bazar, Null Bazar, Dongri and Pydhonie, the areas we call mini Pakistan... must be shot on the spotââ¬Â.
11.1 The Govt. of Maharashtra did not initiate any legal proceedings against him under S 153 (A) of the IPC. Some public spirited individuals and the organisations filed a writ petition in Bombay High Court for direction to the Government to prosecute Bal Thackeray. The High Court took a long time to hear the case and finally dismissed the petition on the ground that much time (2 years) had passed and it was unwise to ââ¬Årake upââ¬Â old issues all over again. The petitioners went in appeal to the Supreme Court which also swiftly dismissed their special leave partition on the ground that since the High Court had declined to take action, it was not wise nor in the public interest for the Supreme Court to do so.
11.2 Eminent jurists in India including Nani Palkhiwala, H.M. Seervai, Fali S. Nariman and Soli J. Sorbjee expressed shock and dismay over both the dismissals by the High Court and the Supreme Court. Here is the reaction of Sorabjee who is now the Attorney General of India.
Soli J. Sorabjee: ââ¬ÅIt is extremely unfortunate that the judiciary has not intervened in this case where the law has been openly flouted and communal hatred spread by Bal Thackeray through his mouthpiece Saamna. History teaches us that unless these pernicious tendencies are scotched they grow to become unmanageable monsters later on. The argument that a prosecution of persons responsible for spewing hatred would rake up past events is totally misconceived because there has been no rethinking or regret by the authors of the writings and there is every likelihood of such actions being repeatedââ¬Â.27
This episode presents a glimpse of how the judiciary in India has failed to come to the rescue of the victim Muslim minority in its hours of suffering.
12. One of the manifestations of extreme intolerance against Muslims on the part of aggressive religio-political Hindu nationalists and prejudiced and discriminatory attitude of the personnel of law-enforcement has been the periodic riots and pogroms targeting Muslims causing loss of life, property, honour and destruction of their places of worship. Tens of thousands of such riots have occurred in India since Independence. The number of major riots easily runs into hundreds.
12.1 This writer visited Jabalpur in 1961 and lived there for a month providing relief to the victims of first major anti-Muslim riots. I met the boy who had turned insane for having witnessed from a tree top the ghastly scene of all members of his extended family getting shot dead, while trying to escape from their torched house. Insanity was also the fate of a mother, a leaf-gatherer, whose only infant was snatched from her breast and trampled upon by Hindu rioters, who were avenging the death by suicide of a Hindu girl who had conceived from an illicit love (not rape) with a Muslim boy. Hundreds of Muslim girls were raped.
12.2 In 1969 this writer again visited Ahmadabad and lived for a month where a major riot had been engineered taking a toll of about 3000 lives. Inquiry report of Ajeet Bhattacharjea revealed lack of direction from the political bosses as the major source of massive loss of life and property. When Ajeet Bhattacharjee confronted a cabinet Minister with this and asked why was the police given the direction to be soft on rioters, the Minister admitted to having done so for fear of losing the coming elections to the Jana Sangh (Hindu Party).28
12.3 The 1978 Aligarh riots revealed a more disturbing feature than earlier inaction of police. The PUCL & DR Report found the PAC targeting Muslims, shooting to kill them in the name of controlling riots.29 This connivance, complicity and active participation of the administration and the police in riots with a view to teaching the Muslims a lesson acquired alarming proportions during 1980s and 1990s.
12.4 The following are some of the findings related to the role of the police and other agencies of law-enforcement system.
The following extracts from the Justice D.P. Madon Commission Report on Bhiwandi, Jalgaon & Mahad (1970) riots reveal the biases in the police:
ââ¬ÅPara 103.148 Discrimination was also practised in making arrests and while Muslims rioters were arrested in large numbers, the Police turned a blind eye to what the Hindu rioters were doing. Some innocent Muslims were arrested knowing them to be innocent. Some innocent Muslims who went to take shelter at the Bhiwandi Town Police Station were arrested instead of being given shelter and protectionââ¬Â.30
About Jalgaon riots of 1970 the Commission makes the following observations:
ââ¬Å104.34 The real reason for the inadequacy of the measures taken by the authorities was the communal bent of mind of some officers and the incompetence of the othersââ¬Â.
ââ¬Å3. No attempts were made to check the rioting and arson at Joshi Peth, though fifty-four Muslim houses were set on fire there and the flames could be seen even from a distance of two milesââ¬Â.
The Commission reported the following findings about the communally biased working of the Special Investigation Squad constituted to investigate riot cases in Jalgaon:
1. Para103.165 ââ¬ÅThe working of the Special Investigation Squad, Bhiwandi, is a study in communal discrimination.
2. The officers of the Squad systematically set about implicating as many Muslims and exculpating as many Hindus as possible irrespective of whether they were innocent or guiltyââ¬Â.
12.5 The Sixth Report of the National Police Commission (1981) also takes note of biased and partial behaviour of the police thus:
ââ¬ÅWe also heard of stringent criticism from many responsible quarters that the police do not often act with impartiality and objectively. Several instances have been cited where police officers and men appear to have shown unmistakable bias against a particular community while dealing with communal situations. Serious allegations of high handedness and other atrocities, including such criminal activities as arson and looting, molestation of women etc. have been levelled against the police deployed to protect the citizensââ¬Â. 31
12.6 Mr. N.C. Saxena IAS, who as Joint Secretary of the NCM inquired into the 1982 Meerut riots reported that ââ¬Åthe District Administration right from the very beginning perceived threat to public peace only from Muslims and therefore, they chose to take onesided action in pursuance of their thinking, observations and the reports which were received by them from the intelligence machinery. The orders from the senior officers in the district to the police could be summarised in one pharase: ââ¬ÅMuslims must be taught a lessonââ¬Â. The PAC and the police faithfully implemented this policy. Looting and arson, in this context, was considered legitimate and necessary, and was therefore ignoredââ¬Â.32
12.7 The Amnesty Internationalââ¬â¢s Report on Allegations of Extra Judicial Killings by the PAC In and Around Meerut, 22-23 May, 1987 makes the following observation about the PAC : Members of the PAC have repeatedly been accused of carrying out their duties in a partisan manner when employed to control rioting between the Hindu and Muslim communities. On a number of occasions PAC members themselves are said to have participated in violence directed against members of the minority community, including unprovoked and indiscriminate killings.33
12.8 The following are some of the conclusions of the NCM study on riots carried out in 1983 to find out the attitudes of district and police officers during riots:
ââ¬ÅMuslims are excitable and irrational people who are guided by their religious instincts. Hindus, on the other hand are law abiding and cooperate with the police in controlling communal violence.
ââ¬ÅState Government attaches a great deal of importance in ensuring quick control of rioting. Since Muslims are aggressive, therefore, in order to control violence, it is necessary that Muslim mobs must be taught a lesson through arrests, firing and third degree methodsââ¬Â.
12.9 Mr. V.N. Rai senior police officer presently holding the rank of I.G., BSF, who worked for a year on his dissertation ââ¬ÅPerception of Police Neutrality During Hindu-Muslim Riots in Indiaââ¬Â reports in his published dissertation (1996)34 the following:
(a) Police behave partially during most riots. In all the riots discussed in this study, they did not act as a neutral law enforcement agency but more as a ââ¬ÅHinduââ¬Â force.
(b) Perceptible discrimination was visible in the use of force, preventive arrests, enforcement of curfew, treatment of detained persons at police stations, reporting of facts and investigation, detection and prosecution of cases registered during riots. Muslims suffered in all of the above mentioned areas.
(c) An average policeman does not shed his prejudices and predetermined beliefs at the time of his entry into the force, and this is reflected in his bias against Muslims during communal violence.
(d) The inimical relationship between police and Muslims make them overreact in a confrontation-like situation
12.10 Justice B.N. Srikrishna makes the following observations in his Report on Bombay riots (1992-93):35
ââ¬Å1.6 The Commission is of the view that there is evidence of police bias against Muslims which has manifested itself in other ways like the harsh treatment given to them, failure to register even cognizable offences by Muslim complainants and the indecent haste shown in classifying offences registered in ââ¬ÅAââ¬Â summary in cases where Muslim complainant has specifically indicated the names and even addresses of the miscreants. That there was a general bias against the Muslims in the minds of the average policemen which was evident in the way they dealt with the Muslims, is accepted by the officer of the rank of Additional Commissioner, V.N. Deshmukh. This general police bias against Muslims crystallized itself in action during January 1993. (Ch.II)
ââ¬Å1.29 The built-in-bias of the police force against Muslims became more pronounced with murderous attacks on the Constabulary and officers and manifested in their reluctance to firmly put down incidents of violence, looting and arson which went on uncheckedââ¬Â. (Ch.II)
ââ¬Å1.11 The response of police to appeals from desperate victims, particularly Muslims, was cynical and utterly indifferent. On occasions, the response was that they were unable to leave the appointed post; on others, the attitude was that one Muslim killed, was one Muslim less. (Ch.IV)
ââ¬Å1.13 Police officers and men, particularly at the junior level, appeared to have an inbuilt bias against the Muslims which was evident in their treatment of the suspected Muslims and Muslim victims of riots. The treatment given was harsh and brutal and on occasions, bordering on inhuman, hardly doing credit to the police. The bias of policemen was seen in the active connivance of police constables with the rioting Hindu mobs on occasions, with their adopting the role of passive onlookers on occasions, and finally, in their lack of enthusiasm in registering offences against Hindus even when the accused were clearly identified and post haste classifying the cases in ââ¬ÅAââ¬Â summaryââ¬Â. (Ch.IV)
ââ¬Å1.14 Even the registered riot-related offences were most unsatisfactorily investigated. The investigations showed lack of enthusiasm, lackadaisical approach and utter cynicism. Despite clear clues the miscreants were not pursued, arrested and interrogated, particularly when the suspected accused happened to be Hindus with connections to Shiv Sena or Shiv Sainiks. This general apathy appears to be the outcome of the built-in prejudice in the mind of an average policeman that every Muslim is prone to crimeââ¬Â.(Ch.IV)
12.11 As in Ahmadabad (1969) the ruling partyââ¬â¢s Ministers were more interested in their political survival than in saving innocent lives through impartial law enforcement, in all other riots including the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the police does not consider itself a professionally independent body accountable to law, but a subordinate body which is to carry out policies of those who wield power, based on cynical calculation of political survival and consolidation.
13. The two decades (1980s and 1990s) after the incident of mass conversion of lower caste Hindus to Islam at Meenakshipuram in South India (1981), have witnessed the rise of militant Hindutva for consolidation of Hindus as a nation with the slogan earlier given by Veer Savankar for Hinduisation of polity and militarisation of Hinduism. The period witnessed competitive politics of Hindu communalism between the Congress and the BJP and its Parivar.
This has been also the phase of the rise of caste based political mobilisation of backwards, making upper caste Hindus develop a sense of siege within, and hence its aggressiveness against Muslims and now Christians. Under the same forces of competitive Hindu communalism the Sikh were taught the most bloody lesson in 1984, which witnessed State supervised genocide of Sikhs in Delhi & other places.
13.1 The period witnessed worst carnages involving Muslims including Moradabad (1980), Meerut (1982) Nellie (Assam) 1983, Hashimpura, Meerut (1987), Bhagalpur (1989). And Blood baths occurred at a large number of places in 1990 in the wake of Rathyatra and shilanyas and again at the time of the demolition of Babri Masjid on 6th December 1992.
All of them are attributable to Hindu politics of hate and revenge against Muslims and Islam for their supposed sins of 1000 year of Hindu-Muslim encounter in India including partition of the country. But the success of the politics of hate and revenge has depended entirely on the fragility and malfunctioning of the institutions of rule of law i.e. the administration, the police and the judiciary. Given the politics of hate and revenge, given the partisan role of the police and the administration as well as the communal prejudices and biases against Muslims in officers and personnel who man the law enforcement machinery, as noted by national and international human rights organisations and including official Commissions of inquiries and given the negligible representation of Muslims in the police and other wings of this machinery, and given the fact that the judiciary has failed to come to their rescue by delivering speedy justice, the lot of Muslims can very well be imagined.
13.2 The story of the cold blooded killings of Muslims (of Hashimpura (Meerut) and of the adjoining village of Malliana by the U.P.ââ¬â¢s Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) on 22-23 May 1987 and the manner the criminal justice system has been dealing with the case as well as the callousness of the people towards the case needs to be retold here. About the gruesome killings of Hashimpura the Amnesty International Report says:
ââ¬ÅOn 22 may several hundred men from the Hashimpura area of Meerut were seen being taken away in several trucks by PAC members. Witnesses said most were taken to local police stations but several dozen in the first two or three trucks were reportedly taken to the banks of the Upper Ganga canal near Muradnagar, shot and their bodies thrown in the water. By the last week of May, over 50 bodies had reportedly been found in the canal. Eighteen more were officially admitted to have been recovered from the nearby Hindon canal at Ghaziabad, although Indian journalists visiting Muradnagar and neighbouring places said that at least twice that number had been recovered; eye-witnesses said the bodies had been thrown in the canal by armed men in uniform. Two of the five survivors of the incident have testified that they were taken to the canal at Muradnagar by uniformed men who they identified as the PAC, who shot them and threw them in the canal. It is now believed that all the bodies found in the water were of men taken away from Hasbimpura although initial reports had indicated the bodies found in the Hindon canal were of victims of the killings which subsequently took place in Malianaââ¬Â.36
ââ¬ÅAccording to Indian journalists who visited Maliana immediately after the incident and interviewed eye-witnesses, houses of Muslims were looted and burned by the PAC and some of its inhabitants burned alive. At last 30 residents of Malaina are estimated to have been deliberately shot dead by the PAC in unprovoked and indiscriminate shootings, their bodies burned and thrown in wells or, some allege, taken away by the PAC and disposed of in secret. Dozens of others are still reported missing.ââ¬Â
ââ¬ÅEye-witnesses said that the PAC, led by senior officers, including the commandant of the 44th battalion, entered Maliana between 2 and 2.30pm on 23 May, took up positions around the village and announced they would carry out a search. Some villagers fled to the centre of the village, but said one man: ââ¬Åthey followed us there and took position on roof tops. They shouted abuses and warned that the firing would continue if we did not come out. But when we came out they began firing on us. Even women and children were not sparedââ¬Â. According to other press reports there was some resistance to the police action and stones were thrown at the PAC who then took up position and fired at people after telling them to leave their houses. The PAC are also alleged to have entered houses and shot the inhabitants, killing entire families. One survivor was quoted as saying: ââ¬ÅThey burnt out house to ashes.....They killed my children in front of my eyesââ¬Â. Another Yameen, a 30 year old fruit vendor, said he saw his 60 year old father Mohammad Akbar hacked to death, his body burned and his house set on fireââ¬Â.
ââ¬ÅInitially, the local administration described the incident as a ââ¬Åminor case of cross-firing in which a few people have diedââ¬Â.
The ghastly incident stirred the conscience of world community at the time. Indian media doyen Nikhil Chakaravarty compared the event with ââ¬ÅNazi progrom against the Jews, to strike terror and nothing but terror in a whole minority communityââ¬Â. In a joint statement signed by eminent citizens including I.K. Gujral, Rajindar Sachar and Kuldip Nayar demanded that ââ¬Åthe government must prosecute all those who have disgraced their uniforms. Their misdeeds must be treated at par with treason and tried by special courtsââ¬Â.
But the guilty ones have yet to be punished. On the contrary PAC commander R.D. Tripathi, about whom the AI Report had complained that no more than suspension had been ordered, is now enjoying promotion, though he had reportedly ordered the shootings in Malliana.
13.3 Out of 66 PAC Police personnel indicted by the CBCID Inquiry Report on the Hashimpura case, submitted in Feb. 1994,37 cases were filed in the Court of CJM Ghaziabad, from where the dead bodies were recovered, against 19 persons mostly of lower ranks on 20 May 1996 u/s 374/307/302/201 of the IPC (case no: 1267/96). But in spite of serious changes against these PAC personnel they were not produced before the CJMââ¬â¢s court in spite six times bailable and 17 times non bailable warrants having been issued against them between 31 January 1997 and 29 April 2000, though all along this period they continued to be in active service of the PAC, with known home addresses and postings. They surrendered only in May-June 2000, after this writerââ¬â¢s efforts succeeded in building enough pressure through the NCM and the daily Times of India,38 which gave first page coverage to the story of the Govt. of U.P. hiding the culprits. During the year charges have not been framed so far.
14. The demolition of Babri Masjid, a four hundred and sixty four year old mosque, by the Sangh Parivar in broad day light in the presence of the entire law-enforcement machinery of the State and under full glare of the world community does not signify denial of freedom of worship to Muslims, which they have continued to enjoy even in the temple town of Ayodhya, but is symbolic of how Muslims as a community have been institutionally treated by the Indian State and its organs and agencies ââ¬â rendering their survival with distinct identity precarious.
The world community needs to focus attention on how the law, the law courts and the law-enforcement agencies have unfairly treated the Muslims, the Sikhs and the Christians.
It is not only that the guilty ones have not been brought to justice even after the passage of about two decades, the victims have not been paid adequate compensation under law. Ex-gratia payments have been made applying differing standards in similar cases. It is only the Sikh victims of 1984 killings in Delhi who have been paid compensation of Rupees two lakhs with interest in compliance with Justice Anil Dev Singh of the Delhi High Courtââ¬â¢s judgment holding the Government liable to pay compensation for its failure to protect lives of innocent persons guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.39
The NCMââ¬â¢s recommendation, endorsed by the NHRC, in response to the representation of the Minorities Council for application of the judgment in all other similar cases of victims of riots at other places irrespective of their community affiliation has failed to make most of State Governments take any steps in this direction.
14.1 How Muslim victims of riots along with others, are treated is exemplified by the case of Hashimpura (Meerut). In its affidavit of 13 March 1997 filed by the Govt. of U.P. before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court, it says that Rs. 40,000/- (paid in two instalments) paid to the next of kin of those killed was adequate.
14.2 Human Rights Watch/Asia in its Report on Communal Violence And The Denial of Justice In India (1996) had characteoised the communal riots 1992-93 as ââ¬Åorchestrated events which depended on the connivance or outright participation of police and other officials and political leadersââ¬Â had warned that unless such complicity is publicly known and unless guilty are punished they will not be deterred from engaging in violence again.
14.3 That the role of the state security forces like the PAC in U.P. continues to be blatantly partisan and brutally communal has been once again demonstrated by the incidents of killings, loot and arson against Muslims that occurred in Kanpur on 16, 17 & 18 March 2001. The following are the findings of a womenââ¬â¢s Delegation comprising All India Democratic Womenââ¬â¢s Association, National Federation of Indian Women, Peace & Justice Commission of the CBCI, Womenââ¬â¢s Unit of the Indian Social Institute and Muslim Womenââ¬â¢s Forum:40
ââ¬Å.......it is the minority community, which has been victim of communal violence of loot and arson perpetrated by sections of the police and the PACââ¬Â (report Part-I para2).
ââ¬ÅDuring the curfew period the PAC looted and burnt shops. In one incident confirmed by the Commissioner, looted articles were actually later removed under his supervision from a PAC van. In several incidents groups of the Bajrang Dal accompained by the police attacked minority shops and burnt several masjids......ââ¬Â. (Para6)
Similar investigative report about the partisan role of the police and PAC was published in The Times of India, New Delhi of 23,24,26 and 27 March 2001 by Akshay Mukul. It is indiscriminate and wanton use of firepower by the PAC that caused the death of at least fourteen persons in Kanpur.
14.4 It must be borne in mind that the PAC generally carries out the orders of the district administration and the political executive, as earlier reported by NC Saxena. It is ultimately the political direction to teach the Muslims a lesson that is responsible for such governmental lawlessness.
Senior journalist Mr. Nikhal Chakravarty once told this writer that the PACââ¬â¢s organisation owed its existence to the fears harboured by the Congress leaders in U.P. about likely trouble from the Muslims in the wake of the partition.
15. This climate of impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of crimes against humanity and the lawlessness and selective application of laws by the Union & State Governments in India, has emboldened those like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad the Shiv Sena and its other allies in the Sangh Parivar to treat themselves as not only above the law, but a law unto themselves, which has made them declare that whatever the orders, injunctions and directions of the courts of law, they would build the Ram Temple at the exact site where Babri Masjid stood, accordign to a schedule that their Religious Assembly has announced during the Mahakumbh at Allahabad in January 2001. One stalwart of the VHP Justice (Retd.) Devki Nandan Agarwal has appreciatively pointed out how the apex court has been indulgent to the contemmers in the case related to demolition of Babri Masjid. He is therefore confident that the court will not punish anyone for now building the Temple without waiting for disposal of the case. It has been repeatedly claimed by Hindu leaders that the order of the District Judge, Faizabad in 1986 for opening the gate of Babri Masjid was the result of complicity of the Court with the executive.41
From the initial attachment order of 1949 to the judgment of the Supreme Court in 1994 which gave legal sanction to the makeshift temple unlawfully built after demolition of the mosque, the quality of most of the rulings, directions and judgments in Ayodhya-related cases have bee questioned by eminent jurists like Justice (Retd.) V.R. Krishna Iyer, Justice Hosbet Suresh, Mr. A.G. Noorani and Mr. Soli J. Sorabjee, who is now the Attorney General.42
15.1 It may be in order here to draw attention to the findings of Prof. Satish Saberwal and Prof. Mushir-ul-Hasan that ââ¬ÅMuslims of Muradabad in 1980 were up not only against the police but also the judiciary......as judicial action on the granting of bail and the like were generally such as to let the Hindus off lightly and to come down hard on the Muslimsââ¬Â.43
In view of this uncertainty of the course of law, the assurance given by the Prime Minister of India that ââ¬Åthe law will take its course, should any organisation attempt to disturb the status quo (at Ayodhya)ââ¬Â does not carry any conviction with Muslims and other minorities. There are apprehensions that a section of the Muslims may start thinking in terms of seeking desperate remedies. In the event of the aggressive Hindu nationalists trying to impose their will by force, there are chances that it will give rise to large scale violence, which may not remain confined to Ayodhya.
We would like to warn the world community of the potential threat that Hindu-Muslim conflict over issues like Ayodhya poses to peace in the region. Unless the police and the judiciary are reformed for impartial and humane law enforcement and for speedy delivery of justice and unless all the guilty ones are speedily brought to justice and victims of violence are adequately compensated, there is no hope of any amicable solution of contentious issues through dialogue.
This continued atmosphere of communal animosity and violence will further deprive Muslims of equality of opportunity and equal participation in the common domain of polity and economy and further subject the cherished features of their identity to assimilationist pressure.
but this because of revenge attack. However, I am trying to say is that this is on a higher level a government level if you remember the Hyderabad massacre where the police did little or nothing to stop the Hindu extremist. Kashmir by the Indian government there is no Media allowed in Kashmir and the rape and massacre is increadible.
