Mubashir Iqbal Kitaba
INDIA claims to be the world’s largest Democracy. It presents herself before the world that we are secular where every citizen is free to choose their religion and practice the same in letter and in spirit without any interference from anyone including the State. But if we look at the ground situation we find that it is a myth not in actual practice. Post independent India witnessed many events where a particular community is targeted and murdered. The Gujarat episode which many intellectuals believe was a well trough out plot and conspiracy against Muslims with the backing and support of state machinery where mothers’ wombs were torn, girls raped, men murdered and children burnt alive.
There have been pogroms in India but the truth is that every kind of pogrom was directed towards a particular tribe, caste, religion in which innocents were butchered like animals. Since the BJP government came to power in centre, the atrocities against the minorities were on rise and with each passing day Muslims were beaten, humiliated and lynched in broad daylight. BJP is the political wing of the RSS whose ideology is that the minorities particularly the Muslims have from come other places and settled here in India. They consider them as invaders. Muslims were treated as second class citizens.
The recent victim of this lynching is the Tabrez Ansari, a young 24-year-old man d who was thrashed and beaten badly by a mob in Jharkhand’s Saraikela district for alleged theft. A video of the incident gone viral on social media were he was tied with a pole and was severely thrashed and forced to chant “Jai shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman”. He was beaten for nearly seven hours before being handed over to police and the police instead of taking him to hospital he was dragged to police lockup were his health condition deteriorate and later died in the hospital. Her wife in the compliant to police claims that Tabriz called her on that night of June 18 and prayed for help against a mob of locals who were threatening to kill him.
Even after two days of this incident a teacher of a madrasa in Jharkhand was allegedly pushed off from a moving train as he refused to chant the slogan of “Jai Shri Ram”. The Teacher was later identified as Hafeez Mohammad Sahrukh who was travelling in the train when a group of people caught hold of him and asked him to chant the slogans. Same incident happened in Assam were a Muslim youth assaulted and forced to chant “Pakistan Murdabad” “Jai Shri Ram” and Bharat Mata ke jay” slogans’.
These happenings happen under a well thought out conspiracy to create a fear among the minority community. These incidents have got the full patronage of the ruling government. Let me quote few of the incidents of recent past, On May 2015, in Rajasthan, a 60 year old man who ran a meat shop was beaten to death by a mob with sticks and iron rods. On September 28, 2015, Uttar Pradesh a mob attacked a Muslim man Muhammad Akhlaq and beaten him to death with sticks and bricks on mere suspicion of eating beef. On March 18, 2016 two Muslim cattle traders were killed by gaw rakshaks in Jharkhand. The list is long.
The situation is so grim that the free voice has been chocked. There is a censorship on the activities of those who were critical with the policies of the government. Whatever is happening in today’s modern India is not good for its health and well-being. The famous Indian writer Arundati Roy in her book (the listening to grasshoppers) writes that, “This kind of democracy is the problem and not the solution”. The media organizations mostly electronic media is solely responsible for whatever is happening in India.
From the last few years their prime time debates revolve only around Hindu Muslim debate. If steps not taken to stop these media houses for the venom they spread, the day is not far when the whole country will enflug in the flames. The Muslims living in India need to be cautious and ask for their rights which were guaranteed by the constitution of India. They need to mould the attention of the world community towards them which include international media about these lynching’s which happen with the full support of the ruling regime and pressurize the government to stop these political murders.
— The writer is PhD Research Scholar, Srinagar Kashmir.
