Monday, 12 February 2018

AIMPLB expels Maulana Salman Husaini Nadwi

AIMPLB expels Maulana Salman Husaini Nadwi over Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid remark
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) earlier in the day sacked Maulana Salman Husaini Nadwi for his comment over the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid issue.
By: FE Online | New Delhi | Published: February 11, 2018 6:37 PM
589
SHARES
SHARE

 Salman Nadwi, Salman Husaini Nadwi expelled, AIMPLB, Ram Janambhoomi, Babri Masjid, Maulana Salman Husaini Nadwi, All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Muslim Law Board Maulana Salman Husaini Nadwi. (ANI)
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) earlier in the day sacked Maulana Salman Husaini Nadwi for his comment over the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid issue. Nadwi had suggested an out of court settlement for the Babri Masjid issue after which he was sacked by the Muslim Law Board. Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, a member of the AIMPLB while talking to the media said that the board reiterated its uncompromising stand on Babri Masjid issue. He added that Salman Nadwi is still speaking against the Board stand which is why the board was left with no other option and the committee has unanimously decided to remove him.

This move by the Muslim board comes after Nadvi earlier in the month had come out in public to talk about the issue after meeting with Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Nadvi extended his support to the construction of Ram temple and hinted shifting the site of the mosque to settle the politically sensitive issue.

Expelled member of the AIMPLB, Salman Nadvi while talking about the issue said, “There is scope in Shariyat for shifting the Mosque. I am talking about Hindu-Muslim unity & solving this issue. I will be meeting saints in Ayodhya & also have a discussion with Hindu brothers from across India,” as quoted by ANI. While expressing his surprise over the move by the AIMPLB, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar took to Twitter and wrote, “Maulana Salman Husaini Nadwi’s expulsion from the AIMPLB comes as a surprise, as several members of the board have met with me & expressed their commitment to foster amity amongst Hindus & Muslims & to peacefully resolve this issue.”

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board in Hyderabad today while addressing the media said, “Babri Masjid is an essential part of faith in Islam and Muslims can never abdicate the masjid nor they can exchange land for masijd, gift masjid land. Babri Masjid is a masjid and it will remain a masjid till eternity. By demolitioning, it never loses its identity.” It added, “The struggle of re-construction of Babri Masjid continues and that the appeal of the Supreme Court is being fought rigorously.”

కేరళ లవ్ జీహాదీ కేసులో సుప్రీం సంచలన వ్యాఖ్యలు

కేరళ లవ్ జీహాదీ కేసులో సుప్రీం సంచలన వ్యాఖ్యలు
కేరళ
అఖిల ఆశోకన్ అనే యువతి షహీన్ జహాన్ అనే యువకుడు ప్రేమించి పెండ్లి చేసుకున్నారు. అశోకన్ మతం మార్చుకుంది. ఆమె పేరు హదియాగా మార్చుకుంది. అయితే పెండ్లి చేసుకున్నరోజునుండి ఒకవైపు కుటుంభం మరో వైపు హిందుత్వవాదులు ఆ ఇద్దరిపై దుర్మార్గపు దాడులు చేస్తున్నారు. అది లవ్ జీహాద్ అని ప్రచారం చేస్తూ వాళ్ళిద్దరినీ అనేక ఇబ్బందులకు గురి చేస్తున్నారు. చివరకు అఖిల తండ్రి అఖిలను బలవంతంగా మత మార్పిడి చేసి పెండ్లి చేసుకున్నాడని కోర్టుకు వెళ్ళడంతో కేరళ హైకోర్టు వారిద్దరి పెండ్లిని రద్దు చేసింది. మరోవైపు జాతీయ దర్యాప్తు సంస్థ(ఎన్‌ఐఏ) కూడా ఈ కేసుపై విచారణ‌ జరుపి షహీద్ పై అనేక ఆరోపణలు చేసింది. కొంత కాలంగా ఆమె ప్రభుత్వ పరిరక్షణలో ఉంటోంది. తన భర్తతో కలవనివ్వాలని ఆమె అడుగుతోంది. ఈ నేపథ్యంలో హైకోర్టు తీర్పుపై షహీన్ సుప్రీం కోర్టుకు వెళ్ళాడు. కోర్టులో ఆశోకన్ మాత్రం తన భర్తతోనే ఉంటానని ఉంటానని తల్లితండ్రుల దగ్గర ఉండనని చెప్పింది.

ఇవ్వాళ్ళ సుప్రీం కోర్టులో ఈ కేసు విచారణ సందర్భంగా చీఫ్‌ జస్టిస్‌ దీపక్‌ మిశ్రా నేతృత్వంలోని ధర్మాసనం అనేక వాఖ్యలు చేసింది. హదియా ఎవరితో జీవించాలనే నిర్ణయం తీసుకునే హక్కు ఆమెకు మాత్రమే ఉందని అత్యున్నత న్యాయస్థానం స్పష్టం చేసింది.
ʹʹమీరు(ఎన్‌ఐఏను ఉద్దేశించి) ఏమైనా దర్యాప్తు చేసుకోవచ్చు. కానీ, హదియా వైవాహిక జీవితంలో జోక్యం చేసుకునే న్యాయ బద్ధత మాత్రం లేదు. మేజర్‌ అయిన ఓ అమ్మాయిని తల్లిదండ్రులతో ఉండాలని చెప్పటానికి ఎవరికీ హక్కులు లేవు. ఎవరితో జీవించాలన్న నిర్ణయం కూడా పూర్తిగా ఆమెకు మాత్రమే ఉంటుంది. పైగా వైవాహిక బంధాన్ని విచ్ఛిన్నం చేసే హక్కు న్యాయస్థానాలకు కూడా ఉండదుʹʹ అని న్యాయస్థానం కుండబద్దలు కొట్టింది.


Kerala ‘love jihad’ case: SC says NIA can’t probe legitimacy of Hadiya’s marriage
Hadiya Jehan, a 24-year-old Hindu woman from Kerala who converted to Islam, said she wanted to live with her Muslim husband.
INDIA Updated: Jan 23, 2018 15:36 IST
Bhadra Sinha
Bhadra Sinha 
Hindustan Times, New Delhi
The apex court observed that the National Investigation Agency’s investigation into a “pattern” involving conversion to Islam and marriages in Kerala will have no bearing in deciding the aspects of the legitimacy of marriage of Hadiya and Shafin Jehan, which was annulled by the Kerala high court.
The apex court observed that the National Investigation Agency’s investigation into a “pattern” involving conversion to Islam and marriages in Kerala will have no bearing in deciding the aspects of the legitimacy of marriage of Hadiya and Shafin Jehan, which was annulled by the Kerala high court.
The Supreme Court said on Tuesday the National Investigation Agency (NIA) cannot probe the legitimacy of Hadiya Jahan’s marriage that was annulled by the Kerala high court last year, sparking a raging debate over personal freedom in India.

The bench headed by chief justice Dipak Misra said marriage has to be separated from criminal action or conspiracy, adding that adding that only Hadiya has the right “to decide on her choices”.

The SC made Hadiya a party in the case and asked her to file a response as it continued hearing the case of alleged forced conversion.

“She is an adult. She appeared before us and said she is married. What can the court do? We can’t get into the legitimacy of the person whom she has married. Legitimacy of marriage can be questioned only by her or the man,” the SC said on Tuesday.

The apex court said the NIA’s investigation into a “pattern” involving conversion to Islam and marriages in Kerala will have no bearing in deciding the aspects of the legitimacy of marriage of Hadiya and Shafin Jehan.

Hadiya, 24, was born Akhila Ashokan before she converted after her marriage. The HC had sent her back to her father’s house but the top court later freed Hadiya to continue her studies.

The woman’s father claims the marriage was forced and was a case of love jihad, a term right-wing groups use to allege an Islamist strategy of converting Hindu women through seduction, marriage or money.

Her father had sought custody of his daughter saying that efforts are underway to send her to Syria to join the international terror outfit, Islamic State. Shafin denies the allegations.

Friday, 9 February 2018

Before Turning Taj into a Temple, the BJP Would Do Well to Remember Its Guru Mookerjee

Before Turning Taj into a Temple, the BJP Would Do Well to Remember Its Guru Mookerjee
BY AKSHAYA MUKUL ON 07/02/2018 • 8 COMMENTS
SHARE THIS:
 80
inShare
1

More
The next time a Vinay Katiyar makes a claim to turn mosques, mausoleums and memorials into temples, the least one can do is cite Mookerjee’s impartial view.

Taj Mahal. Credit: Reuters

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s website proudly and rightly proclaims Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s impeccable academic credentials: Calcutta University, Lincoln’s Inn, the country’s youngest vice-chancellor, and what have you. The party even has a separate research cell working on the life and times of the Jana Sangh founder who is being promoted as a party — and even national – hero.

But like everything BJP, Mookerjee is merely a slogan – a bit of rhetoric, to be bandied about with seriousness. That’s about it. Even if we discount the lazy right wing’s hatred for scholarship, one would have imagined at least their own icons would not be treated the way the ‘Macaulayputras’ and Marxists are.

In the past six months, two BJP leaders and thousands of Hindutva trolls on social media have demanded that the Taj Mahal be turned into a temple, which they allege it was at some point in the past. Of course, they have their Pran Nath Oak and his The Taj Mahal Is A Temple Palace to rely upon. In the pantheon of right-wing scholarship, army officer-turned-historian Oak has an enviable position, not because he claimed to have worked with Subhash Chandra Bose but more as a ‘historian’ whose imagination knew no bounds. Even the few genuine Oxford-educated historians and journalist-historians in their stable have not been able to dislodge Oak from his pedestal. His twisted theories on the Taj Mahal, Christianity (‘Krishna Niti’, if you may) and scores of other contentious issues and sites of history have kept his legacy alive.

Oak’s books are selling and his ideas have been picked up by the likes of Vinay Katiyar and other out-of-work BJP politicians from Uttar Pradesh. Prime Minister Modi’s maun and the over-excitement of news channels only adds to such putrid historic claims.

Also read: BJP MP Charged With Demolishing Babri Masjid Now Wants Taj Mahal Converted Into ‘Tej Mandir’
So here it is. Why not suggest a reading of Mookerjee to his legatees, including Modi, who already has a post-graduate degree in ‘entire political science’? Next time a lumpen element in his party, now at the centre stage, makes a claim to turn mosques, mausoleums and memorials into temples, at least he could look at them sternly and cite Mookerjee. If he wants to, that is.

I understand academic tomes are anathema to them, so I am only requesting they read a speech by Mookerjee delivered on November  23, 1940 at the convocation of Agra University.

As convocation addresses go, it was a long speech full of insight but bereft of partisan politics. Mookerjee’s scholarship was on full display.

He told the students that even if the university is just 13 years old, “its habitation in this historic city of Agra, whose ancient and mediaeval associations are indeed unforgettable, gives you the dignity and a prominence which have a value of their own.”

Like a tourist guide selling Agra, Mookerjee gave an evocative description of the city – its ancient roots, Mughal past and modern future – without being partial.

It was a period of intense communalism in the United Provinces and elsewhere and Mookerjee himself was a poster boy of the right. But he had left all of that outside the convocation hall.

“The sacred river which glides past, the battlements of your city carries our memory back to the heroic age of India, to the days of the Mahabharata and even to that of the Rig Veda itself. The ancient castle of the city figured in the Qasidas of the Ghaznavid period. The noble town which grew round it flourished under the fostering care of the greatest of the great Mughals who founded the famous fort of cut red stone, the like of which those [who] had travelled over the word in the days of his son, could not point out.”

Then he moved to the Taj. He was not being Frank Cowan, who devoted a large section of his The Rime of a Rambler Twice Around The World in praise of the magnificent white monument and even had The Taj Mahal: A Poem culled out of this book.

Mookerjee was merely proud of India’s composite culture, the Mughal contribution and wanted students to learn from it.

He had already praised Akbar’s Agra fort. Now was the turn of his grandson Shah Jahan’s memorial of his wife. “But it was left to [Akbar’s] famous grandson to adorn the city with its brightest of ornaments – one of the seven wonders of the world – a crowning tribute in marble to India’s womanhood. The land around the Taj was also the birthplace of Faizi and Abul Fazl. For years it was the residence of Tansen and the resting place of many an eminent personage of the Mughal period,” he told the students, reminding them again that “a university founded in a city with such noble associations has a responsibility to the Motherland which need no emphasis”.

Mookerjee also said something that might sound Greek to his ideological inheritors. He emphasised that “colleges should provide at the base of what has been known for generations a sound liberal education that is catholic, expansive, free from narrowness and bigotry in ideas or doctrines, appropriate for a broad and enlightened mind”.

As I cite Mookerjee to the likes of Katiyar, another point needs to be made. A factual one. Taj Mahal’s caretaker under Aurangzeb was Chandar Bhan Brahman, an intellectual munshi of Shah Jahan’s court, also his favourite. Having served both father and son, when Chandar Bhan’s retirement came, Aurangzeb sent him to Agra as a caretaker. To the curious right wing mind – how a brahmin rose to top under Mughals – I will not recommend Chandar Bhan’s magnum opus Chahar Chaman in Persian about the life and times, politics, administration and machinations of the Mughal court but a brilliant, less than 400-page book on Chandar Bhan Brahman by Rajeev Kinra – Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary.

It is better to read your own icons and others and let Arjumand Banu Begum, aka Mumtaz Mahal, rest in peace in her rauza-i mutahhara (the sacred tomb).

Akshaya Mukul is a senior journalist and the author of Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India.

How Forces in Myanmar Burned, Looted and Killed in a Remote Village

How Forces in Myanmar Burned, Looted and Killed in a Remote Village
BY WA LONE, KYAW SOE OO, SIMON LEWIS AND ANTONI SLODKOWSKI ON 09/02/2018 • LEAVE A COMMENT
SHARE THIS:
 0
inShare

More
On September 2, Buddhist villagers and Myanmar troops killed 10 Rohingya men in Rakhine state. Reuters uncovered the massacre, but while reporting this article, two Reuters journalists were arrested by Myanmar police.

Abdu Shakur, whose son Rashid Ahmed was among the 10 Rohingya men killed on September 2, 2017, holds a family picture at Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on January 19. Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Inn Din: Bound together, the 10 Rohingya Muslim captives watched their Buddhist neighbours dig a shallow grave. Soon afterwards, on the morning of September 2, all 10 lay dead. At least two were hacked to death by Buddhist villagers. The rest were shot by Myanmar troops, two of the gravediggers said.

“One grave for 10 people,” said Soe Chay, 55, a retired soldier from Inn Din’s Rakhine Buddhist community who said he helped dig the pit and saw the killings. The soldiers shot each man two or three times, he said. “When they were being buried, some were still making noises. Others were already dead.”

The killings in the coastal village of Inn Din marked another bloody episode in the ethnic violence sweeping northern Rakhine state, on Myanmar‘s western fringe. Nearly 690,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled their villages and crossed the border into Bangladesh since August. None of Inn Din’s 6,000 Rohingya remained in the village as of October.

The Rohingya accuse the army of arson, rapes and killings aimed at rubbing them out of existence in this mainly Buddhist nation of 53 million. The UN has said the army may have committed genocide; the US has called the action ethnic cleansing. Myanmar says its “clearance operation” is a legitimate response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents.

Rohingya trace their presence in Rakhine back centuries. But most Burmese consider them to be unwanted immigrants from Bangladesh; the army refers to the Rohingya as “Bengalis.” In recent years, sectarian tensions have risen and the government has confined more than 100,000 Rohingya in camps where they have limited access to food, medicine and education.

Reuters has pieced together what happened in Inn Din in the days leading up to the killing of the 10 Rohingya – eight men and two high school students in their late teens.

Until now, accounts of the violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine state have been provided only by its victims. The Reuters reconstruction draws for the first time on interviews with Buddhist villagers who confessed to torching Rohingya homes, burying bodies and killing Muslims.

This account also marks the first time soldiers and paramilitary police have been implicated by testimony from security personnel themselves. Members of the paramilitary police gave Reuters insider descriptions of the operation to drive out the Rohingya from Inn Din, confirming that the military played the lead role in the campaign.

Photographs from a massacre

The slain men’s families, now sheltering in Bangladesh refugee camps, identified the victims through photographs shown to them by Reuters. The dead men were fishermen, shopkeepers, the two teenage students and an Islamic teacher.


Ten Rohingya Muslim men with their hands bound kneel in Inn Din village on September 1, 2017. Credit: To match Special Report Myanmar Rakhine/Events Handout/Reuters

Three photographs, provided to Reuters by a Buddhist village elder, capture key moments in the massacre at Inn Din, from the Rohingya men’s detention by soldiers in the early evening of September 1 to their execution shortly after 10 am on September 2. Two photos – one taken the first day, the other on the day of the killings – show the 10 captives lined up in a row, kneeling. The final photograph shows the men’s bloodied bodies piled in the shallow grave.

The Reuters investigation of the Inn Din massacre was what prompted Myanmar police authorities to arrest two of the news agency’s reporters. The reporters, Burmese citizens Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were detained on December 12 for allegedly obtaining confidential documents relating to Rakhine.

Then, on January 10, the military issued a statement that confirmed portions of what Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe Oo and their colleagues were preparing to report, acknowledging that 10 Rohingya men were massacred in the village. It confirmed that Buddhist villagers attacked some of the men with swords and soldiers shot the others dead.

The statement coincided with an application to the court by prosecutors to charge Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo under Myanmar‘s Official Secrets Act, which dates back to the time of colonial British rule. The charges carry a maximum 14-year prison sentence.

But the military’s version of events is contradicted in important respects by accounts given to Reuters by Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim witnesses. The military said the 10 men belonged to a group of 200 “terrorists” that attacked security forces. Soldiers decided to kill the men, the army said, because intense fighting in the area made it impossible to transfer them to police custody. The army said it would take action against those involved.

Buddhist villagers interviewed for this article reported no attack by a large number of insurgents on security forces in Inn Din. And Rohingya witnesses told Reuters that soldiers plucked the 10 from among hundreds of men, women and children who had sought safety on a nearby beach.

Scores of interviews with Rakhine Buddhist villagers, soldiers, paramilitary police, Rohingya Muslims and local administrators further revealed:

• The military and paramilitary police organised Buddhist residents of Inn Din and at least two other villages to torch Rohingya homes, more than a dozen Buddhist villagers said. Eleven Buddhist villagers said Buddhists committed acts of violence, including killings. The government and army have repeatedly blamed Rohingya insurgents for burning villages and homes.

• An order to “clear” Inn Din’s Rohingya hamlets was passed down the command chain from the military, said three paramilitary police officers speaking on condition of anonymity and a fourth police officer at an intelligence unit in the regional capital Sittwe. Security forces wore civilian clothes to avoid detection during raids, one of the paramilitary police officers said.

• Some members of the paramilitary police looted Rohingya property, including cows and motorcycles, in order to sell it, according to village administrator Maung Thein Chay and one of the paramilitary police officers.

• Operations in Inn Din were led by the army’s 33rd Light Infantry Division, supported by the paramilitary 8th Security Police Battalion, according to four police officers, all of them members of the battalion.

Potential criminal cases

Michael G. Karnavas, a US lawyer based in The Hague who has worked on cases at international criminal tribunals, said evidence that the military had organised Buddhist civilians to commit violence against Rohingya “would be the closest thing to a smoking gun in establishing not just intent, but even specific genocidal intent, since the attacks seem designed to destroy the Rohingya or at least a significant part of them.”

Evidence of the execution of men in government custody also could be used to build a case of crimes against humanity against military commanders, Karnavas said, if it could be shown that it was part of a “widespread or systematic” campaign targeting the Rohingya population.

Kevin Jon Heller, a University of London law professor who served as a legal associate for convicted war criminal and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, said an order to clear villages by military command was “unequivocally the crime against humanity of forcible transfer.”


Rahama Khatun, 35, whose husband Shaker Ahmed was among the 10 Rohingya men killed, cries while describing the incident at Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on January 19. Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

In December, the US imposed sanctions on the army officer who had been in charge of Western Command troops in Rakhine, Major General Maung Maung Soe. So far, however, Myanmar has not faced international sanctions over the violence.

Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has disappointed many former supporters in the West by not speaking out against the army’s actions. They had hoped the election of her National League for Democracy party in 2015 would bring democratic reform and an opening of the country. Instead, critics say, Suu Kyi is in thrall to the generals who freed her from house arrest in 2010.

Asked about the evidence Reuters has uncovered about the massacre, government spokesman Zaw Htay said, “We are not denying the allegations about violations of human rights. And we are not giving blanket denials.” If there was “strong and reliable primary evidence” of abuses, the government would investigate, he said. “And then if we found the evidence is true and the violations are there, we will take the necessary action according to our existing law.”

When told that paramilitary police officers had said they received orders to “clear” Inn Din’s Rohingya hamlets, he replied, “We have to verify. We have to ask the Ministry of Home Affairs and Myanmar police forces.” Asked about the allegations of looting by paramilitary police officers, he said the police would investigate.

He expressed surprise when told that Buddhist villagers had confessed to burning Rohingya homes, then added, “We recognise that many, many different allegations are there, but we need to verify who did it. It is very difficult in the current situation.”

Zaw Htay defended the military operation in Rakhine. “The international community needs to understand who did the first terrorist attacks. If that kind of terrorist attack took place in European countries, in the US, in London, New York, Washington, what would the media say?”

Neighbour turns on neighbour

Inn Din lies between the Mayu mountain range and the Bay of Bengal, about 50 km (30 miles) north of Rakhine’s state capital Sittwe. The settlement is made up of a scattering of hamlets around a school, clinic and Buddhist monastery. Buddhist homes cluster in the northern part of the village. For many years there had been tensions between the Buddhists and their Muslim neighbors, who accounted for almost 90% of the roughly 7,000 people in the village. But the two communities had managed to co-exist, fishing the coastal waters and cultivating rice in the paddies.

In October 2016, Rohingya militants attacked three police posts in northern Rakhine – the beginning of a new insurgency. After the attacks, Rohingya in Inn Din said many Buddhists stopped hiring them as farmhands and home help. The Buddhists said the Rohingya stopped showing up for work.

On August 25 last year, the rebels struck again, hitting 30 police posts and an army base. The closest attack was just 4 km to the north. In Inn Din, several hundred fearful Buddhists took refuge in the monastery in the center of the village, more than a dozen of their number said. Inn Din’s Buddhist night watchman San Thein, 36, said Buddhist villagers feared being “swallowed up” by their Muslim neighbors. A Buddhist elder said all Rohingya, “including children,” were part of the insurgency and therefore “terrorists.”

On August 27, about 80 troops from Myanmar‘s 33rd Light Infantry Division arrived in Inn Din, nine Buddhist villagers said. Two paramilitary police officers and Soe Chay, the retired soldier, said the troops belonged to the 11th infantry regiment of this division. The army officer in charge told villagers they must cook for the soldiers and act as lookouts at night, Soe Chay said. The officer promised his troops would protect Buddhist villagers from their Rohingya neighbors. Five Buddhist villagers said the officer told them they could volunteer to join security operations. Young volunteers would need their parents’ permission to join the troops, however.

The army found willing participants among Inn Din’s Buddhist “security group,” nine members of the organisation and two other villagers said. This informal militia was formed after violence broke out in 2012 between Rakhine’s Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, sparked by reports of the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men. Myanmar media reported at the time that the three were sentenced to death by a district court.

Inn Din’s security group built watch huts around the Buddhist part of the village, and its members took turns to stand guard. Its ranks included Buddhist firefighters, school teachers, students and unemployed young men. They were useful to the military because they knew the local geography, said Inn Din’s Buddhist administrator, Maung Thein Chay.

Most of the group’s 80 to 100 men armed themselves with machetes and sticks. They also had a handful of guns, according to one member. Some wore green fatigue-style clothing they called “militia suits.”

Organising the arson attack

In the days that followed the 33rd Light Infantry’s arrival, soldiers, police and Buddhist villagers burned most of the homes of Inn Din’s Rohingya Muslims, a dozen Buddhist residents said.

Two of the paramilitary police officers, both members of the 8th Security Police Battalion, said their battalion raided Rohingya hamlets with soldiers from the newly arrived 33rd Light Infantry. One of the police officers said he received verbal orders from his commander to “go and clear” areas where Rohingya lived, which he took to mean to burn them.

The second police officer described taking part in several raids on villages north of Inn Din. The raids involved at least 20 soldiers and between five and seven police, he said. A military captain or major led the soldiers, while a police captain oversaw the police team. The purpose of the raids was to deter the Rohingya from returning.

“If they have a place to live, if they have food to eat, they can carry out more attacks,” he said. “That’s why we burned their houses, mainly for security reasons.”

Soldiers and paramilitary police wore civilian shirts and shorts to blend in with the villagers, according to the second police officer and Inn Din’s Buddhist administrator, Maung Thein Chay. If the media identified the involvement of security personnel, the police officer explained, “we would have very big problems.”

A police spokesman, Colonel Myo Thu Soe, said he knew of no instances of security forces torching villages or wearing civilian clothing. Nor was there any order to “go and clear” or “set fire” to villages. “This is very much impossible,” he told Reuters. “If there are things like that, it should be reported officially, and it has to be investigated officially.”

“As you’ve told me about these matters now, we will scrutinise and check back,” he added. “What I want to say for now is that as for the security forces, there are orders and instructions and step-by-step management, and they have to follow them. So, I don’t think these things happened.”

The army did not respond to a request for comment.

A medical assistant at the Inn Din village clinic, Aung Myat Tun, 20, said he took part in several raids. “Muslim houses were easy to burn because of the thatched roofs. You just light the edge of the roof,” he said. “The village elders put monks’ robes on the end of sticks to make the torches and soaked them with kerosene. We couldn’t bring phones. The police said they will shoot and kill us if they see any of us taking photos.”

The night watchman San Thein, a leading member of the village security group, said troops first swept through the Muslim hamlets. Then, he said, the military sent in Buddhist villagers to burn the houses.

“We got the kerosene for free from the village market after the kalars ran away,” he said, using a Burmese slur for people from South Asia.

A Rakhine Buddhist youth said he thought he heard the sound of a child inside one Rohingya home that was burned. A second villager said he participated in burning a Rohingya home that was occupied.

“I started hacking him with a sword”

Soe Chay, the retired soldier who was to dig the grave for the 10 Rohingya men, said he participated in one killing. He told Reuters that troops discovered three Rohingya men and a woman hiding beside a haystack in Inn Din on August 28. One of the men had a smartphone that could be used to take incriminating pictures.

The soldiers told Soe Chay to “do whatever you want to them,” he said. They pointed out the man with the phone and told him to stand up. “I started hacking him with a sword, and a soldier shot him when he fell down.”

Similar violence was playing out across a large part of northern Rakhine, dozens of Buddhist and Rohingya residents said.

Data from the UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme shows scores of Rohingya villages in Rakhine state burned in an area stretching 110 km. New York-based Human Rights Watch says more than 350 villages were torched over the three months from August 25, according to an analysis of satellite imagery.

In the village of Laungdon, some 65 km north of Inn Din, Thar Nge, 38, said he was asked by police and local officials to join a Buddhist security group. “The army invited us to burn the kalar village at Hpaw Ti Kaung,” he said, adding that four villagers and nearly 20 soldiers and police were involved in the operation. “Police shot inside the village so all the villagers fled and then we set fire to it. Their village was burned because police believed the villagers supported Rohingya militants – that’s why they cleaned it with fire.”

A Buddhist student from Ta Man Tha village, 15 km north of Laungdon, said he too participated in the burning of Rohingya homes. An army officer sought 30 volunteers to burn “kalar” villages, said the student. Nearly 50 volunteered and gathered fuel from motorbikes and from a market.

“They separated us into several groups. We were not allowed to enter the village directly. We had to surround it and approach the village that way. The army would shoot gunfire ahead of us and then the army asked us to enter,” he said.

After the Rohingya had fled Inn Din, Buddhist villagers took their property, including chickens and goats, Buddhist residents told Reuters. But the most valuable goods, mostly motorcycles and cattle, were collected by members of the 8th Security Police Battalion and sold, said the first police officer and Inn Din village administrator Maung Thein Chay. Maung Thein Chay said the commander of the 8th Battalion, Thant Zin Oo, struck a deal with Buddhist businessmen from other parts of Rakhine state and sold them cattle. The police officer said he had stolen four cows from Rohingya villagers, only for Thant Zin Oo to snatch them away.

Reached by phone, Thant Zin Oo did not comment. Colonel Myo Thu Soe, the police spokesman, said the police would investigate the allegations of looting.

The victims are chosen

By September 1, several hundred Rohingya from Inn Din were sheltering at a makeshift camp on a nearby beach. They erected tarpaulin shelters to shield themselves from heavy rain.

Among this group were the 10 Rohingya men who would be killed the next morning. Reuters has identified all of the 10 by speaking to witnesses among Inn Din’s Buddhist community and Rohingya relatives and witnesses tracked down in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Five of the men, Dil Mohammed, 35, Nur Mohammed, 29, Shoket Ullah, 35, Habizu, 40, and Shaker Ahmed, 45, were fishermen or fish sellers. The wealthiest of the group, Abul Hashim, 25, ran a store selling nets and machine parts to fishermen and farmers. Abdul Majid, a 45-year-old father of eight, ran a small shop selling areca nut wrapped in betel leaves, commonly chewed like tobacco. Abulu, 17, and Rashid Ahmed, 18, were high school students. Abdul Malik, 30, was an Islamic teacher.

According to the statement released by the army on January 10, security forces had gone to a coastal area where they “were attacked by about 200 Bengalis with sticks and swords.” The statement said that “as the security forces opened fire into the sky, the Bengalis dispersed and ran away. Ten of them were arrested.”

Three Buddhist and more than a dozen Rohingya witnesses contradict this version of events. Their accounts differ from one another in some details. The Buddhists spoke of a confrontation between a small group of Rohingya men and some soldiers near the beach. But there is unanimity on a crucial point: None said the military had come under a large-scale attack in Inn Din.

Government spokesman Zaw Htay referred Reuters to the army’s statement of January 10 and declined to elaborate further. The army did not respond to a request for comment.

The Rohingya witnesses, who were on or near the beach, said Islamic teacher Abdul Malik had gone back to his hamlet with his sons to collect food and bamboo for shelter. When he returned, a group of at least seven soldiers and armed Buddhist villagers were following him, these witnesses said. Abdul Malik walked towards the watching Rohingya Muslims unsteadily, with blood dripping from his head. Some witnesses said they had seen one of the armed men strike the back of Abdul Malik’s head with a knife.

Then the military beckoned with their guns to the crowd of roughly 300 Rohingya to assemble in the paddies, these witnesses said. The soldiers and the Rohingya, hailing from different parts of Myanmar, spoke different languages. Educated villagers translated for their fellow Rohingya.

“I could not hear much, but they pointed toward my husband and some other men to get up and come forward,” said Rehana Khatun, 22, the wife of Nur Mohammed, one of the 10 who were later slain. “We heard they wanted the men for a meeting. The military asked the rest of us to return to the beach.”

Fresh clothes and a last meal

Soldiers held and questioned the 10 men in a building at Inn Din’s school for a night, the military said. Rashid Ahmed and Abulu had studied there alongside Rakhine Buddhist students until the attacks by Rohingya rebels in October 2016. Schools were shut temporarily, disrupting the pair’s final year.

“I just remember him sitting there and studying, and it was always amazing to me because I am not educated,” said Rashid Ahmed’s father, farmer Abdu Shakur, 50. “I would look at him reading. He would be the first one in the family to be educated.”

A photograph, taken on the evening the men were detained, shows the two Rohingya students and the eight older men kneeling on a path beside the village clinic, most of them shirtless. They were stripped when first detained, a dozen Rohingya witnesses said. It isn’t clear why. That evening, Buddhist villagers said, the men were “treated” to a last meal of beef. They were provided with fresh clothing.

On September 2, the men were taken to scrubland north of the village, near a graveyard for Buddhist residents, six Buddhist villagers said. The spot is backed by a hill crested with trees. There, on their knees, the 10 were photographed again and questioned by security personnel about the disappearance of a local Buddhist farmer named Maung Ni, according to a Rakhine elder who said he witnessed the interrogation.

Reuters was not able to establish what happened to Maung Ni. According to Buddhist neighbors, the farmer went missing after leaving home early on August 25 to tend his cattle. Several Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya villagers told Reuters they believed he had been killed, but they knew of no evidence connecting any of the 10 men to his disappearance. The army said in its January 10 statement that “Bengali terrorists” had killed Maung Ni, but did not identify the perpetrators.


Hasina Khatun, 24, whose husband Abdul Hashim was killed, cooks a meal at Thayingkhali camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on January 19. Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Two of the men pictured behind the Rohingya prisoners in the photograph taken on the morning of September 2 belong to the 8th Security Police Battalion. Reuters confirmed the identities of the two men from their Facebook pages and by visiting them in person.

One of the two officers, Aung Min, a police recruit from Yangon, stands directly behind the captives. He looks at the camera as he holds a weapon. The other officer, police Captain Moe Yan Naing, is the figure on the top right. He walks with his rifle over his shoulder.

The day after the two Reuters reporters were arrested in December, Myanmar‘s government also announced that Moe Yan Naing had been arrested and was being investigated under the 1923 Official Secrets Act.

Aung Min, who is not facing legal action, declined to speak to Reuters.

Vengeance for a missing farmer

Three Buddhist youths said they watched from a hut as the 10 Rohingya captives were led up a hill by soldiers towards the site of their deaths.

One of the gravediggers, retired soldier Soe Chay, said Maung Ni’s sons were invited by the army officer in charge of the squad to strike the first blows.

The first son beheaded the Islamic teacher, Abdul Malik, according to Soe Chay. The second son hacked another of the men in the neck.

“After the brothers sliced them both with swords, the squad fired with guns. Two to three shots to one person,” said Soe Chay. A second gravedigger, who declined to be identified, confirmed that soldiers had shot some of the men.

In its January 10 statement, the military said the two brothers and a third villager had “cut the Bengali terrorists” with swords and then, in the chaos, four members of the security forces had shot the captives. “Action will be taken against the villagers who participated in the case and the members of security forces who broke the Rules of Engagement under the law,” the statement said. It didn’t spell out those rules.

Tun Aye, one of the sons of Maung Ni, has been detained on murder charges, his lawyer said on January 13. Contacted by Reuters on February 8, the lawyer declined to comment further. Reuters was unable to reach the other brother.

In October, Inn Din locals pointed two Reuters reporters towards an area of brush behind the hill where they said the killings took place. The reporters discovered a newly cut trail leading to soft, recently disturbed earth littered with bones. Some of the bones were entangled with scraps of clothing and string that appeared to match the cord that is seen binding the captives’ wrists in the photographs. The immediate area was marked by the smell of death.

Reuters showed photographs of the site to three forensic experts: Homer Venters, director of programs at Physicians for Human Rights; Derrick Pounder, a pathologist who has consulted for Amnesty International and the UN; and Luis Fondebrider, president of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, who investigated the graves of those killed under Argentina’s military junta in the 1970s and 1980s. All observed human remains, including the thoracic part of a spinal column, ribs, scapula, femur and tibia. Pounder said he couldn’t rule out the presence of animal bones as well.

The Rakhine Buddhist elder provided Reuters reporters with a photograph which shows the aftermath of the execution. In it, the 10 Rohingya men are wearing the same clothing as in the previous photo and are tied to each other with the same yellow cord, piled into a small hole in the earth, blood pooling around them. Abdul Malik, the Islamic teacher, appears to have been beheaded. Abulu, the student, has a gaping wound in his neck. Both injuries appear consistent with Soe Chay’s account.

Forensic pathologist Fondebrider reviewed this picture. He said injuries visible on two of the bodies were consistent with “the action of a machete or something sharp that was applied on the throat.”

Some family members did not know for sure that the men had been killed until Reuters returned to their shelters in Bangladesh in January.

“I can’t explain what I feel inside. My husband is dead,” said Rehana Khatun, wife of Nur Mohammed. “My husband is gone forever. I don’t want anything else, but I want justice for his death.”

In Inn Din, the Buddhist elder explained why he chose to share evidence of the killings with Reuters. “I want to be transparent on this case. I don’t want it to happen like that in future.”

(Reuters)

Thursday, 8 February 2018

There are flaws in Triple Talaq: Muslim Law Board

There are flaws in Triple Talaq: Muslim Law Board
February 8, 2018
 Triple Talaq, tfcmedia


The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), the apex body of Indian Muslims, on Thursday said that it is ready to welcome the bill banning triple talaq if the government removes all flaws.

A day before its plenary session here to chalk out a strategy on the issue, the Board clarified that it is not against the bill but will not accept it in its present form.

It alleged that the BJP-led government through this legislation is trying to ban the entire system of talaq and deny Muslim husbands the right to divorce.

The Board, which represents all Islamic schools of thought, said it had not received any response from the Prime Minister’s Office to the letter written by its president, drawing the Prime Minister’s attention to flaws in the bill and seeking an appointment with him to present its views.

“Unfortunately, there is no response from the PMO till now,” said AIMPLB spokesman Moulana Sajjad Nomani.

He along with Board secretary Moulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani and Board member Asaduddin Owaisi was addressing a news conference.

He claimed that the bill violates the Constitution, the fundamental rights, the Supreme Court verdict on the issue and the rights of women and children.

Moulana Nomani said the Board was requesting all Members of Parliament to let their conscience decide whether this bill deserved to be passed in its current form.

He thanked the opposition parties and even some constituents of the NDA for opposing the bill when the flaws were brought to their notice.

“We will explore all democratic methods,” he remarked when asked what the Board would do if the bill is passed in the Rajya Sabha.

The Board spokesman alleged that nowhere in the world was there this kind of legislation. “As citizens, we feel ashamed to have this legislation,” he said.

He said the government went ahead with the drafting of the legislation despite the Supreme Court making it clear that the government cannot interfere with any form of talaq except the triple talaq. He said the objectives of the bill clearly mention that it is not just for banning triple talaq but all forms of irrevocable talaq.

Moulana Nomani clarified that an amendment in the model nikahnama to take an oath from the bridegroom that he will not give triple talaq is not on the agenda. He, however, said any member can make such a proposal and the same can be debated with the permission of the chair.

The working committee of the Board meeting on Friday and the general body meeting on Saturday and Sunday would discuss the developments relating to the triple talaq bill and chalk out the strategy to get the flaws and lacunae removed.

He said the Board had codified Muslim Personal Law. While the compilation has been done in Urdu, it is now being translated into English. A committee headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, which is entrusted with the task, will present its report during the meeting. The code will mention the views of all Islamic schools of thought on any matter relating to Personal Law.

‘Tafheem-e-shariat’ committee aimed at explaining the logic and rationale of Shariat will also present its report during the plenary.

“There are many misunderstandings about Shariat. We believe if there is correct presentation, all justice-loving people will appreciate Islamic family law. We will discuss how to expand the activities of this committee,” he said.

The plenary will review the countrywide campaign by the Board for community reforms. It will discuss how to reach out to every village, every house and every individual with its message.

Of Flags and Anthems: the Evolving Politics of Right-Wing Patriotism

Of Flags and Anthems: the Evolving Politics of Right-Wing Patriotism
BY JAWHAR SIRCAR ON 29/01/2018 • 2 COMMENTS
SHARE THIS:

inShare
10

More
A dig through the archives reveals just how curious it is for RSS and BJP to dictate to all Indians how and when they need to display their patriotism.

The RSS had favoured the Bhagwa Dhwaj, the saffron ‘split flag’ over the national tricolour, as it represents only Hinduism. Credit: Pixabay

The recent press conference of the four seniormost judges of the Supreme Court brought into the open, rather uncomfortably, certain defined positions within the highest court of the land that were hitherto discussed only in whispers.

The pronouncement made by justice Dipak Misra’s bench on November 30, 2016, directing “all cinema halls in India (to) play the national anthem before the feature film starts” appears, therefore, to represent one point of view. The honourable judge, who is now the Chief Justice of India, declared then that “all present in the hall are obliged to stand up to show respect to the national anthem” as it was an opportunity for citizens to express their “love for the motherland.”

The other point of view was voiced by justice D.Y. Chandrachud of the Supreme Court 11 moths later when he declared it was unnecessary for a citizen to “wear his patriotism on his sleeve”.

This October 27, 2017, order remarked that “the next thing will be that people should not wear t-shirts and shorts to movies because it will amount to disrespect to the national anthem… where do we stop this moral policing?” He had, incidentally, shared justice Misra’s bench in November 2016 and this subsequent categorical judgement is, therefore, an interesting example of the dynamics of India’s judicial system and the evolving concept of ‘justice’.

Anti-socials masquerading as ultra-nationalists soon utilised the mandatory order to play the national anthem to rough up those they suspected as not being sufficiently ‘patriotic’. To be frank, staring at a rather unaesthetic digital display of a fluttering synthetic flag didn’t generate sufficient voltage either.

A walk through history

The behaviour pattern of the current dispensation also contrasts rather sharply with the sensitivity that government had displayed earlier in 1963 when cinema halls were first advised to play the national anthem. This was just after the shocking attack by China when strong national sentiment had gripped India spontaneously without the need for patriotic injections.

From the archived files of the period, it appears that the Public Relations Committee set up by the National Defence Council to improve the mood of a demoralised nation recommended that a standard recorded version of the national anthem be played in film auditoria, with the national flag if possible.

But the 1963 order of the Home ministry issued on June 29, 1963, was only advisory rather than a diktat. Its wordings were “state governments are requested to persuade the cinema houses” with the expectation that it would work. Besides, the anthem was only to be played at the end of two shows, the matinee and evening, when audiences got up anyway, to leave: with no element of compulsion or vigilantism.

As no standard short film of the moving national flag was readily available, the films division was directed to produce two versions, a colour film for the “main halls in the big cities” and a black and white one for all other halls in these cities. Cinema halls in the rest of India could play only an authorised gramophone record.

The profuse notes kept on files and the numerous letters exchanged between officials of the Home ministry, the Information & Broadcasting ministry, All India Radio and the Gramophone Company of Kolkata during these eight months of 1963 presents us with insights into the bureaucratic obsession for being correct, detailed and, of course, free from controversy.

The files also preserve for posterity nuggets of history like how babus sitting in distant Delhi knew which 26 film theatres of Kolkata qualified as “main halls”. These included Metro, Elite, Globe, New Empire, Lighthouse, Minerva, Hind, Paradise, Priya, Basusree, Bijoli, Bharati, Indira, Purna, Sri and a few others. The second category of 71 ‘other halls’ of Kolkata included Aleya, Ajanta, Bharati, Chitra, Regent, Prachi, Uttara, Tiger, etc, but most names of both categories are just memories, except rare exceptions like Priya. People may soon forget the origins of Ujjalar Chanachur and Bijoli Grill.

In 1963, the films division promptly produced the desired films that were sold to the halls, at Rs 50 for the colour and Rs 32 for the black and white. The gramophone record that was marketed for cinema halls outside the metropolitan towns carried three sound tracks of 52 seconds each of the choral version of the national anthem where 60 artistes participated. As the reverse side of this record carried the same national anthem played by the military band, records tell us how bureaucrats spent sleepless nights wondering what calamity would befall if the cinema halls played that side by mistake.

Atonement for past failures?

As we all know, during wars patriotism rises to a peak but the fact that the wave recedes when national crises are over does not mean that citizens become unpatriotic. Playing the national anthem in cinema halls followed such patterns and since India has fortunately been free of wars since 1971, the practice was discontinued.

But as a sudden akal bodhan of patriotism is now sought, it may be appropriate to look up a bit of our history. It is matter of record that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Dal or the RSS that gave birth to the Jana Sangh and its successor, the Bharatiya Janata Party, did not participate in the nation’s freedom struggle quite deliberately.

We cannot, therefore, be certain whether the current overdrive of pumped up patriotism is an act of atonement or an attempt to superimpose on historical memory with retrospective effect. In fact, in August 1947, the RSS’s mouthpiece, Organiser declared that the Indian national tricolour will “never be respected and owned by the Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country.”

The logic is flawed as several holy Hindu symbols have three and even the post Vedic trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwar are integral to Hindu belief and worship. Even the earlier issues of Organiser dated July 17 and 22 had also stated the RSS’s opposition to many such national issues.

In fact, the second sarsangh-chalak or head of the RSS, MS Golwalkar bemoaned in his book, Bunch of Thoughts, that “our leaders have set up a new flag for the country. Why did they do so?… Ours is an ancient and great nation with a glorious past. Then, had we no flag of our own? Had we no national emblem at all these thousands of years? Undoubtedly we had. Then why this utter void, this utter vacuum in our minds?”

Golwalkar did not, however, tell us what ancient flag or national emblem of India we had lost. The RSS has all along favoured the Bhagwa Dhwaj, the saffron ‘split flag’ over the national tricolour, as it represents only Hinduism without any doubt. When exactly did the RSS remove its opposition to the national flag and why? History tells us that Sardar Patel, whose statue the ruling party now plans to set up as the tallest in the world, had slammed down on the RSS and banned it immediately after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination on January 30, 1948. He did not budge in the next one and a half years despite pleas from Golwakar.

It was only on July 11, 1949 that he lifted the ban after the RSS pledged to stay away from politics; not be secretive and abjured violence. More important, it had to profess “loyalty to the constitution of India and the national flag”. It is strange, therefore, for the RSS and its political creation called the BJP to be dictating after 70 years to all Indians how and when they need to display their patriotism.

Jawhar Sircar was culture secretary and CEO at Prasar Bharati. He writes on history of religion. 

The Tiranga of the Hindutva Bikers in Kasganj is Not Mine

The Tiranga of the Hindutva Bikers in Kasganj is Not Mine
BY APOORVANAND ON 30/01/2018 • 47 COMMENTS
SHARE THIS:

inShare
3

More
The tiranga is only superficially our national flag when used to embarrass, frighten or subdue an individual or community. When used in this way, it loses its essence.
The tricolour is now being used to mark territory and annex people who are already a part of the country. Representative image. Credit: Sowmya's Photography/Flickr
The tricolour is now being used to mark territory and annex people who are already a part of the country. Representative image. Credit: Sowmya’s Photography/Flickr

Their tiranga is not mine. The tiranga that the bikers in Kasganj carried in order to thrust it in the faces of the Muslims who had assembled at Shaheed Abdul Hamid Chowk to unfurl the national flag on Republic Day is alien to me. This is not the flag I have grown up with. I do not know it and it does not look friendly to me. It is being wielded as a threat, a weapon of goons, the flag of a gang out to annex my very being. India belongs to its people. It does not annex them and I refuse to be annexed by any party or ideology.

The tricolour is now being used to mark territory and annex people who are already a part of the country. Just see the faces of those who wield this flag. They look like marauders. Assault units out to capture new territories and vanquish people. To make them submit to the diktat of those who claim that this flag belongs naturally and only to them and that others will be made to bow before it.

This misuse of the national flag has been going on for at least the past 20 years, that too by those who once warned that the three colours of the tiranga were inauspicious for India.

But then they decided to hide behind its universality and attack their enemies using it as cover. Their enemies are known. They are mainly Muslims and Christians.

They think that once they hold this flag, they have a right to passage: they can ask you to make way for their gang, ask you to vacate your shared spaces by planting the flag over it. You are not allowed to question their right, their move.

A previous Tiranga Yatra in Bhopal. Credit: PTI
A previous Tiranga Yatra in Bhopal. Credit: PTI

This is what the BJP did in Karnataka in 1994. Their attempt to hoist the tricolour at the Idgah Maidan in Hubli that year cost six people their lives. You have to read this report by Saritha Rai, published in India Today on September 15, 1994 to see how what is happening today in Kasganj is part of a pattern. It is not new. It is a tried and tested strategy of the BJP to provoke violence and polarise Hindus against Muslims.

“For the BJP in Karnataka, starved of an election plank, the Hubli Idgah Maidan dispute couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.

The controversy stems from a dispute over the ownership of the 1.5-acre plot, with the Anjuman-e-Islam laying claim to it and the BJP saying it is municipal property. Actually, its current status, determined after prolonged legal action, is that the land has been licensed to the Anjuman, and that it is permitted to hold only prayer meetings there, twice a year.

The right of anybody to use the maidan for public purposes is still under consideration by the Supreme Court. But the BJP planned to hoist the tri-colour there on Independence Day its sixth attempt to do so.

On August 14, Hubli was sealed, a curfew clamped and police and Rapid Action Force personnel deployed. Said Chief Minister Veerappa Moily: “I’m not Kalyan Singh to close my eyes and allow violence to carry on.” But although BJP leader Sikander Bakht was arrested in Bangalore, Uma Bharati, MP, managed to sneak into Hubli and declared that “the flag will be unfurled at any cost”.

On August 15, violence erupted as BJP supporters tried to march to the Idgah Maidan, defying curfew orders, to hoist the flag. State BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa and Uma Bharati were arrested, and the mob ran amuck.

The police opened fire killing five people and injuring about a hundred. Four days later, the BJP organised ‘Moily Hatao’ meetings all over Hubli. Violence broke out again when the police over reacted and opened fire, killing a woman.

Moily, seeing that his administration’s image was taking a beating, threatened to invoke the dreaded TADA if the violence was not curbed. Tension spread to the communally-sensitive town of Bhadravati nearby, which witnessed group clashes a week later.

Meanwhile, BJP leader L.K. Advani predicted: “Moily’s fate was sealed when his administration ordered firing on innocent patriots in Hubli.”…..

Although the Anjuman has refused to comment on the issue, the BJP is doing all it can to keep the Hubli issue alive. Says Girish Karnad, noted actor and a member of the Citizens For Democracy group, which has prepared a report on the situation: “The Sangh Parivar has failed to communalise the issue only because the Muslims have been restrained.”

This is largely true. A.M. Hindasgeri, the Muslim legislator from Hubli city and minister of small scale industries in the Moily Government, says Muslims in Hubli have refused to be provoked by the BJP. “They know what the BJP is all about, it lost in the north and is now trying its luck in the south. The Muslims have decided that the matter will be decided in the Supreme Court.”

The BJP, however, is not content to leave it at that. It has announced programmes in various districts to attract membership to the party. The BJP’s parliamentary committee is also planning to visit the affected areas. With assembly elections barely three months away, the impact of these efforts on the BJP’s future in Karnataka will soon be known.”

Why did BJP leaders like Uma Bharti come all the way from Madhya Pradesh to lead the march to hoist the tricolour at the Idgah Maidan? Why this insistence on having it at a place which was the subject of a property dispute involving a Muslim organisation? The matter was in the Supreme Court. Even then, they thought it fit to lead a ‘tiranga’ march to wrest the ownership of the land from the Anjuman.

People have forgotten another yatra by another BJP stalwart of those days, now himself a forgotten man. It was in 1991 that Murli Manohar Joshi led a yatra with the aim of hoisting the flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar. Read these extracts of a report about that yatra – again from the archives, published by India Today – to understand what these new tiranga yatras signify:

“When BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi rolls out from Kanyakumari in a DCM-Toyota van on December 11, he hopes the wheel will turn full circle on the Ayodhya issue.

Because with its second yatra – called ekta yatra this time round – in less than two years, the BJP aims to establish its credentials as a party concerned about the unity and integrity of the country.

At one stroke, the party aims not only to usurp the Congress(I)’s permanent tenancy on national integration, but also provide gainful employment to those in the RSS parivar who are concentrating their muscle and lung-power on the temple construction.

By travelling through 14 states and unfurling the tricolour at the yatra’s last stop, Srinagar, on January 26, Joshi feels he will underline the “Centre’s total inability to handle the problem of terrorism and secessionism”.

About two lakh volunteers are supposed to join Joshi when he reaches Srinagar, and in Madhya Pradesh, the party is enrolling members for a ‘saffron brigade’ to storm Kashmir… Advani highlights the importance of the event, saying: “The issue at stake is national unity.” And once the yatra is on course and the hysteria spreads, the BJP prays the temple will be a thing of the past.”

Then, as now, the aim is to bolster the fortunes of the BJP by generating aggressive nationalism among Hindus by fanning anti-Muslim sentiments.

The most recent drive to use the tricolour for sectarian purposes was when the present prime minister planned tiranga yatras all over India. Ministers, MPs and MLAs were ordered to tie a huge flag over a pole which was to be at least eight feet high on motorcycles and other motor vehicles.

Also read: Of Flags and Anthems: the Evolving Politics of Right-Wing Patriotism
For the last two years, we have been reading about the chief of the RSS going to Kerala to unfurl the tiranga in schools. It is again part of their campaign to expand and capture new political territory.

We have seen young men in our mohallas speeding on roads without helmets, two or three crammed on the pillion, holding giant-size tirangas on roaring motorcycles. This was a common sight during the 2012 anti-corruption movement. It was a heady mix of aggressive crowd instinct and nationalism. Nationalism, of course, was only an excuse.

I also remember the ugly, obscene tiranga rally that the student wing of the RSS took out in the University of Delhi after attacking students and teachers at Ramjas College in February 2017. They made a huge, unending tiranga canopy and marched under it, raising threatening slogans. The tricolour had never looked so uninviting to me before.

ABVP's tiranga march in Delhi University. Credit: YouTube
ABVP’s tiranga march in Delhi University. Credit: YouTube

Now this tricolour nationalism has been decentralised. After the experiments of Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharati, the BJP and other affiliates of the RSS know how to use it.

Many of us feel that we also need to take the national flag in our hands, to not let the RSS usurp it. But we don’t need to do this. We don’t need to legitimise all our acts by giving them a nationalist colour. When students protest for their rights or farmers fight for their claims, they need not do it in the shadow of the tiranga.

Not that we have not loved it. I recall my childhood when we eagerly waited for January 26 or August 15. We used to make tirangas of our own or get one from the khadi shop. The khadi one was considered to be more authentic. It was of human dimensions. Now, when I see tricolours of giant proportions dwarfing me, I cannot bring myself to like it. I look away.

Suppose a gang comes with the tiranga and demands it be planted on my roof, would I like it or allow it? Definitely not. The tiranga is only superficially our national flag when used to embarrass, frighten or subdue an individual or community. When used in this way, it loses its essence. This is what the tiranga yatra in Kasganj was doing.

We need to say emphatically that the tiranga the RSS and its affiliates are shoving down our throats is not the tiranga which was given to us by our leaders in the constituent assembly.

Let us recall the words of Nehru when he proposed the tricolour as our national flag:

“…..this Flag that I have the honour to present to you is not, I hope and trust, a Flag of Empire, a Flag of Imperialism- a Flag of domination over anybody, but a Flag of freedom not only for ourselves but a symbol of. freedom to all people who may see it. (Cheers).

And wherever it may go – and I hope it will go far – not only where Indians dwell as our ambassadors and ministers but across the far seas where it may be carried by Indian ships, wherever it may go it will bring a message, I hope, of freedom to those people, a message of comradeship, a message that India wants to be friends with every country of the world and India wants to help any people who seek freedom. (Hear, hear).

That I hope will be the message of this Flag everywhere and I hope that in the freedom that is coming to us, we will not do what many other people or some other people have unfortunately done, that is, in a newfound strength suddenly to expand and become imperialistic in design. If that happened that would be a terrible ending to our struggle for freedom. (Hear, hear.)

But there is that danger and, therefore, I venture to remind this House of it – although this House needs no reminder – there is this danger in a country suddenly unshackled in stretching out its arms and legs and trying to hit out at other people. And if we do that we become just like other nations who seem to live in a kind of succession of conflicts and preparation for conflict. That is the world today unfortunately.”

Those who are stretching out their arms and legs and trying to hit out at Muslims and Christians should hear this message clearly. The flag they carry in their hands with so much aggression is not the flag we Indians adopted. We will not submit to them.

Apoorvanand teaches at Delhi University.

Kasganj: The Anatomy of a Communal Riot

Kasganj: The Anatomy of a Communal Riot
BY AJOY ASHIRWAD MAHAPRASHASTA ON 07/02/2018 • 1 COMMENT
SHARE THIS:
 64
inShare

More
Anti-Muslim sentiment precipitated by the riot may help the BJP diffuse caste contradictions in central Uttar Pradesh and challenge Yadav dominance at the grassroots.
Shops owned by Muslims seen after the riots. Credit: Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
Shops owned by Muslims seen after the riots. Credit: Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta

Kasganj (Uttar Pradesh): There is an uneasy calm in Kasganj, a small district town in the western fringe of central Uttar Pradesh. The town witnessed an unprecedented communal riot on January 26. Although only one person was killed, many were left physically injured and mentally scarred. While the social fabric seems almost irreparably torn, with Hindus and Muslims in the area facing their worst-ever trust deficit, it is the local economy that lies shattered.

Since the day the riot broke out, the bustling markets have mostly remained shut, crippling the largely Hindu-dominated trade. A majority of large Muslim shops have been looted and burnt down, forcing their owners to stay indoors. The few Muslim businessmen and workers who escaped the riot have not ventured out as they are too scared to be noticed in a still communally-sensitive Kasganj market.

Despite its 25,000-strong Muslim population, the social and political alienation of the minority community lends a dystopian look to what was once a vibrant commercial small town. The so-called border between Hindu and Muslim areas is now as distinct as it can be. Although religious friction has existed in Kasganj, just like most other small towns in north India, it has acquired a political dimension over the last few years.

“In the last few elections, the Hindus, across caste groups, started to consolidate under the umbrella of the Sangh parivar. The saffron groups appealed to the Hindus and ignored the Muslims entirely. This mode of campaign cemented the lines between the two communities. The Hindus started to become aggressively jingoistic and Muslims, in response, felt the need to prove their patriotism on every occasion,” said Madih Sherwani, a former Aligarh Muslim University professor.

He said that despite such polarising campaigns, the two communities remained mutually dependent due to trade linkages. “These connections,” Sherwani said, “have managed to somehow keep the social fabric intact.” Following the altercation between Hindu and Muslim youths on January 26, what Kasganj has been witnessing is a systematic obliteration of these symbiotic economic arrangements.

Muslims preparing for the flag hoisting in Baddu Nagar, Kasganj on January 26. Credit: Special arrangement Baddu Nagar after the motorcycle rally tried to pass through and a scuffle ensued. Credit: Special arrangement
The unfolding of the riot

As the spat broke out on Republic Day, a section of the television media went into overdrive to report the incident as one in which Hindus were beaten up by Muslims of the area for organising a ‘Tiranga Yatra’. This led to a vituperative campaign against Muslims on social media. However, as has been widely reported, the facts were quite the opposite.

As the residents of the largely Muslim-dominated Baddu Nagar area of Kasganj were preparing to start their flag hoisting ceremony, they were confronted by a bunch of 50-60 motorbike-borne Hindutva activists, who insisted the residents stop their function to let the rally pass through the colony.

“Although a much wider road is merely a 100 metres away, the bike-borne men insisted they wanted to pass through the narrow lanes of our colony. Most of them were carrying saffron flags while only a few had Indian flags. We told them to wait for a bit as our function was just about to start. We requested them to participate in our flag-hoisting ceremony in the meantime but they asked us to remove the chairs, which we had arranged for the ceremony, so that they could go first,” said Mohammad Kalim, a tailor who was present at the scene.

Also read: Probe Team Finds ‘Trail of Engineered Hate, Violence’ in Kasganj
“We offered that we could remove a few chairs to clear the way for one bike to pass at a time. But then they insisted that all of them wanted to go together. Their insistence agitated a section of the residents, mostly youth. Gradually, a heated debate started between the two groups. The bikers then started abusing Muslims, called them names, and raised extremely communal slogans. In the heated exchange, they asked all residents to go to Pakistan, demanded that we should host the saffron flag first. As one of those men threw saffron colour on one child, a fight broke out. Since we outnumbered them, they left their bikes and fled,” he added.

“Why should we go to Pakistan? India is our country too. We have had Hindustan’s salt and can die for it,” Kalim kept interjecting his narration with this sentiment.

The squabble, in which no one was seriously injured, lasted for around 15 minutes between 9 and 10 am. The matter soon escalated as Hindutva activists began to mobilise men in huge numbers near Bilram gate, one of the most commercial junctions of the town, following the quarrel. Armed with bricks, stones, country-made pistols and rifles, a mob of around 400-500 men, triggered by what they called an affront to Hindu pride, started to march towards Muslim colonies.

On the way, someone in the mob fired at Mohammad Naushad, a daily-wage worker who was on his way home. Naushad, who is admitted at the government medical college, Aligarh, sustained a serious injury on his right leg. He was able to save his life as he mustered enough courage to flee the area despite his injury.



As the mob moved towards the Muslim colony through the main market, which was shut on the occasion of Republic Day, it destroyed public property and attacked Muslim-owned shops. In the meantime, Muslims too prepared themselves to face the mob. Reporters from Kasganj said that there were multiple rounds of firing from both sides. During this exchange, 19-year-old Chandan Gupta was killed. Hindutva groups allege that one Salim Javed, a noted textile trader of the area, fired at Gupta, but the police has not been able to find any evidence yet. Javed was arrested a week ago.

The clash lasted for about an hour until the police took charge of the situation. Successive clashes occurred while a majority of the forces were attending their own flag-hoisting ceremony at the police lines, around ten km away from the town. Although the kotwali or police station is located only 50 m away from the scene of the riots, the mob remained out of control for almost an hour until more forces were deployed.

The aftermath

By the evening of January 26, the riot metamorphosed into a full-fledged Hindutva offensive. Gupta’s corpse was brought home draped in the tricolour to send a specific message – that he died a martyr. Communal tensions were further fuelled by inflammatory speeches by numerous BJP representatives – including all three BJP MLAs from Kasganj district and the constituency MP, Rajveer Singh, who reached the town almost immediately.

Former chief minister Kalyan Singh’s son, Rajveer aka Raju Bhaiyya, is a stalwart amongst the majority Hindu Lodh community of the region. His address, alleging that the riot was a preplanned attack on Hindus, has since become infamous. While promising to take action, he referred to Gupta as “hamaara aadmi” or our man even as he exonerated the Hindu community of all guilt. He also cast doubts on the local police and said that the enquiry would be conducted by officials outside Kasganj.

A photo of Chandan Gupta in his family's home. Credit: Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashastha
A photo of Chandan Gupta in his family’s home. Credit: Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta

Following his speech, the Hindutva mob went on a rampage. By January 31, a large number of shops, particularly those owned by affluent Muslims, had been looted and set on fire. “The riot became an excuse for the mob to cripple Muslims economically. A large number of Muslims depend on businesses here and a majority of them have since fled the town. With their livelihood gone, they have no reason to come back. Rich Hindu traders have already started offering meagre money to buy off their shops,” said Laiq Khan, a doctor. Kasganj market, with most of the Muslim-shops gutted and Hindu-owned establishments thriving, is a testament to Khan’s words.

Meanwhile, Hindutva organisations like Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad have been organising tiranga yatras all over central Uttar Pradesh, demanding that Gupta’s killers be punished. In the week that followed the riot, these groups have organised at least 20 such rallies in the districts of Etah, Etawah, Kasganj, Ferozabad, Agra, Aligarh, Badaun and Bareilly. This has led to further polarisation.

Subsequently, the rioting has spilled over to villages and other towns, and until the first week of February, reports of Muslim properties being either plundered or burnt kept emerging. Mosques in the area have also been ransacked, including two in Kasganj. The situation bears a strong resemblance to the forced displacement of Muslims in the aftermath of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.

Police complicity?

The selective support of political representatives has sent a clear message to Kasganj residents. While Hindu areas remain bustling, Muslims are reluctant to come out of their houses, let alone go to work. Several platoons of Rapid Action Force (RAF), the state’s Police Armed Constabulary (PAC) and police officials comb the streets.

Alleging police complicity, Muslim residents complain that the police picked up many innocent Muslims from their homes even as they seem lenient towards the Hindus. “Aslam, a teacher in the local school, was feeding the policemen tea and biscuits until January 30, when he too was picked up. The police raids on our houses are even worse. During kurkhi (property becoming attached to the court) of houses belonging to accused individuals, the police abused their families and left homes shattered. So many of our children are being harassed by the police,” claimed a resident of Baddu Nagar.

Mumtaz, an elderly resident of Baddu Nagar, added, “I can believe that the police could not control the riot on January 26 as most of them were at police lines. But what prevented them after that? All our shops were burnt in the week after. Look at the areas where most rioting happened. The shops in Baradwari and Nadrai Gate, which were damaged the most, lie within a 50-m radius of both the police station and tehsil office. These are prime administrative areas. By 26th evening, the RAF, PAC and all other forces had already been deployed. How could they not stop the riots? The mob rioted with complete impunity.”

Naushad, who injured his leg in the riot, told The Wire, “I could clearly see that the mob which fired at me was accompanied by a few policemen. I suspect a policeman with a two-starred uniform fired at me.”

Also read: The Tiranga of the Hindutva Bikers in Kasganj is Not Mine
Similarly, Mohammad Akram Habib, a resident of Lakhimpur Kheri who was caught in the January 26 riot while he was travelling to Aligarh, said, “I was attacked at Nadrai gate. The police check post was only 200 km away but no one came to help me. I had stopped in Kasganj to perform the afternoon namaz. A random Hindu man allowed me to pray in his home and alerted me not to go further as the situation was tense. But when I saw a few vehicles going, I also followed them. I wanted to reach Aligarh fast to be with my pregnant wife, who was due to deliver the baby on the 26th. As I approached the Nadrai gate area, a mob started running towards my vehicle. I could be easily identified as a Muslim because of my beard. I was more worried about the daughter of my maid, who was accompanying me to Aligarh. So I tried to escape but could not. They broke the glass panes and beat me up with pistol butts, stones and sticks for at least 15 minutes, even as I kept pleading with them.”



“Finally when they let me go, I drove straight to the police checkpost and asked for help. But to my shock, a low level official told me that ‘Today, you will not be given any help’. But a senior official soon came and ordered his juniors to take me to the nearby missionary hospital. I could hardly see anything but I had to drive myself to the hospital as the police officials could not drive my car. So I followed their vehicle to the hospital,” he told The Wire in the Aligarh medical college, where he was shifted immediately.

Akram lost one eye that day. His wife went into shock and could deliver the baby only two days later. More than 120 people have been arrested by the police, a majority of who have been charged with disrupting peace. However, out of the 50-odd people who are accused of rioting and arson on the basis of lodged FIRs, only 12 are Hindus.

Community voices

In the aftermath of recent communal riots in north India, the BJP has succeeded in carving out a politically advantageous position every time. Kasganj is no different. The party has managed to make Gupta’s death an evocative and emotional rallying issue for Hindus across castes.

“Khurafati log hai Muslim (Muslims are mischievous). They do not want peace. It is better they leave the place and go somewhere else,” said Ramswaroop Gupta, a hardware trader and a BJP supporter. Similarly, Vishnu Gupta, another trader, called the riot “a result of the administration’s failure to prevent Muslims from going berserk”.

Only a few Hindus see the riots as a political conspiracy, but most feel that the government’s failure to rein in the Muslims has precipitated the situation. Ever since BJP representatives visited Gupta’s house and decided not to enquire about those who are injured from the Muslim community, the house has emerged as a central place for regional Hindutva activists to gather.

Sushil Gupta. Credit: Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashastha
Sushil Gupta. Credit: Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta

“The government has announced a compensation of Rs 20 lakh for my son’s death, but we want the government to declare him a martyr. He died while fighting to save the Indian flag’s honour and his dead body came draped in the flag. His elder brother should also be given a government job,” said Sushil Gupta, Chandan’s father, as most people around him concurred.

He said that Gupta was a college student but his focus was social work. “Every year, he organised blood donation camps through his organisation, Sankalp Foundation. In fact, he donated his blood to Muslims at least thrice. Like every year, he woke up at 4 am to mobilise people for the tiranga rally. But they never pass through the Muslim colonies. I don’t know what they had planned this year. Perhaps with the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Yogi (Adityanath) government in the state, they thought the tiranga rally could also pass through Muslim areas. But fate had something else in store for him.”

Both Hindus and Muslims claimed that while Gupta did not have any direct association with the Hindu right groups, he was often seen with Hindutva activists.

Muslim residents too perceive the riot as an administrative failure, but one owing to the impunity enjoyed by Hindutva activists under the state’s BJP government. “The tiranga yatra was unauthorised. The police confirmed that the rally was not permitted by the administration. Why was the rally allowed to happen, then? Ever since the riot broke, the Sankalp Foundation’s office bearers have been issuing threats to Muslims, warning them of dire consequences on Facebook,” a Muslim advocate told The Wire, asking not to be named.

Kasganj's Nadrai Gate area, where maximum rioting happened. The junction is only 50 metres away from the police station and tehsil office. Credit: Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashtha
Kasganj’s Nadrai Gate area, where maximum rioting happened. The junction is only 50 metres away from the police station and tehsil office. Credit: Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashta

He said that the police raids in Muslim households were very severe. “Clearly, we know which way the investigations are going. We had an inkling that something was about to happen. A week before the riots, Hindutva activists suddenly raked up a two-year-old issue. Muslims had objected when they tried to build a gate leading up to the Chamunda temple in the town. They were proposing that the gate should be erected almost 200 m before the temple through a thoroughfare around Muslim houses. Naturally, we raised a complaint and the administration passed a restraining order.”

However, a week ago, the police suddenly put up barricades at the spot where the gate was proposed and asked people living in the area to use other long-winded lanes to reach their homes. This led to the renewed demand for a gate by a few groups. When the Muslims agitated again, the administration removed the barricades. But the tension between the two communities started to simmer from thereon.

Another resident of Baddu Nagar, Md Faheem, said that the Muslims of the colony had been organising a flag-hoisting ceremony over the last three years on both August 15 and January 26. “Last Independence Day, a similar bike rally entered the colony but there was no scuffle as our ceremony had finished by then. But this time around, they entered when we were about to begin the function and that raised temperatures.”

Political endgame

Every communally-volatile situation seems to further feed the unbridled Hindutva aggression which has now spread to large parts of central UP – areas that have been traditional Yadav strongholds, at least over the last two decades. When the Samajwadi Party patronised the Yadavs, political issues centred around agriculture, as most members of the community were farmers themselves. SP had managed to integrate its caste-based OBC politics and farmers’ concerns while lending a voice to the Muslim community, thus churning up a successful electoral formula.

However, the formula collapsed under an organised Hindutva campaign mounted by the BJP in the assembly elections last year. With Adityanath as the chief minister, BJP’s electoral formula is a simple one – consolidate the 80% Hindu population. As was reflected in its ticket distribution in the polls and overt Hindutva assertions made by saffron representatives in Kasganj, BJP has made it clear that it does not need Muslim votes to win.

In this context, a belligerent Hindutva campaign following the riots in central UP may further alienate Muslims from the mainstream, but would also help the BJP challenge Samajwadi Party’s age-old equations. In short, Hindu consolidation in the aftermath of riots will help the BJP challenge Yadav dominance.

Also read: Kasganj: Will Adityanath Abide By Rajdharma?
A senior journalist from UP who did not want to be named told The Wire, “If one can remember, the BJP has come to dominate the Jat-dominated western UP completely after the Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013. Today, no one hears about the issues of sugarcane farming, a concern which stalwart Jat leaders like Charan Singh, Mahendra Singh Tikait or Chotu Ram had successfully brought to the national forefront. The BJP has usurped that farmer-friendly Jat politics, in which Muslims also played an integral part. It replaced it with Hindutva, which has buried concerns of bread and butter and foregrounded false issues like Love Jihad or escalating Muslim population. At present, the animosity between Jats and Muslims is such that the Jats have no option but to keep their livelihood concerns aside and vote for the BJP.”

“Similarly,” he added, “the Hindutvaisation of Yadavs will push livelihood issues to the background in central UP too. One may note that the BJP, over the last six months, has been facing the wrath of central UP’s potato farmers. Potato crop is central to the economy of central UP and the government has made no effort to control its plummeting prices. What better way than a riot to distract attention from such issues? The riot will allow the BJP to diffuse the Yadav dominance in the region, hide caste injustices and cement its presence further.”

In the fight for political hegemony, however, the social fabric of UP is changing irrevocably. Even as Hindutva activists mount their aggression with growing political support, Muslims have chosen to lay low to prevent further escalation. The political message that Hindu nationalism is the only form of patriotism has traversed deep into the villages of UP. The slogan of ‘Vande Mataram’ or ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ have come to be recognised as copyrighted by the Sangh parivar. It isn’t a concern anymore that these are raised alongside slogans like “Muslims, go to Pakistan” or “Hindustan mein rahna hai toh, Modi, Yogi kahna hoga (If you want to stay in India, you must cheer for Modi and Yogi)”.

Hindutva groups often see the saffron flag as interchangeable with the national flag, as incidents during the Kasganj riots demonstrated. With only a year left for the 2019 general elections, circumstances indicate that Uttar Pradesh, with the maximum number of parliamentary seats, is sitting on a communal potboiler.