Muzaffarnagar: Bloody Path of Political Agenda — Footprints of Evil Designs

by BHASHA SINGH

The following is a reportage by a senior journalist after a visit to UP’s riot-stricken Muzaffarnagar.

‘Nobody burnt those houses.’ In a very dim light and highly surcharged environment they accept only 100 houses were burnt, but they don’t know who turned them into ashes. All Muslims of the village are on the run, but they exactly don’t know why. What happened on the dark day of September 7 and 8, nobody is ready to share, but they add it all happened suddenly and the whole wrathful exercise was over in just 10 to 15 minutes. Village head Ajit Singh along with others suggested that some Muslims burnt their own powerlooms and others torched their own houses to get compensation from the Uttar Pradesh Government.

We were asked to leave the village as it was getting tense and dark, so even with a busfull of Armymen we were not considered safe. Phugana SHO K.P. Sharma was putting pressure on us. He bluntly refused my request to visit the adjacent village, Lakh, which has also witnessed horrifying violence. He just said in a very anguished tone: ‘Madam, I think you have to go back to the Capital. Now focus on your safe return. Any moment there can be stone- pelting or some untoward incident, then even Army cover will be of no use …’ I looked around us, at each step we were covered by Army personnel, but we could feel the tension in the air, which was so heavy that many of us were feeling suffocated.

I was just recalling that a few minutes back these villagers were claiming that they were ready to receive Muslims who had fled. Many said that if they don’t return it will adversely affect the economy of their village as the sugarcane crop is ready to be cut. While answering my query as to how it all happened, they said many fled because of fear. Ironically, this was also the response of the SHO of the Phugana Police Station: ‘You know, these Muslims will not return now as they want compensation from the government, many fled for that, you know!’

All these comments gave a very disturbed picture. It was clear that the tension is going to exist for long and normalcy is a far cry. This village was Lisarh, which comes under the Phugana Police Station. It had witnessed deadly communal violence which spread across the Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. Cases of sexual violence against women, incidents of gang-rape during the rioting are now beginning to surface. According to the district adminis-tration of Muzaffarnagar, “three cases of rape and two cases of molestation from Phugana village are being investigated. Two hundred FIRs have been filed so far.†According to official data, since the riots began on September 7, 49 people have died and 42,000 have been displaced. But unofficial sources claim that more than 150 people have died and around 70 thousand Muslims fled from their houses. A majority among them, the poor and labour class, had no choice but to live in miserable conditions in relief camps. They are victims of the communal strife, which has engulfed the whole of Muzaffar-nagar, Shamli, Baghpat and Meerut areas since August-end.

Violence reached a peak on September 7, after the Jat Mahapanchayat. In a stretch of mere ten days the demographic as well as socio-economic and communal picture of the area has under-gone a drastic change. Even in the deserted-burnt villages we met Jats who still claimed: “Jats and Muslims had always maintained communal harmony in the village and we used to live like brothers. We are unable to under-stand what happened suddenly and who disturbed the communal fabric of our peaceful villages.†Many are openly speaking about difficulties in harvesting their crop as a majority of Muslims used to work in their fields, In Lisarh village one Jat, who introduced himself as Rajesh, started informing that they are trying hard to get back to normalcy. He said they had set up a peace committee and they were collecting funds to rehabilitate the stranded Muslim villagers. But, he was not able to give a detailed account of this, nor was he able to verify his claim. He and the rest of the Jats were trying to convince us that the rioters came from outside and they burnt the houses belonging to the Muslim community. But nobody had the answer to the query: how come outsiders identified the Muslim houses. More so in Lisarh which is seemingly a planned village with a mixed population. There was no segregation of Jat and Muslim houses.

A glimpse of the burnt houses conveyed the horrifying story of hatred. Damaged houses were turned into ashes. The belongings of the houses were completely destroyed; powerlooms and handlooms were burnt black.

Pothole-ridden roads signified the way the communal harmony of the region was dug up and shattered in a very deliberate manner. It didn’t take too long for the fire of hatred to ravage through entire western Uttar Pradesh and later to other parts of the State. The burning question is:

would all this have been possible without the connivance of the State Govern-ment? The build-up to the current flare-up was going on for almost a year. Investigations revealed that for the past many months, Rightwing organisations such as the BJP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, etc were busy in developing a vicious environment by spreading rumours and distributing weapons including tridents. It is difficult to believe that the State administration was unaware of all these developments. There were complaints, some FIRs as well, but still the State Government allowed the situation to deteorate. It did not take any stern action against the leaders and goons who were spreading hatred till the last moment. The administration allowed them to assemble with weapons. This raises questions about its intentions. Right-wing forces have succeeded in saffronising the Khaps and very meticulously they have built a hate campaign on the pretext of saving their prestige of their bahu-betis (daughters and daughters-in-law). In the name of fighting the mythological ‘love jihad’ they tried to vitiate the atmosphere of the area which was already infamous for its honour killings. It resulted in creating rift between the two the communities and polarising them. This was happening in broad daylight, still it was not checked. Why?

Many such questions are burning in the hearts of thousands of people who are living in relief camps. From the Loni relief camp to Jola, everywhere people shared the stories of their burns, of their irreparable losses, lists of the missing relatives and, above all, the horrifying testimonies of sexual assaults, gang-rapes and unbelievable brutality.

I met one such woman outside the Loi camp in full darkness. She was running high fever as she entered our car. She immediately burst into tears. Her whole body was shaking and she was holding me tight. She was not able to complete even a single sentence without sobbing. ‘They were six, sister. I never thought they will do this as they were all my neighbours. I was in shock that how come they can hate me so much… Where was this hatred all these years. They were with arms—swords, axes. I got afraid. Oh my god! They raped me in my own house, in my room and while committing the crime they were abusing me and my community. I heard such things for the first time in my life. Tell me, why did they hate me so much? Why did they rape me? Why?’ She was inconsolable. ‘They burnt my house to ashes. They were carrying drums of kerosene with them. They spit on me and asked me to run. I don’t have words to say how much they abused me. I can’t say, but I will not spare them. You have to help me, they should pay for ruining our lives and dignity. I know about two more women of my village who were gangraped. I heard many more young girls were raped, killed, burnt and even their ashes have been thrown away.’ Even after this ordeal, she had mustered courage to file an FIR against the culprits.

Such incidents have been reported from the entire area, though very few FIRs have been filed. Although with the help of many individual lawyers, organisations have now slowly started documentation of these heinous crimes. A few individuals like Supreme Court lawyer Naushad and his team and Mohammad Asad are trying their level best to see that the pain of these women does not go unheard. Both have filed public interest litigations in the Supreme Court in the context of the Muzaffarnagar violence.

In the midst of this gloom there were some positive stories of communal harmony, of those heroes who helped Muslim families to escape safely or who tried their best to ease the tension. In many relief camps people from the other communities are still providing food and other help. Some are even guarding such camps at night.

Despite all this, the fact is that conditions in these relief camps are horrible. They are getting least support from the State or Central governments. The political apathy is unimaginable. Almost all the camps are run by community networks and with the support of villagers. We visited Loni’s Jamia Arabia Zainatul Islam Camp at Rashid Ali Gate, the Kandla Idgah Camp, Ismail Colony Camp, Mustafabad Camp, Bijli Ghar Camp, Jola’s Danga Peedit Rahat Shivir, Shamli Camp at Mallakpura, Khurman Road Camp and Loi Camp. Every-where we found that in spite of having so many problems no one was ready to go back. This seemed to be a very dangerous trend. Some were forced to go back. A few others went to see the condition of their houses, cattle, etc. but no one is ready to return. They want their lives to be safe.

One other major point to notice is that most of the Muslims who were attacked were poor, barring a few exceptions. They belonged to the teli, faqir, jogi, lohar, julahe, dhobi communities. There were some who were ansaris and quraishis. Many were farm labourers, brick clin workers. No village where the Muslim popu-lation was more than 25 to 30 per cent was attacked.

Here we should also note that like the Jat community, the Muslims of Muzaffarnagar are also deeply caste-divided. There are the Ashraf Muslims (upper caste) on the one hand, and a number of non-Ashraf communities on the other. Here the observation of the Pasmanda Kranti Abhiyan is significant that backward Muslims have been the main victims of communal riots and police atrocities so far. This is not based on speculation. As per an unofficial estimate, most of those Muslims who died in the present violence were backwards. However, we should not forget that it was a communal clash, not a caste clash. In any such clash the marginalised, poor and backward sections of Muslims or other minorities are the soft targets of the rioters.

The biggest danger is that this communal divide is spreading across the State. The interests of communal organisations and administration are fuelling this. After Muzaffarnagar the fire spread to Baghpat, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Agra and other places. The intention to polarise the voters is quite clear.

Shabnam Hashmi of the ANHAD organisation links these developments to the appointment of Amit Shah as the BJP in-charge of UP and also to the mission of Narendra Modi to become the PM.

Here we need to remember that in just one- and-a-half year of SP rule, UP has seen around 100 communal clashes. The pattern in all of these is quite similar. Hence it is not surprising that people are drawing a parallel between the Muzaffarnagar violence and the post-Godhra genocide in Gujarat. One obvious danger is that many of the violence-affected villages are now devoid of any Muslim population. It is similar to what happened in Kandhamal in Odisha after the anti-Christian riots a few years back. Displacement of seventy thousand Muslims from almost 160 villages is a matter of huge demographic concern. It will surely impact the voting pattern as well. Bigger questions at stake are the future of democracy and secularism.

Bhasha Singh works for Hindi Outlook as an Assistant Editor.