Since Dec 25, not a day passes when politicians from different parties don’t come out with volatile statements. For them, this is the right time to strengthen their political base
For four days, starting from December 19, 2019, Uttar Pradesh (UP) burnt. It all started from Lucknow — the city of tehzeeb (culture) — where nazakat (delicacy) and nafassat (purity) were torn to shreds as old-timers said that they had not witnessed a pogrom and police atrocities of such magnitude for the last many decades as they did during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests. People were beaten up. Innocents were arrested as rioters and sent to jail . The cries and plea of mothers, wives, fathers and children were trampled under the police jackboot on the pretext of maintaining law and order. Police claim that 19 people lost their lives but social activists put the number to over 24. They say many people are missing. Their relatives do not know where they are. Had they been arrested and sent to jail or were they killed during the crackdown on protests that spread across the State?
The basic question of this pogrom is — who orchestrated it? One thing is sure that those who took part in these protests do not know the tenets of the CAA. Then, why did this happen? Who benefitted from the large-scale destruction? Despite such large-scale preparation, that included the imposition of Section 144 and appeals issued by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Director General of UP Police OP Singh, how were the protesters able to reach Parivartan Chowk? Was it an Intelligence failure or a purposeful BJP design to derive political mileage from the emanating discordant notes of the CAA in which official machinery played a conduit to political design?
The protest call was given by some social organisations, members of civil society and the Samajwadi Party (SP) on December 19. The Winter Session of the UP Legislative Assembly was on. That day, a supplementary grant was to be taken up in the Vidhan Sabha. The SP had announced that its units would stage protests across the State. In Lucknow, the SP and other organisations had announced that protests would be held at Parivartan Chowk — the heart of Lucknow. The administration was ready, as Section 144 was promulgated and any gathering was declared unlawful. DGP Singh went on record saying that all the protests had been “declared illegal”. Then how did the rioters, armed with stones and sticks, reach Parivartan Chowk and the vicinity of Hazratganj? Why did the police not stop them near old Lucknow? Were the policemen not competent enough to handle the high-tension situation? As the police force in UP is facing a staff crunch, the recruits were asked to join duties after six months of training instead of the mandatory nine months. Did their inexperience add fuel to fire?
On the other hand, the way the rioters attacked the OB vans of different television news channels and cars and two-wheelers of journalists, shows that they came with a plan. Protesters are bound to get bad Press if they attack the media and this is exactly what happened. So who stands to benefit from this design?
The videos of the protests emerging after the riots are disturbing. In many videos, youths and members of the minority community were seen throwing stones at the police. In one of the video grabs from Meerut, a youth was seen firing from his revolver. Even more disturbingly, in many of the shots policemen are seen damaging public property and vehicles. In one of the videos, a few people coming out of a car sporting BJP stickers are seen asking people to attack private property. In another video, a senior police officer was seen asking some Muslim youths to go to Pakistan. The police say that these men were shouting anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans which prompted the police officer to curtly tell them to go to Pakistan.
Amid this bloodshed and inconsolable wails of mothers and wives, the trust between the Hindus and the Muslims became the first casualty. The Ganga–Jamuni tehzeeb, the fulcrum of Awadh’s intrinsic culture, was thrown to the wind. Instead, mistrust and apprehension have slowly vitiated the minds of the Hindus and Muslims alike.
Muzaffarnagar, known as the sugar bowl of UP, which was once ripped apart by one of the worst communal riots in 2013 and had seen a thaw in relations between two communities in the last six years, again witnessed seeds of distrust being sown in the community in the name of CAA.
Amid this massacre and destruction, politics has emerged as the clear winner. Parties of all hues are out on the streets trying to take advantage of the situation. Every word spoken by the leaders was used as an opportunity to garner political support.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s statement that his Government would take “revenge” from those involved in the CAA violence was made keeping the Hindu voters in mind and used by the Opposition to hammer him.
The Chief Minister, in his statement, said that those people found involved in the riots would be asked to pay for the damage caused to public assets and the property of those who failed to make good the damage would be auctioned to compensate for the losses. Twitter trolled Yogi Adityanath for his “revenge” comment. One user wrote, “The Govt will take revenge??? Govt is supposed to punish the guilty as per law, not take revenge.”
“Badla (revenge)” became a political buzzword. From the Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to SP national president Akhilesh Yadav and from national president Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Mayawati to Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Jayant Chaudhary, all derided Yogi Adityanath for calling for “badla.” Every police action against the rioters was linked to the CM’s “badla” statement. When the district administration of Muzaffarnagar sealed 67 shops following the anti-CAA protests the Opposition leaders called it “badla.” When police raided the houses of people of a particular community and arrested social activists, claiming that they had pelted stones at the police in which over 200 cops were injured, the Opposition again called it vendetta.
The Opposition highlighted cases of an unarmed Sadaf Jafar, a woman social activist who was arrested for allegedly inciting people against the CAA from Parivartan Chowk. This despite a video showing that she was pleading with the policemen to arrest hooligans who were pelting stones.
Then there is Farooq Rahmani, a known Muslim face in Rampur and the office-bearer of Ittehad Naujawan Committee, who was arrested and charged with IPC Section 147 (rioting) and 307 (Attempt to murder) when he was trying to placate some Muslim youth in Gher Mohalla in the Old City area.
Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan, 28, was arrested and charged with rioting when he was returning home after purchasing medicines for his ailing mother. He showed the policemen the doctor’s prescription and the medicines he had purchased as proof that he had gone out to buy them and had got stuck during the riots but his pleas fell on deaf ears. His only fault was that he was wearing a skull cap.
Those who were arrested were booked under different Sections for rioting, unlawful assembly, attempt to murder, wrongful constraints, criminal intimidation, criminal assault on public servant and so on. They were also booked for alleged criminal conspiracy and under Public Property Damage Act.
The SP has grabbed this opportunity and Akhilesh Yadav said that if his Government comes to power, it will order a probe into the violence. He even suggested action against officials and declared that the SP Government would drop charges against the rioters.
This statement suits the designs of the SP and the BJP alike. The ruling BJP has always tried to consolidate Hindus in the name of religion. Yadav’s statement gives the BJP that chance and, therefore, the BJP State president Swatantra Dev Singh immediately used the opportunity to remind people how the erstwhile SP Government had withdrawn cases against terrorists.
Meanwhile, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sent the police in a tizzy and went to meet family members of the activists who were arrested and in turn grabbed headlines. Since December 25, 2019 not a day passes when leaders of different political shades don’t come out with volatile political statements to suit their ideology. For them, this is the right time to strengthen their political base. Because it is true that all politicians love a communal divide.
(The writer is Executive Editor, News, The Pioneer, Lucknow)
