Monthly update: Muslims in India
This page will update the plight of Muslims (excluding Kashmir which is dealt elsewhere) living in India on a monthly basis
Monthly update 10:June 2020 : Muslims in India
This page updates
news related to the plight of Muslims in India
.
1.
Indian doctor: Jun., 3,
2030: Indian Muslims
for Progress and Reform (IMPAR) wrote a letter to Union Health Minister Dr.
Harshvardhan demanding action against the doctor who allegedly claimed that
Tablighis are ‘terrorists’. https://www.siasat.com/impar-demands-action-against-doctor-who-calls-tablighis-terrorists-1897006/
2.
Safoora Zargar:
Jun., 5, 2020:
Delhi’s Patiala house court on Thursday denied bail to 27-year-old Safoora
Zargar. The research scholar from Jamia Millia Islamia is currently in judicial
custody in connection with her alleged role in the Delhi riots conspiracy case,
which is being investigated by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell. While
dismissing the bail petition, Judge Dharmendra Rana said: “When you choose to play with embers, you
cannot blame the wind to have carried the spark a bit too far and spread the
fire. The acts and inflammatory speeches of the co-conspirators are admissible
u/s 10 of the Indian Evidence even against the applicant/accused.”
While making a case for bail, her counsels Ritesh Dhar Dubey and Trideep Pais
told the court that the investigating agency was creating a false narrative to
implicate innocent students who do not approve of the government’s policies.
They also submitted that the prosecution’s charge that Zargar delivered an
inflammatory speech on February 23, 2020, at Chand Bagh was inaccurate. Her
lawyers claimed that she had visited Chand Bagh for a short while on that day
but that was before the violence had started. They also told the court that she
had delivered a speech in Khureji on February 23, but it wasn’t inflammatory or
provocative in any manner. While making
its arguments against granting of bail, the prosecution submitted a seizure
memo relating to FIR 101/2020 registered by the Khajoori Khas Police Station.
The seizures in FIR 101/2020 of Police Station Khajuri Khas include materials
like stones, bricks, crates of glass bottles, and 3 sling shots that were
reportedly found in front of suspended Aam Aadmi Party leader Tahir Hussain’s
house. The reference to evidence collected in another case, pertaining to
another FIR, during Zargar’s bail hearing came as a surprise, given that the
student was not arrested in FIR 101/2020 but 59/2020. The judge, while pronouncing his order, also
referred to statements made by eye witnesses and a WhatsApp chat that had been
placed on record. The judge held that “there
is prima facie evidence to show that there was a conspiracy to at least block
the roads (chakka jam).”“As per the provisions of sections 339 of the
Indian Penal Code, causing wrongful restrain to even a single individual is a
penal offence. Section 141 clause 3 provides that any assembly of five or more
persons is designated as ‘unlawful’, if its common object is to commit any
offence.” The judge also refused to entertain the defence counsel’s
argument that Safoora was liable only for her individual acts and speeches and
the acts of other members of the group could not be read against her. The judge
held,“In my considered opinion, if
there is prima facie evidence of existence of a conspiracy, the evidence of
acts and statements made by one of the conspirators in furtherance of the
common object is admissible against all…Therefore mere absence at the spot or
absence of any overt act would not help the cause of the applicant/accused.”
Zargar’s lawyers also appealed for bail on humanitarian grounds, given that she
is 21 weeks pregnant and reportedly suffering from Poly Cystic Ovarian
Disorder. They told the court that her condition had become all the more
vulnerable because of the COVID-19 crisis and pointed out that inmates in all
three of Delhi’s jails had contracted the coronavirus infection. While
dismissing her bail plea, the judge asked the concerned jail superintendent to provide
adequate medical aid and assistance to the accused. https://thewire.in/law/safoora-zargar-denied-bail
3.
Blue
Star: Jun., 10, 2020:
Eight-day long Operation Blue Star (OBS) still haunts the Sikh community
although 36 years have passed. For those who lived through Operation Blue Star
(OBS), the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir today brings back vivid
memories of what they went through in 1984. OBS was an official beginning of a systematic purge of the
Sikhs community in India. Over 100,000 Sikhs (mostly youth) were killed in the
next four years (till 1988) while over 25,000 victims were left crippled for
the whole of their lives. Over 20,000 Sikh families migrated out of India
(mostly in Canada, United States, United Kingdom) after this event as they felt
India does not own them and they were alien in their land people in Amritsar
could not have imagined in their wildest dreams in mid-May .1984 that their
beloved Golden Temple would be fired upon by their own Army.The OBS assault
started on June 1, 1984, and continued till the night of June 8. Indian
government came out a cooked, fictional, concocted and fabricated ‘White Paper’
on Operation Blue Star, but no one believed it. Then as now, the official
version projected the government’s decision as absolutely justified, given the
fact that militant leader JS Bhindranwale had dug in his heels inside the
Golden Temple with his heavily armed followers. Then as now, came the whitewash
of the terrible fallout. Desperate to restore the Akal Takht, reduced to rubble
by tank fire, the Centre ultimately found a little-known Nihang to undertake
‘kar seva’, the voluntary labour with which Sikhs build their gurdwaras.
“Stories coming out from Punjab (Indian Punjab) of Army excesses resulted in
anarchy within the Indian Army and Punjab Police. As many as 2,800 Sikh
soldiers deserting their regiments. Three officers were shot by deserters; one,
Brig SC Puri, died. Many deserters were jailed, court-martialed, and dismissed.
The 9th battalion of the Sikh Regiment, the first to react, was never raised
again,” said Jyoti Punwani in her article published on August 2, 2019, in New
Indian Express under the .One of the most important events related to OBS is
the “Mutiny of 9th battalion of the Sikh Regiment” that started from Bihar and
spread as far as Rajasthan and over 2600 Sikh soldiers were killed by Indian
Police and Army after this mutiny and their bodies were not handed over to
their relatives. One serving Brigadier Brig Puri was shot dead at brigade
headquarters in Ramgarh in Bihar by Sikh soldiers. Sikh Soldiers were under
constant surveillance in the Indian Air Force, Army, and Indian Navy for years
to come after this incident. Operation Blue Star was planned by RAW to purge
the rising demand of the Khalistan movement. It was planned well before it
started to purge the rising demand of the Khalistan movement. The Khalistan
movement was a politico-religious Sikh nationalist movement which aimed at
creating an independent state for Sikhs inside the current North-Western
Republic of India. Even though the Khalistan movement started in the early
1940s and 1950s, it gained popularity in 1970s when former East Pakistan became
“Bangladesh”. Sikhs understood that India helped Bangalis to form their
separate country on the bases of language, culture, ethnicity then why Sikh
should not get their own separate country on the same basis Her murder was instantly followed by
Anti-Sikh riots spread all over India, killing more than 8,000 Sikhs in New
Delhi alone in four days, and an estimated 20,000 or more Sikhs were killed in
40 cities across India. At least 50,000 Sikh families were displaced and their
belongings, homes, shops, transport, offices, and businesses were looted and
burnt down. Like recent Anti-Muslim Delhi Riots which took place in February
2020, Hindus attacked Sikhs with iron rods, knives, clubs, and combustible
material (including kerosene and petrol). They entered Sikh neighbourhoods,
killing Sikhs indiscriminately and destroying shops and houses.Armed mobs
stopped buses and trains in and near Delhi, pulling off Sikh passengers for
lynching; some were burnt alive. Others were dragged from their homes and
hacked to death, and Sikh women were reportedly gang-raped and acid was thrown
on them. Anti-Sikhs Riots continued for four days (like recent Anti-Muslims
riots in Delhi) with the complete support of Police and paramilitary forces all
over India. The next two years for Sikh community were very punitive and their
economic survival was at stake. Hindu community did not forgive them and caused
all kinds of social and economic boycotts of the Sikh community. The first
Operation Black Thunder took place on April 30, 1986, and was carried out by
Black Cat commandos of National Security Guards (NSG) to remove Sikh militants
from the Golden Temple. Second Operation Black Thunder began on May 9, 1988,
and both operations cost disappearance of over 7,000 young Sikhs and killing of
over 3,500 undocumented youth from Indian Punjab. Indian Army used tanks,
artillery, helicopters, and armored vehicles in this Operation. Retired Sikh
bureaucrats claimed that Intelligence Units working in universities all over
India were keeping eyes on Sikh students almost two years before Operation Blue
Star and their (students) data had been compiled with details. Indian Army
simultaneously attacked over 45 gurdwaras in Punjab and did massacre all over
Punjab which was not confined only to Amritsar. Over 50,000 Sikhs were killed
within the first three weeks of Operation and businesses and shops belonging to
Sikhs were looted by Indian Army and Hindu mobs. Thousands of Sikh girls and
women were raped by soldiers of the Indian Army and Hindu Policemen who were
sent from Delhi. It is pertinent to mention that pro-Hindu leaders including LK
Advani, Vajpayee demanded Army action against Sikhs in 1984 and led the
anti-Sikh Movement. Economic cost and social deprivation faced by Sikh
Community after OBS, Anti Sikh Riots, and Operation Black Thunder (Part I and
II) are still undocumented and need detailed research work. https://dnd.com.pk/from-operation-blue-star-to-operation-black-thunder/190989
4.
Visa denial: Jun., 12, 2020: India has
turned down a travel request for members of a US government panel seeking to
review its religious freedom, saying foreign agencies had no standing to assess
the constitutional rights of citizens. The visa snub to the US Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on
Wednesday came as the US Congress released its own religious freedom report
while a top Trump administration official said
he was "very concerned" about the South Asian country's situation US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on
Wednesday released a new 2019 International Religious Freedom Report in
Washington, DC. The report, mandated by the US Congress, documents major
instances of violations of religious freedom across the world. Referring to
India, the report highlighted the revocation of Indian-administered Kashmir's
autonomy by the Modi government in August, the passage of the CAA in December,
and attacks by Hindu vigilante groups on Muslims and Dalits (community once
referred to as "untouchables") over the cow, an animal considered
sacred by Hindus."Mob attacks by violent Hindu groups against minority
communities, including Muslims, continued throughout the year amid rumours that
victims had traded or killed cows for beef," said the report, adding that
charges were often filed by the police against the victims of mob violence.
Hours after the release, Samuel
Brownback, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom in the
Trump administration, said the "trend lines [on religious freedom] have
been troubling" in India, according to a report by the Press Trust of
India on Wednesday."We do remain very concerned about what's taking place
in India. It's historically just been a very tolerant, respectful country of
religions, of all religions," Brownback said during a phone call with
journalists on Wednesday."It really needs a lot more effort on this topic
in India, and my concern is, too, that if those efforts are not put forward,
you're going to see a growth in violence and increased difficulty within the
society writ large." https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/india-denies-visas-panel-religious-freedom-200611070153569.html
5.
US Senator:
Jun., 13, 2020:
The US senator, Edward John Markey, has urged the State Department to impress
upon the Indian government to lift restrictions on the Internet in occupied
Kashmir in view of the Coronavirus pandemic. Edward John Markey, a Democrat
from Massachusetts, in a letter addressed to State Department’s Bureau of South
and Central Asian Affairs, said although video conferencing is helping people
around the world cope with isolation during lockdowns, a lack of access to this
technology puts further strain on millions of Kashmiris, or nearly half of all
adults, who have some form of mental illness after decades of conflict Besides Kashmir, the senator also talks about
the rise in anti-Muslim violence, human rights and press freedom concerns. He
says the “failure to address” these issues seem to contradict the pluralistic
and democratic principles of India.“I urge the State Department to take steps
to act on the recommendations related to India in the Annual Report of the
USCIRF,” Senator Markey said. He also appealed to his government to follow the
“the report’s recommendations to strengthen engagement with communities
affected by discrimination and to designate India as a country of particular
concern for engaging in and tolerating religious freedom violations”. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/06/12/press-india-to-lift-internet-restrictions-in-iok-us-state-department-urged/
6.
Zargar : Jun., 14,
2020: The Center
for Human Rights at the American Bar Association (ABA) has said in a report
that Safoora Zargar’s detention is not in compliance with the international
treaties to which India is a state party. The ABA is one of the oldest and
largest associations of lawyers and law students in the United States. The
Center specifically stated that denial of bail to Zargar is
not in consonance with the provisions of International Covenant for Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), which permit pre-trial detention only for narrow
purposes such as to “prevent flight, interference with evidence, or the
recurrence of the crime”. It further added that the UN Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention has interpreted the ICCPR to hold that “any detention must
be exceptional and of short duration and a release may be accompanied by
measures intended only to ensure representation of the defendant in judicial
proceedings”.The Center also said that the lack of evidence in the case should
have made the Court consider alternatives other than detaining Zargar. “Given
the lack of evidence in the FIR linking Ms. Zargar to acts of violence, it is
unclear why alternatives to pre-trial detention were not considered adequate by
the court in this case,” it noted. The report by the Center also expressed
concern regarding Zargar’s vulnerability as a pregnant woman and a high blood
pressure patient. “Regardless of whether
Ms. Zargar’s detention was properly justified under normal circumstances, it is
likely unreasonable in light of her pregnancy and the risk of contracting the
novel coronavirus. The United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women
Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (also known as the
Bangkok Rules) conclude that non-custodial means should be preferred for
pregnant women during the pre-trial phase wherever that is possible or
appropriate”. The Center highlighted that Zargar was at risk of exposure to
COVID-19 in Tihar jail, which is overcrowded, and assistant superintendent of
the jail has tested positive for COVID-19.
The Center urges the Court to uphold India’s moral and legal obligations
given the pandemic and order the immediate release of Mrs. Zargar.” https://thewire.in/rights/safoora-zargar-american-bar-association
7.
Hindu hatred for Muslims: Jun., 15, 2020: On 5 June, Payal Rohatgi, the Indian TV actor who identifies herself as a "proud Hindu”, shared a video in
which Safoora Zargar — the Jamia Millia Islamia student currently in jail on
charges of conspiracy to instigate the February riots in New Delhi — was seen
delivering a fiery speech during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment
Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). "Ram Ram
ji, maybe she had sex after this video to remove her frustration and she got
pregnant," tweeted Rohatgi, adding, "#SafooraZargar is a terrorist."
In another tweet, she asked: "Were medical shops not providing
condoms?" "Oops for Muslim women there is no concept of condom, so
when they produce kids like a dozen [sic], what's the problem if one is born in
jail, but this k***ya will do victim drama," Rohatgi wrote. Three years
later, in writer-filmmaker Paromita Vohra's documentary, Morality TV
Aur Loving Jehad: Ek Manohar Kahani, Sandeep Pahal, then a Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (VHP) activist, was seen underscoring the “perennial Hindu-Muslim
conflict” in the communally sensitive city of Meerut and saying, "It's
their (Muslims') hidden agenda
"What is perceived of the Muslim male is now being extended to the
body of the Muslim woman," Gupta says. "The anti-CAA protests
revealed that a Muslim woman is not going to be won over so easily."
"For the right-wing, the Muslim woman was meek, less educated, less
outgoing than the Hindu woman, and then there was this argument that Islam
suppresses women, but the Shaheen Bagh protest brought [out] a different
dimension," says Gupta, whose work explores caste, gender and feminism,
modern Indian history, and masculinities. These women cannot easily be accused of violence or for that
matter can't be related to a terrorist figure, she noted. “A terrorist figure
is largely a male figure. And then here's a woman who wears her identity on her
sleeve, is also a nationalist in abiding by the Constitution, so it becomes
difficult for them to tackle.” Citing a
2006 conversation with a young activist at the VHP’s Nagpur office, Anand wrote
the former tried to convince him that "Muslim men are too sexy because
they have a hard foreskin due to circumcision and this is preferred by [Hindu]
girls” and this is why “we need cultured Hindu girls who think of their family
and not sex". “The sexuality of Muslim men is seen as a threat to Bharat
Mata and Hindu women by Hindutva,” says Bano. “And that threat has been
recreated and harped upon so much these days." https://www.firstpost.com/india/actor-payal-rohatgis-outburst-against-safoora-zargar-typifies-right-wing-obsession-with-muslim-sexuality-8482581.html
8.
Arabs on Islam phobia and Kashmir : Jun., 19,
2020: Sheikha Hend bint Faisal
Al Qasimi is an Emirati Royal of the Al Qasimi family of Sharjah, United Arab
Emirates, a businesswoman, and a philanthropist. She is also a peace activist.
Recently, she hogged limelight for publically speaking out against Islamophobic
social media posts made in the UAE amid the COVID-19 pandemic: Hend : Some
Indians who are Hindus and are part of Hindutva have shown disrespect, and some
have run off from the Gulf due to the current economic situation. India is a
member of the United Nations and they have commitments and there is a clear
violation of human rights in Kashmir. I would understand being under lockdown
for a week or a month as during the current pandemic. But Kashmir has been
under lockdown for up to 8 months and how long will it continue? Kashmir is a
living prison and a camp. It is like Gaza happening all over again except it’s
worse. Internet services have still not been restored fully. Why is the
international community silent about this?
The situation is bad. This young girl Safoora Zargar has not been heard
and denied bail. She is pregnant and I don’t understand that by having her
locked up, what do they want to achieve? It’s horrible. The American Lawyers
Bar Association has spoken against her detention and demanded her release. It
has become an international embarrassment for India to deny human rights to a
young woman and her unborn child. What’s happening in India is that there is
this policy that you can’t discuss anything anymore as you will be attacked. In
the Emirates, I can tell you for a fact that if anyone attacks Islam while
living in the Emirates, there will be consequences. They were all contacted and
called to the police station and depending on the extent of the damage, they
were fined. That scared many of these people as they can’t afford to pay such
hefty fines and don’t want to lose their jobs or shut down their companies. No
one would want that. Indians and Arabs are both raised to respect each other,
whether they are older folk or belong to different religions. I have
never seen Islamophobia in my country except recently. I want to tell you that
Muslims will never accept Islamophobia. Muslims of the Emirates may be quiet
but this is a very sensitive issue for us. It will not be tolerated. We may be
very peaceful people but I can tell you that already in Kuwait, they are not
trusting Hindus employees or professionals anymore. After the video of this
doctor in India surfaced saying all Muslims should be killed, it resonated very
strongly in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. I didn’t know that such a
political party could exist by ‘erasing’ or eradicating all others, even if
they are also Indian nationals. Unfortunately, we keep hearing this and it is
acting as a deterrent . They feel that these people have an agenda. People now
are saying that they would rather go to a Muslim doctor or a Christian doctor
then go to the Hindu one because people do not know the difference between
Hindus and Hindutva. It’s a shame that the legalizing of abuse against
non-Hindutva people has become accepted. I pray that peace once again returns
to India. https://twocircles.net/2020jun18/437562.html
9.
Police partiality:
Jun., 23, 2020: In
February this year, a 23-year-old Muslim man, Faizan, was brutally assaulted
along with four others by policemen in uniform. The assaulting officers were
captured on camera, and were seen assaulting and forcing Faizan to sing the
national anthem. Faizan succumbed to his injuries a few days later. But despite
pressing video evidence, shot on a mobile camera, the Delhi police have not
named any policemen as accused in the case. According to a report in HuffPost India, the
FIR lodged at the Bhajanpura Police station makes no mention of the clearly
documented video footage of the police assaulting Faizan. It also contradicts
on-record police statements that Faizan was in police custody following his
assault, and claims that Faizan died after he went missing from the Guru Tegh Bahadur
hospital in northeast Delhi.The video had gone viral and sparked outrage across
the country. While the family is yet to get the copy of the post-mortem report,
the police have already begun pressurising witnesses to change their statements
in the case, the HuffPost
article says. In March, The Wire’s Srishti Srivastava had
met Faizan’s mother Kismatun. “Someone had recognised my son in GTB (Guru Teg
Bahadur) hospital and called me. I went looking for him… I waited until 1 am.
Another person had come there, whose child was also injured. I kept asking the
police to let me meet my son… at least feed him… They did not let me even see
him once. They just asked me to go back…”HuffPost
India has put together a disturbing sequence of omission and
possible misrepresentation the facts of the incident. The article says, “If the
police FIR is to be believed, on Feb 25 Head Constable Manoj Bhatti arrived at
GTB hospital and was provided Faizan’s medico-legal-certificate which claimed
“physical assault by the mob” as stated by the patient himself. Faizan, the FIR
claims, had received treatment and left GTB hospital on his own. The FIR claims
the police visited Faizan’s house, but he was not at home. Later, the police
learnt he had sought treatment at Lok Nayak Hospital and had died.” An
eyewitness who was assaulted by the police alongside Faizan, however, told HuffPost India that they were
bundled into a police vehicle after their assault and taken to the Guru Tegh
Bahadur hospital for a round of basic first-aid, after which they were taken to
the Jyoti Nagar police station. Kismatun has alleged that she has been asked by
the police to change her statement. According to the HuffPost India article, she is not
the only one to allegedly have been influenced. The relative had told the news
website that the police intimidated the person who shot the video by
insinuating that he was a rioter too. https://thewire.in/communalism/delhi-police-muslims-assaulted-fir\
10.
US
concern: Jun., 23, 2020: Ambassador at Large for
Religious Freedom Sam Brownback said on Wednesday, “We do remain very concerned
about what’s taking place in India.”“The trend lines have been troubling in
India because it’s such a religious subcontinent, and yet it’s getting more and
more — we’re seeing a lot more communal violence, we’re seeing a lot more
difficulty,” he said while answering a question about India from a Pakistani
reporter after the release in Washington of the 2019 International Report on
Religious Freedom.He warned that India was going to see more religious violence
and to stem it suggested that India’s leadership hold interfaith dialogues.
Brownback said that the US has been “concerned about the scapegoating of
religious minorities” for the COVID-19 pandemic. The report accused leaders of
“Hindu-majority parties” of spreading anti-minority sentiments — and that
wording would include the Congress Party since a majority of its membership are
of the Hindu faith unless Brownback has a different standard for religious
affiliation.“Some officials of Hindu-majority parties, including from the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), made inflammatory public remarks or social media
posts against minority communities,” the report said.“There were reports by
NGOs that the government sometimes failed to act to prevent or stop mob attacks
on religious minorities, marginalized communities, and critics of the
government,” according to the report.The report took up “cow vigilantism,”
saying “Mob attacks by violent Hindu groups against minority communities,
including Muslims, continued throughout the year amid rumours that victims had
traded or killed cows for beef. Authorities often failed to prosecute
perpetrators of such “cow vigilantism,” which included killings, mob violence,
and intimidation.”But the report also noted that Madhya Pradesh “penalises ‘cow
vigilantism’ by setting fines of 25,000 to 50,000 rupees ($350-$700) and prison
sentences of six months to three years for committing violence in the name of
protecting cows.” https://www.therahnuma.com/amid-us-protests-on-minority-rights-state-dpt-official-slams-india/
11.
UN Experts on CAA: Jun, 27, 2020: A group of United Nations human rights experts has asked India to
"immediately" release people who were arrested for protesting against
the country's controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed last
year."These defenders, many of them students, appear to have been arrested
simply because they exercised their right to denounce and protest against the
CAA," a press statement released by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights said on Friday."[Their] arrest seems clearly
designed to send a chilling message to India's vibrant civil society that
criticism of government policies will not be tolerated," it said. During the nationwide protests against the CAA, deadly violence
had erupted in February in capital New Delhi in which 53 people, mostly
Muslims, were killed. Several
anti-CAA activists were arrested in connection with the New Delhi violence and
later charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a
stringent anti-terror law.The UN human rights experts said the police also
failed to act against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and
supporters accused of "incitement to hatred and violence".A
federal minister had raised "shoot the traitors" slogans at a pro-CAA
rally, while a BJP legislator from northeast Delhi - the site of February
violence - had threatened to remove the protesters from the streets.In their
statement, the UN experts named 11 of those arrested, saying their cases included
"serious allegations of human rights violations" and "torture
and ill-treatment" in custody. They said one of the "most alarming cases" of India's
action against the CAA protesters involved pregnant student Safoora Zargar, who
was jailed for more than two months. The other 10 jailed protesters named by them were Meeran Haider,
Gulfisha Fatima, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal, Khalid
Saifi, Shifa Ur Rehman, Kafeel Khan, Sharjeel Imam and Akhil Gogoi. The UN experts said these arrests
appeared to be "discriminatory". Indian activists have also accused
the BJP government of using limited access to legal resources during
the coronavirus lockdown to target political dissenters and
Muslims."Authorities should immediately release all human rights defenders
who are currently being held in pre-trial detention without sufficient
evidence, often simply on the basis of speeches they made criticising the
discriminatory nature of the CAA," the UN experts said. In March, the UN Commissioner for
Human Rights (UNHRC) Michelle Bachelet informed India that her office had filed
an application urging the country's Supreme Court to make the UN body a third
party in one of the many petitions filed by Muslim groups, opposition parties
and activists challenging the CAA's constitutional validity. Meanwhile, the top
court is still hearing those petitions. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/human-rights-experts-urge-india-release-anti-caa-protesters-200626105916987.html
Monthly update 9: May 2020 : Muslims in India
.
1.
FIR for Facebook post: May, 3, 2020: The Delhi Police on Saturday registered an FIR against
the chairman Delhi Minorities Commission, Zafarul Islam Khan, for posting
inflammatory content on social media. On April 28, Zafarul Islam Khan had
posted on Facebook complaining of alleged persecution of Muslims in India. He
also said that the Indian Muslims have not yet chosen to tell Arabs and the
"Muslims world" about "hate campaigns, lynching and riots"
against them in India. Had they done so, India would have been facing an
"avalanche", he said in the post. "Mind you, bigots, Indian
Muslims have opted untill now not to complain to the Arabs and Muslim world
about your hate campaigns and lynching and riots. The day they are pushed to do
that, bigots will face an avalanche," Zafarul Islam Khan's post read.
Zafarul Islam Khan also thanked Kuwait for standing with the Indian Muslims.
"The Hindutva bigots calculated that given the huge economic stakes
involved the Muslims and Arab world will not care about the persecution of
Muslims in India," he said. The post further read: "The bigots forgot
that Indian Muslims enjoy huge goodwill in the eyes of the Arab and Muslim
world for their services over the centuries to Islamic causes, excellence in
Islam and Arabic scholarship, cultural and civilizational gifts to world
heritage." Facing backlash, Zafarul Islam Khan, later, apologised for his
post on May 1. "I have not complained against my country to any foreign
government or organization nor I intend to do so in future. I am a patriot to
the core and I have always defended my country abroad. However, at the same
time, I have always been vocal about the problems in our country like any other
country but, I also believe that we and our political, constitutional and
judicial system are capable to tackle them," he had said. He further said:
"According to my knowledge, Indian Muslims have never complained against
their country to outside powers. I, like other Indian Muslims, believe in rule
of law, the Indian Constitution and the fine institutions our country
has." However, based on a complaint, the Delhi Police Special Cell filed
an FIR against him on Saturday under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code
(IPC) that lays down the punishment for sedition and Section 153A that call for
punishment for promoting feelings of hatred between different groups on the
grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence and language. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/delhi-police-fir-minorities-commission-chairman-inflammatory-content-social-media-india-muslims-1673568-2020-05-02
2.
Zargar: May. 3, 2020: The Indian chapter
of Amnesty International on Friday demanded the release of Safoora Zargar, a
pregnant activist who was arrested in connection with the communal violence
that flared up in Delhi in February over the country's contentious Citizenship
Amendment Act (CAA). According to a report by Al Jazeera, the 27-year-old was
arrested on April 10 and charged under the country's Unlawful Activities
Prevention Act, 2019 (UAPA). She was three months pregnant at the time of her
arrest. Zargar was a research fellow at the Jamia Millia University in Delhi
and the media coordinator for the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) which
organised weeks of protests against the citizenship law passed by the government in December of last year. . https://www.dawn.com/news/1553967
3.
US warning: May., 4, 2020:
Religious freedom in India, especially for Muslim, Christian and Dalit
minorities has deteriorated sharply in the last one year as the country’s
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has allowed particularly serious
campaigns of harassment and violence against them without any protection from
the authorities.This is the conclusion of the US Commission for International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for 2020. Based on that, the USCIRF has designated
India as a “country of particular concern” along with eight other countries
where religious minorities face substantial persecution. In India since the BJP
government came to power in New Delhi in 2014, Muslim, Christian and Dalit
communities, have faced much organized harassment and violence from Hindu
nationalist groups like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), linked with the
BJP.The situation is particularly grim in states ruled by the BJP. Very
frequently low-income Muslims have been falsely accused of cow-slaughter and
lynched to death.Many Dalits have been similarly harassed and lynched.
Christian churches have been set on fire and pastors attacked. The police
remained spectators in most cases. Since BJP’s return to power in New Delhi,
one year ago, extremist Hindu groups like the RSS, assisted by local police and
encouraged by ministers in state and central governments have frequently indulged
in violence against lower income segments of the Muslim and Dalit
communities.At the same time many national mainstream media organizations are
spreading false allegations against the Muslim community. The most painful
recent happenings have been the large-scale organized violence by extremist
Hindu groups that are part of the BJP government in New Delhi, against Muslims
in some low-income localities in Northeast Delhi in late February 2020. About
60 people were killed as mosques, schools, shops, and houses of about 500
families were burnt and destroyed. The police instead of arresting the
marauders and the leaders who exhorted them to commit this heinous crime, have
arrested a large number of Muslim residents of Delhi including some victims of
the carnage.In March as the coronavirus started spreading in India, as has
happened in most countries, extremist Hindu groups supported by a section of
the media started spreading false rumors that Muslims were spreading the
virus.These extremist groups are also doing propaganda in the Hindu community
telling them to boycott Muslims and not buy food or daily use items from
Muslims, as those products carry the coronavirus. The Central government itself
directly encouraged discrimination against Muslims by first putting the entire
population of Jammu & Kashmir, the only Muslim majority state in India,
under literal house arrest, that was imposed in August 2019 and is still
continuing.It then enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and proposed a
National Registry of Citizens (NRC), which together many fear will take away
the citizenship of several million Indian Muslims and render them stateless.In
addition to the ongoing organized violence against the minorities, especially
Muslims, USCIRF has cited in its 2020 annual report the above mentioned highly
discriminatory CAA and NRC.USCIRF has recommended to the US State Department
that the US government take action including sanctions against Indian
government agencies and the leaders involved in such practices, in order to
make them reverse their stand and ensure real protection and equal rights for
the religious minorities, especially Muslims. This action of USCIRF puts India
in the worst category of countries that it deems as serious violators of rights
of religious minorities.Such negative labeling by US could conceivably result
in US sanctions and significant reduction in Foreign Direct Investment in India
from large multinational corporations with serious economic consequences. https://www.americanbazaaronline.com/2020/05/02/us-call-to-remove-injustice-to-minorities-will-help-india-440954/
4.
UAE reacts: May, 4, 2020: Three more Indians have been fired or
suspended by their employers in United Arab Emirates over Islamophobic posts, Gulf
News reported on Saturday. The UAE has taken interest in Indian residents’
social media activities after backlash from Arab intellectuals over reports of anti-Islamic
posts by Indians in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2015, UAE had passed
a non discrimination law which criminalised any hate speech on any
media that aimed at stoking religious hatred or insulting any religion. Despite
the warning, Gulf
News reported that local companies took action again a chef, storekeeper and
a cash clerk for their posts on social media which reportedly criticised Islam.
The UAE franchisee of Eataly, a restaurant chain in Dubai told Gulf News that a
chef, Rohit Rawat had been suspended and faced a disciplinary probe for his
posts. Another firm, Pneumics Automation, also stated that a storekeeper,
Sachin Kinnigoli, has been told not to return to work, while his conduct is
being probed.“We have withheld his salary and told him not to come to work. The
matter is under investigation. We have a zero tolerance policy. Anyone found
guilty of insulting or showing contempt for someone’s religion will have to
bear the consequences,” the owner told the paper.The third case was of an
employee at a manpower supplier company, Transguard group, who had posted an
offensive post on Ramzan on his Facebook account under a false name of “Vishal
Thakur”.In replies to tweets, the group said, “Following an internal
investigation, the employee responsible for posting these inflammatory comments
under a false name has been identified, terminated and handed over to the
authorities as per the strict zero-tolerance social media policy of Transguard
Group”. Gulf News added that a Transguard spokesperson added that Thakur
had been handed over to Dubai police custody as per UAE
Cybercrime Law No. 5 of 2012. He also said that the company’s social
media policy complies with UAE’s cyber crime regulations. ““It is enforced
through regular monitoring, evaluation and, if necessary, disciplinary action,
including fines, termination and deportation, as per federal law,” the
spokesperson said. As per a list drawn by the paper, offensive social media
post and discriminatory messages by at least seven Indians in the last four
months have come under the spotlight, which led to several of them losing their
jobs or facing police complaints. https://thewire.in/communalism/indians-probe-communal-posts-uae
5. Workers deaths in India: May, 11, 2020: On Friday, 16 migrant workers were crushed to death by a goods train when
they were attempting to make their way to Aurangabad railway station with the hope
of catching a train to their homes in Madhya Pradesh. They were walking along
the railway track to avoid being thrashed by the police on the roads and with
the knowledge that trains aren’t running. After walking for several hours, the
workers were exhausted. They sat down to rest and fell asleep. An oncoming
goods train ran over them at around 5.20 am.The migrants worked at a private
steel company in Jalna in Maharashtra and had not been paid since the first
lockdown began on March 24. Given the desperate situation and not knowing when
they could work again, they wanted to get back home to be with their families
and decided to walk in the hope of finding a train. In another incident on
Saturday night, at least five
migrant labourers were killed and 13 others injured when a truck in which
they were travelling overturned in Madhya Pradesh’s Narsinghpur district. The
incident took place in Patha village in Narsinghpur. Around 18 labourers were
travelling in a truck carrying mangoes from Telangana’s Hyderabad city to Agra
in Uttar Pradesh. The workers killed in these two accidents
are not the only people to have lost their lives during the lockdown due to
reasons other than COVID-19. In fact, according to researchers Thejesh G.N., Kanika Sharma
and Aman, till Saturday, 378 people had died since the lockdown was imposed due
to reasons other than the disease. Of them, 69 people died in rail or road
accidents while walking to their homes – the only mode of travel available as
public transport had been suspended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
government, which gave notice of only four hours before the first lockdown came
into effect The researchers point out
that their compilation does not include all deaths that have occurred as a
consequence of the lockdown. “It must be underscored that these deaths are
likely an underestimate: only a fraction of deaths are reported by the media
and we may have missed some deaths reported in local media as well,” they said
in a press note on Friday. https://thewire.in/rights/migrant-workers-non-coronavirus-lockdown-deaths
. The gross mishandling will alienate a large segment of the population
thereby paving the way to an electoral alliance between the poor, the
minorities and the tribal’s.
6. Crackdown on dissent: May, 11, 2020: A
group of 90 scholars based in the United Kingdom have issued a statement
condemning the brutal crackdown on dissent and protests during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The Narendra Modi government, they have said, has launched a “witch-hunt”
against students and activists.
7. In,
particular, the group has referred to charges filed against Umar Khalid, Meeran
Haider and Safoora Zargar, who were involved in the anti-Citizenship
(Amendment) Act protests, and now face charges under the draconian Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act.The signatories include scholars from the London
School of Economics, Oxford University, Cambridge University and other
well-known UK varieties. https://kashmirwatch.com/uk-scholars-aja-usa-condemn-modi-govt-for-charging-students-activists-under-draconian-laws/
8.
EU: May, 16, 2020:
The European Parliament in a report has expressed concern over the situation in
occupied Kashmir and controversial policies of the Modi government regarding
minorities living in India.The report prepared by the European Parliamentary
Research Service (EPRS) said that after the recommencement of second
consecutive tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party
after its success in the May 2019 general elections, the situation in India
regarding democracy, tolerance, rule of law, and managing patchwork of cultures
and religions had been changing in recent months under the impact of an
ever-increasing Hindu nationalist grip on society and politics.The report
authored by Enrico D’Ambrogio, Members’ Research Service, said that Freedom
House’s Freedom in the World 2020 report placed India under the spotlight and
ranked occupied Kashmir as ‘not free’. “Some warning signs were already present
during the first term served by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in charge since
the Hindu nationalist BJP won an absolute majority in the lower chamber (Lok
Sabha) in 2014. Communal violence has increased, as have violence and
discrimination against religious minorities, it said.The report said the 2019
World Press Freedom Index has highlighted violence against journalists as one
of the most striking characteristics of the current state of press freedom in
the country. The government has banned several thousand non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) from receiving foreign funding and has sought to get a
firm grip on information technology, however, its proposed changes to the
Information Technology Act have raised a number of concerns, it added.
Furthermore, the report said, the government members evoked limits on free
speech and have equated dissent with a lack of patriotism. It said, India is a
world leader in internet shutdowns (there were 106 such suspensions in 2019).
In June 2018, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report on
Kashmir criticising the excessive use of force by Indian forces in occupied
Kashmir, it said, adding the July 2019 version of this report found that India
had taken no steps to improve the situation in Kashmir.The EU report said that
since the BJP’s May 2019 landslide electoral victory for the Lok Sabha the party
had stepped up several initiatives catering to its Hindu nationalist electoral
base. The report said a symbolic move was when in early August 2019, Jammu and
Kashmir was stripped of its special status through the repeal of Article 370 of
the Indian Constitution. It said, the move was preceded by a vast deployment of
troops to the territory and the detention of thousands of political leaders and
activists. It said, telephone and internet services were cut off and after
several months of blackout, in January 2020 the Indian Supreme Court ruled that
internet services could only be suspended temporarily. It said a further issue
prompting reactions all over the country, and concern abroad, has been the
Parliament’s adoption of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in December
2019. It added amending the 1955 Citizenship Act, it enables
migrants/foreigners from six religious communities (Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist,
Jain, Parsi and Christian, but not Muslim) in three neighbouring countries
(Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan), who had come to India before 31st
December 2014, to apply for Indian citizenship via a fast-track route.It said
the adoption of the CAA has prompted spontaneous nationwide protests, some of
which have been the focus of violent police crackdowns. It said, in most parts
of the country, the narrative against the CAA is based on the government’s
decision to grant citizenship along religious lines, which arguably undermines
India’s secular tradition enshrined in the Constitution. Outright critics see the
legislation as deliberately anti-Muslim, it added.The report said, India’s
Muslim majority already felt targeted when in July 2019 the Parliament passed a
bill criminalising the Muslim practice of instant divorce (triple talaq). The
government, it said, has announced its intention to move towards the launch of
the National Register for Citizens. As many Indians lack the documents needed
to attest their citizenship, they fear that the NRC in liaison with the CAA
could lead to them facing deportation, it added.The report said the UN
Secretary General, António Guterres, has echoed these concerns, warning of the
risk of statelessness. It said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Michelle Bachelet Jeria, has filed an Intervention Application on the CAA to
the Indian Supreme Court; the latter is due to examine more than 160
CAA-related pleas.The report said, several hate speech incidents occurred
during the BJP rallies in the wake of the 8th February 2020 election for the
Delhi Legislative Assembly. It said a few BJP leaders and activists raised the
slogan goli maro salon ko (‘shoot the traitors of the country’) in response to
the protests against the CAA, symbolized in Delhi by a continuous sit-in in the
Shaheen Bagh area. It said on 23rd February, just before the US President,
Donald Trump’s visit to India – which failed to deliver deals on trade or
security – a BJP leader gave a three-day ultimatum to Delhi police to clear a
protest against the CAA and the NRC by women at Jaffrabad metro station, threatening
to intervene directly if his orders were not obeyed. Hours later, it said,
three-day riots, mostly targeting Muslims, began in the north-eastern parts of
Delhi; the tally was 53 dead due to physical assault or gunshots and 200
injured. Furthermore, the report said, houses and shops were burnt and mosques
were vandalised. It added on 26th February, a Delhi High Court judge who, as
part of investigating the riots, had asked the police to register
first-information reports against BJP leaders for delivering hate speeches, was
transferred to another location with immediate effect, a move causing concern
over the independence of the judiciary. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/05/15/eu-mentions-indian-controversial-policies-in-its-report/
9. New Zeeland reacts: May, 18,
2020: An Indian community leader in New Zealand
has lost his membership in the association of honorary judicial officers over
posts on social media that were criticized for being Islamophobic – a first
step towards his eventual dismissal as a justice of the peace. The incident was
reported by a weekly diaspora newspaper in Auckland which said that it was
“first case of its kind in New Zealand”. Among his posts deemed objectionable
was one endorsing
an economic boycott of Muslims in
India. https://thewire.in/communalism/islamophobia-indian-new-zealand
10.
UN
on CAA: May, 21, 2020: In a strong
statement, a senior United Nations official has expressed concern that the
adoption of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 has led to rising number of
hate speech and discrimination against minority communities. In a press note issued
through the UN, the special advisor on the prevention of genocide, Adama Dieng,
said that while the objective of the act to provide protection to minorities is
commendable, “it is concerning that this protection is not extended to all
groups, including Muslims.”“This is contrary to India’s obligations under
international human rights law, in particular on non-discrimination,” he stated.Referring
to these protests, the May 18 statement noted that the UN special advisor
expressed concern over reports that demonstrations “had reportedly resulted in
the injury and death of civilians, attacks on religious sites, as well as an
increase in expressions of hate against India’s Muslim community”. On hate
speech, he specifically mentions by name a ruling party parliamentarian as
especially worrisome. “…statements such as those expressed by Member of
Parliament Subramanian Swamy, that all people are not equal, and that Muslims
are not in an ‘equal category’ as others are extremely alarming. Hate speech
and the dehumanisation of others goes against international human rights norms
and values”.The UN official said that the Indian government should continue to
“abide by this guidance” to ensure that national laws and policies follow
international standards and counter the rise of hate speech. https://thewire.in/communalism/un-expert-adama-dieng-caa-hate-speech\
11.
Biased Indian Police: May, 23,
2020: On February 24, communal violence
engulfed North East Delhi, leaving at least 53 people dead over the next three
days, most of whom were Muslim. Exactly a month later, India went under a
nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Normal life
came to a halt – but not Delhi Police’s investigation into the violence. By
April 13, the police had made more than 800
arrests,
the Indian Express reported. An unidentified official was quoted in the
report saying that the Union Home Ministry “insisted that police must continue
making arrests under any circumstances”.
On May 16, activists of the Peoples’ Union for Democratic Rights, a
civil liberties group, wrote in The Hindu that very little
was known about the status of most Delhi violence cases. Based on an analysis
of around 40 FIRs, it accused the police of displaying communal bias against
Muslims, by diluting charges against Hindu accused. “It is imperative, for the
sake of justice that all FIRs pertaining to the riots be opened to public
scrutiny,” the activists said. Activists say this raises further questions,
given that Muslims bore the brunt of the violence: 38 of the 53 killed are from
the community. Activist Harsh Mander
said the nature of violence in North East Delhi on the first day was that of a
riot as both communities engaged in violence. On the subsequent days however,
he said, it evolved into a pogrom “where organisations and people of the
majority community, with active state protection and support, attacked the
properties and bodies of Muslim residents”.
12.
“The maximum loss of life and the loss
of property was of this minority community, as has happened in virtually every
major episode of communal violence after Partition, barring very few
exceptions,” he said. Scroll.in examined a few cases closely to find a
troubling pattern: often victims of the violence were being prosecuted by the
police. A mob on the streets of North East Delhi on February 24. Credit:
Reuters/ Danish Siddiqui On March 1,
Hasim Ali submitted a complaint to the Karawal Nagar police station. In the
complaint, the 60-year-old resident of Shiv Vihar wrote about how his home was
looted, ransacked and burnt to the ground at around 3 pm on February 25. A
mixed neighbourhood of both Hindus and Muslims, Shiv Vihar had seen intense
rioting over three days. Several Muslim families had fled the area as mobs ran
through it and desecrated the Medina Masjid, located in the same lane as Ali’s
home. Ali oversaw the administrative work of the mosque, said his son Aabid
Ali, 22. In his complaint, which Scroll.in has seen, Ali said he
witnessed the mob set his house on fire and identified three people in the
crowd: Diwan, Dashrath and Bhudev. “Diwan and Dashrath live behind my house and
Bhudev lives in front of it,” he wrote. “In teeno ko maine saaf taur par
dekha”– I saw them clearly. Around 5.55 pm, another neighbour, Dharmendra,
along with others, set fire to his second house, Ali wrote in the complaint. He
claimed to have heard members of the mobs say they would be given Rs 10,000 for
burning one house and Rs 5,000 for burning a shop. “I heard them say we will
kill all the mullahs [Muslims] and burn their homes,” he alleged. He claimed
when he called the police that evening, they said they were coming, but did not
arrive.Hasim Ali ran a tailoring shop in his house, and his family, including
his 53-year-old wife Anisha Begum, four sons and daughter-in-laws, lost
everything as their two houses were burnt to the ground that day. In the
letter, he requested compensation for his losses pegged at Rs 90 lakh and asked
the police to investigate the actions of the rioters. The police attached Hasim
Ali’s complaint to an FIR dated February 28, filed at Karawal Nagar police
station by another resident of Shiv Vihar, Naresh Chand, who lived two lanes
away, said Hasim Ali’s lawyer Brij Shyam. Scroll.in has seen the FIR
that sums up Chand’s account of narrowly escaping violent mobs with his family
around 5 pm on February 25. Their home was looted and burnt by mobs, he said.
They family lost their fridge, 40-inch LED television screen, motorcycle and
jewellery. On the FIR, the police have
scribbled a note stating that Ali’s complaint had been attached with this FIR
“for all legal purposes”. The FIR listed offences of rioting with deadly
weapons, unlawful assembly and use of explosives. It is not clear why the
police did not file a separate FIR on the basis of Ali’s complaint. On April 4,
the police arrived at the house around 4 pm. Anisha Begum, the wife of Hasim
Ali, said they asked for her elder son Rashid. He was not at home. Instead,
they took away Hasim Ali. Aabid Ali, who works as an electrician, said the police
had previously taken away his father for questioning “four to five” times, and
each time he had returned after a few hours. “They would ask him about what
happened during the riots, how did it happen,” Aabid Ali said. “Papa used to
tell them what happened, that our house was burned and looted...two bikes and
one scooty were burned,” Aabid Ali recalled. But on April 4, Hasim Ali did not
come back. Aabid Ali called him at 6.14 pm. “He said they had just called him
for interrogation and that there was nothing to worry about,” the son said. He
called his father again at 6.39 pm. “Papa said he was just waiting and that
police had not yet asked him anything,” Aabid Ali said.Around 9 pm, he was
still waiting to be questioned. Finally, at 10 pm, he called up Aabid Ali and
told him that the police were taking him for a medical check-up. “From behind,
I heard someone say, ‘take away his phone, he is talking too much,’” Aabid Ali
said. That was the last he heard from his father. When Aabid Ali called his
father’s phone at 11 pm, a stranger answered. “He said that they had arrested
my father... I asked him who he was and he said he too had been interrogated.”
The police had released him after interrogation. Hasim Ali’s wife, Anisha
Begum, went to Shiv Vihar that night to collect the phone and money from this
man.The next morning, Aabid Ali received a call from an unknown number. It was
his father. He asked them to bring him some clothes and food. Aabid Ali and his uncle Shaukat Ali
reached the police station within half an hour. Only Shaukat Ali was allowed to
enter. Aabid Ali caught a glimpse of his father: “I saw him from a distance,”
he said. “They did not let me meet him.”The police did not give them any
information about the FIR under which Hasim Ali had been arrested. “Our
house was burned and looted and we complained but none of those people were
picked up. They are still roaming around,” said Aabid Ali. “Instead, the police
took away our father and are chasing our brother Kumar
said Ali’s witness statement would be taken under Section 161 of the criminal
procedure code. “When you name people, you should give some proof against
them,” he added. He said the main complainant of the FIR, Naresh Chand, had
given evidence in the form of CCTV footage recorded on that day. Lawyer Abhik Chimni said that asking for
proof from a complainant was “prima facie incorrect”. “The idea of an
investigation is to reach a conclusion about the claim,” he said. “Police
asking for proof from the complainant is bizarre.” A bail application for Hasim
Ali was submitted by his lawyer Brij Shyam on May 3 at Karkardooma District
Court. It states that the accused was a victim of violence who had filed a
complaint but instead had been “falsely implicated” by the police. At the first
hearing on May 6, the court asked investigating officer Suman Kumar to submit a
response, Shyam said. The next hearing took place on May 12 where the
investigating officer did not turn up and the hearing was again scheduled on
May 13, the lawyer said. After arguments were made on May 13, Hasim Ali was
granted bail on May 15 by Additional Sessions Judge Yogita Singh. In the bail order, the judge noted the
counsel’s arguments for the accused which stated that Hasim Ali was “falsely
implicated” in the case and was the sole breadwinner of the family. The judge
also noted in the order that the investigating officer opposed the bail
appolication and had accused Hasim Ali of being involved in serious offences.
The judge asked the accused to furnish a surety bond of Rs 20,000 and noted the
“personal difficulty of the accused” – the fact that he was the sole earning
member – to allow his release from judicial custody. Subhash Tyagi, 51, works in a government-run
hospital in Delhi. He lives in Yamuna Vihar with his wife and children, while
his parents, three brothers and their families live in North Ghonda. On
February 23, the family left Delhi to attend a wedding in Firozpur village in
Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district. Tyagi stayed back. So did his 26-year-old
niece and 16-year-old nephew. The next day as communal violence spread through
North East Delhi, they called him to say tensions were rising in their area, he
recalled. Tyagi left work and reached North Ghonda around 7 pm. While he was
parking his bike in front of the gate of the house, some people came to attack
him, he alleged. The mob, he claimed, was armed with sticks, stones and
firearms and chanted slogans like “Allah Hu Akbar!” Leaving his motorcycle
there, Tyagi ran into a neighbour’s house. When he emerged around 9 pm after
the mob retreated, he found his motorcycle had been burnt, the gate of the
house had been broken and glass windows shattered, he said. His niece and
nephew had recorded videos of the vandalism. They also called the police
helpline but no one responded, he said. On the night of the violence, Tyagi did
not return to his home in Yamuna Vihar and stayed back at the family home in
North Ghonda for the next four days. His brothers came back from Baghpat around
11 pm on February 24, he said. On February 27, whenScroll.in had visited
the area to report on the aftermath of the violence, Tyagi and his brother had
given a similar account of the mob violence. A burnt bike was parked outside
their home. It took the family three weeks to file a police complaint. On March
16, Subhash Tyagi’s brother Virendar Tyagi wrote to the station house officer
at Bhajanpura police station, saying he recognised faces in the violent mob
seen in video footage recorded by his daughter. He asked the police to launch
an investigation into the matter. But the police did not file an FIR on the
basis of the complaint, said Subhash Tyagi. However, police officials at
Bhajanpura police station told Scroll.in that an FIR had been filed on
the basis of Virendar Tyagi’s complaint. They refused to disclose the FIR
number to this reporter over the phone.
On April 8, Subhash Tyagi along with his brothers Naresh Tyagi, 53, and
Uttam Tyagi, 40, received summons to appear before Inspector Richhpal Singh at
the Crime Branch office in Dwarka on April 9. They were asked to bring their
mobile phones.The notices said that the investigation pertained to a case
registered at the Jaffrabad police station for offences related to rioting,
criminal conspiracy and the Arms Act. However, at the crime branch office on
April 9, where they found themselves as part of a group of 22 men, they were
told the case pertained to the murder of a person named Parvez who had been
killed near Baburam Chowk in Maujpur. Their mobile phone locations showed they
were present near the spot at that time on February 25, the police said.“If our
house is there, then we will be located there itself, no?” said Subhash Tyagi.
He claimed his family home located at the corner of gali number 3 of North
Ghonda and was over 800 m from Baburam Chowk. Scroll.in accessed an FIR
filed on February 26 by Assistant Sub Inspector Rakesh under Section 302 for
punishment of murder. The FIR, which is not available on the police website,
does not name any of the accused. The FIR states that on February 25, a
48-year-old man identified as Pravesh was brought dead to GTB Hospital at
Dilshad Garden. The medico-legal certificate said he had suffered a firearm
injury near Baburam Chowk, Maujpur at around 7 pm. In the FIR, the police official
said he tried to search for eyewitnesses but could not find anyone. Inspector
Richhpal Singh told Scroll.in that the person identified in the FIR as
Pravesh was later identified as Parvez Alam. Parvez Alam, 50, ran an NGO in the
area providing books to students and free eye surgeries for the elderly. On
February 27, Scroll.in visited the area
and spoke to a neighbour who claimed he had seen Alam fall to a
bullet while making an appeal for peace at the corner of his lane in Ghonda. Alam’s son
also recounted his father’s last moments to reporters outside the GTB hospital.
Baburam Chowk in Maujpur is at least 500 metres away from the lane in which
Alam lived. Scroll.in sent queries to the police about this discrepancy
– the FIR alleges that Alam suffered his injury “near Baburam Chowk”, though
his neighbour and son say he was shot at the corner of his lane. The piece will
be updated if the police respond. On April 9 morning, Subhash Tyagi had carried
a pen drive with him to the crime branch office, which had screenshots of the
mob vandalism footage recorded from a neighbour’s CCTV camera on February 24
evening in North Ghonda. But the police refused to see it. “They [police] said
we should show all this in court,” he said.Subhash Tyagi claimed that police
made all the men sit on the floor of the crime branch office without
maintaining any physical distancing norms required to avoid the spread of the
coronavirus.He was finally allowed to leave at 11 pm after being made to fill
up some forms. “Like a dossier for criminals,” he said. “They told me they were
letting me go because I have a government job.” But his brothers were arrested
and so were several other men, he recalled. Many were familiar faces from the
area. “Everyone there was from our community, the Hindu community,” he said.
“Humare aas paas ke log the sab.” He said that many of those arrested that day
were neighbours and victims of the February violence in which their homes and
vehicles had been destroyed. Subhash
Tyagi received another notice signed by Inspector Ricchpal Singh dated May 20
to appear before him on May 21 at 11 am at the crime branch office in Dwarka to
give information regarding the investigation of the same FIR under which his
brothers were arrested. Tyagi said he was unable to go because his leave was
rejected by his workplace in light of Covid-19.
.Subhash Tyagi said his family has been unable to meet or speak to his
brothers since they were arrested on April 9 and taken to Mandoli jail. The
family was concerned for their health as both brothers are diabetic, he said.
Listing the educational qualifications of his brothers, who run a packaging
business, he asked: “If we were criminals then why would we go there [the crime
branch office]?” https://scroll.in/article/962526/in-delhi-violence-investigation-a-disturbing-pattern-victims-end-up-being-arrested-by-police
13.
Islam phobia in India: May, 26, 2020: New Delhi: A new report by Equality Labs has found that
Islamophobia (both online and offline) in India is more prominent than ever,
saying, “India is in the midst of a disturbing escalation of Islamophobic hate
campaign on social media,” as the world is fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Equality Labs is a South Asian Community Technology Organization dedicated to
ending Caste apartheid, gender-based violence, Islamophobia, White Supremacy
and Religious Intolerance. In their new report titled ‘Coronajihad: An
analysis of Islamophobic COVID-19 hatespeech and disinformation and its
implications on content moderation and social media policy’ reveals a disturbing increase in Islamophobia
and hate speech against Muslims in India. The report notes that the weeks
following Tablighi Jamaat event in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz saw national
headlines filled with visuals and sweeping narratives of how Muslims have been
actively spreading Coronavirus, giving rise to the massive Twitter campaign
with the hashtag #Coronajihad. “Hateful hashtags and comments against Muslims
had first appeared in the first week of March with tags like #Quranovirus and
#BanTheBook appearing as soon as the news spread that the annual international
gathering of Tablighi Jamaat had taken place despite the virus infection rising
rapidly,” the report reads. Surprisingly, the report adds that “the Jamaat
gathering was held between March 10-13, when no lockdown or social distancing
measures were either announced or anywhere observed in the country.” In fact, a
week before that, US President Donald Trump had visited Indian Prime Minister’s
home state of Gujarat while a massive pogrom against Muslims was unfolding in
northeast Delhi, India’s Capital. The Indian Health Ministry Joint Secretary
Lav Agarwal on March 13, had spoken on Coronavirus stating “it is not a health
emergency” insisting that “there was no need to panic,” it adds.While the
advisory by Indian Health Ministry proved to be an absolute contradiction of
WHO’s guideline against the virus, many religious gatherings in the country
continued, it says. The report noted that “there were dozens of examples of
governments, political parties and other religious groups who also flouted the
coronavirus restrictions and gathered in large numbers at the same time of the
Tablighi Jamaat gathering,” and that “millions of Hindus also congregated for
religious ceremonies, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath convening temple runs
hours after the Prime Minister declared the first lockdown on March 25.” But
the disparity between huge frequency of national gatherings across faiths and
that of the one Tablighi gathering saw huge media coverage in mainstream
channels with “political and local actors specifically targeting only Muslims.”
The report traces that exactly at this time hate campaign originated in Indian
Twitter with hashtags like #SuperSpreaders referring to Tabligh congregation
attendees. It took only a few hours for the tag to trend over other platforms
with claims like “Muslims are terrorists, intentionally spreading the virus as
an act of bioterrorism.” As a consequence, the Jamaat event came to be known as
a ‘super spreader’ while various leaders from the BJP were seen retweeting
posts demonizing Muslims, followed by innumerable Hindu nationalists living
abroad who engaged in a large scale “relentless dehumanization of Indian
Muslims.” An ongoing police action and false charges against Muslim scholars
and activists who were involved in citizenship protests further insinuated the
#Coronajihad campaign with an increase in hate speech and disinformation across
all social media platforms, especially in the Arab media. Dr Zafarul Islam
Khan, chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission had been vocal about “the
whole focus being directed only on Muslims” as a wave of attacks including the
social boycott of Muslim businesses and harassment of Muslim vendors by
Hindutva groups spread in the country. With that, “#Coronajihad” went viral and
increasingly dangerous conspiracy narratives trended on Twitter and Facebook.
Soon after, these posts saw Hindutva agents equating Muslims with the virus,
labelling them as “bioterrorists.” News outlets like ANI, Zee News, Republic TV
and others “normalized the stigmatization of minorities and amplified the
polarization through unequivocal facts.” The Disinformation Team of Equality
Labs revealed that hashtag #Coronajihad was backtracked with “over 293,000
conversations on Twitter, recording more than 700,000 points of engagement.”
Overall, including likes, clicks, shares, comments and mentions, these
conversations mapped at least 15 hate comments per post, in relation to the
number of followers and by the end of the last week of March, islamophobic
content within only this hashtag had reached 170 million users across Twitter.
Users like AjayPandey, AAOLion, shakthigj, vaakpathi, hellmadhu and others
among the Indian Twitter posted 250 tweets a day coupled with the sheer large
number of accounts pushing out #coronojihad content both on YouTube and Facebook.
While a YouTube video “Panchjanya” explained that “Muslims have purposely
infected others with coronavirus”, another website also featured Twitter
content to demonstrate “the continued cross-pollination of Twitter hate speech
on other social media platforms.” Right-wing influencer Payal Rohatgi had also
been frequently spreading misinformation and hate on YouTube and in her latest
video where she called Corona a “Chinese virus,” falsely claiming that the
Tablighi Jamaat organized their congregation in the Nizamuddin Markaz in New
Delhi after the lockdown orders by the Central government. Similarly, Hindu
religious leader, Narsingh Vani, popular as “India’s Virathu,” contributed more
to the anti-Muslim rhetoric with his YouTube channel of 229k subscribers calling
to boycott Muslims through “a Hindu holy war.” Vani had also appeared on
Sudarshan TV on April 1 where he claimed: “Muslims were spreading Corona Jihad
by spitting on people.” He also linked the Tablighi Jamaat to ISIS, Taliban and
Al Qaeda. However, the Islamophobic campaign that started with Tablighi
incident received tremendous global reactions too, disclosing that the hate
speech against Muslims extends beyond India. Despite multiple fact-checking
institutions to debunk the fake news and hate speech against Muslims, nothing
substantial was done on either Facebook or Twitter, states the report. It added
that India being the largest market for Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and
Instagram, the Indian disinformation networks quickly disseminated disinformation
into the global discourse, covering a greater geographic expanse across the
globe. While accounts like Act for America, Pamela Gellar, Jihad Watch, Neal
Boortz, Andy Ngo, Katie Hopkins, Tommy Robinson, and others noted for their
notorious Islamophobic posts propagated hate online; a major network of Hindu
nationalists spread across predominantly India and US were revealed to have an
upper hand in anti-Muslim activity beyond the Indian subcontinent. All of these
were seen to be most active during the period #Coronajihad was trending, and
according to the report, the hashtag invoked 23.1 billion conversations. Based
on the above stats, the Equality team of researchers reported a problem of
“censorship by noise” which occurs when high volumes of content are pushed by
active users through its algorithm. The researchers have subsequently
recommended Twitter to investigate these handles for more insight into how the
“users are manipulating algorithm through human or potential bot behaviour.” It
has suggested that rather than relying on one-off takedowns of “bad actors” or
bad users, Twitter must regulate its algorithm “if this problem is to be
realistically addressed.” In another significant finding, the report states
that this hate campaign that gained traction with Tablighi incident had
actually begun on December 23, 2019, with #CAA2019 #CAA hashtags. Soon after
the anti-CAA protests were reported nationwide, pro-CAA protestors and major
Hindutva groups had started trending hashtag #Virathu, calling on monk Ashin
Wirathu from Myanmar for a potential genocide of Muslims. Wirathu who had led
the genocide against Rohingya Muslims was gradually seen to be trending on
Twitter from December 23 onwards, being lauded by Hindu nationalists by
deliberately misspelling it as #Virathu so that posts celebrating him and his
policies of genocide avoid detection by the AI hate speech algorithms. The
hashtag continued evolving as Shaheen Bagh style sit-ins were organized in
Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ranchi and elsewhere; taking forms like
#ShaheenBaghjihadi #ShaheenBaghProtests #IslamicTerrorism
#IslamicStateOfShaheenBagh. All of this ultimately got connected with the Delhi
pogrom a day after BJP’s Kapil Mishra released a video demanding the killing of
Muslims in February 2020. The trending campaigns around this time that saw
maximum traction were #BoycottMuslimShops #IslamicJihad #DelhiRiots
#DelhiPolice #DelhiIsBurning with hashtags turning into #Shahrukh
#IStandWithKapilMishra #HarHinduKapilMishra, #ISupportKapilMishra by February
end. As social media got flooded with anti-Muslim cartoons, mainstream media
also amplified the hate campaign against Muslims. Vir Sanghvi, a well-known
Indian journalist working in the English-language media, described the Tablighi
members as having committed “attempted murder,” while the reputed national
daily, The Hindu was quick to issue an apology for its display of an
insensitive graphic showing Coronavirus dressed in the traditional ‘Pathan
suit’ worn by Muslims in the subcontinent. The cartoon was attributed to Deepak
Harichandran. Top ten major national media outlets targeted Muslims during the
first week of April in the wake of the hashtag #Coronajihad and the Tablighi
Jamaat gathering. In this regard, the report mentions Alt news as one fact-checking
organization for “diligently tracking each claim”, helping the Lab to have a
public record of the Islamophobic COVID-19 hate speech and disinformation that
appeared between February – April 2020. Meanwhile, government-backed resources
and politically charged pages on Facebook, including the official BJP national
page, Narendra Modi, Congress Mukt Bharat, BJP for 2024 continued spewing venom
through cartoons, graphics and videos reflecting bearded Muslims as carriers of
the virus – dressed in Pathan suits and caps, loaded with rifles and guns –
often shown bombarding public property. With its tenacious coverage of post
details on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the Lab has revealed a shocking
connection between these posts and resultant on ground instances of daily
violence perpetrated on Muslims within the period. As hate hashtags circulated
online media, Indian Muslims were reported to face threats and afflicted with
violence in real life. Hospitals were allegedly separating Hindu and Muslim wards,
denying treatment to Muslim patients, and profiling Muslim victims of the
pandemic. The gravest incident was recorded on April 5 when a man had committed
suicide in Una district of Himachal Pradesh because villagers had targeted and
bullied him over the spread of Coronavirus following the Tablighi Jamaat
congregation in Delhi. In the south, a Muslim activist from Bengaluru, Zeerin,
while distributing relief material under lockdown was questioned for spitting
on food to spread the diseases to everyone. Globally too, these online hate
comments were seen converting into actions as Islamophobic slurs, shootings and
discrimination hit international headlines. Among the recent incidents is from
the UK where a Muslim woman wearing a hijab and a mask overheard a man in a
supermarket refer to her as “a bomb” as he pointed at her. Furthermore, in the
US, continued attacks against Muslims, including a mosque destroyed by arson in
Missouri, ravages the community. The report also highlighted that while the BJP
is running a full-fledged anti-Muslim campaign in India, Donald Trump was
stoking Islamophobia elsewhere. Hence the need to stop more Islamophobic
attacks in the US is now more urgent than ever.In light of the online and
offline hate speech against Muslims, Equality Labs report warned that
anti-Muslim hatred and conspiracy theories were “penetrating common-sense
thinking” and the consumers of news globally, “were seeing this fake news and
absorbing it” therefore “Immediate action is needed.” The report, in its conclusion,
pointed that “this is not an accident of an overworked editorial room, but a
reflection of the deep biases of newsrooms lacking cultural competencies and
self-or awareness of their caste and religious biases.”Highlighting the
deep-rooted cultural biases within Indian newsrooms, the report blamed Indian
national news outlets of “prioritizing islamophobia as opposed to
evidence-based reporting that could have helped unify and build community
during a frightening time for the Indian public.” http://twocircles.net/2020may24/437079.html
Racism: Jun, 1, 2020:
Outrage sparked after Dr Aarti Lalchandani’s video leaked on social media. In
the leaked video, Dr Aarti can be heard suggesting to inject poison to muslim
COVID-19 patients in India rather than wasting
government resources over them. https://www.newpakweb.com/video-inject-poison-to-muslim-covid-19-patients-dr-aarti-lalchandani-suggests/?fbclid=IwAR0X1LfKid4nPMjFvHuLVFxm0pyAIEcRN4Cm75r6aP3ej1qbitT3gSi7wKc
Monthly update 8: April
2020 : Muslims in India
This page updates
news related to the plight of Muslims in India
.
1.
BJP on Muslims; Apr., 5, 2020: One of the key leaders of the BJP ruling party in
India, Subramanian Swamy, in a video interview, said that any country where
Muslims are up to 30 percent is in danger. Mr. Swamy said Muslims in India are
not an equal citizen to others. Manipulating Indian constitution article 14,
Mr. Swamy said the constitution provided equality to the equals and
Muslims are not equal citizens. He said his Bharatiya Jana Party (BJP) had been
trying for a long time to restrain Muslims in India and now we are in power and
handling them as per our mission. When the entire world is fighting against COVID-19 and countries are
helping each other to clean the world from this deadly pandemic, the Indian BJP
government and their racist leaders find this as an opportunity to silently act
on cleansing Muslims from India and Kashmir. According to sources, the
Indian Government is offering residency to 3000 Israelis in Kashmir. BJP
government wants to create a Palestine’s like situation in Kashmir and
cleansing of Kashmiri Muslims. India has violated
all international laws and United Nations’ resolution on Kashmir.
The leaders of the ruling BJP particularly Indian Prime Minister Modi is
spending millions of dollars on building RSS force and BJP youth workers to
target and kill Muslims. The BJP leaders including their parliamentarians
openly provoke Hindu youth in demonstrations to go and attack Muslims houses
and business, kill youth and rape women. During the last February & March,
thousands of Muslim houses and shops were looted by Hindu extremist mobs who
were backed by RSS leaders and RSS paramilitary force. This RSS force attack
Muslim dominated areas, looting Muslims properties, torturing and killing
Muslims and raping Muslim women. Not only Muslims, but BJP police on the
instructions of the BJP leaders also making cases against liberal politicians,
members of civil society, journalists, TV anchors and human activists who are
protesting and raising their voices against BJP racists actions. The individual
Indians are making video clips of torturing and killing of Muslims, these
horrific clips are viral all over the world. Yet, it is so unfortunate that the
world powers and the United Nations except some lip service not taking any
serious action against this Indian racist government and its brutal actions
against 300 million Muslims in India. Kashmir has been under the lockdown for
the last 250 days. International media is banned to visit Kashmir to see the
ground realities therefore the world doesn’t know the human conditions in
Kashmir. Despite
extreme agitations and demonstrations on the streets in almost every state of
India against the changes in citizenship acts in Indian Constitution, the
majority ruling BJP parliamentarians managed to change the acts and Modi
Government now planning to take barbaric actions to put Muslims into the camps
and force them to leave India to neighboring countries particularly in
Bangladesh and Pakistan. If this happens the world will face a horrific war
between India and Pakistan which may trigger the use of nuclear weapons as both
countries have the deadliest nuclear weapons. Therefore, the world must
investigate this chaos India has created now behind the guise of the
Coronavirus pandemic https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2004/S00038/indias-ruling-party-leaders-racist-remarks-against-muslims-must-be-slammed.htm
2. Mosque
vandalized: Apr., 5, 2020: On Saturday morning, a video of a small
mosque inside a graveyard in Mukhmelpur village in Alipur, North West Delhi,
went viral on social media. In the video, it appeared the mosque had been
vandalised – there are bricks strewn about, furniture apears to have been
smashed and the roof of the structure has been partially burnt. Mukhmelpur, 12 kilometres from the Haryana border, had a
recorded population of 4,911 in the 2011 census and, according to a
police official, houses around 500 Muslims and roughly 5,000 Hindus
today. The mosque, situated inside a graveyard, is used to offer “janaza”,
a prayer before the burial of the dead in accordance with Islam, the police
said. One local resident who declined to be identified told The Wire the video doing
the rounds on social media was authentic. It was shot Saturday morning at 7 am
and shows the vandalised mosque. Though initially reluctant to speak, he said
that a group of 15-20 men came to the mosque on Friday night and vandalised
it. “They vandalised the mosque because
they think we will come in huge numbers to offer namaz and spread coronavirus.
But the truth is, since coronavirus has spread, not more than two or three
persons have been using the mosque,” he said. Talking of a “compromise”, We’ve
been trying to reach a compromise since last night…if you saw the video on
YouTube, you must have seen the state of the mosque. Whenever something like
this happens, we lock our homes.).”“At night, we heard noises of something
being broken. It was in the morning that we saw that it was the mosque,” he
said. https://thewire.in/communalism/alipur-mosque-vandalised-delhi
3.
Assam Tribunals: Apr., 6, 2020: Members of
official tribunals, set up in Assam to decide who was an Indian citizen and who
was not, have said they felt pressured to declare Muslims non-citizens as the
government seeks to expel illegal migrants, according to a dispatch published
in The New York Times Saturday.The newspaper said it interviewed one
current and five former members of the Assam tribunals that review suspected
foreigners. The five former members said they had felt pressured by the
government to declare Muslims to be non-citizens, with three of them saying
that they were fired because they did not do so.“I was punished,”
Mamoni Rajkumari, a 54-year-old lawyer who spent nearly two years on the
tribunal and was among the dismissed members, was quoted as saying by the
Times. In addition to the tribunals,
which Assam has operated for decades, the state has also recently completed a
broader, separate review of every resident’s paperwork to determine if they
were citizens.That review found that nearly two million of Assam’s 33 million residents,
many of them desperately poor, were possibly foreigners. Now this group — which
is disproportionately Muslim — is potentially stateless, the dispatch said. “What’s happening in Assam is a
preview of what may be coming to India as a whole as Prime Minister Narendra
Modi tries to pull the country away from its foundation as a secular,
multicultural nation and turn it into a more overtly Hindu state,” The times
correspondents — Karan Deep Singh and Suhasini Raj — wrote in their joint
dispatch. What’s more, the choice of who is labeled a
suspected foreigner seems to have a religious bias to it, with a much higher
percentage of Muslims sent to the tribunals than Hindus, according to Ms.
Rajkumari and the tribunal members interviewed. He said the pressure was
clear: “You have to declare ‘foreigners’ means you have to declare the
Muslims,” he said. Most
of the migrants in Assam came from Bangladesh, at one time or another. Many
have lived in Assam for generations, the descendants of economic migrants from
decades ago, it was pointed out. And many are illiterate and poor, often with
no idea how to read the papers vital to proving a citizenship claim, and
keeping them out of jail. Dozens of people in Assam whose citizenship has been
questioned have killed themselves, according to Indian media reports. Countless
others fear being expelled from India or thrown in jail. Meanwhile, the
government is expanding its capacity to incarcerate foreigners; an enormous
detention facility is under construction in the Goalpara district of Assam,
where up to 3,000 people are likely to be held. The compound, set to open in a
few months, has thick, high walls on the periphery, watchtowers in every
corner, separate sections for men and women, and an infirmary, the Times said https://www.aaj.tv/english/latest/india-pressured-assam-citizenship-tribunal-members-to-declare-muslims-non-citizens-nyt/
4.
Indian State and Muslims: Apr., 7, 2020: The Muslim world and the world
represented by United Nations failed to realise that the forced cum paid mass
conversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism named “GHAR WAPSI”, was the
beginning of a sinister agenda – the Hindutva. BJP has trashed the secular soul
of Indian constitution. Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy
told a long-form documentary correspondent Isobel Young, that “Muslims are a
different category”, “they are not equal to Hindus”, “they are not equal among
equals in Indian constitution”and “any country that has 30% Muslims is in
trouble.” Swamy was challenged that it constituted hatred and
discrimination against 200 million Muslims and a violation of article 14 of
Indian constitution. Subramanian Swamy answered that equality
was among equals and Muslims were not equal to Hindus. According to
him article 14 of Indian constitution was in line with the Citizenship Bill and
the majority in the country supported BJP. In fact BJP had fulfilled one of its
election promises. United Nations represents the ‘peoples of the world’ as
equal people. It has to take cognizance of this erring behaviour of Indian
State. Muslims countries and Muslims living in the world shall have to seek
audience with the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly, for a
determination whether Indian State is run by people who are unmindful of their
Charter obligations and its membership of UN needs to be suspended. Muslim
countries and other members of the UN may have gambled in the past and turned
away from holding India accountable for her non-compliance of the UN
resolutions on Kashmir, calling Muslim as a different category and not equal
amongst Hindus in India, is a litmus test for every member of the United
Nations. Would the world entertain Narendra Damodardas Modias another Hitler of
Germany and Frederik Willem de Klerk of South Africa or step forward and halt
his sinister fascist political ideology? It is a test for the world in the days
ahead. The statement of Subramanian Swamycould be a new template of Indian
policy in Kashmir. On 5 August 2019, Government of India has acted savagely in
its administered Part of Jammu and Kashmir. It violated UN Security Council
Resolution of 21 April 1948, by deploying 900,000 soldiers and enforced a
lockdown of people from 5 August 2019. It is a violation of 3 restraints placed
on the number, behaviour and location of Indian forces. India did not stop
here. On 31 October 2019 India violated the UN SC resolution of 30 March
1951. It disturbed the territorial integrity of the State and re-occupied it,
as part of Indian Union. The action is unlawful and has no merit. India
rightfully seems to have been encouraged by its performance at WION Conference
on 5 March 2020 in Dubai. It discussed Kashmir as its ‘internal
matter’ and on 31 March 2020 under the cover of Covid-19 lockdown Government of
India issued a notification designed to change the demography of the State to
influence Plebiscite in future. It has disabled the State
Legislature on the question of 92 year State Subject Law and brought in new
domicile laws to allow non State Subjects into Kashmir and settle down with
citizenship rights. This will infringe upon the rights of displaced Kashmiris
guaranteed in Para 12 and 14 of UN SC resolution of 21 April 1948. On 3 April
2020 Government has issued a notification and has suspended Telecommunication Services
to a population under a lockdown from 5 August 2019 and now faced with a new
lockdown due to threat of Covid-19. Indian Government has started behaving as a
soulless state and is punishing Kashmiris with no holds barred. Kashmir needs
urgent world and UN attention. The most important thing to point out is that
The Gazette notification has changed the KashmirState’s own Ranbir Penal Code
into The Indian Penal Code, for the first time in the history of the State.
Even so, Section 18 in The Indian Penal Code reads as “India”.—“India” means
the territory of India excluding the State of Jammu and Kashmir.” https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/04/06/kashmir-muslims-of-india-behaviour-of-indian-state-and-un-charter/
5.
US and BJP: Apr.,
8, 2020:
America's success in delivering enviable living standards while
protecting human rights has made it the moral gold standard of the world,
inspiring global movements for social justice, freedom, and democracy. But the
flip side is that when America departs from these principles, it hands a
license to other countries to do the same. India is living proof. Even before
President Donald Trump brought nativism front and center in U.S. politics,
India was rummaging through American jurisprudence for intellectual ammo to
justify similar policies. The world's second-most-populous country experienced
a massive influx of. How did India's highest court justify all this? By quoting
an entire passage from the notorious 1889 ruling Chae Chan Ping v. United States, in which
the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Chinese Exclusion Act and declared that
"the highest duty of a nation" is to "give security against
foreign aggression and encroachment," including from "vast
hordes" of foreigners "crowding in upon us." This is exactly how
Trump characterizes Central American refugees—and how Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi characterizes Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants. Moreover, just as
Trump is expanding detention camps to house asylum-seekers who illegally cross
the border, the Modi government is building a vast network of detention camps to
segregate Indian Muslims who can't prove that their ancestors hailed from
India. The Modi government is also deploying well-meaning U.S.
policies for immoral ends. Recently, Modi rammed through India's Parliament
something called the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which will hand mass
amnesty to nearly every religious refugee from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and
Bangladesh living illegally in India, unless
the refugees are Muslim. Such a religious test for
citizenship has generated massive protests in India and condemnation abroad. But
Modi's cheerleaders claim that the CAA is no different from the Lautenberg
Amendment, an obscure American law that was sponsored by the eponymous
Democratic senator from New Jersey and passed in 1990 to hand Soviet Jews and
Christians an expedited pathway to refugee status. The concern at
that time was that the political instability generated by the fall of the USSR
would make these groups—but especially Jews—even more vulnerable to persecution
by fellow citizens and new regimes. (Lautenberg was subsequently expanded to
include Iranian Jews, Christians, and Baha'is.) Today, Modi's supporters claim
that there is no functional difference between the Lautenberg Amendment and the
CAA, because both laws create special channels for some religiously persecuted
minorities without eliminating existing channels for any group. While
it would certainly be better if Lautenberg had been written in a religiously
neutral fashion, this comparison has holes bigger than the Khyber Pass. The
most obvious one is that Lautenberg wasn't meant to cater to dominant religious
prejudices, while the CAA is a blatant attempt to feed them. Moreover,
Lautenberg aimed to admit more refugees into America, not to create a
discriminatory standard for those inside the country. When it comes to
attaining U.S. citizenship, one uniform rule applies for everyone, regardless
of race, caste, creed, religion, or nationality. Most importantly, America had
"normal channels" to accept refugees when Lautenberg was passed,
while India does not. Modi would have found a way to advance
his Hindu nationalist agenda no matter what. But his job becomes a whole lot
easier when he can enlist American laws to make his case for him. https://reason.com/2020/04/07/indias-modi-imports-american-discrimination/
6.
Muslim stigmatized: Apr., 11, 2020: “If
the communal propaganda on corona virus continues like this we might see HINDU
WATER and MUSLIM WATER shops at every railway station VERY SOON!” read his
tweet. This might come across as an exaggerated statement, but one also
cannot deny that propaganda against Muslims on social media and television
has become venomous. The results of these latest doses of prejudice around
coronavirus are already showing. In Haldwani, Muslim fruit sellers, unlike
their Hindu counterparts, were forced to shut their shops by a group of
people. A social media video appeared to show
a Resident Welfare Association agreeing to ban Muslim vendors and workers from
their gated society. In a village in Mangalore, posters came up stating
that “no Muslim trader is allowed into the village till the coronavirus has
completely gone away. Signed: All Hindus, Kolya”. Several Muslim truck drivers were beaten
up by a mob in Arunachal Pradesh. Among the many rumours about Muslims floating
around, one was not
to accept any cash from Muslims. What
Muslims are effectively facing now is a new form of concerted, deliberate
economic marginalisation. Having been largely shut out of the formal sector,
many Muslims depend on the informal sector and self-employment for their
livelihood. In urban areas, the share of Muslims in self-employment is 50
per cent, compared to 33 per cent among Hindus, according to NSSO (2009-10).
These are the vendors and workers being barred by gated colonies and truckers
and fruit sellers harassed by mobs. Only 27 per cent of Muslims are n salaried/regular wage jobs, as
compared to 43 per cent of Hindus and 45 per cent of Christians. Just 30 per
cent of Muslim male workers have completed
‘secondary and above’ education in urban areas, compared with 58 per
cent for both Christians and Sikhs, and 56 per cent for Hindus.The
gig economy is the last resort for Muslims who have been pushed to the margins
owing to a history of systematic discrimination. The share of Muslim IPS
officers is 4 per cent, IAS officers is 3 per cent, and IFS officers is less
than 2 per cent, according to the
Sacchar Committee report which was published in 2006. The
intake of new Muslim officers in the government via the UPSC every year still
hovers around
4-5 per cent, much lower than their 14 per cent population share. So these
numbers would not have changed significantly more than a decade after the
report came out. Even in other government jobs, Muslims lag far behind. In
railways, the largest employer in India, Muslims only make up 4.5 per cent of total
employees, of whom 98.7 per cent are positioned at lower levels, according to
census 2011. In the top jobs of the corporate sector, Muslims account for only 3 per cent. What’s
worse is that Muslims have the worst social mobility among
all communities. While the upward mobility of Dalits and Adivasis have improved
in recent decades, it has actually dropped for Muslims. If this
discrimination against working class Muslims, who are already suffering from
the general depression, takes hold in society and becomes widespread, the
consequences would be devastating. Hindus and Muslims often live in segregated
clusters in urban areas, but they are intertwined by the web of economic
transactions. If that goes away, we are looking at pockets of apartheid in our
country. That might
sound alarmist but the psychological worlds of Muslims and Hindus have already
become strikingly separate. The thoughts, ideas and feelings of an ordinary
Hindu is worlds apart from that of an ordinary Muslim. To think that this
psychological distance wouldn’t soon translate into social and economic
distance would be naïve. Apartheid was built not so much on physical barriers
as on ideology. Many scholars understood
the beliefs undergirding apartheid from the structural theory of racism, which
stated that racist prejudice is both a product and cause of racist structures.
Prejudice must be constantly produced to uphold and justify the racist structure
of dominance. The fairly explicit goal of Hindutva has always been the political
marginalisation of Muslims. But many leaders
of the Hindu Right have repeatedly emphasised that in other social and economic
spheres, they want the betterment of Muslims. In 2014, Modi admitted to being a
Hindu nationalist, didn’t give more than bare tokenistic seats to Muslims, but
offered them economic prosperity. Speaking to the Ummat Business conclave, he spoke of how certain small businesses
dominated by Muslims have benefited from his rule in Gujarat. Modi said his
vision was security, equity and prosperity for everyone. “With the help of
research and ready raw material, kite business in Gujarat has prospered from a
turnover of Rs 30-35 crore a decade ago to Rs 700 crore now,” he claimed, adding that it led to the overall prosperity of the Muslim
community. But while the Hindu right is assiduously trying to integrate Dalits
into the Hindu society, and with Dalits increasingly reciprocating
with their votes, it is Muslims who are now sought to be separated; excised not
just from shared nationhood but also from a shared society. If we reach that place, we would finally have become two separate
nations, living among mutual incomprehension and mistrust, and Jinnah would
have been validated. . https://theprint.in/opinion/covid-an-excuse-to-push-indian-muslims-out-of-informal-sector-jobs-apartheid-the-next-step/398236/
7. JNU Scholar arrested:
Apr., 12, 2020: Manipur police have arrested a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)
research scholar for writing an article criticizing the government in a local
daily Scholar Chingiz Khan,
who is pursuing PhD in History at JNU wrote an article titled “Political
ploy to push Muslims into marginalization” in a Manipuri Daily,
Ichel Express.Khan in his article reportedly pointed out the ‘discrimination’
of the Manipur government policies towards the Pangal Muslim community in the
state. He slammed the BJP government for carrying out eviction drive at Khetri
Bengoon Awa Ching. Manipur police claimed that the article is “inciting
communal disharmony,” Maktoob reported.On Friday, JNU
Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh demanded the release of Chingiz Khan by
tweeting a hashtag #ReleaseChingishKhan Delhi Association of Manipur Muslim Students, has
condemned “this act of assaulting democratic values and the right of an
individual”. https://nenow.in/north-east-news/manipur/manipur-jnu-scholar-arrested-for-writing-article-criticizing-bjp-govt.html
8.
Hindu right wing and Muslims: Apr., 14, 2020:
The
campaign uses hashtags like #CoronaJihad, #CrushTablighiSpitters,
#MuslimMeaningTerrorist, and #BioJihad to spread misinformation on platforms
like Facebook and Twitter That meeting and the revelation that members of the
group tested positive for coronavirus was the spark that kickstarted a virulent
hate speech campaign online that has seen far-right Hindu nationalists
weaponize Facebook and Twitter to attack and threaten Muslims in India.That
campaign, baseless and hateful, claims that Muslims are purposely infecting
swathes of the Indian population. The campaign uses hashtags like #CoronaJihad,
#CrushTablighiSpitters, #MuslimMeaningTerrorist, and #BioJihad on platforms
like Facebook and Twitter. The posts are being shared with hundreds of millions
of people by supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his political
party. The campaign shows how fears about the spread of the coronavirus have
merged with longstanding Islamophobia in India, putting the lives of India’s
200 million Muslims at risk. Activists in India say they have been
flagging the issue with both Facebook and Twitter for weeks, but that very
little has been done to stop the spread of the hate speech. “I
really don't think that any of the platforms have an excuse because it’d be one
thing if they were inundated like everybody else, wondering what's happening,
but they've been receiving reports of many of these individual pages and
individual handles and this content way before this,” Thenmozhi Soundararajan,
the executive director of Equality Labs, a South Asian community technology
organization, told VICE News. “And the response has not been appropriate given
the gravity and the danger of the speech
Modi and the ruling
Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been fomenting anti-Muslim
sentiment for some time, but the current wave of Islamophobia began after
authorities pinpointed the Tablighi Jamaat meeting in early March as a source
of many infections in India. Now,
some of the same right-wing figures who used social media to amplify attacks on the
Muslim community during last year’s controversy
over the Citizenship Amendment Act, which granted non-Muslim immigrants to
India citizenship, are using the Tablighi Jamaat meeting to claim that Muslims
are purposely spreading coronavirus across the country. In addition to
hashtags, fake videos purporting to show Muslims purposely sneezing on people
are being shared widely on Twitter and Facebook. One of the most popular videos
being shared claims to show a Muslim man intentionally coughing on somebody.
One tweet showing the video was retweeted more than 4,300
times before it was removed. The account
that posted it, however, remains active,
posting obviously anti-Muslim content. The video, of course, is fake, and was
filmed in Thailand long before the pandemic began, but that didn’t stop the
videos being shared by verified accounts linked to the BJP. The
hateful accusations against India’s Muslim population have been shared by BJP officials, national television channels
and journalists aligned
with the government. Analysis by Equality Labs shows that the
groups sharing the anti-Muslim hashtags on Facebook are supporters of Modi and
the BJP, or groups related to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu
nationalist paramilitary volunteer organization. They include the Indian Defense Force (2.8 million followers),
BJP For India Page (580,000 followers), and West Bengal BJP Supporters (350,000
followers). According
to data from the social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle, between March 29 and
April 3 the #coronajihad hashtag alone has had over 249,733 interactions on
Facebook. On Twitter,
almost 300,000 conversations took place with the #coronajihad hashtag, with
over 700,000 accounts engaging in those conversations, according to data from social
media analysis tool TalkWalker. The potential reach of those conversations was
170 million accounts. Facebook
said it had removed a number of hashtags flagged by Equality Labs, and searches
on the platform for #coronajihad and several other hashtags did not return
results on Friday morning — but there are many other similar hashtags still in
use on Facebook. Modi, the BJP, and its social media army have
been leveraging the power of social media for years to cement its position as
the most popular party in the country and to push anti-Muslim sentiment. The
BJP has become adept at hiding its behavior to give the party and the prime
minister plausible deniability. But there are signs the social media attacks on
Muslims in recent weeks were coordinated.
https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/akwmyj/indias-hindu-nationalists-are-inciting-hate-by-claiming-muslims-are-spreading-coronavirus
9.
Indian Media: Apr.,
15, 2020:.
Activist Kavita Krishnan’s video tirade against India
Today channel’s news editor Rahul Kanwal for his coronavirus show titled
‘Madrasa Hotspots’ is spot on. The one thing Indian media is not doing is
journalism. In fact, very few people are doing journalism today. Channels from
Zee News, Aaj Tak to Network18 like to add the word ‘jihad’ to everything. Corona
jihad or zameen jihad, love jihad, arthik jihad, and
whatnot. But if anyone is waging a holy war today, it is Indian media’s jihad against
Indian Muslims and Islam. The year 2014 was a watershed moment in
India. Not just because Narendra Modi became the prime minister with an
absolute majority but because the Indian media, as it functioned until then,
metamorphosed from a pigeon — a messenger of truth and facts — to a hyena, one
that serves its own interest fuelled by an insatiable greed that drives it to
devour its prey alive, sometimes ripping it apart, while it sniggers. Today’s
news media, especially the prime time debates, is brutal, almost barbaric, with
little to no regard for ethics and morality. Journalism is now endangered and
what’s masquerading in its name is business — with open display of bigotry and
hate against Muslims and other minorities. It not only builds its viewership
base by hook or crook to more advertising money but it also doubles up as a PR
firm, serving the interest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to show
it as the saviour of India. And what’s
the flavour of the season in the Indian media’s bid to do the bidding for the
BJP? An extra large scoop of Islamophobia with some sprinkling on top —
Tablighi Jamaat conspiracy theories (from spitting to shitting), a dash of
anti-nationalism reserved for Muslims who are called more Pakistani than Indian,
a huge dollop of ISIS connection (especially in the land of Malayalis), and a
generous serving of demonisation through constant use of rhetorics like jihad,
halala, triple talaq, beef eaters, and anything that a devious mind can conjure
(‘Muslims in India are deliberately spreading the coronavirus’ https://theprint.in/opinion/indian-media-waging-holy-war-against-muslims-hyenas/400407/
10.
USCRIF:
Apr., 15, 2020:
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has
condemned the continued scapegoating and attacks of Muslims in India due to
false rumors over the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), often accompanied by
dangerous rhetoric by politicians Meanwhile, the COVID-19
outbreak in India has set off a series of attacks against Muslims across the
Country, as Modi’s Hindu nationalist government is claiming that Muslims are
spreading the virus. In a report, the leading US daily “The New York Times”
said that some Hindu nationalist politicians and their supporters are eagerly
piling on anti-Muslim sentiments that have been building in recent years under
the Modi’s government. The British daily newspaper “The Guardian” in its story
titled “Coronavirus conspiracy theories targeting Muslims spread in India” has
also highlighted the plight of the Indian Muslims amid the false accusations.
Separately, the Muslim leaders have expressed serious concern over the new wave
of hatred against Indian Muslims. The Chairman of the Islamic Center of India
Khalid Rasheed said that if you present the Coronavirus Cases based on
somebody’s religion in your media briefings, it creates a big divide.Khalid
Rasheed said that Coronavirus may die but the virus of communal disharmony will
be hard to kill when this is over. https://dnd.com.pk/uscirf-condemns-stigmatization-of-indian-muslims-amid-covid-19-outbreak/186380
11.
Apartheid: Apr., 17, 2020: In what many are calling a case of "apartheid" during a
global pandemic, a government-run hospital in Ahmedabad, the main city in the
western Indian state of Gujarat, has segregated coronavirus patients based on their
religion, claiming the order came from the government."Generally, there
are separate wards for male and female patients. But here, we have made
separate wards for Hindu and Muslim patients. It is a decision of the
government and you can ask them," Dr Gunvant H Rathod, the medical
superintendent of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, told The Indian Express newspaper in its report on Wednesday. The
Gujarat state is governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), which also governs the country. Narendra Modi was the state's chief
minister for nearly 13 straight years from 2001 before he became India's prime
minister in 2014. USCIRF is concerned with
reports of Hindu & Muslim patients separated into separate hospital wards
in #Gujarat. Such actions only help to further increase ongoing
stigmatization of Muslims in #India and exacerbate false rumors of Muslims spreading #COVID19 https://indianexpress.com/article/coronavirus/ahmedabad-covid-19-coronavirus-hospital-ward-6363040 . However, in The Indian
Express report, a patient was quoted as saying, "On Sunday night, the
names of 28 men admitted in the first ward (A-4) were called out. We were then
shifted to another ward (C-4).""While we were not told why we were
being shifted, all the names that were called out belonged to one community. We
spoke to one staff member in our ward and he said this \/According to a doctor quoted in another report by The Hindu
newspaper, "Certain patients from the majority community were not
comfortable being in the same ward with patients of the minority
community.""After some patients complained, it was decided to segregate
them on temporary basis," the doctor told the newspaper on condition of
anonymity.When Ahmedabad-based sociologist Ghanashyam Shah was asked by Al
Jazeera if the hospital segregating patients according to their religion
amounted to apartheid, he replied, "Absolutely.""Knowing
Gujarat, I am not surprised it has happened," he said. "It is a very obvious
kind of thing. The fake news propaganda around Muslims spreading the virus is
probably rampant across India. But I can see it is visible in Gujarat."Shah
was alluding to a widespread Islamophobia fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic,
especially after Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary group, organised a
congregation in New Delhi in March. Earlier this month, the World Health Organization had warned against any religious
profiling of coronavirus patients by the governments across the world. "Having COVID-19 is not anybody's fault. Every case is a victim. It
is very important that we do not profile the cases on the basis of racial,
religious and ethnic lines," WHO's emergency program director Mike Ryan
had said. . https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/india-hospital-segregates-muslim-hindu-coronavirus-patients-200416080547650.html
12.
Indians in GCC: Apr., 17, 2020: Saudi Scholar Abidi Zahrani has proposed that militant
Hindus involved in spreading hatred and committing crimes against the Muslims
should be sent back to India from Gulf countries. In a tweet Saudi Scholar
Abidi Zahrani has said that Gulf States host millions of Indians, some of whom
are infected with COVID-19 are treated free of charge regardless of their faith
while fascist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu terrorist gangs
while following the Hindutva agenda are committing crimes against it own Muslim
citizens. Abidi Zahrani said “I propose to all respected followers to list all
militant Hindus who are working in the GCC and spreading hate against Islam,
Muslims or out beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), so it will be easy to track by showing copies of their bio”. http://www.sabahnews.net/english/archives/28267
13.
Kashmiri workers
attached: Apr., 18, 2020:
Three Kashmiri labourers attacked in Barot village in the Mandi district of
Himachal Pradesh on Saturday by a group of unidentified locals apparently
fearful of the coronavirus are anxious to return home as they continue to fear
for their safety.The three Kashmiri labourers – among a group of nine Gujjars
from Banihal who had come to Barot to work on a transmission tower in November
– claimed that they were subjected to an unprovoked attack at their place of
residence. The assailants also hurled obscenities and warned them to leave the
place or bear the consequences, claimed 60-year-old Abdullah. Even after
attacking the labourers with cricket bats, the men allegedly followed them to
the government hospital and threatened them while calling them “aatankwadi
(terrorists)”. “They hate us because we are Muslims,” said Bahaardeen Naik, a
32-year-old victim, who sustained injuries in his arm. Abdullah, who was
severely beaten, is bedridden as a result. “I cannot work now, I feel like I am
crippled,” he said, speaking to The Wire. On April 11, at around 10:30
pm, Naik and eight other workers were sleeping in two separate rooms when the
men broke into their house and attacked them. “They started thrashing us
without telling us the reason,” Naik said. “I tried to escape and ran out
crying for help, while others were struggling to get rid of them,” he said. Joy
Choudhary, a digital marketing consultant, who lives half a kilometre away from
the labourers, was the first person to come to their rescue after Naik narrated
the whole incident to him. “I saw his right hand severely injured when he ran
for help towards my place,” said Choudhary. After that Choudhary, with the help
of another friend, reached the place of the incident and saw the labourers
lying on the road with injuries on different parts on their bodies. “We then
took them to the hospital,” .“The premises where the labourers were residing is
adjacent to the Durga Mata Mandir. Some people already had issues about the
labourers living there,” said Chaudhary. “They are Muslims and their passage is
through the temple, so the locals were troubled by that. They thought they [the
labourers] were polluting the place and there is already a campaign in the
media about it as well,” he said. Advocate Deshraj, a lawyer who lives near
Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, however, said that the attack against the labourers
was communal in nature as the locals felt that Muslims are responsible for
spreading the coronavirus. “It is a result of the hate campaign which is
creating a communal divide between two communities,” he said. “There is no
other reason,” he said. “The police are calling it an altercation, which is not
the case.” “We have not seen such cases from here before this, but what is
being circulated on social media and also by certain sections of the media, has
made a target out of these laborers right now,” he said. “People here have also
circulated posters about not providing rooms to Muslims on the grounds that
they are responsible for spreading the coronavirus,” he added. The accused got
bail within 24 hours of the incident. https://thewire.in/communalism/himachal-pradesh-kashmiri-labourers-attacked
14.
GCC: Apr., 19, 2020: This is because the way Islamofobia,
communalism and hate mongering against Islam and Muslims is being telecast on
the Indian TV sets under state patronage; it definitely has ‘disturbed the
stars.’ In a tweet Mr Zahrani said; “Gulf States host millions of Hindus, some
of whom are infected with COVID-19 and are treated free of charge regardless of
their faith while fascist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu
terrorist gangs while following the Hindutva agenda are committing crimes
against its own Muslim citizens.”
Princess Qassimi while responding to a series of “Islamophobic posts” on the
micro blog Twitter said anyone who is “openly racist and discriminatory in the
UAE will be fined and made to leave” immediately.The UAE royalty was responding
to twitter posts of a Hindu Indian living in UAE targeting Muslims over the
March congregation of Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi. He allegedly used abusive
language against the Tablighis, calling them “radical Islamist terrorists”.
This micro blogger in his earlier tweet had said, all Islamic organizations
“should be kept on vigilant watch or barred” as they only spread violence and
unrest. The epic center of the hate mongering is
in India. This is because some Indians have labeled the faith of Corona virus
to Islam and Muslims are treated as terrorists fighting the Corona Jihad This is because the way Islamofobia,
communalism and hate mongering against Islam and Muslims is being telecast on
the Indian TV sets under state patronage; it definitely has ‘disturbed the
stars. The first statement is made by a scholar from Saudi Arabia Mr. Abidi Zahrani
who has proposed that Hindus involved in spreading hatred and committing crimes
against the Muslims should be sent back to India from GCC countries. In a tweet
Mr Zahrani said; “Gulf States host millions of Hindus, some of whom are
infected with COVID-19 and are treated free of charge regardless of their faith
while fascist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu terrorist gangs
while following the Hindutva agenda are committing crimes against its own
Muslim citizens.”Mr Abidi Zahrani further said; “I propose to the respected
followers of Islam to list out all the Hindus who are working in the GCC region
and spreading hate against Islam, Muslims or our beloved Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH), to track them and initiate the process to send them back to India. The
second statement that comes from Princess Hend Al Qassimi, a member of the
royal family of United Arab Emirates is poignantly haunting. Princess Qassimi
said, though the ruling family of UAE is “friends with Indians”, but hate Islam
hate Muslims campaign is “not welcome” Princess Qassimi while responding to a
series of “Islamophobic posts” on the micro blog Twitter said anyone who is
“openly racist and discriminatory in the UAE will be fined and made to leave”
immediately.
15.
The UAE royalty was responding to
twitter posts of a Hindu Indian living in UAE targeting Muslims over the March
congregation of Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi. He allegedly used abusive
language against the Tablighis, calling them “radical Islamist terrorists”.
This micro blogger in his earlier tweet had said, all Islamic organizations
“should be kept on vigilant watch or barred” as they only spread violence and
unrest. Taking a note of such unsavory tweets, the UAE royal princess slammed
the micro blogger and giving stern warning that such kind of people “will not
go unnoticed.”’ “All employees are paid to work, no one comes for free. You
make your bread and butter from this land which you scorn and your ridicule
will not go unnoticed,” she wrote TN
Ninan, Chairman of Business Standard and a well regard journalist, has boldly
said that marginalization of Muslims has become a ‘jan-andolan’ in India.This
statement is somewhat true. Abusing Muslims and denigrating Islam has become
the pet theme of the large section of Indian media. This narrative has a
cascading impact on the world wide Indians who live on the staple diet and feed
on Indian media. The epic center of the hate mongering is in India. This is
because some Indians have labeled the faith of Corona virus to Islam and Muslims
are treated as terrorists fighting the Corona JihadIndia’s elite that’s
currently gleefully watching the rants of the wounded civilization on their
television sets, are taking solace that they are winning the battle in the
‘clash of civilization.’ Little they realize that India rests in the soft belly
of the Islam arch, can only survive like a tongue between the jowls.To cut the
story short, the alarming voices have started ringing the bells. The seed of
hatred sown in the country in the garb of fight against COVID-19 will have to
be redeemed long after this unseen virus goes into oblivion. https://theindianawaaz.com/tendency-of-hate-muslims-hate-islam-in-india-has-resonance-in-gulf-countries/
16.
Media
under attack in India : Apr., 19, 2020: “Writing about issues like Delhi
carnage of February 22, poor management of COVID-19 by BJP government or
penning facts about Indian Kashmir (read as Indian Occupied Kashmir) is
considered as too sensitive and can cause you to face perilous state if you are
a writer or a journalist and you are living in India” . A creeping self-censorship is the ultimate outcome of
crippling circumstances those are compelling Indian journalists to stay silent
if they wish to work without taking risk of untimely seizure of their
professional careers or unseen risks revolving around their families. However,
there are people who courageously penning and speaking without fear of
intimidation and purge but these isolated voices are becoming “news”. Cases are
being registered against those reporters and writers who are reporting about
government’s dealing with COVID-19 situation that left thousands of Indians
dead while going back to their native places by foot due to abrupt curfew like
Lockdown was clamped by Modi Sarkar, leaving over 3 million workers stranded
and stuck in big cities without money, food and work. Attacks on media freedom,
especially during the Covid-19 crises, endangers not just free speech, but the
public’s right to information. In a recent case raised by internationally
acclaimed Indian Kashmiri journalist Gowhar
Geelani, an IoK based journalist Peerada Ashiq working for The Hindu is being
harassed by agencies. Peerzada Ashiq is in trouble for a report published in
daily The Hindu on April 15, 2020 titled “Kashmir halts sample collection after 5,000 test kits
‘mysteriously’ diverted to Jammu”. Which said” The Directorate of Health Services (DHS),
Kashmir, has stopped taking samples from potentially infected persons in the
Valley after a senior health official bypassed directions and diverted a
Srinagar-bound consignment of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
allotted five boxes, carrying 5,000 test kits, to Jammu. Official
sources said the alarm was raised by top health officials in Srinagar besides
officials in-charge of the COVID-19 crisis in the Divisional Commissioner’s
office when a cargo plane arrived in Srinagar on Tuesday morning and failed to
deliver the 5,000 testing kits “desperately required in the Valley”.It was only
following the intervention of Chief Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam that 4,000
test kits were airlifted from Jammu to Srinagar around 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
Sources said Jitendra Mehta of the National Health Mission, who advises
Divisional Commissioner Pandurang K. Pole on procurements, diverted the testing
kits to Jammu. “It’s being looked into if it was a goof-up or a deliberate
attempt,” an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.” After
above-mentioned report, writer of story Peerzada Ashiq was questioned by
different agencies and Directorial of Information called his story as “Fake”
although story was based on facts with citing different personalities Peerzada Ashiq had been called
before in August and November 2019 by agencies because he wrote to unearth
corruption in administrative system if Indian Kashmir (IoK). Kashmiri
journalist Gowhar Geelani in one of his video clip stated that intimidation
and harassment of Kashmir journalists have become a new normal and
he cited different cases of harassment with Kashmiri journalists including with
Hakim
Irfan (Economic Times), Basharat Masood (Indian Express), Naseer Ganai (The
Outlook), Aqib Javed (The Observer), Irfan Ali and Malik Haroon Nabi. He stated that counter insurgency
department, police and different other agencies are busy in harassing
journalists for writing facts what Kashmir. One should remember what happened
last week with Siddharth Varadarajan who is facing wrath of BJP
government because an article published by The Wire pointed out that “Indian
believers” more generally have been late to adopt precautions and avoid
congregation, recalling UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s plans, as late as
March 18, to proceed with a religious fair at Ayodhya and his flouting of the
national lockdown and social distancing norms by taking part in a religious
ceremony along with others on March 25. Two FIRs were filed against Siddharth Varadarajan under various
sections of the law on April 1, one on a complaint by a resident of Ayodhya and
the other on the basis of a complaint by the SHO of the Kotwali Nagar police
station, Faizabad. The FIRs were followed up with a gross display of
intimidation on April 10 when policemen arrived in a black SUV with no number
plates at Varadarajan’s residence in Delhi to issue a legal notice ordering him
to appear in Ayodhya on April 14 at 10 am. That the UP government sent policemen driving across 700
kilometres during the national lockdown to issue this summons when the postal
system is still operational speaks volumes for its priorities. The Wire, along
with other independent media and journalists, has been courageous and
consistent in continuing to present the facts. The police action against The Wire also comes against the
backdrop of the demonization of Muslims in a section of the media as being
responsible for the spread of the novel coronavirus in India. On April 6, the WHO felt the need to reiterate the principle
that media should avoid religious or other profiling of COVID-19 cases The
complaint in this FIR is that Harvajan Goud came across a tweet by one
Siddharth on social media and was “pained to see how someone had written such
false statement” on his chief minister. The complainant therefore asked for the
IT act to be invoked. No specific detail of any tweet is provided. or its severity or magnitude, leading to
panic’.FIR 0268/2020 also filed on April 1, 2020 under Sections 188 and 505 (2)
by Nitish Kumar Shrivastav, Inspector in Charge, Kotwali Nagar, Faizabad,
against the Editor of The Wire, (name and address unknown) notes that:
(translation from Hindi) On that day it came to his notice that during the
lockdown, the Editor of the Wire, with an intent to spread rumours and enmity,
published the following on his ‘blog’:(reproduced in English): “On the day the
Tablighi Jamaat event was held, Yogi Adityanath insisted that a large fair
planned for Ayodhya on the occasion of Ram Navami from March 25 to April 2
would proceed as usual while Acharya Paramhans said that ‘Lord Ram would
protect devotees from the coronavirus”. One day after Modi announced the
“curfew like” national lockdown on March 24, Adityanath violated the official
guidelines to take part in a religious ceremony in Ayodhya along with dozens of
people.”(translated from Hindi): This is the way during the lockdown caused by
the corona pandemic and the imposition of Sec 144, the improper remarks by the
Wire Editor against Yogi Adityanath caused anger among the general public. This
comes under Sec 188/505 (2) of the IPC. This FIR does not mention any specific
article but the quoted passage appears to have been taken from a story titled
‘As COVID-19 Cases Spike in Nizamuddin, Nehru Stadium in Delhi to Become
Quarantine Centre’ published in The Wire on March 31, 202.The story as it stood
at the time the FIR was lodged was factually correct in every respect, and the
two primary claims about Adityanath – that his government initially had every
intention of going ahead with the Ram Navami mela in Ayodhya from March 25
despite the fear of COVID-19, and that he took part in a religious gathering in
Ayodhya on March 25 despite the lockdown — have been reported by multiple
news outlets. Strong reaction over FIRs against
Siddharth Varadarajan came from civil society. Several internationally renowned jurists, scholars, activists,
artists and acclaimed public figures have already signed a statement,
criticizing draconian behavior of Indian State against journalists who write
truth. Those who signed statement include Justice Madan B. Lokur, Pranab
Bardhan, Arjun Appadurai, Sheldon Pollock, Barbara Harriss White, Patricia
Jeffery, James Manor, Ashutosh Varshney, Christophe Jaffrelot, Sumit Sarkar,
Romila Thapar, Ramchandra Guha, Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth, Nayantara Sehgal,
Amol Palekar, Mallika Sarabhai, Harsh Mander, Farhan and Zoya Akhtar, Nandita
Das, Prabhat Patnaik, Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Sandeep Pandey, Partha
Chatterjee, Urvashi Butalia, Apoorvanand Jha, Harbans Mukhia. Till filling of
this report, over 4,900 persons have signed an online petition to snub action
against Siddharth Varadarajan. Indian intellectuals are questioning that media houses which
have blatantly spewed venom, communalizing the corona virus, have just gone
free and on the otherhand journalists like Siddharth Vardarajan who have been
fearlessly asking questions about the misconduct by various leaders are being
intimidated by filing FIRs against them. A senior journalist from Delhi Shabnam
Hashmi called this behavior of government as a blatant attack on
freedom of the press and condemned intimidation and demanded the quashing of
the FIR against Siddharth Vardarajan. Activist
Arundhati Roy who has become “Persona non grata” for New Delhi due to her bold
stance in her recent interview with DW Germany
said that Indian government is exploiting COVID-19 to ramp up its suppression
of Muslims. She compared the government tactic to one used by the Nazis during
the Holocaust. She had been voicing
against censorship in India and at target board of BP since long. “The ugly
practice is unchecked in India of booking journalists in fake cases, summoning
them by various agencies with the aim to obfuscate truth and threatening them
for dire consequences if they publish truth. This situation is attracting
attention of foreign media also and now western media is reporting cases of ill
behavior BJP government has towards Muslims, Dalits and independent
journalists,” commented a journalist from Delhi while requesting
to withhold his name because she says she has two school going daughters and
she cannot take risk of their lives for being blunt and bold—- A
self-censorship has already gripped Indian Media. https://dnd.com.pk/media-under-fire-in-india/186742
17.
Roy: Apr., 20,
2020: Indian novelist and political activist Arundhati Roy while
calling Indian treatment of Muslims amid COVID-19 pandemic as genocidal, said
India was using coronavirus against them just like typhus was used against the
Jews to get ghettoize them. Roy said the
Indian government was exploiting COVID-19 to ramp up its suppression of
Muslims. She said the Indian government was exploiting the coronavirus
outbreak to inflame tensions between Hindus and Muslims and as a tactic
reminiscent of one used by the Nazis during the Holocaust. “Its (RSS)
ideologues have likened the Muslims of India to the Jews of Germany. And if you
look at the way in which they are using COVID, it was very much like typhus was
used against the Jews to get ghettoize them, to stigmatize them," she
said. She viewed that the very strategy on part of the Hindu nationalist
government would “dovetail with this illness to create something which the
world should really keep its eyes on," adding that “the situation is
approaching genocidal." She said COVID-19 had exposed things about India.
“We
are suffering, not just from COVID, but from a crisis of hatred, from a crisis
of hunger." India's 1.3 billion people are currently in the
midst of a six-week nationwide lockdown. The world's second-most populous
nation has so far confirmed 13,835 infections of the novel coronavirus,
resulting in 452 deaths, according to figures from the Johns Hopkins Institute.
It is often cited as a country where the gap between official numbers and real
case numbers could be particularly high.She observed that under the cover of
COVID-19, the Indian government was moving to arrest young students, to fight
cases against lawyers, against senior editors, against activists and
intellectuals. Some of them have recently been put in jail, she added. https://www.brecorder.com/2020/04/19/590502/india-using-coronavirus-against-muslims-as-typhus-used-against-jews-arundhati/
18.
OIC:
Apr., 20, 2020: The Independent Permanent Human Rights
Commission of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has condemned the
unrelenting vicious Islamophobic campaign in India maligning Muslims for the
spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) as well as their negative profiling in media
subjecting them to discrimination and violence with impunity.In a tweet on
Sunday, the OIC-IPHRC urged the Indian government to take urgent steps to stop
the growing tide of Islamophobia in India and protect the rights of its
persecuted Muslim minority as per its obligations under international human
rights law. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2202168/1-oic-slams-indias-vicious-islamophobic-campaign/#
19.
GCC reacts: Apr., 22, 2020:
In August last year, when the United Arab Emirates (UAE) honoured Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi with the country’s highest civilian award, Pakistan
quietly lodged a protest with the Gulf state for bestowing the person with such
an honour when his government was involved in the worst human rights abuses in
occupied Kashmir.The UAE
ignored Islamabad’s reservations in a clear indication just how the Gulf state
with whom Pakistan had longstanding strategic ties now viewed India. Saudi Arabia’s relationship too has
seen great transformation in recent years with India. In February 2019 when
Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman visited Pakistan, he also travelled to
India calling Modi his elder brother. The warmth in the Gulf countries’ ties with New Delhi
stemmed from the economic interests, much to the annoyance of Pakistan. India
also cleverly used its economic clout to make inroads both in the UAE and Saudi
Arabia. But that
bonhomie is now on the verge of collapse as outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic
opened fault lines that may significantly change Indian ties with Gulf
countries. The reason was a series of comments made by right-wing Hindu nationalists
both working in the Gulf countries as well as back in India compelled UAE and
Saudi figures to publicly condemn India’s anti-Muslim policies. It all started in March when right-wing Hindu
nationalists, including some ruling party politicians, accused Tableeghi Jamaat
in India for being responsible for the spread of coronavirus. Muslim patients
have been segregated from Hindus with growing incidents of violence against
Muslims, accusing them of being the source of Covid-19. The Islamophobic comments
were also made by certain Indian expatriates. That triggered a strong reaction
from member of the UAE Royal family. Princess Hend Al Qassimi, called out a
series of “Islamophobic posts” on Twitter last week by a user named Saurabh
Upadhyay. The India national had put out several tweets targeting Muslims over
the March congregation of Tableeghi Jamaat in New Delhi that led to a spike in
the number of Covid-19 cases in India. A Twitter spat had soon ensued between
Upadhyay and another user, during which the former allegedly used foul
language. Claiming that the Tableeghis spat on people, Upadhyay asked, “What’s
with peaceful people and spitting? New form of jihad custom made for 2020?”
20.
According
to The Print, Upadhyay later went on to say how Hindus were being targeted in
the Middle East and that the region is what it is today “because Indians have
built cities like Dubai from scratch”. While
Upadhyay seems to have deactivated or deleted his Twitter account, his
controversial posts led to a sharp response by Princess Qassimi who shared
screenshots of the tweets and said anyone “openly racist and discriminatory in
the UAE will be fined and made to leave”. A Saudi scholar also condemned the
Modi government’s fascist policies against Muslims, seeking expulsion of Indian
nationals involved in hate speech from the Gulf region. Sheikh Abidi Zahrani
urged governments in the Middle East, especially the Gulf, to clamp down on
anyone showing sympathy with extremist Hindu ideology. Writing on his official
twitter account, Zahrani shared the “Send_Hindutva_Back_home” hashtag. “I
propose to all respected followers to list all militant Hindus who are working
in the GCC and spreading hate against #Islam #Muslims or our beloved Prophet
[Muhammad, peace be upon him] under this #hashtag
#Send_Hindutva_Back_home.” “Gulf states
host millions of #Indians some of whom are infected #COVID__19 are treated free
of charge regardless of their faith While #Hindutva #Terrorists gangs are
committing crimes against #Muslims citizens,” he said in another tweet. The
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in an unusual statement
strongly condemned the hate crimes against Muslims in India. The OIC on Sunday
issued a statement, saying: “The
General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) expresses
deep concern following recent media accounts of rising anti-Muslim sentiments
and Islamophobia within political and media circles and on mainstream and
social media platforms, where Indian Muslim minority is blamed for spreading
the coronavirus in the country.” It added: “The OIC General Secretariat
expresses its rejection of the targeting of Muslims anywhere, pointing out that
the current Covid-19 world situation is such that it requires greater efforts,
more active cooperation and solidarity mechanisms worldwide, and stronger
mutual aid among all citizens of the same country.” The anger in Gulf countries
prompted Modi to issue a statement distancing himself from the communal posts.
The Indian Ambassador to UAE also tweeted reminding its countrymen against
discriminatory behavior. Although,
there has been no official reaction from the UAE and Saudi Arabia over the
controversy, observers believe the
condemnation by a member of UAE royal family and a Saudi scholar was not
possible without approval from their respective governments. Also the
strong reaction from the OIC, which is controlled by Saudi Arabia, is a clear
sign that all is not well as far as Indian relationship with Gulf countries are
concerned. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2203830/1-indias-bonhomie-gulf-edge-amid-muslim-prejudice/
21.
Quarenteened Muslim dies: Apr., 25, 2020: A 60-year-old diabetic patient, named Mohammed Mustafa,
who had participated in the Tablighi Jamaat at the Nizamuddin Markaz last month
and was housed at a quarantine facility in northwest Delhi’s Sultanpuri, died
on Wednesday morning The people at the
treatment centre told media that Mustafa lost his life due to negligence from
authorities. “He did not receive medical attention and food on time despite
several requests to the doctors and the staff,” a patient who is quarantined in
the same facility says. “There were long gaps in the meals and even medicines
are not available. The ambulance arrived late, even though I had been calling
up the authorities for long,” Mustafa’s relative says. Several patients at the
centre from South Indian states came out of their rooms to protest the death
and uploaded videos on social media complaining about a lack of doctors and
adequate treatment. “He did not get his diabetes medicine for 22 days.” Adnan,
a diabetic patient who now stays in the same centre told Firstpost that he is
very afraid since the death of Mustafa yesterday.“I myself don’t feel very
well. How will a diabetic like me survive? We have to eat every two
hours — that’s what the doctors have always told us. If we are not allowed
to go out to even buy a packet of biscuits, the facility should provide it and
take care of our medical needs. Negligence by the staff will only result in more
casualties,” he said. “He died due to the non-availability of diabetic
medicines for more than three weeks. We repeatedly demanded to government
officials regarding this and unfortunately, there was no one to take action,”
Fathima Muzaffer, member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board told Maktoob. “Many of them are not getting proper food and
medicines on time at quarantine centers. It is unfortunate that in the time of
a pandemic, some are busy with blaming the patients, not treating them,”
Fathima who is also a leader of Indian Union Muslim League requested
authorities to take immediate action. https://en.maktoobmedia.com/2020/04/24/quarantined-tablighi-member-dies-of-lack-of-food-medicine-in-delhi/?fbclid=IwAR3icaV7-Zc_1LWBIyH-7ckbrD0Oui0Y52Kwhg7ryzefyyawejT2zXU-NN8
22.
Zargar: Apr., 27, 2020: Safoora Zargar, a research scholar from Jamia Millia Islamia
(JMI) university, spent her first day of Ramadan in the high-security Tihar
jail in the Indian capital, New Delhi. The 27-year old, in the second trimester
of her first pregnancy, was arrested on April 10 and subsequently charged under
the stringent anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 2019
(UAPA), by the Delhi police. Zargar was associated with the Jamia Coordination
Committee (JCC), which organised weeks of peaceful protests in the capital
against a citizenship law passed last December. .Police accuse Zargar of being
a key "conspirator" in the February violence that erupted in
northeast Delhi after supporters of the Hindu nationalist government attacked
peaceful sit-ins. At least 53 people were killed, mostly Muslims, in the worst
violence in the capital since the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. "She was the
strongest women voice in the JCC but, she wasn't there to just be in the
spotlight unlike some others", said Kausar Jan, an art student, who along
with others had painted protest art on the walls of the university. Speaking to
Al Jazeera, one of Zargar's teachers described her as "outspoken and hard
working". "I really hope that the judiciary will consider her
academic record and her medical condition and release her soon," she said,
requesting to remain anonymous. A member of the JCC, who also wished to remain
anonymous, said the arrests amid the coronavirus pandemic were to ensure that the
anti-CAA movement died a slow death, even after the lockdown is lifted.
On February 10, Zargar had fainted after being caught in a scuffle
between the police and students, and had to be hospitalised briefly.
"Since then, with her advancing pregnancy a concern, she had gradually
restricted her physical movement. And after the outbreak of COVID-19 she had
virtually stopped stepping out of the house except for essential work. She was
mostly working from home," her husband, who requested his name not be
used, told Al Jazeera. The Tihar prison complex in New Delhi is one of India's most
overcrowded prisons with nearly double the number of inmates than it can
accommodate. The COVID-19 outbreak has led to Indian courts ordering the
release of those who have not been to trial but Zargar, charged with as many as
18 crimes including rioting, possession of arms, attempt to murder, incitement
of violence, sedition, murder, and promoting enmity between different groups on
grounds of religion, is not eligible for an early release."In fact, we had
secured bail in the Jaffrabad case where she had been accused of leading women
and children to protest and disrupt traffic," her lawyer, who also
withheld his name, said. But, before she could be released, police arrested her in
another case. They refused to disclose what the exact charges were against her,
or even the material which formed the basis for her arrest. It was
after the court ordered that charges and material be disclosed that the police
invoked UAPA against Zargar. "Incarcerating her despite her pregnancy on
the basis of vague charges is a grave miscarriage of justice," her lawyer
said. Concerns are being raised about limited access to justice during the
coronavirus pandemic. Visits to prisons by lawyers and families have been
banned. After several days, the court allowed Zargar's lawyer to speak to
her over the phone. "I am aghast to learn that in the name of quarantine, Safoora [Zargar] is being kept in
solitary confinement! Can you imagine the psychological toll this will
take on her? She told me that she had made five applications to speak
telephonically to her husband but was denied each time by citing COVID-19
protocols," the lawyer said. The lawyer is worried that Zargar is
suffering from medical and dietary negligence. UAPA is often characterised by activists as 'the process which is the
punishment'. It allows police up to six months to file charges against the
accused - as against three months under regular criminal law. Using it against
an ordinary student such as Zargar has raised serious concerns about the Delhi
police's impartiality. "This case shows that diminished access to justice during the
lockdown is being used to implicate and imprison student activists who led the
peaceful anti-CAA protests," said Vrinda Grover, a Supreme Court
advocate. Zargar's family marked the first day of Ramadan with sadness and
anxiety."It would have been a very joyful occasion given that we are
expecting our first child. All we did was pray for her safety and quick
release. In her condition she needs care, not jail," her husband told Al Jazeera.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/india-charged-anti-terror-law-pregnant-woman-jail-200426100956360.html
23.
Kuwait: Apr., 28, 2020: Kuwaiti Cabinet
of Ministers on Sunday issued a press statement condemning attacks on Muslim
minority in India. The letter from Kuwaiti Cabinet of Ministers has addressed
Sheikh Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah, Foreign Minister, urging him to be informed
of the recent spread of Islamophobia in the country and take subsequent
measures to address the same. The statement from Kuwait’s Cabinet of Ministers
has expressed its “grave concern over ethnic attacks against Muslims” in India.They
further called on the world community to condemn such hate speech and communal
attacks on the minorities in India including the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation “to take the necessary and urgent measures to halt these attacks in
a way preserving rights of Muslims there and stemming the shedding of their
blood.” he rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric
on Arab social media was originally triggered by a Dubai-based Indian, Saurabh
Upadhyay, who had asked Muslims to stop finding ways to defend Tablighi Jamaat,
compelling them to “accept that they were the source of the pandemic.” Some of
these caught the attention of authorities of the Middle Eastern nations who
have sacked Indian employees for their professed anti-sentiments against
Muslims in very strong languages over social media. Now more and more Arab
leaders are supporting this welcome response to combat hate speech online and
offline. The Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) established
by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has also called on the Indian
government to take immediate steps “to stop the growing tide of Islamophobia
in India and protect the rights of its persecuted Muslim minority as per its
obligations under international human rights law. http://twocircles.net/2020apr27/436272.html
24.
Religious
freedom; Apr., 29, 2020: The US
Commission on International Religious Freedom on
Tuesday called for the State Department to add India to its list of countries
with uniquely poor records on protecting freedom to worship in its annual report. The
commission empowered by an independent
arbiter to look only at nations’ religious freedom records, apart from their
relationship with the United States, vice chair Nadine Maenza said. Beyond the
citizenship law, Maenza said in an interview, India has a broader “move toward
clamping down on religious minorities that’s really troublesome.” “The
Citizenship Amendment Act, passed in December of last year by the Parliament in
majority-Hindu India, violates religious freedom especially for Muslims,” the
report states. violations of religious freedom.”The
religious freedom watchdog says it is recommending for the first time since
2004 that India be given that designation. The 104-page report
chronicled the progress and failures on religious freedom in 29 countries
during 2019
25.
Boycotting Muslims: Apr., 30, 2020: A lawmaker from India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Suresh
Tiwari from Uttar Pradesh, has asked people of his constituency not to buy
vegetables from Muslim vendors to protect themselves from the coronavirus, Indian
media reported on Tuesday. In a widely circulated video on Indian social media,
Tiwari can be seen telling people to "keep one thing in mind [...] do not
buy vegetables from miyan (Muslims
Talking to Indian publication The Wire, Tiwari later confirmed he had made those remarks "around April 17-18", and
defended his statement by saying he had heard reports from people in his
constituency that Muslim vendors were "spitting on vegetables before
selling them". He said he "advised the people to [not buy vegetables
from them] so they could protect themselves from the coronavirus . https://www.dawn.com/news/1553175/bjp-lawmaker-warns-against-buying-vegetables-from-muslim-vendors-to-keep-safe-from-virus
26.
Muslim vendor
harassed: Apr., 30, 2020: Another BJP leader launched a
communal attack on a Muslim vegetable vendor in Uttar Pradesh, during the
COVID-19 lockdown in India. The MLA in question, Brij Bhushan Sharan, is seen
harassing the vendor and a young boy outside his residence.The MLA, from Charkhari
in UP’s Mahoba district, was seen coercing the vegetable seller and the young
boy to reveal their religious identities, as per ANI. https://www.thequint.com/news/india/dont-be-seen-here-again-another-bjp-mla-harasses-muslim-vendor
27.
GCC reacts: May, 1, 2020: In the past couple of weeks, the Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC), the Kuwait government, a royal princess of the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), as well as a number of Arab activists have called out
Islamophobic hate speech by Indians seen to be accusing the country's Muslims
of spreading the novel coronavirus. A barrage of tweets and statements from
individuals and institutions in the Gulf expressing their outrage over the
hateful social media posts forced the Indian government to respond, including a
Twitter post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which he stressed that
"COVID-19 does not see race [or] religion". It started with right-wing
Hindus accusing Muslims of a "conspiracy" to spread the coronavirus
after dozens of cases were linked to a congregation of Tablighi Jamaat, a
Muslim missionary movement, at their headquarters in New Delhi in the middle of
March Following
the Jamaat issue, a wave of Islamophobic posts was unleashed on social media by
right-wing Hindus, some of them employed in Gulf countries. An old tweet by Tejasvi Surya, a young member of parliament
belonging to Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also resurfaced, provoking
further outrage "The level of hubris of the Hindutva fascists shocked
people throughout the world, changing previously held opinions," Dr Farhan
Mujahid Chak, who teaches political science in the Gulf Studies programme at
Qatar University, told Al Jazeera. Princess
Hend al-Qassimi, a member of the UAE royal family, warned "openly racist
and discriminatory" Indians in the Gulf that they "will be fined and
made to leave" the country.In the past month, at least six Hindus working
in the Gulf region have lost their jobs or have been charged for their social
media posts. On Monday, in what
was a clear sign of the issue escalating in the Arab world, Kuwait
expressed its "deep concern" over the treatment of India's Muslims
and asked the Organisation of International Cooperation (OIC) to intervene. Earlier, on April 18, the OIC had
issued a statement, urging India to take urgent steps to "stop the growing
tide of Islamophobia" in the country. Princess al-Qassimi, who has
emerged as one of the most prolific Arab voices against Islamophobia in India,
last week wrote a column for the Gulf News, in which she said: "The world
doesn't need another Hitler, but it needs another hero like Martin Luther,
Nelson Mandela, or Gandhi.""Killing your brethren doesn't make you a
hero, it makes you a dictator and murderer. A snowballing movement has been
started, which has reverberated across the Arab world," she wrote in her
piece, titled I pray for an India without hate and Islamophobia.
On Sunday, Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the far-right
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in an apparent reference to the
Jamaat congregation in New Delhi, said in an online speech from the group's
headquarters in Nagpur that it was "not right to blame the entire
community for the mistakes of few individuals". The RSS is the ideological
mentor of Modi's BJP. On Tuesday, in its worst rating since 2004, the US
Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the State Department to
designate India as a "country of particular concern" over
"severe violations" of religious freedom. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/arabs-speaking-islamophobia-india-200423112102197.html
Monthly update 7: March
2020 : Muslims in India
.
1.
UNHRC: Mar., 3, 2020: The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
has filed an intervention application in the Supreme Court raising concerns
over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and also informed India's Permanent
Mission in Geneva about the same. https://thelogicalindian.com/news/unhrc-anti-caa-play-19970
2.
British MPs: Nar., 4, 2020: India came under fire in the
House of Commons on Tuesday with Labour, SNP, Liberal Democrats and
Conservative MPs, including Indian-origin MPs, queuing up to criticise the
Indian government for the recent violence in Delhi and the Citizenship
(Amendment) Act and urging the UK government to take stronger action. At one
point, when SNP’s David Linden said they had seen Modi and Trump embracing
“in their scramble to get a trade deal” and asked for assurances that the UK
would raise these cases “at the highest levels of government” and not ignore
human rights when it came to trade deals, junior minister in the FCO Nigel
Adams, standing in for foreign secretary Dominic Raab who was in Turkey, said: “Whilst trade is
absolutely vital for our economy and future prosperity, this in no way
compromises the UK commitment to holding human rights at the core of our
foreign policy, and I can guarantee we will not pursue trade to the exclusion
of human rights.” Adams said the events in Delhi were “very concerning”, the UK
was monitoring the violence and developments around CAA “closely” and the UK
condemned targeting of people based on religion. "Any allegation of human
rights abuses is deeply disturbing and we have made it clear these must be
investigated thoroughly, promptly and transparently,” Adams said. Tory MP Richard
Graham said videos showed “shocking orchestrated sectarian
violence” and asked the minister to invite the UK Indian high commissioner to
his office to share with him the “deep concerns” of so many constituents When communal violence broke out in northeast
Delhi last week, nameplates and hoardings that reveal the identity of the
resident or a shop owner, were among the first things removed before the
residents left their homes to safer places. The dark, narrow lanes deep inside
Shiv Vihar, among the worst-hit areas, are empty. Economic activity has also
been hit hard . Adams said he would ask Lord Ahmad to meet with the Indian high
commissioner. Labour MP Stephen Timms said the CAA was “a decisive move away”
from Ambedkar’s Constitution which was admired around the world for its
commitment to equality. Labour MP and PIO Tan Dhesi said “incited mob violence
in Delhi on the basis of someone’s faith” brought back painful memories of the
1984 anti-Sikh riots when he was studying in India. He said that the
“persecution of Indian Muslims”, many of whom have been peacefully protesting
against CAA, is “utterly intolerable” and the police cannot stand by “or worse
still be complicit as is alleged by many victims and social activists”. He said
the perpetrators must face the full force of law. Many of the MPs referred to a
BBC broadcast on Monday night which said the police had been complicit in the
violence against Muslims. Mirpur-born Labour MP Mohammad Yasin
said: “As the BBC recently reported, there is evidence the police are complicit
in the latest outbreak of violence in Delhi and encouraging violence against
Muslims.” Tory MP Nusrat Ghani asked the minister to make sure the concerns of
MPs are relayed to the Indian authorities, “including the brutality that seems
to have (been) meted out by those who should be enforcing the law which was
covered by the BBC on Monday night”. PoK-origin Labour MP Zarah Sultana said the violence in Delhi had been “whipped
up by BJP politicians” and was “the latest targeted assault on Muslims by the
Modi government.” PIO Labour MP Nadia Whittome said it was time to reject the
language of “clashes and communal violence ” when describing the riots as it
was actually “a continuation of sustained and systemic Hindutva violence waged
on Muslim and many minority ethnic communities in India that is sanctioned by
Modi’s BJP government”. Liberal Democrats MP Alistair Carmichael said the CAA and the violence it has
precipitated was not an isolated act and came on the heels of the implantation
of the NRC in Assam “It begins to look
like part of a course of conduct designed to marginalise Muslims in India.
India is in the Commonwealth. What are we doing through the Commonwealth?”
Carmichael asked https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/india-under-fire-in-uk/articleshow/74465081.cms
3. Protesting
women crudely harassed: Mar., 4, 2020: Two separate groups of
women from the riot-hit areas of north-east Delhi, one of which was present at
the Chand Bagh protest on Monday, and one which was present at the violence
perpetrated at Shiv Vihar, have told The Wire that members of
a right-wing mob pulled down their pants, exposed their genitals to them and
said, “Yeh lo azaadi.” (‘Here, take freedom.’). Azaadi’ is part of the
rallying cry that protesters across the city have been using to ask for freedom
– from the Citizenship Amendment Act, from the National Register of Citizens,
from the reign of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. The word has now been twisted by those
perpetrating violence against them, as a vicious response to the freedom they
sought – as if to say the only freedom they will get is the freedom of this
violence.“I was standing at the Chand Bagh protest site when two members of our
protest had been detained by the police. The women of the protest came out to
confront the policemen and ask where they had been taken. A group of
right-wingers came up to us, shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’, and four men there pulled
their pants down and pointed their genitals at us, and shouted ‘Yeh lo azaadi’,”
says Asifa*, who did not want her name to be published for fear that she would
be arrested. “Our men came out and made a line in front of us, to protect us,
and the mob started throwing stones at them. The police went behind the
protest and started throwing tear gas shells into the protest site,
so we could not respond because we were coughing and crying. There were women
and children there. The police lathi charged us,” Asifa adds.She fell
unconscious during the tear gassing. Others there – including elderly women and
pregnant women – sustained injuries after being lathi charged by the police. This
sequence of events was also narrated by an activist who was present at the
site, saying the incident took place around noon at Chand Bagh on Monday,
February 24.“We thought that if there was stone throwing happening, it would
happen from both sides. But the protest site people were not throwing stones,
because they were being tear gassed constantly.” “I heard them say, bring
the women out onto the road. ‘Bahar
lao unko, yahan pe ragdenge, ghasitenge’ (‘bring them out, we will
assault them, drag them’).”She also says the police was throwing
stones at the protesters. Rubina says, “When they were spreading terror there,
out of fear we stayed in our homes. They threw stones at our doors, and broke
them with lathis. They burnt gas cylinders at our mosques, and they beat our
men. We left everything and we ran when we could for fear of our lives.” She
tells us of her neighbour, who had taken her daughter and fled to the terrace
in the hope that she would be safe there, and on seeing that they would not be,
had jumped from the terrace, with the daughter’s legs breaking in the process.
She speaks of another neighbour’s daughter who was ‘dishonoured’ and killed “The mobs were from outside, but there
were also locals there. The locals told them where we lived – this is a Hindu
house, this is a Muslim house.” “They’ve looted everything. They’ve
taken everything. We left with the clothes on our back. If we hadn’t run on
Monday morning, they would have killed us, they would have killed our
children.” “They opened their pants and showed us, and asked, do you want
azaadi? They opened their pants… They beat us, they tore our clothes. We’ve
been given clothes over here .Another
woman says that they put acid on the mosque’s imam and his daughter. The Wire
has not been able to confirm this claim “They’ve looted the house, and the
shop. When my husband went to see what was left, he searched for our Koran. The
Koran had been destroyed. What had our Koran done, to be destroyed? They threw
it, they burned it,” she says.Her voice breaking, she says through tears, “I
don’t know why we survived, they’ve taken everything. Do I have the right to
live here? I do not. And I do not want to live, better than this that they had
killed me then. I wish I had burnt with my house, I wish my children burnt
down. What do I do in that house now?”“They have made our home a graveyard,”
says another woman.They say the children are so scared they can’t stand,
trembling at the thought of going out.“My brother went to get a Koran. The
police said stop, and out of fear he halted, trembling. He was holding his
Koran in his hand. “They made him do sit-ups holding onto his Koran. How is
this justice, how are we supposed to live here, how am I supposed to live, will
anyone tell me what will become of me.”Minhaz*, and Mereen* who are
schoolchildren in the 9th grade, say that they weren’t even able to give their
exams.“We scrambled through someone else’s terrace…They were cutting people and
throwing them in the drain. The police were not helping us, they were helping
them. They were shooting people, I saw it with my own eyes, from the roof. Two
men brought another man on a motorbike, and gave him to the police, and the
police shot him. I can barely say this, every time I say it my heart beats
fast.” “We’re terrified here, and they’re going to Ahmedabad, Allahabad,
Kolkata.“You’re doing rallies across the world, but can you see us? You’re
releasing all these new schemes, but they will only be useful if people are
still alive. When we are not alive, then what use are your schemes?“You’re
releasing schemes in UP while people are dying of hunger in Delhi. If you can’t
manage your government then istifa de doh, give us your
resignation, say you can’t manage it.” https://thewire.in/women/delhi-riots-women-sexual-harassment
4. Report: Mar., 5, 2020: Report says extensive damage to Muslim
houses, shops and workshops everywhere, but at Yamuna Vihar shops and houses
belonging to both communities were affected. The Delhi Minorities Commission in
its assessment report of events which unfolded recently in northeast Delhi has
concluded that the violence which erupted was “one-sided, well-planned” and involved
support from locals with maximum damage being done to shops and houses belonging to the minority community. The
Commission also said that compensation announced by the Delhi government was
inadequate, considering the extent of damage caused due to the violence.“We
found extensive damage to Muslim houses, shops and workshops everywhere we
went. We found that people were visiting their damaged houses for
the first time since they fled on February 24-25 but since the houses and shops
were badly damaged and debris lying, there was no question that they will be
able to start living there any time soon,” the panel said. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-violence-one-sided-well-planned-says-minorities-panel/article30979785.ece
5.
Freedom of World: Mar., 5, 2020: In the latest edition of Freedom in the World, an annual
report published by Washington-based pro-democracy nonprofit Freedom House,
India has suffered the largest decline in its political rights and civil
liberties score among the 25 most populous democracies because of the Narendra
Modi government’s “alarming departures from democratic norms,”
while Kashmir’s status has declined from “Partly Free” to “Not Free.” On
Kashmir, the Report 2020 highlights the abrupt revocation of Jammu
and Kashmir’s (J&K) special status on 5 August, 2019, the massive
deployment of troops, the arbitrary arrests of hundreds of Kashmiri leaders and
activists, and shutdown of mobile and internet services. Kashmir, the report
said, “experienced one of the largest single-year score declines of the past 10
years in Freedom in the World, and its freedom status dropped to Not Free. Interestingly,
the Freedom House was founded in 1941 with the support of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt in response to the rise of Nazism at the time. The 2020 gives a
damning assessment of the Modi government’s pattern of Hindu nationalist
policies, including the persecution of religious minorities, abruptly revoking
Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, the adoption of the Citizenship Amendment
Act (CAA), which it calls a discriminatory citizenship law and the aggressive
suppression of the anti-CAA protests that followed. India, which is ranked
‘Free,’ dropped from 75/100 in 2019 to 71 in 2020.“Indian government has taken
its Hindu nationalist agenda to a new level with a succession of policies that
abrogate the rights of different segments of its Muslim population, threatening
the democratic future of a country long seen as a potential bulwark of freedom
in Asia and the world,” Sarah Repucci, Freedom House’s Senior Director of
Research and Analysis, writes in the report. India because of its Hindu
nationalist policies was highlighted as glaring example in the 2020 Freedom
report, which is called A Leaderless Struggle For Democracy. The report said,
“The BJP has distanced itself from the country’s founding commitment to
pluralism and individual rights, without which democracy cannot long survive.” https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/03/04/freedom-report-grills-india-for-anti-kashmir-anti-muslim-agenda/
6.
UK Parliament: Mar., 5, 2020: While raising concern over recent violence in Delhi that resulted in
loss of over 45 lives, Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom have pressed
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to share the details of its
engagement with the Indian government on this subject. Sikh MPs Tanmanjeet Singh
Dhesi and Preet Gill Kaur are the latest UK lawmakers to join the
chorus of criticism against the Indian government’s handling of the Delhi
carnage. While asking an urgent question of the representatives of the FCO in
Parliament, Labour MP for Slough
Dhesi said the violence in Delhi in recent days “brings back painful
memories”.“[I have witnessed it] as a religious minority during the 1984
genocide of the Sikhs, while I was studying in India. Mr Speaker, we must learn
from history, not be fooled by those whose insidious aim is to divide society,
[and who are] hell-bent on killing and destroying religious places, all in the
name of religion. I ask the Minister, what message has he given to his Indian
counterpart [regarding] that persecution of Indian Muslims?” Labour MP for
Edgbaston, Birmingham, Preet Gill Kaur also asked: “Can the minister explain
what steps he is taking to ensure all ethnic and religious minorities in India
are able to feel safe and secure and free from persecution?” Violence in New
Delhi erupted over India’s disputed new citizenship law that led to clashes in
which hundreds were injured and houses, shops, mosques, schools and vehicles
were set on fire. Tensions between Hindu hardliners and Muslims protesting the
Hindu-first policies of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had
been building for months when the violence exploded a week ago, on the eve of
US President Donald Trump’s state visit to India.,Another Labour MP, Khalid Mahmood, also questioned
what the UK government was doing in response to the riots in Delhi. MP Mahmood
said the riots were “sickening” and warned that the Indian Citizenship
(Amendment) Act 2019 would be followed by a National Register of Citizens that
would lead Muslims being “held in concentration camps” before being deported.
He said Modi’s actions were translating his ‘India for the Hindus’ slogan into
a “hateful nationalist brutality”. He told the House that the Muslims were
beaten and murdered in the streets while the police did nothing and “Modi cynically
counts the benefits of electoral success”. In response to these questions,
Minister of State at FCO Nigel Adams said: “The Hon
Member speaks very powerfully from personal experience. It is absolutely
essential that we speak up where we believe abuses have taken place and when
protest crosses the line into illegalities. He added: “The British high
commission in New Delhi and our extensive diplomatic network of deputy high
commissions across India are monitoring closely the recent violence in India
and developments around the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019”. “The events in
Delhi last week were very concerning, and the situation is still tense. The
death of one protester is one too many. We urge restraint from all parties and
trust that the Indian government will address the concerns of people of all
religions in India”. Labour MPs are not alone in calling out the violence in
Delhi and urging the British government to do more. Paul Bristow,
Conservative MP for Peterborough and Tommy Sheppard, the Scottish
National Party MP for Edinburgh East, both have asked the FCO to share details
on its position on Delhi riots and the CAA. On Twitter, Conservative MP for
Wycombe Steve Baker urged the
UK Foreign Office and Dominic Raab to make Kashmir
a top priority for the UK and the world. Baker has been vocal about his
engagement with Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK Nafees Zakariya
and has said that British Kashmiri’s are entitled to “robust representation” on
the issues of violence as a result of shelling in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. See
video : https://www.facebook.com/FinalWarAgainstCorruption/videos/2899218853474123/UzpfSTEyMzYxNjc1MjA6Vks6MjY5MjA0MDIyNzU4ODExNQ/
; read full coverage at:
7. Iran:
Mar., 6, 2020: Iranian Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged India on Thursday to “confront
extremist Hindus” and “stop the massacre of Muslims”, adding to the
international fallout over deadly anti-Muslim violence in New Delhi. “The hearts of Muslims all over the world
are grieving over the massacre of Muslims in India,” Khamenei said in a tweet
in English, just days after New Delhi rebuked Iran’s foreign minister for
commenting on the same issue.“Iran condemns the wave of organised violence
against Indian Muslims,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on
Monday, in response to which New Delhi summoned the Iran’s ambassador and
lodged a protest. Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani also
expressed concern about the plight of Muslims in the South Asian nation, and
urged the Indian government to prevent sectarian violence in the country.
Larijani said that the new law was a contravention of Muslim rights. . https://tribune.com.pk/story/2170154/3-iran-asks-india-stop-attacks-muslims-deadly-riots/
8. Muslim killer: Mar., 6, 2020: Nishant
Kumar, 29, who had an unsettling smile on his face as he spoke about murdering
Muslim men on the haunting night of February 29, claimed to have witnessed a
“Mohammadan” mob burn down vehicles in the Yamuna Vihar – one of the affected
areas of Delhi.“What we did was an act of retaliation,” he insisted. According
to the published article, on the morning of February 25, Kumar said he stepped
out around 8am. He was armed with an iron rod. He tied a kitchen knife to one
end of the rod to make up for the absence of a gun. “Bandook nikaalke pakde
jaana hai kya?” “I did not want to get caught with a gun,” he exclaimed. At
around 10am, Kumar said he got his first hit. “The Mohammadan was running,” he
recalled. “The Hindu public was chasing him. I was leading the pack.” “I was
the first to catch up with him, and hit him with my rod on his head,” he
continued, his voice turning shriller and his hands mimicking the strike. “Then
he fell down, and the public pounced on him after that…de dhana dhan dhan.”
Kumar
said he killed two more people in a similar fashion – striking Muslim men
running away from Hindu mobs in the back with his improvised weapon. “I had to
kill three. I did that.” While inquiring about the role of policemen
around when he was chasing down Muslim men and hacking them, Kumar said there
were none. “There
was no one,” he said. “No one came even after we killed them and threw their
bodies.” .As cited by the article, the most chilling
account came from a 32-year-old cab driver, who works for a taxi app service.“Tum
Hindu ho isiliye bol raha hoon, varna yeh sab bolne ki cheez nahi hai,” he
said. (You are a Hindu, that is why I am telling you. Otherwise, these are not
things you talk about. The driver claimed he was armed with a gun and a sword.
“The gun in my left hand and the sword in the right one,” he said. “My aunt
said she was reminded of my father. He would step out just like that during the
1984 riots.” While a few Hindu men went on a killing spree, others stood admitting
the first thing they did was cut off the electricity, the driver claimed. “We
knew, of course, which houses belonged to Muslims,” one of them said. As a
parting shot, one of the rioters said: “Bahut
dabaa ke kaata saalon ko” (we really slayed them [Muslims]). Why else do you think they are going around
begging for peace?” he added. The article published on Scroll.in https://tribune.com.pk/story/2170108/9-meet-delhi-rioters-claim-killed-muslims/
9.
Minorities in India: Mar., 6, 2020: The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is sounding the alarm about violence
against religious minorities in Delhi, India. Mobs are terrorizing the streets,
targeting mostly Muslims. Christians are also being targeted for evangelizing.
Last week more than 40 people were killed, hundreds more were injured in brutal
attacks. "We're seeing the worst
communal violence in decades," Anurima Bhargava, a USCIRF commissioner
tells CBN News the citizenship laws and
this effort to try and have people document whether or not they are part of
communities that they have been part of for so long is something that's giving
license to people to feel like they can target or direct violence to these
communities," she explains. https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2020/march/the-worst-communal-violence-in-decades-religious-freedom-advocates-sound-the-alarm-in-india
10.
Jakarta protest: Mar., 7, 2020: Indonesian Muslims conducted a rally in
front of the Indian Embassy here, Friday, as a mark of their solidarity for
Indian Muslims and demanded that the Indian government end violence against
Muslims in South Asia. The demonstration was initiated by the Front Pembela Islam
(FPI-Islam Defenders' Front), GNPF Ulama, and the 212 Alumni Brotherhood (PA
212). The protesters strongly condemned the recent violence against
Muslims in India that resulted in the deaths of 42 people and caused injuries
to some 350 others. The communal mob by Indian Hindus against Muslims was
triggered by the passage of the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act in
December 2019 by the Modi administration.
The Indonesian protesters brandished
posters that read "Stop Genocide of Muslims in India", "Save
Muslims in India", "Modi is Terrorist", and "The
Government, don't remain silent. Cut relations with India",
among other things. On March 2, members of Muslim organizations in Medan, North
Sumatra Province, had held a rally in front of the Indian Consulate General to
echo their solidarity towards Indian Muslims and condemn the bloody violence.
“We demand that the Indonesian
government adopt a stern stance over the conflict in India since our brothers
and sisters of the same faith are being murdered,” Razali Taat, the rally’s
coordinator, stated. In addition, the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI)
was unequivocal in denouncing the violence on Muslims in India. "We
condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the barbaric act of violence that
reflects real extremism and gross violation of human rights," the council
noted in a press statement signed by its chairman, Prof. Dr Din Syamsudin, on
March 2. The council urged the Indian government to take stern measures against
those involved in the attack and protect Indian Muslims from cruelty in any
form.It
also called upon the Indian government and parliament to cancel the law that
discriminates against Muslims in India. https://en.antaranews.com/news/143018/jakarta-rally-expresses-solidarity-for-indian-muslims
11.
US Commission on
International Freedom: Mar., 7, 2020: Experts warned a US government panel on
Wednesday that India’s Muslims face risks of expulsion or other persecution
under a citizenship law that has triggered major protests.The hearing held
inside Congress was called by the US Commission on International Freedom, which
has been denounced by the Indian government as biased. Ashutosh Varshney,
a prominent scholar of sectarian violence in India, told the panel that the law
championed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalists amounted to a
move to narrow the democracy’s historically inclusive and secular definition of
citizenship. “The threat is serious, and the implications quite horrendous,”
said Varshney, a professor at Brown University.“Something deeply injurious
to the Muslim minority can happen once their citizenship rights are taken
away,” he said. Varshney warned that the law could ultimately lead
to expulsion or detention — but, even if not, contributes to marginalization.
“It creates an enabling atmosphere for violence once you say that a particular
community is not fully Indian or its Indianness in grave doubt,” he said. Fears are particularly acute in the
northeastern state of Assam, where a citizens’ register finalized last year
left 1.9 million people, many of them Muslims, facing possible statelessness. Aman
Wadud, a human rights lawyer from Assam who traveled to Washington
for the hearing, said that many Indians lacked birth certificates or other
documentation to prove citizenship and were only seeking “a dignified
life.” https://tribune.com.pk/story/2170059/3-us-panel-hears-risks-indian-muslims/
12.
Afghan
Protest: Mar., 7, 2020: The people in Afghanistan have also resorted
to protest against India’s anti-Muslim acts, burnt its flag and demanded the
Kabul regime to terminate its ties with New Delhi. Thousands of people staged a protest rally in Afghanistan’s
western Herat City on Friday against Muslims’ massacre in Delhi and the Indian
Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOJ&J) by Hindu extremists under the aegis of
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Indian government. The infuriated
protesters also burnt the Indian flag and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s poster, and demanded his execution for carrying out atrocities against
Muslims in India and Occupied Kashmir. https://dnd.com.pk/afghanistan-rocked-by-anti-india-protest-over-muslims-massacre-indian-flag-burnt-in-herat/183498
13.
Manmohan Singh : Mar., 8, 2020: Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh said India's situation is
"very grim and morose", warning that "wilfully stoked communal
tensions, gross economic mismanagement and an external health shock are
threatening to derail India’s progress and standing". Singh maintained
that currently India was facing threats from "the trinity of social disharmony,
economic slowdown and a global health epidemic".Commenting on the deadly
communal violence that swept through the Indian capital recently, the former
prime minister said: "With no checks, the fire of social tensions is
rapidly spreading across the nation and threatens to char the soul of our
nation. It can only be extinguished by the same people that lit it." "Every act of sectarian violence is a
blemish on Mahatma Gandhi’s India,"
"The India that we know and cherish is slipping away fast. It is time
to confront the harsh reality of the grave risks we face as a nation and
address them squarely and sufficiently," he wrote. https://www.dawn.com/news/1539119/india-situation-grim-and-morose-ex-pm-manmohan-singh
14.
Muslim
arrested: Mar., 8, 2020: The Delhi Police has arrested a 27-year-old
tobacco seller in Shiv Vihar, Mohd
Shehnawaz, on Saturday for allegedly killing Dilbur Singh Negi (20)
during the Delhi riots on February 24. The police said that multiple witnesses
identified Shehnawaz as having allegedly pelted stones, ransacked and torched
several shops in Shiv Vihar. He was not missing or absconding, and was picked
from the area by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Crime Branch
probing the matter under the leadership of DCP Rajesh Deo. https://thewire.in/communalism/delhi-riots-tobacco-seller-from-shiv-vihar-arrested
15.
Shahindokht Molaverdi : Mar., 10,2020: Iranian president’s Special Assistant for Citizenship Rights
Shahindokht Molaverdi says Tehran should adopt a clearly effective
and preventive stance toward the massacre of Muslims in India. “As a Muslim country, we have a bigger responsibility [than
others] toward the ongoing disaster in India, and we should prioritize the
humane and religious observations over other matters in this regard,” Molaverdi
said in an interview with Mehr News Agency. Referring to the Iranian foreign
minister’s comments over the “organized violence” against the Indian Muslims,
Molaverdi said, “This shows that the issue [of killing Muslims] is now high on
the agenda of our foreign diplomacy.”However, she stressed, “Our actions must
be conducted in a way that is effective and deterrent so as to prevent the
repetition of such crimes, and we need to set a clear policy over the issue on
the regional and international level.” She said that the ongoing disaster is of
much importance that it is “imperative to both address this
issue in the meetings of the member of the Organization of the Islamic
Countries (OIC).” “We should also, in some way, use other
existing international mechanisms to tackle it," she added. as soon as possible. Earlier last week, Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif condemned the “the wave of the organized violence against
Indian Muslims” and urged the Indian authorities to ensure the wellbeing of all
Indians and not let “the senseless thuggery prevail.” https://en.mehrnews.com/news/156510/Iran-should-adopt-effective-deterrent-stance-against-killing
16.
MAPIM: Mar., 10, 2020: Kuala Lumpur based non-governmental
organization, Malaysian Consultative Council for Islamic Organization (MAPIM)
has expressed deep anguish and concerns over the prevailing bloodbath targeting
Muslims in India and inhuman lockdown in occupied Kashmir. The MAPIM headed by
Mohammad Azmi Abdul Hamid in a statement issued in Kuala Lumpur demanded the
Indian government to immediately take action against Hindus extremist elements
who targeted and killed the innocent Muslims in Delhi and destroyed their
properties and masjids. The organization also condemned the role of the Indian
media and police in being biased against the Muslims and being complicit with
the government to promote their hateful agenda of division and oppression. “The
unjust policies, laws and actions by the government have intentionally target a
religious creed and this will render India unmanageable politically, socially
and economically,” the statement added. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/03/10/mapim-denounces-massacre-of-indian-muslims-lockdown-in-iok/
17.
Iran Protests: Mar., 11, 2020: Iran’s Assembly of Experts issued a statement on Tuesday
calling on the Indian government to stop the violence against Muslims and
prevent the fire of division in the South Asian country.“The unfortunate news and
heartbreaking images from the bloody conditions of the oppressed Muslims of
India, which are released at a minimal level, make the heart of every
noble-minded human very sad,” read the Assembly of Experts’ statement, signed
by its chairman Ayatolah Ahmad Jannai. The assembly decries the killings
of the people and the destruction of mosques and religious places of the Indian
Muslims, it added. The high-ranking body further called on the Indian
government to take swift measures to end the violence against Muslims. .
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/03/10/2220758/iran-s-assembly-of-experts-urges-india-to-prevent-anti-muslim-violence
18.
Grenade attack: Mar., 11, 2020: In occupied
Kashmir, an Indian paramilitary soldier was injured in a grenade attack in
South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, today. A police official said that
unidentified persons lobbed a grenade on police station Kakpora in the
district. In the blast one soldier of 41 battalion of Central Reserve Police
Force, Sonu Kumar, sustained injuries https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/03/10/one-indian-soldier-injured-in-pulwama-grenade-attack/
19.
Muslim Body; Mar., 13, 2020: In the
statement, the international body World Assembly of
Islamic Awakening, recognized the anti-Muslim
incidents in India against UN resolutions and as a violation of the rights of
the 200 million Muslims in the country. The body also recognized the US and the
Zionist regime as the main financial supporters of the violence against
Muslims, referring to the recent visit of President Trump to India.The Assembly
called for the Indian government, as well as all international human rights
organizations and Muslim leaders, to condemn the anti-Muslim measures in India
and deplore them before a massacre takes place In a letter to the Indian
ambassador to Tehran, representatives of Iranian civil societies launched a
campaign under the title of "I am Indian", on Wednesday.In the letter
to Gaddam Dharmendra, the social activists lamented the extremist
approaches and called on the Indian government to fight extremism if it really
seeks to fight terrorism, since extremist attitudes against followers of
any specific religion will lead to the formation of terrorist groups such
as the ISIL. In a tweet released on March 2, FM Zarif wrote, “Iran condemns the
wave of organized violence against Indian Muslims. For centuries, Iran has been
a friend of India. We urge Indian authorities to ensure the wellbeing of ALL
Indians & not let senseless thuggery prevail. Path forward lies in peaceful
dialogue and rule of law.” https://en.mehrnews.com/news/156648/World-Assembly-of-Islamic-Awakening-slams-violence-against-Muslims
20.
Muslim -businesses
destroyed: Mar., 15, 2020: Minutes later, I am in Younus’s devastated
workshop. The tin roof has caved in. Gaunt metal frames and piles of burnt
goods, being meticulously sorted by type, tell the story of a successful
business doused in petrol and set aflame. There was no riot in Old Garhi Mendu
– because it takes two sides to make one. After Hindu-Muslim violence spread in
north-east Delhi on February 24, a group of young men from this village
launched an unprovoked attack of a kind not witnessed here in living memory. Benaqab, or without masks –
in more ways than one – they entered the modest Mubarak Masjid just as the
evening prayer was to start and beat up the elderly muezzin, Mehboob Hasan, and
others with wooden sticks and rods. After calling the police to no avail, the
village’s vastly outnumbered Muslims had no choice but to scoop up their
families and flee, leaving their homes and businesses unprotected. The few who
stayed on the next day had to make an even more terrified exit, with gangs of
youth banging on their doors and threatening them. More than two weeks later,
most of these people, included the muezzin who is recovering from a head injury,
do not spend the night in the village. Forty-year-old Younus, who has no surname,
was at his fabrication unit, which makes stalls for exhibitions, on the evening
of February 24. It was abuzz with activity because a fleet of trucks was
shortly to leave with stalls for a medical fair in Mumbai. But when he heard the mosque had been
attacked, the father of three, who lives in the properly urban Vijay Park,
locked up and left. He did not want to risk his own life or those of his
workers. The next night, his unit was set on fire. The flames burnt so
intensely that an adjoining Hindu owned unit seems to have been singed by them.
On February 29, when it became safer to return, it was all over. As we walk, he itemises: 600 8×4 boards, 300
partitions, 1,000 concealed lights…an estimated Rs 30-32 lakh of stock and
investment reduced to cinders.“Hamein sadak par khara kar diya
hai (They have left us on the road),” says the Class 12-educated man
who apprenticed at Rs 10,000 a month to learn his skills and managed, over 15
years, to build a business with a Rs 2-crore turnover. Tragically, he did not
get around to insuring it. Everywhere you turn in this village, among
the lanes where Muslims live or work, there is a gutted or looted enterprise. A painting and denting business had its
clients’ cars burnt; a maker of computer tables who sells on Amazon and
Flipkart was so efficiently looted that he cannot produce a single table. A
young man who makes protective boxes for sound and other equipment that is also
picked from this muddy place by online firms, had his stock stolen and his
little workshop gutted. The three-storey home-cum-workshop of a mattress maker
was set on fire, after he estimates, machines, other goods and about a hundred
completed mattresses, were lifted. With police absent, the marauders clearly
had all the time they needed. Behind many of these enterprises is a
backstory of a family – complete with “tiger mothers” organising
apprenticeships for school dropout sons – that is moving up a difficult ladder.
To crystallise what the economist Abusaleh Shariff told me in a conversation,
many Muslims seek to rise through small businesses for a combination of
reasons: their artisanal bent, their comparatively poor education levels,
rising at a lower rate than those of non-Muslims, and skewed government
policies that keep them out of organised employment, where they are now, he
estimates, just 2-4% of the workforce. A range of businesses, from tyre and
auto parts shops to hairdressing saloons, from little units printing wedding
cards to teashops, were cut down in the north-east Delhi violence. As social
activist Maimoona Mollah put it, “People who were standing on their own
feet had their backs broken.” It is harder to blame the violence on mysterious
“outsiders” in this slightly isolated and self-contained village,
though that doesn’t stop Gujjar “elders” from giving the media this spin. It
was an inside job, a police officer conversant with the case told me in an
off-the-record conversation. “Gaon ke log the.” When asked why, after two weeks, only two
youths had been arrested, he claimed Muslims were too scared to name names.
They want this village matter (gaon ki baat) to remain within the
village, he claimed. However, young Muslims especially say the police
do have the names, including those of children of the village elite.
They also report that when they return to the village, Gujjars walk up to them
and ask questions like, “So, you’re back?” and “Is it true you have named me?” Violence and impunity apart, Old Garhi Mendu
is also a microcosm of the trauma being suffered by those re-entering violated
homes and destroyed workplaces, and trying to get their lives and livelihoods
going again. . Sleeping on a mattress far inferior to the ones he makes,
Mohammad Javeduddin, the mattress maker, says he will have to rent rooms for
his family if the Samoday Bhawan (community centre) where most of the families
that fled are holed up, shuts shop. His three-storey house, which is both his
home – “full furnish kiya tha” – and his production centre, is a
charred mess. “The building will have to be demolished and rebuilt, the plinth
has collapsed,” said the engineer from Bihar who took to making foam mattresses
when he couldn’t get a job in Delhi. The family’s egg business has been derailed,
with trays full of rotting eggs in their front room. We almost fail to notice,
until soft-spoken Rizwana points it out, the charred yellow Mahindra Bolero
maxi-truck that grew their business. Hasan drove it to Punjab to bring back
large stocks of eggs and to transport them for sale in Delhi. The couple, who
had recently paid off a loan on the truck, installed CCTV cameras to protect it
at night. Efficient mobs destroyed the cameras when they attacked. In the back room of the two-storey house
they built as their business grew, an empty blue jewellery case flung on a
chair is the most visible sign of their personal effects being ransacked. But
for Hasan and Rizwana, as for Younus and Javeduddin, the most important thing
is getting the business going again. They have been forced to hire transport to
deliver eggs. They tell me, despairingly, that ten days after Hasan alerted the
insurer, Liberty General Insurance, and even had the sub-divisional magistrate
speak to them, it is still lying outside his door with no one having come to
visit. Discrimination or just inertia? It’s hard to tell.You can hear birdsong
and smell fresh dung as Hasan and his sons accompany us to the mosque where it
all began. Clearly subject to more than one attack, and burnt, it looks
derelict and abandoned. Hasan identifies a mangled mess of metal as the metal
stretcher that was used to take the dead for burial. In a ghastly twist to our
little expedition, the children, trying to be helpful, rummage among the
cinders and fish out charred remains of the Quran and the books that were used
to teach Urdu. While the Delhi government is handing over
Rs 25,000 as instant relief to those whose homes were set on fire, this is not
the case for those who only suffered looting. So, 27-year-old Salim Saifi
spends his days crisscrossing north-east Delhi, between his home in Shri Ram
Colony, the sub-divisional magistrate’s office in Seelampur and his rented unit
in Old Garhi Mendu where he was, until February 25, rapidly turning around
computer tables. I keep running into this motor-mouth,
immaculately dressed in a striped shirt and pants, and bearing the expression
of a man going a little crazy for lack of work. “You have to keep your
visibility going to sell online, if you lose it you’re finished,” explains the
Class 12 pass son of a carpenter. He
races me through an account of how, on the back of “ratings and visibility” he
went from a handful of orders to around 150 tables a month, and paid off of Rs
40,000 of a Rs 1.5 lakh loan from a friend. No bank loan? “It’s hard with an “M
profile” and all the KYC requirements,” he says. That echoes what the Sachar
committee observed all those years ago, about the “redlining” of Muslim areas
by banks and financial institutions, effectively denying the community credit
and other financial services. However, Saifi seems too irrepressible to be
deterred by redlines. He says that after having earned himself a better profile
by filing his second income tax return in June, his “next step” was to try
again for a bank loan, and his “next step” after that was to buy a new
labour-saving machine – and scale up. https://thewire.in/communalism/delhi-muslims-violence-businesses
21.
Iran: Mar., 16, 2020: A
member of Iran’s Guardian Council penned a letter to the Supreme Court of
India, calling on the country’s highest judicial body to use its Constitutional
powers and repeal a controversial citizenship law against Muslims that was
ratified in December 2019. Dr. Hadi Tahan Nazif wrote in the letter on Saturday. “…To reconsider a controversial citizenship law that was
ratified by the Parliament of India in December 2019", …https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/03/15/2223554/iran-s-guardian-council-urges-india-to-repeal-discriminatory-law-against-muslims
22.
Modi tactics: Mar.,
16, 2020:
The anti-Muslim pogrom in Delhi last week only killed 43 people, and a few of
them weren’t even Muslims. But then on Kristallnacht (‘The Night of Broken
Glass’) in Germany in 1938, only 91 Jews were killed. It was still a Nazi
declaration of war on the Jews, and a forewarning of the 6 million Jewish
deaths to come. Is this India’s Kristallnacht? History does not repeat, but it
does have patterns. Only one in a
hundred Germans was Jewish in 1933, when Hitler came to power. One-seventh of
India’s population – two hundred million people – are Muslims. A Nazi-style
‘Final Solution’, or even the expulsion of the entire Muslim population (like
the Nazis’ early fantasies about shipping Europe’s Jews to Madagascar) is just
not practical in India. Narendra Modi is a realist, and his project is not
genocide. It is the re-definition of Hindus as the only ‘real’ Indians, and the
demotion of Indian Muslims to second-class citizenship. But it will
still take a lot of violence to cow Muslims into accepting their new lower
status, and that is what we were seeing in Delhi last week. Getting Indian citizenship will be easy if
they are Hindu (or Sikh, or Christian, or Buddhist), but almost impossible in
practice if they are Muslim.The huge non-stop protests since December show that
many Indians, including many Hindus, are appalled by Modi’s frontal assault on
the principle of a secular Indian state whose citizens are equal before the
law. But most Hindus seem to approve,
and Hindus are 80% of the population. Modi hasn’t won yet. The protesters have not
given up, the courts are not completely subjugated by the ruling party, and the
BJP actually lost the election for the Delhi state assembly last month. But
it won the ‘riots’ that followed. The Delhi violence was not just
neighbour turning on neighbour in a spontaneous outburst of hatred. It was started by young
Hindu thugs armed with iron bars, sticks and machetes, trucked in from nearby
rural parts of Uttar Pradesh state to attack Muslims and get the violence
going. Similar events are occurring all over India, and almost always the
police stand by or actually join in the anti-Muslim attacks. There
are stories of Hindus protecting their Muslim neighbours, as you would expect –
there are good people everywhere – but the future doesn’t look promising. The
protests may go on for another month, or another six months, but Modi has four
more years to work with before he faces another election. By then India may be an
unrecognisable place: a ‘soft’ fascist state achieved more or less by
democratic means. https://www.therockymountaingoat.com/2020/03/indias-kristallnacht/
23.
CJI : Mar., 17,
2020:
Former CJI Ranjan Gogoi has been nominated to Rajya Sabha, a government
notification said on Monday, 16 March. Gogoi
served as the 46th Chief Justice of India from 3 October 2018 to 17 November
2019. He headed a five-judge bench that gave the verdict on the sensitive
Ayodhya land dispute on 9 November last year. https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/former-cji-ranjan-gogoi-nominated-to-rajya-sabha
24.
Iranian Lawyers’ Mar., 18, 2020: A group of Iranian lawyers has denounced violence against
Muslims in India, urging the country’s Bar Council to uphold Muslims’ rights. The group, known as Lawyers Without Borders,
wrote a letter to Chairman of the Bar Council of India Manan Kumar Mishra
expressing concern over the significant and unjustified violence by extremist
Hindu groups against Muslims protesters.According to the group, the Muslim
protesters were peacefully objecting to the newly-passed controversial “Citizenship
Act”. “Apparently the security forces have not been able to control the
violence, and some of the extremists have been backed up so that security in
some areas in New Delhi has been endangered,” the letter read, Press TV
reported. They warned about the grave consequences of such policies,
emphasizing that the “discriminatory” law has raised international concern.
“Some Hindu extremist groups have taken advantage of this situation and
resorted to violent and inhuman treatment of Muslims whether they had objected
to the law or not, and thus have turned such a peaceful protest into a conflict
between Muslims and Hindus,” it stated. The Lawyers Without Borders reminded
the chairman of India’s Bar Council that the current violence and discrimination against Muslims is “clearly in
contradiction with the UN Charter and the fundamental human rights
instruments”. The letter finally asked
the Indian officials to take the necessary steps to end the serious concerns of
the international community about the situation of Indian Muslims. https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/446250/Iranian-lawyers-urge-Indian-Bar-Council-to-uphold-Muslims-rights
25.
Report: Mar., 20, 2020: Report: An
Inquiry in to the Anti-Muslim Violence in Northeast Delhi by a Team of Doctors
that Visited the Affected Area. https://www.facebook.com/notes/javed-rashid/an-inquiry-in-to-the-anti-muslim-violence-in-northeast-delhi-by-a-team-of-doctor/10159811090497501/, horrific photographs have not been added to the report as these are
extremely disturbing
26.
Inquiry Report: Mar., 20, 2020: “An Inquiry in
to the Anti-Muslim Violence in Northeast Delhi by aTeam of Doctors that Visited
the Affected Area”. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_VvnTi9Z-XgnzV00zJr_qGk9vqgtLbwK The documents includes- horrific photographs
of the massacre, do not watch if you have a weak stomach. The ferocity and
barbarity of this demands that International bodies take IMMEDIATE ACTION and
NOTICE (although I see a slim chance of that happening) the savagery of this
massacre should prompt Indians to take
action, if they don’t they will rue this fact. The ferocity of this massacre
resembles the Pol Pot actions and need to be investigated and people punished. Perhaps Government of Pakistan should take this to UNHRC,
even a citizen, say an Indian Muslim
could also report this to UNHRC ( IF ANY ONE WISHES
TO DO THAT I WILL ASSIST AND PROVIDE FORMATS
AND PROCEDURES)
27.
Indian Muslims:
Mar., 21, 2020: Ask an Indian Muslim what is it in India’s public life that’s/he
dreads most, wants to get rid of this socio-political plague as quickly as
possible and wants to elect to power only such a party, or group of parties,
that does not make anti-Muslim mass violence a vote-catching strategy. You will
be amazed to find that (barring a few men like Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, MJ Akbar
and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi) nearly 100 out of 100 Muslims will tell you that it is
anti-Muslim violence.
It finds a reflection in the classic Sachar Committee Report (in the
“Perceptions” section). Why in the “Perception” section? Because, over the last
73 years of our independent existence, every influential politician has tried
to deny this truth, because truth does not suit them. So, Gujarat 2002 does not
matter because Delhi 1984 did not matter. Because they did not matter, regular
lynchings of Muslim since 2014 did not matter, and the well-planned massacre of
Muzaffarnagar 2013 did not matter, also because it was a curtain raiser for BJP
victory and rule from 2014. In BJP rule nobody should expect anything good for
Muslims. That was the message.Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has
observed in an article published in The
Indian Express of March 20: “the attacks on poor, working
people, mainly Muslims, in Delhi cannot be separated from the attempts by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi to redefine Indian citizenship and who is eligible for
it, via the recent CAA, and the proposed NPR-NRC. This would appear
in compatible with Article 14 of India’s Constitution, which clearly states that all
citizens are equal before law. Together, these developments pose
searching questions about India’s democratic future and its place in the global
family of nations.” The government decided to humiliate Muslims on Babri Masjid, triple
talaq and, finally an attempt to either disenfranchise them, banish them, put
them in Nazi-like camps, torture or kill them under the garb of new citizenship
laws. Muslims all over India took it as an existential threat and
decided to oppose the combined web of CAA, NPR and NRC in legally and
constitutionally-approved ways: sit-ins and demonstrations countrywide.
28.
Despite its unquestionable legality and constitutional sanction
the Centre tried to quell it with indiscriminate lathi-charge and firing,
including in the library and hostels of Jamia Millia, causing serious injury to
students, reminiscent of a goonda mob attack on students and teachers of JNU on
police watch earlier. Later, in its FIR the police named the victims of the
attack as perpetrators at JNU. It said there were two attackers from the
RSS-affiliated students union, ABVP, but did not name them. It was clearly a
police-sponsored violence against students and teachers with leftist leanings. The same continued
at Jamia and Shaheenbagh, the administration’s favourite goondas firing at
protestors as police blatantly protected them. The Jamia shooter was described
by police as a “juvenile” within a couple of minutes of his shooting a student
through his forearm. He was described as a juvenile to protect him from harsh
punishment. Soon he was found out to be over 20 as his father had died 20 years
ago. This man had also voted in the last election. Such was the partiality of
the state. BJP-run UP killed about two dozen demonstrators, heavily fined
others and put a Rs one crore fine on an Urdu poet, Imran, for reciting an Urdu
poem in public. Such ludicrousness with such brutality was seen in the handling
of the protests in all BJP states as other states showed restraint. Amid all
this chaos, injustice and state involvement in demolishing public faith in a
just order promising Sab
ka saath, Sab ka vikas, Sab ka vishwas the economic slowdown is
deepening. The Delhi episode of mass violence has clearly been declared a
pogrom by Atlantic journal as well as academics
specialising in riots, pogroms and genocides, including Prof. Ashutosh
Varshney. It means mass violence with police participation, which indicates
a compromised state. As the corona virus strikes with full force in coming
weeks the entire chain of production, distribution and consumption will break
down. Schools, factories, offices and other work places will shut down,
bringing the economy tumbling down and many lives destroyed or badly displaced
and impoverished Now is the time to close our ranks. The government
also must remove laws targeted at Muslims (as Amit Shah has repeatedly
reassured people that no Hindu will be touched). Such things are in bad taste,
bringing ignominy to all of us, as reflected in world media.https://www.siasat.com/we-people-india-hammered-three-sides-1861891/
29.
Saheen Bagh Protest: Mar., 27, 2020: Police in India’s capital broke up the longest-running protest
against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s citizenship law on Tuesday, citing a ban
on public gatherings because of the coronavirus outbreak. Dozens of people,
many of them women, have been staging a sit-in protest since early December on
a street in the Shaheen Bagh neighbourhood, which has become a focal point for
opposition to the law seen as discriminating against Muslims. Some demonstrators resisted the police and at
least nine people had been detained, six of them women, Srivastava said, adding
there was no violence. . https://www.dawn.com/news/1543374/indian-police-clear-out-anti-government-protest-citing-coronavirus
30.
Modi and COV19: Mar., 27, 2020: This raises question over government's
intent. It is using the coronavirus crisis to serve its own purpose, the prime
among which is to wind up the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act, National Register
of Citizens and National Population Register protests being carried out
throughout the country especially by Muslim women. When Lucknow police issued a
notice to women at Ghanta Ghar site to wind up the protest, the women advised
them to worry about themselves as the women were already wearing veils which
protected them. On 19 March, 2020 a heavy posse of police personnel tried to
get the site vacated. They outnumbered the women present at that point and it
fails to register how large numbers of police personnel gathering will keep
them safe from coronavirus. After a scuffle, the police realized that women
were not going to move and withdrew, leaving some of the women injured. Uttar
Pradesh health minister, without applying his mind, has suggested that people
who'll not cooperate with government efforts to control the outbreak of
coronavirus will be sent to jail, which will result in overcrowding of already
crowded jails posing increased risk to inmates. The central government
is also guilty of allowing communal violence to go on in national capital for
over three days in the last week of February, in which over 50 precious lives
were lost, again with the intention of winding up the anti-CAA-NRC-NPR
protests. In Delhi the government has been successful in reducing the number of
protests to half. But it clearly shows that government is least interested in
saving lives of people. Steps taken to check spread of coronavirus is a public
relations exercise meant for international consumption. Otherwise how is the
religious ritual of shifting of Ram idol in Ayodhya going on? Could it not wait
for a future date? http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=100492
31.
Indian response to COVID 19 and minorities: Mar., 29, 2020:
In fact, it may well be too late. This lockdown is, in keeping with many of
this government’s policies, a headline-grabbing initiative announced with
little warning, but one that will do little to address the myriad problems
India faces in dealing with the coronavirus. It puts responsibility for
containing the outbreak on citizens, instead of instituting a robust official
support system. It is needlessly punishing for the most vulnerable in society.
It does nothing to solve this country’s problems with public health and safety.
And everything that is wrong with India’s response flows from that period late
last year through the early parts of this year, in which the government set the
tone for what is undoubtedly the world’s harshest lockdown with police brutality,
a lack of transparency, and a shortage of compassion. The restrictions
themselves are onerous: Indians should not be leaving their homes, all
businesses were ordered to close, and no transport—via plane, train, or
bus—would be allowed. The prime minister called for social distancing, urged
his compatriots to avoid spreading rumors, and pledged financial support to
strengthen the health-care system. Yet the announcement of the lockdown was
remarkable not just for its scope, but for its timing. Modi made his speech at
8:00 p.m. on March 24, saying the restrictions would come into force just after
midnight and be in place for three weeks. By the time he spoke, shops had
closed for the day, catching off guard people who had been repeatedly told not
to panic-buy. Elsewhere, such as in
Britain, France, and Italy, grocery stores and pharmacies have remained open to
provide essential services, but here, they are closed. While most wealthy and
middle-class Indians will make it through these three weeks unscathed, able to
hunker down, work from home, and access some modicum of entertainment, the
country’s poor and its huge number of transient migrant workers (there are no
official figures, but the most often cited
number is 100 million) will struggle to
survive. The government is offering little in the way of a safety net.
Only after the lockdown came into force, and amid growing outrage, did the
finance minister finally announce an aid package. Yet its $22 billion value
is a pitiful amount compared with what governments elsewhere have provided: India’s amounts to less than 1 percent of its
GDP. It provides no help for day laborers or other workers in similar
unorganized sectors. It contains no measures for migrant workers. The actual
amounts of support—five kilograms of rice or wheat, and one kilogram of
legumes, per person for the next three months, coupled with cash transfers, in
some cases of 500 rupees, or $7, a month—have infuriated voters.
Here in Goa, a lawyer has petitioned the high court to
direct the state government to provide essential goods to the people,
especially those who are living below the poverty line. For the poor,
work has dried up entirely, and so those migrant workers who could sought to
beat the lockdown by heading home
in huge numbers. Since the restrictions came into force, buses and trains have
stopped ferrying passengers across the country, leaving them to walk, often for days,
with their families back to their towns and villages. Again, the
authorities’ callousness has been on display: In one
heartbreaking video that went viral, police in
the northern state of Uttar Pradesh force young boys to perform frog jumps as
punishment for violating the curfew. Another video shows police waiting outside
a mosque in the southern state of Karnataka, beating worshippers with a stick
as they leave. Similar cases of police brutality have been
reported around the country, and social media have filled with messages
of people running out of food yet afraid to leave their dwellings, fearful of
the police. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/03/india-coronavirus-covid19-narendra-modi/608896/
32.
Misuse
of epidemic: Mar., 29, 2020: The Uttar Pradesh police arrested Dr.
Ashish Mittal on March 23, 2020. At the time, chief minister Adityanath had
already imposed a lockdown. Mittal, who was one of the many supporters of the
women-led anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests had received warnings from
the state police to get the dharna on Mansoor Park area of Prayagraj stopped,
failing which “lawful action” could be taken against him. However, when he was
arrested two days later, the Uttar Pradesh police bizarrely slapped the
Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, against the Allahabad-based doctor and another
activist Umar Khalid, who was also put in police custody. https://thewire.in/rights/ashish-mittal-epidemic-act-uttar-pradesh
33.
Kabul Sikh massacre: Mar., 30, 2020: The World Kashmir Awareness Forum
(WKAF) has expressed outrage and condemned the terrorist attacks that has
targeted the Karte Parwan Sikh Gurudwara in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing 25
innocent human beings.WKAF in a statement issued in Washington said, “We are
deeply saddened by the loss of life and our hearts go out to the bereaved
families and friends. We ask that the Afghanistan government set-up an
impartial Commission to investigate this heinous crime and bring the culprits
to justice.” “The world community in general, and the Sikh community, in
particular, have not forgotten the Chittisinghpura massacre on March 20,
2000, on the eve of President Bill Clinton’s visit to India. An
internal investigation instituted by the Indian government under international
pressure revealed that the massacre was the handiwork of the Indian agencies.
These revelations by Lt. Gen. K. S. Gill, who was part of the investigation, that
the personnel of the Indian army, along with the Indian government’s hired
gunmen in Kashmir, were directly involved in the massacre were
initially hushed up by the Indian government,” the statement added. According
to Mr. Gill, WKAF said, their singular aim was to smear the Kashmir freedom
struggle to enlist the sympathies of the then US president toward the Indian
government’s narrative on Kashmir. “President Clinton has repeatedly refused to
accept the Indian government’s contention that the massacre was the work of
Pakistani groups.”“Similar cynical attempts by the Indian intelligence agencies
and their collaborators in the Afghan intelligence network, in the past, have
invariably aimed at implicating Pakistan and the Kashmiris in such acts of
violence against civilians,” it said and added that these agencies relentlessly
aim to achieve the twin goal of tarnishing the images of both Pakistan and the
Kashmiris freedom movement and simultaneously sow a division among the
Kashmiris and the Sikhs.“Such despicable attempts by the Indian government have
failed to create a wedge between the Muslim and Sikh communities. The rank and
file, and leadership of the two communities across the globe are united in
friendship”.The WKAF expresses its solidarity with our global Sikh community
demanded by probe by international agencies such as Amnesty International,
Human Rights Watch and United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/03/29/india-has-failed-to-create-wedge-between-muslims-sikhs-wakf/
34.
CAA and International community: Mar., 31. 2020: Many international legal experts, including the United Nations
special rapporteur on minorities, say India's new citizenship law is
discriminatory and are calling for international intervention. The
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) fast-tracks nationality for non-Muslim
minorities from neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but excludes
Muslims - a step compared with US President Donald Trump's Muslim ban. Fernand
de Varennes, the UN special rapporteur on minorities, told Al Jazeera that
there is a danger that millions of members of minority groups such as Muslims
will be denied citizenship."Many have opined that the exclusion of Muslims
as a group from the ambit of the law constitutes an extreme example of
discriminatory treatment and that the right of equality without discrimination
- particularly if it has a 'racial' element - is one of the fundamental principles
of international human rights," de Varennes told Al Jazeera. Earlier
this month, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, filed
an intervention in the Supreme Court to challenge the CAA. India's
top court is also hearing a petition from Muslims and liberal Indians, who say
the law is against the country's secular constitution. Bachelet's petition
emphasises that sovereign power is not unfettered and that even decisions
regarding citizenship have to conform to the principle of non-discrimination. In
February de Varennes and other UN special rapporteurs wrote an "open
letter" to the Indian government expressing concerns about the
discriminatory aspects of the CAA. The letter highlights that the
"arbitrary" exclusion of Muslims and other minorities from the NRC
would "perpetuate discrimination against them and perpetuate a climate of
uncertainty, including fears of prolonged statelessness, detention or even
deportation".
".Experts warn that the CAA, coupled with the proposed National Register
of Citizens (NRC), violates international law, specifically the prohibition on
rendering people stateless. Nearly two million people were
excluded from a citizenship list in the northeastern state of Assam where the
NRC exercise was concluded last year. "What the NRC will create is a large
group of stateless people, which in itself will run counter to the obligation
in international law to prevent statelessness," Parvathi Menon, a lecturer
at the Erik Castren Institute of International Law and Human Rights at the
University of Helsinki, says. Menon says the Indian government has already
violated its international obligations by "returning" many
Rohingya, claiming that they were "illegal' immigrants. Menon points to
the position in Assam where "illegal immigrants" are now being housed
in detention centres. India's Hindu nationalist government has deported some
Rohingya refugees to Myanmar in violation of the principles of non-refoulement
under refugee law. New Delhi, which considers the Muslim refugees a security
threat, has vowed to deport them. According to Indian lawyer Shruti Panday, the
NRC places the burden to prove Indian citizenship on the citizen, which could
mean that "every citizen becomes a doubtful citizen". The impact on
marginalised groups such as Muslims will be particularly detrimental, she says.
The Indian Constitution recognises the right to equality and the equal
application of the law. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which India is a signatory to, specifically prohibits arbitrary deprivation of
nationality. The purpose of Bachelet's intervention was to highlight the High
Commissioner's concerns that the CAA does not comply with India's human rights
obligations. Disenfranchised. Dozens of people, mostly Muslims, have been
killed in a police crackdown that has been criticised by rights groups. The
Supreme Court refused
to strike down the legislation and gave the government headed by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
time to reply to pleas challenging the constitutionality of the CAA. In the
third week of March, the Ministry of Home Affairs filed an affidavit
in the Supreme Court stating that preparation of the NRC was a "necessary
exercise for any sovereign country for mere identification of citizens from
non-citizens". It emphasised that it is not "taking away"
anyone's citizenship, adding that the CAA "won't affect the legal,
democratic or secular rights of people". Priya Pillai, an international
lawyer, said that the international community should "keep the pressure on
India".Pillai says she believes the UN High Commissioner's intervention is
a signal of how seriously
the issue of citizenship and potential statelessness is being taken by the
international community."The impact on regional peace and security can
also not be ruled out, especially if there is mass statelessness as a result of
the law and policies being pursued", says Pillai. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/holdstopping-stateless-challenge-india-citizenship-law-200312071917304.html
35.
Electoral changes: Apr., 1, 2020: Modi revoked 370 and 35A, this was accepted by the majority of the
Hindu population, only a few liberals protested, ( Sikhs also pretested) . CAA
and NRC similarity was accepted by the Hindus majority, some liberals and minorities
did protest. The AAP won an election in Delhi; all of this did not result in
any political realignment. The Delhi massacre also did not evoke and large
scale protests. The incompetent and shoddy way in which the lockdown has been
imposed has resulted in anger towards
the BJP, the migrants have been very badly treated , with the police also
contributing towards their misery, at least 22 have lost their lives in what is
called the largest human migration since
the 1947 partition. This resentment in
lower class and Hindus has the potential of creating new political alliances,
there will be need to formulate a platform that could align the interests of
the minorities and lower class Hindu is a possible political realignment.
Monthly update 6: February 2020 : Muslims in India
.
1.
Revival of Hate: Feb., 1, 2020: Seventy-two years ago, when the Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse, a
follower of the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological
fountainhead of today’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), pulled the
trigger, he blamed it on Gandhi’s alleged emasculation of Hindus and generosity
toward Muslims.Today, the same rhetoric is in action. A few days ago, Anurag
Thakur, a junior minister of finance in the cabinet of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, was campaigning for the forthcoming Delhi elections chanting “desh ke
gaddaron ko goli maaro saalon ko” (“shoot all the traitors of the
country”). Also
recently, Shah, the second-in-command
to Modi, told a
crowd during a campaign event to “press the election button with
such anger that Shaheen Bagh feels the current,” a reference to the Delhi
neighborhood where Muslim women have been sitting in protest, singing
revolutionary songs and launching a Gandhian
Satyagraha to ensure the government revokes the citizenship bill that
discriminates against Muslims and threatens to erase their existence. Enabled
by this hate, the university attacker did the needful. Before he fired his
pistol, in front of the police and the national media, he reportedly posted on his Facebook page that he was going to take
revenge on the protesters of Shaheen Bagh. The posts repeated the
provocative slogans that had been made by Modi’s ministers regarding the
shooting of traitors. The gunman further wrote that if he was martyred while
killing the anti-nationalists, his dead body should be covered in saffron. With that, a day to commemorate Gandhi’s martyrdom for an inclusive
India turned into a brutal reminder of our steady decline into fascism and
another reason for the world to be alarmed. A week ago, I was at the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In almost every interaction, I was asked by
foreign dignitaries and diplomats “what is happening to Gandhi’s India?” I
heard George Soros call out Modi. “The
biggest and most frightening setback,” Soros said, came in India “where a
democratically elected Narendra Modi is creating a Hindu nationalist state, imposing punitive measures on Kashmir, a semi-autonomous Muslim region, and threatening to deprive
millions of Muslims of their citizenship.” The same
day, the Economist ran a scathing cover story, under
the headline “Intolerant India: Narendra Modi stokes divisions in the world’s
biggest democracy." A secondary headline read: “India’s 200m Muslims fear
the prime minister is building a Hindu state.” In the last eight months, multiple
publications, including the New York Times, the London
Review of Books, the Wall
Street Journal and The Post, have dedicated multiple editorials calling
called out Modi’s divisive agenda to polarize India on religious lines.
2.
EU Vote postponement: Feb., 1, 2020: European Union
parliamentarians have voted to postpone a vote that criticises India's
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)
and its lockdown in Kashmir.
The draft resolution had been brought by six groups representing 626 of 751
members of the European Parliament. The vote, which was expected to conclude on
Thursday, will now not be held until the end of March.The resolution had
described the CAA as "fundamentally discriminatory in nature", with
one group saying the controversial bill had the potential to "create the
largest statelessness crisis in the world".It also criticised a recent
crackdown in Kashmir, including an internet shutdown and preventive detention
measures. The vote will be held after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
March 13 visit to Brussels for a bilateral summit “I think the Europeans are
giving Prime Minister Modi the benefit of the doubt because he will be coming
to Brussels for a summit next month," Jyoti Malhotra, editor of national
and strategic affairs at The Print website in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera. "It
would have looked very bad for him had the European Parliament passed a
resolution which was critical of the CAA and Kashmir. So I think both India and
Europe are saving "And in the
context of Kashmir, we are now six months without any communication. So it is a
crisis on which the European Parliament definitely needs to take an urgent
stand." https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/european-parliament-delay-vote-india-caa-kashmir-200131060153083.html
3.
Fascist India: Feb.,1, 2020: With each criticism, the prime minister has only become more committed
to his brazen majoritarian agenda. Modi invokes Gandhi on his foreign trips but
he’s bent on discrediting those calling for justice the Gandhian way. This
week, a video circulated of police officers grilling 8-year-old students in a BJP-ruled state. The school was accused of promoting
anti-national activity for staging a play against the prime minister’s
citizenship bill. Now, someone has opened fire on peaceful student protesters —
fueled by the hate coming from the country’s leaders. The fascism unleashed by Modi
is at the doorstep of every Indian, the growing radicalization of the
increasingly insecure Indian Hindu is turning into a dangerous threat for the
plural and secular democracy of India. Modi and his allies in the
government are stoking this insecurity, invoking Hindu supremacy in response to
dissenting voices. Godse, who assassinated Gandhi, is being
reinvented as a martyr for the Hindu cause, giving birth to those who imagine
themselves as the foot soldiers of Hindu supremacy.But on the 72nd
anniversary of Gandhi’s death, we must seek refuge in the comforting words of
the Mahatma himself: “When I despair, I remember that all through history the
way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers,
and for a time they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. …
Always.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/31/hate-that-inspired-gandhis-assassin-is-rising-again/
4.
Police abuse protestors: Feb., 2, 2020: At
73 years old, Mohammad Shoaib had grown used to harassment from police. As one
of India’s highest-profile activists, he had made a name fighting for Muslims
falsely accused of being terrorists by the police, earning him powerful
enemies. But in late December, as he was brought into the police station in
Lucknow, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, in the middle of the night, he
felt something had shifted. “Police officers abused me badly while I was in
their custody and they threatened me in many ways,” he said. “One [senior
officer] said to me at the police station: ‘I will fuck your mother. I am going to
throw all your family members in jail where they will rot for life. I will
destroy your family’.” As India erupted in protest over a
controversial new citizenship bill
late last year, Shoaib was among dozens of leading social and legal activists
who began to be systematically and illegally targeted, rounded up and detained
by police, with several tortured and most kept in prison on fabricated charges,
without ever being presented to a magistrate, as the law requires. While the
BJP government is notoriously intolerant of critics, the systematic crackdown
on some of the most recognisable civil society activists has been unprecedented
in both scale and fervour. It has also been concentrated in Uttar Pradesh,
where the BJP government led by chief minister Yogi Adityanath, known for his
anti-Muslim and staunchly Hindu nationalist rhetoric, vowed “revenge” on those
who had taken to the streets to protest at the controversial Citizenship
Amendment Act (CAA). Police have been accused of firing on protesters, rounding
up hundreds of innocent Muslims in the state and torturing men, women and
children in custody. In seven cases recounted to the Observer, activists
alleged they had been detained on entirely falsified charges by police. For
Shoaib, his detention was particularly farcical. He stands accused of leading a
protest that turned violent in Lucknow on 19 December, despite the fact it
occurred while he was under police house arrest, having been detained the night
before. “Police kept my house under watch and restrained me from going out. How
could I possibly be present at the protest site, away from my home that
afternoon?” he said. “Yet, the police charged me with attempted murder, arson
and rioting. For years many police officers have viewed me as their enemy and
now they are portraying me as a conspirator and violent rioter, without any
basis.” After police failed to produce any evidence before a judge, Shoaib was
bailed last month, following weeks behind bars. But the charges have not been
dropped. “Activists are facing an increased level of pressure or crackdown,” he
said of the past three months. “The government is trying to silence all types
of dissent and shrink the space for activism. It is trying to break the
backbone of activism in the state.” Sadaf Jafar, another prominent activist in
Uttar Pradesh and spokesperson for the Congress political party, wept as she
recounted the torture she says she endured when arrested on 19 December. She
says she was arrested while protesting peacefully at the Lucknow rally against
the new citizenship law, and was among those later facing 20 charges, including
inciting violence and attempted murder. She was detained until early January,
when a judge granted her bail due to lack of evidence. While in the police
station, Jafar said, officers subjected her to relentless racist and
Islamophobic slurs. “They started slapping and beating me, calling me ‘Pakistani’ and
other language I could never repeat. “One of the female officers, who was
filled with this anger, shouted: ‘I am going to beat you so hard I draw
blood’,” said Jafar. “She pulled my hair and clawed my face
and hands. And then another senior male officer told me he had seen me ‘talking
big’ at the protest and that he would teach me a lesson; that he would charge
me with attempted murder and make sure I ‘rotted in prison’. He
pulled me down by my hair, kicked me in my stomach and knees… I
have spent my life fighting for people’s rights but I never imagined the police
would act in this way.” It is not just Muslim activists who report torture.
Deepak Kabir, 46, a prominent Hindu poet and activist, said he had been
arrested and badly beaten after he went into a police station to look for
fellow activists. “They are going after activists because we are willing to
fight,” he said. “It’s a very thought out process to target well-known faces
because if they crush us, then everyone else is immediately intimidated.” SR
Darapuri, 76, a former senior police officer turned activist, who has long
irritated authorities in Uttar Pradesh with his outspoken comments about
extrajudicial killings by police, alleged the police had gone to “extreme
lengths” to arrest and then charge him with rioting, attempted murder and
criminal conspiracy related to Lucknow protests that turned violent. “For 46
hours they kept me without food,” he said. “I am a retired senior police
officer from the rank as high as inspector general and I was forced to endure
such torture.” Darapuri described how, after his arrest at home on 20 December,
police brought him before a magistrate, as is legally required before he could
be sent to jail. But the magistrate refused to grant permission, citing lack of
evidence, and criticised the officers for Darapuri’s “wrongful arrest”. But
that did not stop them. “After taking me back to Hazratganj police station, the
police officer recorded a report in which he stated that I had been taken to a
magistrate but he was not available,” he said. “This was not the truth. The
magistrate refused to remand me in custody because he believed I was innocent.”
Activist
Sadaf Jafar says she was kicked in the stomach and knee by a senior police
officer and told she would ‘rot in prison’. The same day, Darapuri was taken to jail
where he was kept until 5 December, when he was bailed. At the hearing the
Uttar Pradesh police failed to produce any evidence against him, claiming video
footage of his alleged offences was “too hazy or grainy and none of the people
there could be identified”. Yet the arrests of activists have continued. Last
Wednesday, hours before he was due to address an anti-CAA rally in Mumbai,
activist Dr Kafeel Khan was arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police Special Task Force
for allegedly delivering a “provocative” speech in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, at a
rally on 12 December. On Friday, police filed new complaints against Shoaib,
Kabir and several other activists after they staged a peaceful candlelit vigil
against the act. Sandeep Pandey, another prominent Lucknow-based activist
involved in the anti-CAA protests described the escalation in attacks on
critics. “My emails and phones have been kept under surveillance by the
government,” he said. “We have been jailed before for activism-related
activities but we used to get bail and come out of jail. Police didn’t
misbehave with us. Now, in recent months, police have changed their attitude
towards us and we are being badly abused by them… The rights activists are
facing the worst crackdown in Uttar Pradesh; in no other state in India is
the situation is as bad,” he said. “This is out and out a fascist regime.” . https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/01/uttar-pradesh-india-activists-false-arrest-torture-custody-citizenship-amendment-act
5.
Saheen Bagh women fired at: Feb., 2, 2020: A suspected Hindu nationalist opened fire at an anti-government
protest in India's capital on Saturday, police said, just days after an armed
teenager shot and injured a student at a rally in the
same city.The gunman fired into a large crowd of female demonstrators at a
non-stop protest in New Delhi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
contentious citizenship law that critics say discriminates against Muslims. No
injuries were reported. Footage broadcast on local television stations showed a
man in his 20s being taken away by police as he shouted that “only
Hindus will prevail in the country “ The incident occurred in the
New Delhi suburb of Shaheen Bagh, which has become the epicentre of protests
against Modi's government since mid-December when parliament passed the law
that grants citizenship to only non-Muslim nationals from Pakistan, Afghanistan
and Bangladesh. The back-to-back incidents come after a minister in Modi's
government, Anurag Thakur, called on crowds at a rally to “shoot the traitors”
earlier this week.Several members of Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party have termed the protesters “anti-national” and “traitors”.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1531873/suspected-hindu-radical-fires-at-protesters-in-india-in-2nd-such-incident-in-three-days, https://www.hindustantimes.com/videos/caa-2019/watch-man-opens-fire-in-shaheen-bagh-taken-into-custody-by-police/video-FCfp9wbRkkltJp8bnj7Y0K.html
6.
AI: Feb., 2, 2020: Amnesty International has told the
US lawmakers that the recently enacted Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) stands
in "clear violation" of the Constitution of India and international
human rights law and "legitimises discrimination" on the basis of
religion. The new citizenship law passed by Parliament in December 2019 offers
citizenship to non-Muslim persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Amnesty International Asia Pacific Advocacy Manager
Francisco Bencosme made the remarks during a testimony before the House Foreign
Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and
International Organizations and House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee. The
Indian Parliament “passed the Citizenship Amendment Act, which legitimises
discrimination on the basis of religion and stands in clear violation of the
constitution of India and international human rights law,” Bencosme said https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/caa-in-clear-violation-of-indian-constitution-and-intl-human-rights-law-amnesty/1723337?fbclid=IwAR2F4UOfmJ46kQYGyMNR_0GSeVuxKw2yFClBE1oO0U47tFUXPoz0nvIswgI
7. Punjab protest: Feb.,
3, 2020: Nearly 20,000 Farmers, Women Take to Malerkotla Streets Against CAA. The women wore yellow clothing to
symbolise oneness and chanted slogans that went, “Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai, saaray kirtee bhai bhai“. While
strongly condemning the brutal repression of peaceful protesters across the
country, the leaders decried the government’s alleged efforts to establish a
‘Hindu rashtra’ and expressed solidarity with students of Jawaharlal Nehru
University and Jamia Millia Islamia. On January 17, the Punjab state assembly
passed a resolution demanding that the CAA be scrapped. State minister Brahm
Mohindra had moved the resolution against the CAA on the second
day of the two-day special assembly session. https://thewire.in/rights/malerkotla-punjab-caa-rally
8. Firing incident; Feb.,
3, 3020: Another firing incident was reported at Jamia
Millia Islamia University in Delhi Sunday night. Arshaan Afaq, an undergraduate
law student, was present at the spot when two people opened fire from a moving
vehicle. “The first shot was fired near gate number 5. And we heard another
noise when it crossed gate number 1. Though no one was hurt, situation here is
tense. We have noted the number of the vehicle.” Security
guards at Jamia told officials that two persons came on a scooty from Okhla and
moved towards Jullena. “They said the first shot was fired near gate number 6
and second near gate number 1,” an official said, requesting anonymity. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/another-firing-incident-reported-at-jamia-millia-islamia-university-in-delhi/story-fBYBDh0Sux9wDAfuzPYWLK.html
9. US Congress: Feb., 4, 2020: trouble for India over the Citizenship
(Amendment) Act and continued detentions in Kashmir is brewing just below the
surface in the US Congress. Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal’s
resolution asking the Indian government to lift all restrictions in Kashmir as
soon as possible is alive and gathering support within the party, as well as
quiet acquiescence from Republicans. The resolution, which now has 49
co-sponsors, including five Republicans, is still in the House Foreign Affairs
Committee. It has sat there since December 6 when it was introduced by
Jayapal While the resolution deals with
the situation in the bifurcated union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and
Ladakh, additional measures by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on who
is and can be an Indian citizen have raised further questions. There is growing
disquiet about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the National Register of
Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) and how they might
overlap and affect large numbers of Muslims in India. Confusion prevails over
how each component of the alphabet soup might ultimately be implemented.
India’s Republic Day celebrations in Washington saw more than a thousand
protesters walk from the White House to the Indian Embassy against the CAA.
Some read the preamble to the Indian constitution. The protest was peaceful
except for a few heated exchanges between Pakistan-inspired elements and Indian
community leaders. It’s clear that
Indian-American groups have become energised. Some analysts see a resurrection
of the old anti-Modi “Coalition Against Genocide”, which prevailed in the US
Congress to deny him a visa while he was chief minister of Gujarat. Shaik
Ubaid, a New York area doctor and the founding president of the Indian American
Muslim Council (IAMC), is back in the fray. With the help of larger Muslim
advocacy organisations in the United States, such as the Council on American
Islamic Relations (CAIR), Ubaid’s group is leading an increasingly vocal
campaign to pressure the US Congress to take cognisance of current developments
in India. Last week, the IAMC organised a briefing for Congressional staffers
and invited an array of critics to speak on the CAA and NRC. The 90-minute
programme included speakers from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, US
Commission on International Religious Freedom and Magsaysay awardee Sandeep
Pandey, who spoke about his many personal run-ins with the Uttar Pradesh
government. The master of ceremonies set the tone when he challenged the US
government, asking why it hadn’t taken a strong stand against India. It’s
“inconceivable” that with its massive intelligence capacity and diplomatic
heft, the administration doesn’t know that millions of Muslims are about to be
rendered “stateless”. John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director at Human Rights
Watch, claimed the government of India and its embassies were putting out
“misinformation”. He also claimed that India couldn’t argue that its moves are
an “internal matter” because international law was being violated.While a state
has the right to determine citizenship, it is not allowed to act in a
discriminatory manner on the basis of race, religion, colour and ethnicity.
India is a signatory to various covenants on human rights, which ask countries
to curtail hate speech and curb xenophobia. He called India’s NPR “slow moving
and insidious”. Franciso Bencosme of Amnesty International was even more
strident. He said Amnesty had documented “a clear pattern of use of excessive
force, arrests and bias in police and administrative response”. The prime
minister’s “silence on police brutality and crackdown has spoken louder than
his words”.He said the US Congress should address the situation as a human
rights issue, not a partisan issue or liberalism vs fascism issue. Harrison
Akins of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, an organisation
that the Modi government has a special distaste for, repeated his group’s call
for targeted sanctions against “individuals” – a veiled reference to India’s
home minister Amit Shah. The US government has a “vast array of tools” which it
must deploy to deal with the situation in India because the BJP and company are
“reinventing the history and social landscape” of the country, he said. The
barrage of criticism is likely to put some members of Congress off – as it has
certain Indian American groups which refused to be part of this coalition. This
time around the group is calling itself “Coalition to Stop Genocide” and lists
among its supporters “Black Lives Matter,” a movement that came into being in
the wake of several police shootings of unarmed black men. In addition, the
coalition includes Left-leaning critics of India, earnest individuals who
genuinely worry about India, secular Hindus but also some who have reportedly
sent funds to extremist organisations in India. CAIR has money, outreach and
influence – attributes that Indian American groups are looking for in their
effort to increase pressure on the Modi government through legislative action.
How far it succeeds in its goals remains to be seen.
https://thewire.in/rights/anti-caa-activists-us-indian-americans
10.
Seattle and CAA :
Feb.,5, 020: The Alliance for Justice and Accountability (AJA), an umbrella
organization of progressive South Asian groups across the United States in
coordination with the local Seattle community, on February 4 lauded the City
Council of Seattle for having unanimously passed Resolution 31926 denouncing
India’s draconian Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of
Citizens (NRC).The resolution, introduced by Council member Kshama
Sawant, besides opposing the CAA and NRC as fundamentally discriminatory and
against India’s Constitution, affirms Seattle as a welcoming city and expresses
the City Council’s solidarity with Seattle’s South Asian community regardless
of religion and caste Council member Morales added “As a Jew,
it was not lost on me that that resolution passed on the 75th anniversary of
the liberation of Auschwitz. It is important that we stand up for
human dignity, for the right of people to find refuge from violence regardless
of their religion.” “We welcome the Seattle City Council’s resolution
denouncing the divisive and draconian CAA and NRC. These acts are
unconstitutional and designed to disenfranchise several million Muslim, Dalits
and other minorities in order to create a fascist state.” said Javed Sikander,
spokesperson for the Seattle chapter of the Indian American Muslim Council
(IAMC).Highlighting the importance of international condemnation, , Executive
Director of Equality Labs, Thenmozhi Soundarajan said, “Seattle is leading the
moral consensus in the global outcry against the CAA. When genocidal campaigns
begin, one important intervention is international condemnation, and the
Seattle community feels a deep sense of solidarity with their elected
officials, as the time to stand against the Indian government’s Islamophobic
policies is now. These genocidal projects happen in the shadows and this
resolution highlights the significance of the Seattle City Council standing up
for South Asian minorities, Muslims, and caste oppressed communities.”President
of Indian American Muslim Council, Ahsan Khan said,”Seattle City’s decision to
condemn CAA should be a message to all who wish to undermine pluralism and
religious freedom. They cannot peddle in hate and bigotry, and expect to have
international acceptability at the same time.”At a Congressional Briefing
titled “Implications of India’s Citizenship Law (CAA)” in Washington, DC this
week, Mr. Harrison Akins, Policy Analyst (South Asia) with the US Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) rightly stated, “In India today, the freedom
of religion or belief is being decimated as individuals are targeted simply due
to their religious identity, in violation of India’s own constitution.” Last
month, the USCIRF had called for the US Government to sanction India’s Home
Minister Amit Shah.At the same Congressional Briefing, Amnesty International,
the world’s premier civil rights watchdog was represented by Francisco
Bencosme, Asia Pacific Advocacy Manager. “The CAA, both in structure and in
intent, is exclusionary and inconsistent with India’s Constitution and human
rights obligation,” Mr. Bencosme said at the briefing. It “may deprive
minorities of their citizenship in India. If implemented, this stands to create
the biggest stateless crisis of the world causing immense human suffering,” Bencosme
added The briefing was also attended by
John Sifton, Asia Advocacy Director of the Human Rights Watch in the U.S. The
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that India ratified in
1979 “is very clear that you cannot deprive people of their citizenship on the
basis of their race, color, descent, national or ethnic origins,” Sifton had
said. Genocide Watch, an independent body that is widely considered to have
expertise in the prediction of genocide in conflict-ridden areas around the world,
has issued two separate genocide alerts for the states of Assam and Kashmir. Comparisons
to Nazi Germany just before the onset of World War II are therefore quite apt.
In Seattle, hundreds from the South Asian community and allied organizations
have spoken out against the CAA and NRC, including over 400 people who rallied
in Bellevue on January 26. Local organizations API Chaya, Tasveer, Council of
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Washington, Seattle South Asians Building
Accountability & Healing (SABAH), Khalsa Gurmat Center Federal Way,
Gurudwara of Renton, Gurudwara of Auburn, Gurudwara of Kent, Gurudwara of
Bothell, and the Seattle LGBTQ Commission joined national organizations
Equality Labs, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Amnesty International
USA, and the Ambedkar King Study Circle in calling for the passage of the
resolution. Seattle-area residents recognize that international condemnation
will apply pressure on the Indian government to account for the discrimination
and violence perpetuated by the CAA and NRC.AJA has pledged to continue the
struggle against India’s repressive policies against minorities and caste
oppressed. https://indicanews.com/2020/02/04/seattle-becomes-the-first-us-state-to-denounce-caa-and-nrc/
11.
Women
protest in UP: Feb., 6, 2020: another group of women over 160 km away – in the
renowned Islamic seminary of Deoband in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district –
had begun to feel restless. over 160 km away – in the renowned Islamic seminary
of Deoband in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district – had begun to feel restless.
and harsh one, with surprise rainfall on some days during the protest. A young, burkha-clad Fozia Usmani was among the first
ones to have ignited the fire of resistance among the women of Deoband.
“Resistance was building across the country. People who have always remained on
the periphery were leading the movement against the Centre’s decision to pass
these inhuman laws. I wanted to be a part of this historical human resistance,
but did not quite know how to go about it,” Fozia, a political sciences
student, told The Wire.
But when Fozia reached out to other women in the town, she says the eagerness
was infectious. Not just the Muslim women, but several women from Bahujan
castes have also joined the protest. https://thewire.in/rights/anti-caa-protest-up-deoband
12.
Sikhs join protest:
Feb., 7, 2020: Dal Khalsa spokesman Kanwarpal Singh along with his teammates
expressed solidarity with Muslim community by paying visit at Shaheen Bagh
where anti-CAA protest has been going on since last 51 days. He warned the BJP
government against terrorizing and harming the protesters. The delegation of
the Dal Khalsa also visited Jamia Millia Islamic University and Hauz Rani to join
hands with Muslim community in rejecting the CAA combined with NRC. Terming the
new amendments as divisive and discriminative, Kanwar Pal Singh asked the
government to withdraw the amendments. Slamming the Hindutva brigade for
stoking communal fire in the country to polarize the society in view of Delhi
assembly polls, he said HM Amit Shah was pitting Hindus against Muslims.While
referring to firing incident at Jamia in which Kashmiri student was injured,
Kanwarpal Singh said by sponsoring violence through non state actor the
government has indirectly admitted its moral defeat. https://www.sikh24.com/2020/02/06/sikhs-join-anti-caa-protests-at-shaheen-bagh-hauz-rani-and-jamia-millia-islamia-university/#.XjykMfkzbIU
13.
Muslim Youth killed : Feb., 7, 2020: “Jaipur se hum ek ek Kashmiri ko nikal denge,” (We
will take every Kashmiri out of Jaipur) Sufyan Rafiq, the only
eyewitness to Basit Khan’s beating told The Quint on Friday, 7
February, a day after Khan succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Jaipur. A
17-year-old Kashmiri boy, Basit Khan, who was doing a part-time job in Jaipur
to support his family was thrashed by a mob on the night of 5 February. Khan
succumbed to his injuries at 8:30 pm on the night of 6 February and, by the
afternoon of 7 February, his body was sent via a private ambulance to Kashmir. Basit
belonged to a poor family from Kupwara in Kashmir. His father died in 2012. He
was the oldest in the house, with three younger sisters and a brother. “The
family has had to pay Rs 30,000 to get the body to Kashmir. They are very poor
and he had come here to work to help the family financially. He was in class 11
and was doing part-time work at an events company to make some money.” Basit
and Rafiq, both from Kashmir, went to work at an event on the evening of 5
February. When they returned, they got into a fight with a few other boys on
the organising team. “Basit wanted to sit in front as he was tired. This
enraged a boy from Mumbai and he held on to Basit’s collar. They started
beating him up. One of the boys, Aditya, was repeatedly hitting Basit on the
head,” Rafiq, an eyewitness to the beating, told The Quint. Rafiq said they held
him down so he could not help Basit. “After beating him the driver dropped us a
few kms away from our home. In the cab, the boys kept complaining about the
increasing number of Kashmiri’s at work. After getting dropped, he and I walked
and walked. He kept falling. As soon as we reached home he began to cry. Then
he started vomiting. In the cab on the way to the hospital, he fell
unconscious.”Rafiq said the doctors operated on him but said his chances of survival
were meagre. He died at 8:30 pm on 6 February.His statement has been recorded
by the Rajasthan Police and the accused have been booked under Sections 307
(attempt to murder), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 323 (voluntarily causing
hurt) of the IPC on 6 February.After Basit’s death on 7 February, the police
incorporated the section 303 of the IPC (murder) into the FIR.https://www.thequint.com/news/india/kashmiri-boy-dies-after-being-attacked-assaulted-by-mob-in-rajasthan?fbclid=IwAR0RNhLGdmT409NdTZSve3Yy1nF0s9lQoiNTjj_8RHTH2Qjyy48FYsAiPrQ
14.
Muslims fired at: Feb., 8, 2020: Two men on Friday fired four rounds in northeast Delhi’s
Jaffrabad area and flee, despite heavy security presence in the area for
February 8 Delhi elections. Police said
that the men, both wearing helmets, shot twice at a garments shop and then
fired two rounds in the open. Senior police officers said they suspected
personal enmity behind the incident. However,
the shop owner claimed that neither did they owe money to anyone nor did they
have any enmity. No one was hurt in the incident The owner of the garment shop,
Shabir Khan,50, who lives in Babarpur, said he has no enmity with anyone. “I
was sitting in the sun outside my shop when the two men came on a bike and
fired two bullets at my shop and twice in the open. My brother Murtaza Khan and
I run this shop together. We don’t owe any money to anybody. Police is trying
to cover up the incident as a case of personal enmity because it happened just
hours before Delhi goes to polls. The incident happened just as locals were
getting ready to offer their afternoon prayers,” he said https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/hours-before-delhi-polls-bike-borne-gunmen-fire-four-rounds-in-jaffrabad-no-injuries/story-cZl7EpmvAPveUWxWesRfdN.html
15.
CAA discussed : Feb., 9,2020:
India’s controversial citizenship law, which many believe discriminates against
Muslims, discussed at a panel discussion in Istanbul on Saturday.The panel was
organized by Istanbul-based think tank the South Asia Strategic Research Center
(GASAM) and Istanbul-based Humanitarian and Social Research Center
(INSAMER India has been witnessing
extensive protests against the law since it was cleared by the country's
parliament and received presidential approval on Dec. 12. “When the young
people crowded the squares incredibly, this [action] in a way encouraged
everyone who were hesitant whether to support it or not,” Unlu said.“We have
seen that people of all ages or beliefs somehow support the protests by getting
inspiration from these young people,” he added. Last week, Amnesty
International warned that India was becoming a dangerous place for peaceful
protesters, citing ruling party leaders' remarks against demonstrators
protesting the controversial citizenship law. Underlining the importance of support
by the young people, Unlu said: “I think the youth in India should give
the same support for the Kashmir issue, too.” “Until now in India,
there was a system which every segment of society from Muslims to Hindus, from
Sikhs to all other segments, were part of the nation, but now when you try to
define the nation only through Hindus, you put dynamite at the root of the
whole system,” Unlu added. “We observe
that what causes migration in other countries is already beginning in India,”
he said. Demir also called on the UN to stop human rights violations in the
region. “In the last UN General
Assembly meeting, Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia, they all agreed to hold a summit
conference to discuss the Muslim issues, because the Muslim organization
representing all Muslims, the OIC [Organization of Islamic Cooperation], is not
delivering,” he said. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/india-s-citizenship-law-discussed-at-istanbul-panel/1728352
16.
BJP may lose in Dehli: Feb., 9,0202: Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was a distant
second behind the upstart Aam Aadmi Party, or Common Man's Party, led by former
tax inspector Arvind Kejriwal, according to exit polls released after voting
ended. An average of nine exit polls showed Kejriwal's party was likely to win
52 out of 70 seats.“We are winning by a huge margin,” tweeted Manish Sisodia, the
deputy chief minister of Delhi https://www.dawn.com/news/1533206/exit-polls-predict-modi-defeat-as-delhi-votes-in-key-election
17.
Women protest in
Mumbai: Feb., 11, 2020: The sea of women in black cannot be missed. Seated on a
half-a-kilometre stretch of Morland Road in Nagpada are hundreds of burqa-clad
Muslim women protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the
National Register of Citizens (NRC). This bustling part of the metropolis
located in central Mumbai is home to a Muslim majority, whose women are sitting
in protest on an under-construction road. The protesters have given the area a
new name — Mumbai Bagh — in solidarity with the women protesting against
CAA-NRC in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh. The 2,000-odd
women who protest at the site in shifts devised according to the needs of their
families are from Nagpada, Agripada, Madanpura and other places close by.
Lending support to the protest are other women from all walks of life and
cutting across the religious divide “I want Ambedkar’s law back, not this new law.
I fear for the future generations of my family,” said Kulsum.. “I have lived my
life in India. I am here for my children. They should not be thrown out of
their own country,” said Kamrunissa. The protesting women have among themselves
planned their vigil timetable ensuring that the site always has at least
400-500 women at any given time. The schedule has been worked around the water
supply schedule in the area, children’s school hours, cooking and household
responsibilities. A majority of them cook only once a day so they can reach the
protest site well in time to relieve those who need to go home. They confess
the support their families gives them the strength to carry on. When this
reporter visited the area, policewomen posted at the barricaded entrance of
Morland Road could be seen refusing to let women residents living on both sides
of the road enter their apartment blocks. Though several women pleaded to be
allowed to go to their houses, the policewomen continued to act tough, followed
by frayed tempers and arguments. “The police are trying to anger the residents
of the area by not allowing them into their houses. This way the residents will
get angry at the protesters and demand that they move out,” said a shopowner.
According to one of the shopkeepers, local leaders belonging to various
political parties are pressurising them to stop helping the protesters. “They
are threatening to make the police file cases against us. Our sisters are
protesting for us. Their success is our success,” said the shopkeeper, who did
not wish to be named Mehr Ansari (33), a
fashion designer and beautician, is a volunteer at the site. “We will not
vacate this site until the Maharashtra government does not pass a resolution
that CAA and NRC will not be implemented in Maharashtra. We want legislative
assurances not mere words,” she said. “Our sisters at Shaheen Bagh give us
strength. They have been fired at but they have not moved. We will be here
until the Shaheen Bagh sisters do not call off their protest,” said Mehr “This protest has helped the Muslim community
come together among themselves and with the non-Muslims,” said Juveriya Khan
(20), a medical student from Badlupura in Nagpada. According to social activist
Feroze Mithiborwala, a Mumbai Bagh Committee comprising some local politicians
and. Muslim maulvis has been set up by those who planned this women’s protest.
“There are no women in this committee. The women are not consulted but only
told what to do,” said Mithiborwala. “Anger is building up against the
committee as the women do not want these leaders to compromise their protest,”
said Mithiborwala. According to the
volunteers, over three-fourths of the protesting women are educated who speak
English. They belong to well-to-do families or are working professionals. The
melange consists of homemakers, management graduates, software professionals,
self-employed professionals, financial consultants, marketing executives etc.,
all trying to make the protest a success
Like her, there are many who have fine-tuned their understanding of not
just politics but also their own status as Muslims. “Woh todenge, hum
jodenge (they will break, we will unite)” is the slogan that rents the
air. At a far corner, a non-Muslim girl is teaching guided meditation to a
group of protesters to help them get over stress. Mithiborwala and his team of
volunteers from the areas surrounding Nagpada keep the women “protected” from
the political manoeuvres of the local politicians. These politicians have tried
to manipulate the protesters through intimidation. “They tell the women that
the police will file cases against them if they do not call off the protest.
For many of them, the longest distance they have travelled is to the local
market from their homes,” said Mithiborwala. “They are very strong and are
rooted to the spot. They make sure that the numbers here are always large so
that the police cannot manhandle them or move them out The police have denied permission to put up a
large tent in the area or use megaphones. When it gets too hot under the sun,
the women move into shady areas but do not leave the venue.“Hum jeetenge,”
Kulsum said with confidence. https://theprint.in/india/muslim-women-come-up-with-mumbai-bagh-in-solidarity-with-delhis-shaheen-bagh/361278/
18.
Protestors
lathi charged: Feb., 12, 2020: Police allegedly lathicharged at hundreds
of protesters, including residents of Jamia Nagar and students of Jamia Millia
Islamia, after stopping them from marching towards parliament as many as 10
women have been manhandled by police and are being treated. “I have been hit on
my private parts by cops with boots. One of the woman cops took off my burkha
and hit me on my private parts with a lathi,” a student protester said to the
portal. Unconfirmed accounts on social media say
that nearly 40 people are being treated for minor injuries. Sources told
The Wire that some women protesters were allegedly manhandled by police. The
protesters, including Jamia alumni, were led by the Jamia Coordination
Committee (JCC) and were walking in protest against the Citizenship Amendment
Act (CAA) and the impending National Register of Citizens (NRC). “It has been two months that we are
protesting. No one from the government has come to talk to us, so we want to go
to talk to them,” said Zeba Anhad, a protester, to PTI. . https://thewire.in/rights/anti-caa-rally-jamia-lathicharge
19.
Arrests: Feb., 13, 2020: A Muslim mother and
teacher have landed in jail after a school play involving nine to 12-year-olds
became the subject of international attention, according to the BBC.“I’m not sure how I
ended up here,” says 26-year-old Nazbunnisa, a single mother from Bidar,
Karnataka, and who works as a domestic help. She was arrested on January 30,
along with Farida Begum, a teacher at her daughter’s school. The charge against
them: sedition, which the women, deny. Both women were on the verge of tears
when they spoke to the BBC
and said they were trying to be strong but their lives had turned upside down.
The women are accused of spreading “false information” and of “spreading fear among
[the] Muslim community” and of using children to insult India’s Prime Minister,
Narendra Modi. It started with a play at the Shaheen School in Bidar, where
Nazbunnisa’s daughter studies and Farida Begum, 52, teaches. The play was about
a controversial new citizenship law, which has polarised India since it was
passed in December by the BJP.
Nazbunnisa is perplexed as to why she was arrested. She says her
daughter was rehearsing for the play at home but she did not know what it was
about or what the CAA or NRC controversy was about. “I did not even go to see
her play,” she added. https://www.samaa.tv/global/2020/02/indian-muslim-mother-teacher-sent-to-jail-over-school-play/
20.
Minorities in India: Feb., 13, 2020: According to the 2018 NCRB report, marginalised communities are
over-represented in Indian jails People from marginalised sections — Muslims,
dalits and tribals — are over-represented in Indian jails, shows a recent
National Crime Records Bureau report. The 2011 Census shows that the proportion
of Muslims, dalits and tribals in India’s population is 14.2%, 16.6% and 8.6%,
respectively. But, it is a completely different picture when it comes to
undertrial inmates. They make up three-fourths of the total prison-population
with 19.7% Muslims, 21.6% dalits and 11.8% tribals. Detainees Most of the detainees are held for
offences against public tranquillity or as a preventive measure. In four of the
10 years for which this data was analysed, Muslims accounted for over 30% of the
detainees — more than double of their share of the country’s population.
Undertrials The combined proportion of SCs and STs is a little over 25% in
India’s total population. When it comes to undertrial population, it was around
35% for many years. Muslims make up 14% of India’s population but constituted
about 20% of all undertrials. The number of undertrial prisoners rose from
2,93,058 in 2016 to 3,23,537 in 2018, or 10.4%. At the end of 2018, the states
with most number of undertrials included Uttar Pradesh with 75,206, followed by
Bihar at 31,488 and Maharas 26,898, respectively https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/in-a-minority-but-a-major-presence-in-our-prisons/articleshow/73266299.cms
21.
US Senators on Kashmir: Feb., 14, 2020:
. In a letter addressed to Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo, Sens. Chris Van Hollen, Todd Young, Dick Durbin and Lindsey
Graham expressed concern that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government
has blocked the internet in the Jammu and Kashmir region for months."India
has now imposed the longest-ever internet shut down by a democracy, disrupting
access to medical care, business and education for seven million people.
Hundreds of Kashmiris remain in 'preventive detention,' including key political
figures," said the bipartisan group of senators in the letter. The
government's steps, including the Citizenship Amendment Act, "threaten the
rights of certain religious minorities and the secular character of the
state," they wrote. The senators requested information in 30
days about the number of political detainees in Kashmir, restrictions on the
internet and cell phone service, access for foreign diplomats, journalists and
observers and on religious freedom. They also seek to know the number of
people who are at risk of being stateless, deported or locked up as a result of
the citizenship law and whether Indian authorities are employing
"excessive use of force" against protestors. The letter
came nearly two weeks before the White House announced that Trump and First
Lady Melania Trump will travel to India on Feb. 24 and 25, marking his first
presidential visit to South Asia’s largest country. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-senators-request-assessment-on-kashmir-issue/1732529
22.
Peaceful Muslim women and violent Hindus
: Feb., 15.2020: On January 26,
Republic Day, 2020, while protests simmered against Citizenship Amendment Act
(CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) throughout India, a dozen North
American cities also witnessed historic protests. Indian Embassies have been
witness to protests in the past. But this time it was different.In
Washington DC, 800 Indian Americans, many of whom had driven hours from neighbouring
states, assembled at lawns on south side of White House. Marching towards the
Embassy, they were supported by police who stopped traffic at junctions to let
the kilometre long march pass. When they reached Embassy they were met by 20
to 30 supporters of CAA/NRC. Protestors report that pro-CAA/NRC rally appeared
to be assembled by the Embassy as part of its duty towards the government.,The disparity in numbers seemed
to suggest that the Sangh Parivar's juggernaut, on the roll since Narendra Modi
came to power first time in 2014, might be losing steam in its most prosperous
diaspora. In Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New York and San Francisco, protests
were held outside the Indian Consulates, with Chicago claiming the largest
attendance of 3,000-4,000. The spirit of the protests was remarkable.
Creative placards and slogans were used by protestors. They sang national
anthem and 'Sare jahan se achcha..' Dalit rights activist Thenmozhi
Soundararajan said, 'The CAA is an integral part of Modi government's strategy
of creating a stateless Muslim population, that can be profiled, treated as
second class citizens, and imprisoned in massive detention centres already
being built in India.' She
further added, 'This project may start with Muslims but all caste oppressed
communities are at risk as we are the communities in the crosshairs of Hindu
nationalists,' advocating, 'The time to stop genocide is before it starts.
If one were to ignore the location, one could imagine that the protests seemed
to be taking place in India; the political speeches being made seemed grounded
in Dalit and Muslim experience as well as authentically representing the angst
of middle class Hindus who felt that the Sangh Parivar does not speak for their
understanding of Hinduism. Back in India, Shaheen Bagh is multiplying.
There are more than two dozen ongoing protests in Delhi. In addition, small
groups of Muslim women hold nighttime candle light demonstrations between two
protest sites and youth raise 'Azadi' slogans. The mood is celebratory. The
atmosphere is reminiscent of Durga Puja where every locality vies with the
other in setting up their pandal. There are tents set up wherever a group of Muslim
women have organised themselves to come out on streets. Photographs of Mahatma
Gandhi, Dr BR Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad can be seen in almost
every protest site indicating that people treat this movement as a second
freedom struggle to free this country from forces which are bent upon taking
away their freedom.The Khureji site also has a portrait of Rohith Vemula,
drawing inspiration from more recent icons who've sacrificed their lives
fighting against forces which are a threat to democracy. The more elightened
protests like the one at Chandbagh displays pictures of Fatima Shaikh and
Savitribai Phule, two women who involved themselves in grassroots education of
downtrodden communities for their empowerment.But the real force of the
movement is women who stay put at protest sites until late in the night or
early morning. They are determined to see the struggle through. Children
can be seen sleeping covered by blankets and quilts next to their mothers. Reversing
common practices, such as keeping women behind curtains in Jamat-e-Islami
meetings, or not letting them speak when men are present, women are in the lead
and men are playing supporting role. Young, educated women are in control of
conducting the proceedings and men are standing on the side. Nobody would have
imagined that India would see such a dramatic empowerment of Muslim women so
soon.The non-violent
anti-CAA-NRC are not going to disappear in spite of best efforts, including one
that of dialogue, by the government. And it
is empowerment in real sense as each of the women coming to the protest, unlike
traditional political meetings where common citizens are there just to swell
numbers, can explain why they are there. They are raising slogans, singing
songs and sometimes also making speeches. Our democracy and Constitution, which
at one point were under danger of being eclipsed by the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah
duo, now seem to be in safe hands. The difference is now people don't expect
the leaders to protect them; the people have come together to protect the
democracy and Constitution from leaders. As the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) or
its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayansewak Sangh (RSS) became more desperate
for a win in Delhi elections, immediately after being displaced from power in
Maharashtra and Jharkhand, its leaders, including a central minister, raised
slogans which unleashed gun wielding young men on streets who tried to sabotage
what has been a very disciplined struggle against CAA-NRC so far or create a situation
which could polarise the votes in BJP's favour at the last moment. It is India's misfortune that for the first time after independence
an organisation has captured political power which ideologically believes in
violence and inciting people to promote itself politically. The irony is that
the Hindutva and the Western world construct Islam as an agressive religion.
Hindus like to perceive their religion as a messenger of peace to the world.
But currently Hindutva is all fire and spite whereas Muslim women have become
the country's apostles of peace. .The
non-violent anti-CAA-NRC are not going to disappear in spite of best efforts,
including one that of dialogue, by the government. The ever enlarging protests
are going to go on until either the CAA-NRC go or the government itself goes. https://www.counterview.net/2020/02/ironical-hindutva-is-all-fire-and-spite.html
23.
AAP Victory: Feb., 17, 2020: Last week, India'sruling
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) faced a massive rebuff in the local legislative
election in Delhi. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a relatively new and small
political party, swept the polls, winning 62 seats and leaving only eight for
the BJP in the 70-member Delhi assembly. Delhi does not have the status of a full state and the election
for its assembly used to be rather low-key until 2015 when the BJP made it a
high-pitched affair. That year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself led
its campaign but, despite deploying his huge party machinery, he faced a
humiliating defeat at the hands of the then-novice AAP, securing only 3 seats.
This year, the BJP's campaign in Delhi was led by Amit Shah, India's home
minister considered to be Modi's right-hand man and close confidant, but he too
was unable to lead the party to victory. While some opposition-minded
commentators welcomed the BJP's defeat in Delhi as a crack in its monopoly of
power, what happened in this election cannot be celebrated. The
BJP's electoral defeat is not really a sign of its political weakness or the
decline of its political project. To the contrary, the Delhi
election demonstrated that, in fact, the ruling party has been successful in
pushing its political opponents to the right and forcing them to play by its
rules. It is also continuing to shape the Indian electorate, carving out of it
a Hindu constituency that fully embraces its Hindu nationalist agenda. Taking advantage of the
Muslim face of the anti-CAA protests, the BJP tried to create a Muslim scare in
the minds of Hindus, claiming that the Shaheen Bagh protests were a threat to the
integrity of India and that the protesters were traitors and agents of
Pakistan. The AAP maintained a studied silence about the protests throughout the
campaign. Not only did its leaders keep a physical distance from the sites of
the protests, where its electorate was expressing its apprehensions about the
policies and intentions of the ruling Hindu majoritarian party, they even
refrained from making statements about it. They argued that the elections were
about the state of Delhi and should be fought on issues of public
amenities like water, electricity, health and education. Then when BJP
functionaries accused the AAP of sponsoring demonstrations, the AAP's leader,
Arvind Kejriwal, felt compelled to respond. He accused the BJP of trying to
make the vote about the protest and claimed that if he had power over the
police force, he would have cleared the Shaheen Bagh area in two hours".
At the same time, Kejriwal also made an effort to prove his Hindu credentials
by using Hindu symbolism in his campaign. He went as far as reciting the
Hanuman Chalisa, a devotional hymn to Lord Hanuman, and visiting a Hindu temple
on the eve of the election to prove his piety.In the end, the AAP's strategy
proved successful. Hindus, especially low-income communities, voted for a party
they saw as an efficient provider of basic services like water, electricity,
health and education. Muslims, on the other hand, had no choice. They made a
tactical decision to support the AAP, despite its silence on their
victimisation, as the other opposition party - the Indian National Congress -
stood no chance. For the BJP, the Delhi election was not as important as the
electoral platform it offered to promote its Hindu nationalist vision them
The BJP is trying to work on the Hindu mind and transform it to an
extent where it defines itself only in exclusion of or opposition to Muslims. The
growing political distance between Hindus and Muslims further aggravates the
situation and deepens the mistrust that Hindus nurse towards Muslims. The BJP
keeps harping on these faultlines and, by doing so, is shaping a Hindu vote
bank. In the long term, the transformation of the Indian electorate into a Hindu
one would guarantee the BJP's indefinite stay in power. This
process is also forcing opposition parties to adopt the BJP's rhetoric and
policies in order to stay "relevant" on the political scene. As
parties like Congress are slipping into obscurity with their stance in defence
of pluralism and minority rights, survivors like the AAP have a chance of
"winning", at least at a local level, by keeping silent on
"Muslim issues" and backing the anti-Muslim policies of the
central government.In this sense, the huge majority the AAP got in Delhi by
using this strategy is no solace to Muslims. The AAP
had backed the abrogation of article 370 and division of the state of Jammu and
Kashmir, which Muslim communities have protested against. Most of the
opposition parties have also welcomed the announcement of a Ram temple trust,
which is to raise funds to build a Hindu temple at the location of the destroyed Babri mosque. With their complicity, central policies targeting Muslims
will continue unabated and India will keep going down the majoritarian path
that the BJP has put it on. https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/delhi-election-making-hindu-voting-bank-200216085214539.html
24.
State terrorism: Feb., 16, 2020:
Dehli police,
unproved, beat up university students in a library . Jamia Milia Islamia's CCTV footage shows
security forces entering and beating students who were studying in the library.
This is from 15 December 2019 when a student lost sight in one eye after the
clash. https://www.facebook.com/najmi.zuberi/videos/10219393762248959/
25.
UK member of Parliament denied entry: Feb.,
17, 2020: Debbie Abrahams, a Labour Party Member of
Parliament who chairs a parliamentary group focused on Kashmir, was unable to
clear customs after her valid Indian visa was rejected. Abrahams has been an
outspoken critic of the August 5, 2019 abrogation of Article 370. Shortly after the changes to Kashmir’s status were
passed by Parliament, Abrahams wrote a letter to India’s High Commissioner to
the UK, saying the action “betrays the trust of the people” of Kashmir. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/british-mp-debbie-abrahams-who-chairs-uk-kashmir-panel-denied-entry-to-india-6272305/?fbclid=IwAR215RLIyahdgxWlQq3wBl767kOiytMNgt3PDkk1R7z8bvfk4Yh83AysFyI
26.
Women molested: Feb., 18, 2020: Swati Singh describes how excited she was to attend her first
college festival in the Indian capital, New Delhi. On February 6, the last day of
the three-day festival, as students were preparing for a concert, hundreds of
men barged into the college campus and sexually harassed and abused female
students. Singh says she cannot forget the horror she went through at Gargi
college, an all women's college affiliated to Delhi University."I was
looking forward to the fest. It means a lot to women like me who come from
smaller cities and have never seen such big concert," says 18-year-old
Singh, who hails from the central Indian city of Indore. Students accuse the
police and security guards of doing little as the men molested women at the
college, which is located in the affluent south Delhi area of Siri Fort.
"They were drunk men who groped us, pinched us in the
crowd. One of them even threw money on my friend in a demeaning way. We
couldn't even move," recalls
Samra Ahmed, another student. Students could not make calls for help as phone jammers
were installed at the nearby Siri Fort auditorium. "I
saw some drunk men masturbating while looking at me," Tanushree, a second-year student, tells Al Jazeera.
Singh says when she approached a police constable
outside the college gate, he said, "Don't you come to the fest to meet
boys?" "Police think women attend a
music concert for this?" she wonders. Several
videos of the festival have surfaced that appear to show the police standing by
and watching men scaling the walls to enter the college campus.
Samvedna, another student, says a stalker followed
her to the metro station on her way home after the festival. When she
complained to the police, she says she was told: "Look at the clothes you
are wearing. Is this how Indian girls should dress? Should I call up your
parents?" Singh says she was disappointed
with the reaction of Promila Kumar, the college head. "She told us that if
you feel unsafe in a college fest, don't attend. Even a woman's college is not
safe for us?" The students staged a three-day strike demanding Kumar's
resignation and an investigation into the incident. The police arrested
10 people in connection with the incident but they were all released on bail on
the same day. On Sunday, video
footage - said to have been taken on December 15 last year - was released that
appeared to show police beating students inside the library of Jamia Millia
Islamia (JMI) University, also located in New Delhi. In early January, police
were accused of turning a blind eye to attacks on students protesting against a
fee hike by masked men linked to the governing party inside Jawaharlal Nehru
University (JNU) in New Delhi. More than a month after the incident, no arrests
have been made. Four days after the Gargi College incident, police personnel
baton-charged hundreds of students from JMI who were trying to march from the
university campus to Parliament in protest against a new citizenship law. In the last two months,
videos of young women braving police assault to save male protesters
have become synonymous with the anti-CAA protests. Many female students
at JMI have accused the police of using excessive force against them during the
February 10 march. Raziya, a JM student, says she was beaten on her private parts
with a flash rod. "They said, 'These women shield terrorists with their
burqa. Take them in a corner and teach them a lesson'," said
Raziya, who is undergoing treatment for a rib fracture."Why did they
target our hijab. What is wrong with it?" she told Al Jazeera. Iqra, an 18-year-old student at JMI, says she was also
beaten by a male constable with a stick on her private parts and her legs.
"It was a preplanned attack specifically targeting young women who have
been proactive in these protests," she said. Chanda Yadav, another Jamia student, said she was taunted
by the police: "You protect men because you think we will not hit you?"
She says a male policeman hit her with a flash rod on her thigh.
The recent incidents have raised questions about the
safety of women in public spaces, particularly in Delhi which has seen a high
number of sexual assaults against women. "Young women
are representing all intersections of the society - Dalit, Muslims, tribals,
everyone. This has shaken the government. That is why the police has been
instructed to break their determination, weaken them and send them home, show
their place in a patriarchal world." https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/lesson-indian-women-accuse-delhi-police-abuse-200214073937259.html
27.
Women
protest: Feb., 18, 2020: Tens of thousands of Punjabi Muslim women,
several in burqas, peopled the massive rally against the Citizenship Amendment
Act (CAA) at Malerkotla in Sangrur district on Sunday.Crowds from across Punjab
converged at the city’s Dana Mandi (literally, grain market), where under the
leadership of the state’s 14 democratic organisations, mainly the left-leaning
farmers’ and students’ bodies, led a massive demonstration. The protesters
accused the central government of carrying out a “communal agenda of targeting
the country’s Muslim community”. Religious
harmony was the toast of the protest which saw Muslims and Sikhs come together
and raise slogans against the government at the centre. Loud applause followed
fiery speeches on stage. He raised the slogan, “Hindu, Muslim, Sikh,
Isai, aapas mein hai behen bhai’, and the crowds joined in.“Yes, the
countrywide protests are successful because of our Muslim sisters,” Mander
added. https://thewire.in/rights/malerkotla-anti-caa-protest
28.
UN Chief on CAA: Feb., 19, 2020: United Nations Secretary General Antonio
Guterres has said he is concerned that “there is a risk of statelessness” for
the two million people, mostly of Muslim origin excluded by the divisive
Citizenship Amendment Act passed by the Indian parliament. When asked if he was
personally concerned about the rising discrimination against minorities in
India, Mr Guterres exclaimed, “Of course!” as it is pertinent that whenever
nationality laws are changed, efforts are taken to avoid statelessness and to
ensure that every citizen of the world is also a citizen of a country. In an
exclusive interview to Dawn News, the UN chief was asked about reports in
the international media, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch
and recent fact-finding reports on Kashmir released in New Delhi, regarding
torture, sexual abuse and incarceration of children as young as seven by the
Indian military. He said all these reports, including two by the UN High
Commissioner, played an important role in “clarifying exactly what is
happening” in Kashmir and “it is essential that these reports are taken
seriously”. When asked by this scribe why the UN has failed to constitute a
high-powered inquiry commission to go to the Indian occupied valley and
investigate the atrocities committed there, the secretary general said: “Only
the governing bodies of the UN or the Security Council can make that decision,
but these reports are credible, relevant and very important.”He was
eager to acknowledge that the current structure of the UN and veto power to
only its five permanent member states were hampering the ability of the UN to
deliver the very objective it was created for — conflict resolution. The
rules-based system that came post-World War II was a result of a cohesion
amongst western countries which is rapidly dissipating yet the top bureaucrat
thought the UN was not threatened as much as it was challenged by this new
reality.In order to ensure increased efficacy of the UN, he felt the body had
to be reformed to be made “more democratic, more open and more effective” and
to be more representative of the multilateral world we live in today. https://www.dawn.com/news/1535354/un-chief-concerned-about-discrimination-against-muslims-in-india
29.
USCIRF: Feb., 20, 2020: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF)issued a India
Factsheet-“ In December 2019, the Indian
Parliament passed into law the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). This law
provides a fast track to Indian citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Quickly after the CAA’s passage, large
scale protests broke out across India with the government instituting a violent
crackdown against the protestors. In conjunction with a proposed nation-wide
National Register of Citizens, there are fears that this law is part of an
effort to create a religious test for Indian citizenship and could lead to the
widespread disenfranchisement of Indian Muslims. This factsheet provides an
overview of the CAA and explains why it represents a significant downward turn
in religious freedom in India. “https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/press-releases-statements/uscirf-releases-new-factsheet-india-s-citizenship-amendment-act
30.
Anti CAA protests spreads: Feb., 20, 2020: thousands of ‘Shaheen Baghs’ that have
emerged across India are helping to gradually expand the reach of the anti-Citizenship
(Amendment) Act protests. A significant win for the protesters is that the
participation of non-Muslims in the protests is steadily increasing.
Particularly significant is the rising involvement of Sikh, Dalit, Adivasi and
farmers’ groups in the protests. However, there are state-wise variations, with
participation from non-Muslim groups more pronounced in non-BJP ruled states Maharashtra:
On 15 February, there was a massive protest at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan.
Besides local Muslims, several Dalit, Bahujan and neo-Buddhist groups also
participated in the protest. An important organisation which mobilised people
for the Azad Maidan protest was the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Brigade. Chhatrapati Sambhaji Brigade poster for the 15 February Azad
Maidan protest(Image: Twitter)Sachin Kamble, leader of the
Chhatrapati Sambhaji Brigade says that Bahujan communities must recognise the
threat that CAA and NRC pose to them Kamble explains that RSS and BJP have
tried to “subjugate” Bahujan communities by “feeding them the poison of Hindutva
and hatred against Muslims”.“RSS feeds SC, ST & OBC communities lies about
Muslims to keep them under their Brahminical authority. This is nothing but a
way to increase their oppression. This poison is the reason why these
communities didn’t react against the CAA earlier. But this is changing now,”
Kamble said. According
to Kamble, if NRC is carried out on the basis of DNA, Brahmins will be the
first ones to be identified as outsiders.Kamble and his organisation have been
organising a number of joint protests with Muslims groups against the CAA. Organisations like Bharatiya Bhatke
Vimukta Youth Front, representing nomadic tribes, are particularly worried
about the potential NRC and the NPR. They point out that most people from nomadic tribes don’t have
documents such as proof of residence and will be the worst affected by an
NRC-like exercise. Punjab:
In Punjab, the protests against the
CAA are being led mainly by farmers’ groups, Sikh organisations, Dalit outfits
and students. Punjab
witnessed its largest anti-CAA protest at the Anaj Mandi
in Malerkotla in Sangrur district on 15 February, with Muslim organisations and
locals joining hands with farmers’ groups such as Bharatiya Kisan Union
(Ekta-Ugrahan) and Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union and Left students’ groups like
Punjab Students’ Union – Lalkaar. Professor Jagmohan Singh, nephew of Shaheed
Bhagat Singh, also addressed the rally. Protest
by Punjab Students’ Union – Lalkaar in Malerkotla, Punjab On the same day, a large protest march was
organised by Dalit organisations under the banner of the Bharat Bachao Dalit
Manch. Beginning from the Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall, the protesters planned to
march till the city’s RSS headquarters but were stopped on the way. But they
succeeded in bringing the area to a standstill for about three hours. Panthic
organisations like Dal Khalsa and Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) have also held
protests against CAA and NRC. A key development was the Akal Takht jathedar
Giani Harpreet Singh meeting Muslim representatives and expressing support for
the anti-CAA stir.“There’s an atmosphere of insecurity among minorities. Sikhs
are bound to stand by the oppressed,” he said. Madhya :PradeshIn Madhya
Pradesh, besides Muslims, the battle against CAA and NRC is being led by
Adivasi and Dalit groups. The first major protest by Adivasi and Dalit groups
was organised in Barwani in the end of January.Protests also took place at
Khargone and Burhanpur. The joint demand by Muslim, Adivasi and Dalit groups
compelled the Madhya Pradesh government to adopt a motion against the CAA.Tamil
Nadu: In Tamil Nadu, the protests against CAA appear to have the active
backing of the DMK and the MDMK. The brutal police action against protesters in
Chennai also expanded support for the anti-CAA movement in Tamil Nadu, with
several Opposition parties and individual citizens expressing their solidarity.
There was a huge turnout at the DMK rally against CAA DMK President MK Stalin
also initiated a signature campaign against CAA, which reportedly received over
2 crore signatures. West Bengal: In West Bengal, the battle against CAA and NRC
is not seen as an exclusively Muslim issue, with several activists, artists and
the ruling Trinamool Congress also joining the stir. Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee has herself led protests in several parts of the state since the
passage of the CAA.The NRC process in Assam, which affected several
Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims, has created fear among some Hindus in West
Bengal as well. And the protesters as well as the TMC have partially succeeded
in sending the message that this isn’t a Hindu-Muslim issue.There is also a
narrative that BJP’s Hindutva project goes against West Bengal’s ‘syncretic’ culture
and there are attempts to counter it from a Bengali Hindu perspective.A poster at the anti-CAA protest in Park Circus Kolkata shows
Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramhans opposing Modi on CAA This has pushed elements
within BJP on the back-foot as well, with leaders like Chandra Kumar Bose
adopting a more conciliatory line regarding the CAA. Why Have Protests
Expanded?There are several reasons why the involvement of non-Muslims in
the anti-CAA protests is slowly increasing.First, the protests by Muslims
themselves have expanded manifold from the time the agitation initially
started. In Maharashtra for example, there are protests in almost every town
with a sizable Muslim population. This has enabled non-Muslims who are
aggrieved with Hindutva forces or the central government, Dalits and farmers
for example, to join the protests out of a sense of common disaffection.Second,
Muslim women being at the forefront of the protests has helped broaden the
appeal of the anti-CAA agitation.Third, in states like Punjab, Tamil Nadu and
West Bengal, the protests are also invoking a shared syncretic culture,
standing against the Hindi-Hindutva hegemony. In Maharashtra, the dominant
narrative of the protests is rooted in the ideals of Jotiba Phule and BR
Ambedkar and the need to resist Brahminical hegemony.Fourth, the vocabulary of
the Constitution and the constant invocation of the freedom struggle and icons
like BR Ambedkar have also provided a platform for including diverse forces
under the protests. Fifth,
it is perhaps no coincidence that non-Muslims have joined the protests at a far
greater scale in non-BJP ruled states. This could be because the threat of
state repression as well as right-wing propaganda against the protests are less
in these states. There are exceptions, of course, such as the Sikh farmers from
Punjab who came to Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh in large numbers despite the threat of
violence by Delhi Police or of attacks by right-wing goons.The broadening of
the base of the protests could have harmful consequences for the government as
it appears that the propaganda that the anti-CAA stir is “Islamist” or
“anti-national” isn’t quite cutting it. https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/shaheen-bagh-protest-muslims-sikhs-dalits-mumbai-bengal-chennai
31.
Journalists
under attack: Feb., 22, 2020: “Jihadi.” “Presstitute.”Those are some
of the insults the government of India routinely deploys against critical
journalists. I’ve been at the receiving end of both. A few weeks ago, the
Twitter account of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party called me a “jihadi” for my
criticism of its polarizing tweets against Muslims in India. But I’m far from
alone. Journalists are facing enormous pressures and intimidation in India. President
Trump, who is visiting the country next week, will surely feel right at home
with a government that also dismisses critical news stories as fake and casts
aspersions on journalistic integrity every day. Fabrication, hyper-nationalism
and self-censorship are on the rise as the government of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi tightens its grip on the country’s political and economic life.
High-profile journalists have been pushed aside for not toeing the line. As a
result, many of India’s finest journalist and editors can’t find supportive
newsrooms. One of the country’s most popular news anchors, Faye D’Souza, resigned under
pressure after she aired an episode in August questioning the government’s
decision to revoke the special
status accorded to Kashmir, which led to a crackdown on local politicians, a total
Internet blockade and a tight curfew. The channel pushed her out because it
decided to stand with Modi’s Kashmir decision.This climate of intimidation is
not new. In June 2017, the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the residence
of Prannoy
Roy, the proprietor of one of India’s oldest and most credible news
networks, NDTV. In his response, Roy said “they are
trying to tell us that we can suppress you even if we haven’t done anything
wrong." Then he added: "It is a signal to the entire free press of
India.” But the tactics have become more brazen and are not even restricted to
journalists based in India. After the New York-based writer Aatish
Taseer wrote a cover story for Time critical of
Modi,Taseer found his
Overseas Citizen of India card revoked, which will now make it
difficult for him to visit his home country. The attacks and intimidation help
clear the way for what award-winning journalist Ravish Kumar has termed the lapdog media, or “godi
media.” It’s this partisan media that has been tasked with dehumanizing
and demonizing students — who are protesting India’s discriminatory policies, including its controversial
citizenship laws — minorities and activists, who are routinely labeled as
anti-nationals on prime-time shows.When you have a “lapdog media,” the prime
minister doesn’t have to answer tough questions: Modi has yet to hold a news
conference since he took office, but he has sat down for scripted interviews
with selected news anchors. These pliable anchors also generously amplify
fake-news videos generated and circulated by the ruling party’s social media
and then refuse to course-correct despite being called out by fact-checkers. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/21/journalism-is-under-attack-india-so-is-truth/
32.
Woman detained: Feb.,23, 2020: A young woman was detained and booked on Friday for holding a
“Kashmir Mukti (liberation), Dalit Mukti, Muslim Mukti” placard at a protest in
the city, police said. The woman, identified as Arudra Narayanan is said to be
a resident of Malleswaram in west Bengaluru and a student of a private
college The “Kashmir Mukti, Dalit Mukti,
Muslim Mukti” slogans were written in both Kannada and English in the placard
held by her After being removed from the
stage, Amulya was later arrested on charges of sedition and produced before a
magistrate court which remanded her to 14 days judicial custody. https://kashmirobserver.net/2020/02/21/bengaluru-student-booked-for-flashing-free-kashmir-placard/
33.
Violence : Feb., 25, 2020: 48 hours after a local leader of the Bharatiya Janata
Party threatened violence against those opposing the CAA in northeast Delhi, a
police constable and one civilian (and possibly two others) were killed as
government supporters who took to the streets clashed with anti-CAA protesters
and the police. By evening, a tyre market in Gokalpuri was burning, with
leaping flames lighting up the sky – hardly the sort of visuals the Modi
government would like to showcase to US President Donald Trump, who landed in Delhi
from Agra as part of his 36-hour tour of India. The Delhi police said in the
evening that a head constable had died in the violence which engulfed Maujpur.
The constable, Ratan Lal, was deployed
in Gokalpuri, the area where violence was reported. Lal was reportedly
hit on the head with stones and taken to a hospital, where he succumbed to his
injuries. The violence that engulfed the capital has also claimed the life of
Mohammad Furqan, a civilian, reports
have confirmed.Deputy Commissioner of Police, Shahdara, Amit Sharma was
also reported as having suffered injuries to his head and hand. He was
hospitalised and out of danger, PTI reported. Section 144 has been imposed at
10 locations in North East Delhi The violence
continued for the second day after BJP leader Kapil Mishra on Sunday gave an
‘ultimatum’ to the Delhi police to clear protest sites within three days. On
Monday, after the policeman’s death, Mishra – who had given an open call for
violence – tweeted that “violence is not the way to reach a resolution”. The Delhi
government has announced that all government and private schools will be closed
in North East district on Tuesday. Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has
also urged Union human resource development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to
postpone board examinations in the area scheduled for Tuesday. Some female
protesters said they were “touched
inappropriately” by male police officers Meanwhile, the Delhi Police said
permission had not been granted for the march. “The protesters tried to
block traffic at multiple locations and also in front of arterial roads in
front of the hospital,” said Atul Kumar, DCP (south) said https://thewire.in/rights/delhi-caa-clashes-kapil-mishra-jaffrabad
34.
Violence in Delhi: Feb., 26, 2020:
A mosque has been set on fire in the Indian capital New Delhi
as violent protests continue across the city with the
death toll rising to 13. Indian
website The Wire reported that a mob shouting "Jai Shri Ram",
translated to "hail Lord Ram", paraded around the burning mosque in
the Ashok Nagar area of the capital on Tuesday.
Video footage shared on social media showed a mob climbing to the top of
the mosque's minaret where they attempted to plant a saffron flag. Local media
reported that shops in the area were also being targeted by the mob 13 people
have died in the violence, including a policeman who passed away yesterday.
Another official at the hospital, Rajesh Kalra, told AFP news agency that 31
people, including 10 who were seriously hurt, were admitted earlier on Tuesday. Anil Mittal, a senior police officer, said approximately
150 people were injured in the violence that
started as US President Donald Trump arrived on a two-day India trip."Some
of the people brought in had gunshot wounds," Rajesh Kalra, additional
medical superintendent at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, said of Monday's
violence. Two of my colleague’s @arvindgunasekar
and @saurabhshukla_s
were badly beaten by a mob just now in Delhi, they only stopped beating them
after realizing they are “our people- Hindus”. Absolutely despicable. The violence started a day after
the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra warned anti-CAA protesters to end their
peaceful sit-ins in the northeastern Jafrabad and Maujpur areas of the Indian capital.
A tyre market was set on fire later on Monday, the Press Trust of India said. A
video posted on social media showed crowds of men also shouting "Jai Shree
Ram" as they went on a rampage, according to AFP .Several vehicles
and a fire truck were torched in Jafrabad and Maujpur as police
imposed prohibitory orders to prevent further violence. Tension in parts of the city remained high on
Tuesday with schools remaining shut in some areas, amid news reports of fresh clashes.
At least five metro stations in the city were closed.Several journalists covering the violence were also
attacked by angry mobs at several places. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/death-toll-rises-violence-continues-day-delhi-200225054836893.html
35.
Delhi
ablaze: Feb., 26, 2020: At the Maujpur-Babarpur chowk, Hindutva supporters gathered around
BJP leader Jai Bhagwan Goyal, who had led a rally of a
100-odd people minutes before he broke into a rant against Muslims.“Agar
yahan rahna hai, toh khada hona hoga (‘If you want to stay here, then
you will have to rise up’)” the 60-year-old saffron clad leader
declared, even as his voice faded amidst chants of “Jai Shri Ram” and
“Har Har Mahadev.” “Chaaron taraf se Muslims se gheere huye hai.
Agar apne aap ko bachana hai toh ladna hoga (‘We are surrounded by
Muslims from all four sides, if we want to defend ourselves we will have to
fight’),” said one of his supporters, even as Goyal kept inciting the Hindu men who had
gathered there against Muslims. Several parts of north east Delhi have
witnessed large-scale communal riots since Monday. On Tuesday, the mixed
localities of the region stand entirely polarised on religious lines. The panic
call that Goyal and his supporters gave could leave any observer perplexed. The
stretch between Jaffrabad and Maujpur metro stations – in effect the epicentre
of the communal riots – is less than a kilometre but represents a religious
polarisation hitherto unseen in the national capital.
36.
The
area near the Jaffrabad metro station has a strong Muslim presence. But, on
Tuesday, the Muslim protesters remained largely muted. “Our intention is to
protest against CAA. We have no intention to fight our Hindu brothers and
sisters,” a protestor at Jaffrabad told The Wire. When asked
whether the situation escalated into a riot only because of Hindutva
participants, he said, “I won’t lie. Yesterday, when the Hindu mob started
pelting stones, some young men from our side too picked up the very same stones
and bricks and threw them at the mob. We couldn’t control the situation. But
today, we are clear that no one will be encouraged to indulge in any form of
violence.”Even as a few policemen kept guard, the protesters kept chanting
slogans against CAA. Multiple speakers called on people to refrain from any
form of violence. In contrast, the area around Maujpur station has been
entirely taken over by a frenzied Hindutva mob.One is greeted by a large
hoarding of saffron drapes that reads “Jai Shri Ram”. Young men, with
sticks, tubelights, or plain PVC pipes, openly flaunted their strength in front
of a small battalion of Delhi Police personnel stationed there. The police
stood as mute spectators even as an anarchic mob swelled. They looked at
journalists with suspicion. Each time anyone attempted to take a video or a
picture, they would snatch her or his phone, make them delete all photos, and
threaten to beat them up. The police kept requesting the journalists to keep a
distance from the mob which was merely 20 metres away but refused to answer why
the mob was allowed to congregate despite Section 144 in place In small intervals, the temperature soared as
various mobs spread over different parts of the area burst into slogans of “Jai
Shri Ram” – visibly the most-used war cry against Muslims. The use of
invectives, particularly those clearly intended to be anti-Muslim, pervaded the
air, along with the tear gas that the small troupe of police occasionally fired
to disperse the mob As a mob took over,
going beyond Maujpur metro station became impossible but incidents of rioting
were being constantly reported to the police. One could hear tear gas shells
being fired or see long clouds of smoke from a distant corner from a distance.
Even as most shops and businesses in north east Delhi remained shut on Tuesday,
the stretch between the Jaffrabad and Maujpur metro stations was a stark
reminder of what conspired on Monday. Many shops owned by Muslims in the
Jaffrabad area had been set ablaze. The streets were strewn with stones,
bricks, and glass The Hindutva leaders swung into action soon
after, with Kapil Mishra, the BJP leader who lost the assembly election
recently, threatening the Delhi police and the government that his supporters
would not hesitate to violently clear any anti-CAA protests that have blocked
off the roads. https://thewire.in/communalism/delhi-riots-jai-shri-ram-hindutva-bjp
37.
US reaction: Feb., 26, 2020: The violence over the amended citizenship act
in India's capital New Delhi drew sharp reactions from US lawmakers with the
mainstream media prominently reporting it along with the just-concluded visit
of President Donald Trump .Reacting to the violence that has claimed at least
20 lives in the past a couple of days, US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal
said the "deadly surge of religious intolerance in India is
horrifying". "Democracies should not tolerate division and
discrimination or promote laws that undermine religious freedom," she said
in a tweet, adding that the "world is watching". Congressman Alan
Lowenthal too termed the violence a "tragic failure of moral
leadership". "We must speak out in the face of threats to human
rights in India," he said. Democratic presidential candidate and Senator Elizabeth
Warren also a swipe at the violence, saying, "It's important
to strengthen relationships with democratic partners like India. But we must be
able to speak truthfully about our values, including religious freedom and
freedom of expression, and violence against peaceful protesters is never
acceptable." Congresswoman Rashida Talib tweeted, "This week, Trump
visited India but the real story should be the communal violence targeting
Muslims in Delhi right now. We cannot be silent as this tide of anti-Muslim
violence continues across India." The violence in Delhi prominently
featured in the mainstream media. The Washington Post reported, "The riots
represent a serious escalation of tensions after months of protests in response
to a controversial citizenship law and growing frictions between supporters and
opponents of the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi." "As
President Trump toured India's capital, at least 11 people were killed in
communal clashes that have upended a working-class neighbourhood," The New
York Times said. In a tweet, US Commission for International Religious
Freedom said it is alarmed by reports of "deadly mob violence
targeting Muslims in New Delhi". It urged the Modi government to rein in
the mob and protect religious minorities. https://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2020/feb/26/deadly-surge-of-religious-intolerance-in-india-is-horrifying-pramila-jayapal-on-delhi-riots-2108736.html
38.
Delhi
violence: Feb., 26, 2020: On Monday, one police constable and four
civilians were killed as reports of arson, gunfire and stone-pelting violence
came in from the North East Delhi area. Videos also showed the Delhi police
standing by as mobs pelted stones. By the time The Wire‘s reporters caught up with what
had happened, eyewitnesses on the ground
had begun to refer to the areas where violence had occurred as ‘the war
zone’.The way the conflict has been laid out is linear – the anti-Citizenship
(Amendment) Act and predominantly Muslim protestors begin at Jaffrabad, with a
police cordon shortly after. Beyond the site is what has now become no-man’s
land. For nearly six weeks, protestors thronged to a makeshift protest site at
one end and there were no reports of any major violence. Today, the tarmac is
filled with broken bricks and lost slippers. Beyond lies what has now become a
bastion of the Hindutva groups, who have mobilised hundreds of young men and
occupied the chowk beneath the Maujpur-Babarpur station. At Jaffrabad, the
protestors were sitting peacefully still, slightly shaken, at the protest space
where they have been for the past 40-odd days without incident. Monday’s
violence has taken the lives of five
people, including one police officer. The violence began earlier
in the morning, with a group of policemen, according to eyewitnesses, allegedly
accompanied by a right-wing group, beating peaceful anti-CAA protesters at
Chand Bagh, with the violence steadily making its way across North-East Delhi.
Adib*, a witness to what had happened in the day, said, “We are seeing
everything being laid waste. Our businesses are being ruined, we’ve been
protesting for over a month, and if we are wrong, come and speak to us! What
wrong did we do, if you have a problem with what we’re doing, why didn’t they
come and speak to us and make us understand? Why are they saying that we are
insane and we’re miscreants – if the government has so many intelligent people
here, why are they not able to explain to us? Instead they’re sending groups
from the RSS, from the Bajrang Dal, and they’re coming and throwing stones and
shooting at us.” Asif*, a middle aged man with a grey beard, says, “[BJP
leader] Kapil Mishra is responsible for this. He has caused such a riot here
that he has caused harm to both the government’s property as well as the
public’s property. In UP, Yogi
Adityanath’s government has taken money from individuals for causing property
damage. Will Arvind Kejriwal take action against Kapil Mishra and make him pay
for the damage that has been done?” The Muslims we spoke to at Jaffrabad were
emotional but refrained from making any communal comments against
Hindus. “A policeman died, and he too is ours,” Asif said. “He was a
father and a son, and our hearts hurt for his death. For the wounded police, we
hurt for them. The Hindus are also our brothers. If anyone lifts a hand to
them, they will have to step over us first. We will be responsible for them.
Our Hindu brothers are passing through here and we are making sure that they
are given full protection and safe passage.” Adib says, “They are saying that
Muslims have done all this. A mazar
has been burnt. I ask you, why would a Muslim burn his own house? We have not
put one step forward. All we are asking for is our rights. We did not want
riots and we do not want them, but we are standing for justice. but you can
bring lathis
and dandas,
you can call goons and the RSS, you can come yourself and you can bring your
father also, but we will stand here.” The police made a light cordon of ropes
at the final Muslim protest area. The protesters sat quietly, with some
movement in and out, but no slogans were being shouted. The road was clear.
Past the cordon was no man’s land, where the only people present were random
bystanders and a long, silent line of police. We pass a man on a bicycle cart,
a Hindu, being accompanied by a Muslim man. “He was scared,” the Muslim man
says. “We’re going with him so he has nothing to worry about.” As we came
closer to the area where the Hindutva groups have mobilised people, the
atmosphere changes. We could hear loud cries and sloganeering taking place, and
the people on the streets are now looking at us with a certain suspicion. We
took a detour through an inner lane so as to avoid a direct confrontation, with
a fellow journalist letting us know that he had tried three times to enter
there, but because of his evidently large camera, he had been thrown out. Given
that the anti-media sentiment was high, we did not take any video or
photographic footage for fear of reprisals on discovery. Maujpur had seen some
of the worst violence of the day, with a
video of a man firing a gun directly past a policeman
going viral earlier in the day. When we came into the area commandeered by the
Hindutva group, the most notable thing was the aura of festivity. A large group
of people was shouting slogans, including the now notorious ‘goli maaro saalon ko’,
while groups of people distributed biscuits. A man was carrying around a large
tray filled with plates of upma,
which he was giving the policemen standing by, a significant number of whom
were happily partaking of the food. A large number of people on this side were
carrying weapons of one kind or another – sticks of thick bamboo, hockey
sticks, cricket wickets, steel rods commonly found in construction sites,
curtain rods. One enterprising individual carried a collapsible metal baton.
Many had the bright orange tika across their foreheads, and waved saffron
flags. There was very little conversation actually taking place about the CAA
or the National Register of Citizens, and it would be inaccurate to refer to
the crowds here as pro-CAA protestors given that their main aim seemed to be
pro-Hindutva sentiment. Across a wall, ‘F*&^ u Islam’ was spray painted in
bright colours, in contrast to the ‘other side’, which has variants on the
anti-CAA theme. We were being carefully watched, given that we were clearly not
locals from the area. I peeled off a sticker from my phone which revealed what
organisation I worked for, and on trying to take a video of a woman shouting
the goli-maaro slogan,
was immediately stopped by a man with a stick. “Did you just peel a sticker off
your phone,” he said, as I hurriedly pushed my phone back into my
bag. “Yes,” I said. “I put it on this morning.” When I turned back, the
woman who was sloganeering, looked at me directly and loudly began the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ cry. I
joined in. The man watching me backed off. Where the Jaffrabad side of the
protest was calm, if upset, the Hindutva side was raucous and celebratory. A
small dance party had been set up, with lights and all. A speaker bellowed
music that was made famous by kanwariyas: Hate-Music
setting communal sentiments to a thumping bass. Jai Shri Ram echoed frequently, along with
the phrase Hinduon ka Hindustan. We passed a boy, barely out of his
teens sporting a head injury, and asked what had happened. An excitable friend
of his joined in to say that he had been hit by a brick thrown by the other
side. The boy himself looked sheepish and proud, and on being asked to sit
down, laughed it off and said that this was child’s play. The group paused and
watched another group walk by, and the friend enviously pointed out that three
men in that group were carrying pistols. (This was unverified by us.) Every
person in that group was carrying a hitting implement, and most people on the
streets were also carrying sticks. A child who did not look older than four
passed by, his mother holding his younger sister and his father holding his
hand. In his other hand, he had a stick the same size as he was https://thewire.in/communalism/ground-report-war-zone-in-north-east-delhi.
39.
Violence continues in Delhi: Feb., 27,2020: Protests against a contentious citizenship law began on a smaller
scale on Sunday but escalated on Monday and Tuesday into running battles
between Hindus and Muslims in New Delhi’s north-east, where rioters armed with
stones, swords and even guns were out in force
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court heard a plea on the communal violence
and said it cannot let "another 1984" happen on its "watch",
reported BBC. In 1984, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh riots in the
city, the publication added. The court also ordered security for the capital's
citizens, Scroll.in reported. Meanwhile, the capital's
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the army should be called in and a According to India Today, curfew was imposed in four areas of
North East Delhi — Maujpur, Jaffrabad, Chand Bagh and Karawal Nagar. Hindustan
Times reported that fresh rounds of violence erupted
in two localities of East Delhi on Wednesday morning. 20
people died and nearly 200 others were wounded in the first two days of
violence, the director of the hospital where people were taken,
told AFP on Wednesday. Sixty people had suffered gunshot wounds,
according to the director Sunil Kumar. United Nations
Secretary General Antonio Guterres is closely following the situation in
New Delhi, First Post reported. His spokesperson
Stephane Dujarric said the UN chief had stressed that demonstrators should be
allowed to demonstrate peacefully and security forces should show
restraint."I think it's very important that
demonstrators be allowed to demonstrate peacefully and that security forces
show restraint. This is the SG's constant position," he said, adding that
they were "obviously" following the situation closely. Reuters
witnesses saw mobs wielding sticks, pipes and stones walking down streets in
parts of northeast Delhi on Tuesday, amid incidents of arson, looting and
stone-throwing. National Home Minister Amit Shah, whose ministry controls law
and order in the capital region, met with senior Delhi government officials and
promised to deploy more police if they were needed, Kejriwal said. Broadcaster NDTV said three of its reporters
and a cameraman were attacked by a mob on the northeastern fringe of the city
of 20 million people. “There is hardly any police presence in the area. Rioters
are running around threatening people, vandalising shops,” a resident of the
poor, migrant neighbourhood of Maujpur told PTI. “People are killing (each
other). Bullets are being fired here,” a tailor in Jaffrabad told AFP,
adding that he was returning home to his village in northern Uttar Pradesh
state.“There is no work [...] It is better to leave than to stick around here.
Why would we want to die here?” The
new citizenship law has raised worries abroad — including
in Washington — that Modi wants to remould secular India into a Hindu
nation while marginalising the country's 200 million Muslims Global rights
group Amnesty International tweeted that "political leaders in India who
are fuelling hatred and creating a violent environment by making hate speeches
must be immediately held accountable". Eight people have been
killed and more than 100 injured in the riots that broke out in the
north-eastern part of New Delhi. Political leaders in India who are fueling
hatred and creating a violent environment by making hate speeches must be
immediately held accountable. https://www.dawn.com/news/1536723/death-toll-from-delhi-communal-violence-rises-to-23-high-court-orders-security-for-citizens
40.
Willful neglect: Feb., 27,
2020: For
three days, northeast Delhi has been in the grip of armed vigilantes mobilised
by Hindutva politicians to attack and terrorise those protesting the
Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Given the nature of the mobs and their leaders,
the violence quickly lost any pretence of a ‘political’ motive and descended
into crude, generalised communal violence against Muslims. The utter chaos and
lawlessness which reigned unchecked on the watch of the Narendra Modi
government at the Centre – which controls law and order in the national capital
– has left at least 21
people dead,
including a policeman, and several hundred injured. Ordinary working people –
both Hindus and Muslims – have died in the orchestrated mayhem. There can be no
doubt that the ultimatum issued by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kapil
Mishra on Sunday for the anti-CAA protestors to clear the streets of northeast
Delhi or face dire consequences was the immediate trigger to the violence. But
there are also deeper underlying factors – institutional and political – which
helped push Delhi into the abyss. The first and most obvious factor is the
partisanship of the Delhi Police, encouraged and sustained in large part by the
support of the ruling BJP at the Centre. From university campuses
to the streets, it is now a matter of habit for the Delhi Police to stand by
and watch mobs whose political agenda squares with the BJP run amok. Ordinary
citizens, particularly Muslims – the primary targets of the ruling party’s
polarising politics around the question of citizenship – can expect no succour
from such partisan law enforcers. As in other recent episodes of violence in
Delhi, here too, instead of protecting the vulnerable, the police could be seen backing the Hindutva mobs in their attacks Muslims. The fact that the Delhi high court’s
intervention was needed before the police agreed to ferry victims of the
violence to safety tells its own appalling story. The continued dereliction of
duty without fear of punitive action has created a situation that is alarming
for any civilised nation. The images flooding television screens for the past
few nights, along with reports by journalists from numerous organisations who
had all been subject to the mob’s vicious attacks, brought back stark memories
of 1984 – the last time Delhi was in the throes of such organised communal
violence – or 2002, when the state of Gujarat under Narendra Modi burned for
weeks. Second, the role of BJP and Sangh parivar leaders throughout this period
has been reprehensible. Apart from
Kapil Mishra, party legislators and functionaries have either openly
inciting anti-Muslim hatred or helped demonise the anti-CAA protests – which have all been peaceful – as
anti-national. While Union home minister Amit Shah has been missing in action,
the junior home minister has now set his sights on the media – demanding action
against news platforms whose reports of the violence have proved embarrassing
for the government. Regrettably, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which won a landslide against the BJP in Delhi’s assembly polls
last month, has also miserably failed to rise to the occasion. Granted, law and order is not in the state
government’s hands. But rather than mark their presence in the embattled parts
of the city, AAP leaders appeared to vanish from the scene. It would have been
befitting of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to send out his legislators
to the strife-torn areas where people were desperately seeking help. The image
of the chief minister alongside his deputy, Manish Sisodia, paying homage to Mahatma
Gandhi at Rajghat added further insult to injury. Rather than take a proactive
stance, the AAP chose to retreat into the shadows while Delhi was burning. To
be sure, AAP’s retreat pales in significance before the direct culpability of
the BJP. Nobody should be under any illusion that the Delhi communal riots of
2020 are not a product of deliberate, attempts to polarise the country on
religious grounds. The party leadership and its governments at the
Centre and in states like Uttar Pradesh have, directly and indirectly, stoked
hatred against Muslims. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who hosted US President
Donald Trump while Delhi burned, finally
tweeted a tepid appeal for
“peace and harmony” on Wednesday. Given
Delhi’s history, and his own, Modi’s silence for three days tells its own story. https://thewire.in/communalism/editorial-1984-2002-2020
41.
US
Concern: Feb., 28, 2020: As the death toll in ongoing communal riots
in India’s capital has risen to 34, the US point person for South Asia, Alice
Wells has urged the Delhi rioters to “maintain peace and refrain from
violence”. Sonia Gandhi, president of the opposition Congress party, called for
the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah, who is directly responsible for law
and order in Delhi. The violence erupted between thousands demonstrators for
and against the new legislation passed by the Modi’s Hindu nationalist government...
Critics say it is further proof that Modi, emboldened by a resounding election
victory this year, is moving quickly to reshape India as a Hindu nation and
weaken its secular foundations. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2165515/1-us-diplomat-urges-delhi-rioters-refrain-violence/
42.
Delhi
violence continues: Feb., 28,2020: Sporadic violence hit parts of Delhi
overnight as gangs roamed streets littered with the debris of days of sectarian
riots that have killed 34 people, police said on Thursday. Thousands of riot
police and paramilitaries patrolled the affected northeast fringes of the
Indian capital of 20 million people, preventing any major eruptions. Sunil Kumar, director of the Guru Teg Bahadur
(GTB) Hospital, said Thursday the hospital registered 30 deaths while the chief
doctor at Lok Nayak Hospital said that two people had died there. “All of them
(at the GTB) had gunshot injuries,” Kumar told AFP. Homes, shops, two mosques,
two schools, a tyre market and a fuel station were torched. More than 200
people were also injured. ,” he said. Mobs armed with swords and guns set fire
to thousands of properties and vehicles. Locals complained that police did nothing
to stop the violence In December at
least 30 people were killed, mostly in police action in northern Uttar Pradesh
state, a part of the country with a significant Muslim population. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2165302/3-sporadic-violence-delhi-death-toll-hits-32/
43.
BJP
tactics: Feb., 28, 2020: The streets of Mustafabad bore a deserted look on Wednesday.
Paramilitary troops and Delhi police personnel aggressively pushed onlookers
back to their homes, even as a cloud of gloom pervaded the locality. It was
clearly a curfew-like situation; shops were shut, most of them had anyway been
burnt, people were worried about their food stock getting over. That tension
was palpable would only be an understatement. Hindus and Muslims, who have
stayed together in harmony for years, have suddenly become extremely fearful of
each other. https://thewire.in/communalism/mustafabad-delhi-riots-ground-report . THIS IS WHAT WAS AIMED
AT: TO MOVE THE POLITICAL DIALOGUE TO THE EXTREME RIGH; TO PORTARY MUSLIMS AS UNRELIABLE AND
UNPATROTIC.
44.
OIC: Feb., 28,
2020:
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemns the recent and alarming
violence against Muslims in India, resulting in the death and injury of
innocent people and the arson and vandalism of mosques and Muslim-owned
properties. It expresses its sincere condolences to the families of the victims
of these heinous acts. The OIC calls on Indian authorities to bring the
instigators and perpetrators of these acts of anti-Muslim violence to justice
and to ensure the safety and security of all its Muslim citizens and the
protection of Islamic holy places across the country. https://www.oic-oci.org/topic/?t_id=23240&t_ref=13947&lan=en
45.
UNHCR: Feb., 28, 2020: In its update to the Human Rights Council on rights
concerns and its progress across the world, the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights highlighted both Kashmir and the Citizenship
Amendment Act. The latter and the violence into which the capital city has descended
as a result of it was described as a cause for “great concern.” In
her address to the Human Rights Council, in its 43rd Session, High Commissioner
Michelle Bachelet spoke on the prevailing situations in countries across the
world. Her mention of India began with the detention of political leaders in
Jammu and Kashmir. The UN has taken cognisance of the Indian
government’s excesses in the region a few times before and since the reading
down of Article 370, on October 29, the spokesperson for the High Commissioner
for Human Rights, Rupert Colville acknowledged that an “undeclared curfew” had
been lifted from much of Jammu and Ladakh regions within a few days. Bachelet had expressed concerns about restrictions
imposed on Kashmir in her inaugural speech at the 42nd session of the UN Human
Rights Council in Geneva as well, in September 2019. After Article 370 of the constitution was read down
in August, five UN-appointed independent human rights experts had described the
communication clampdown and security restrictions as a “collective
punishment” for the
population. This
time, the OHCHR’s focus remained on the treatment of political leaders, activists,
the closure of schools, the partial restoration of mobile and internet
services, the restrictions on social media and the often excessive use of
forces. https://thewire.in/rights/caa-kashmir-violence-unhcr
46.
Bernie Sanders: Feb., 28, 2020: Over 200 million Muslims call India home.
Widespread anti-Muslim mob violence has killed at least 27 and injured many
more. Trump responds by saying, "That's up to India." This is a
failure of leadership on human rights.https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/toll-rises-to-22-in-delhi-violence-as-modi-issues-plea-for-calm/2020/02/26/2cb8e0d8-589f-11ea-8efd-0f904bdd8057_story.html…
47.
US : Feb.,
28, 2020: A US federal government commission noted on Thursday that
efforts were being made in India to disenfranchise Muslims while the government
was failing in its duty to protect citizens. Similar sentiments have also been
expressed by other US government bodies, members of Congress, think-tanks and
the media.`The brutal and unchecked violence growing across Delhi cannot
continue,` said Anurima Bhargava, head of the US Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF), while reminding the Indian government that it `must
take swift action` to ensure the safety of all of its citizens. `Instead,
reports are mounting that the Delhi police have not intervened in violent
attacks against Muslims, and the government is failing in its duty to protect
its citizens,` she added. These incidents are even more concerning in the
context of efforts within India to target and potentially disenfranchise
Muslims across the country, in clear violation of international human rights
standards.`
48.
Houston protests: Mar., 3, 2030:
A large number of demonstrators, including Pakistani and Indian Muslims,
gathered outside the office of Consulate General of India on Monday to stage
their protest against brutalities of Modi-led regime against minority Muslims
in New Delhi as India’s capital burns with communal riots over a
controversial citizenship law. Nyanza
Moore, a Democratic candidate for the US Congress, also stood in support with
Muslims, lamenting, “We are also the oppressed blacks in the world’s largest
democratic country — the United States”. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2168110/1-americans-protest-delhi-communal-riots-outside-indian-consulate-houston/
49.
Delhi violence: Mar., 1, 2020: By now the
facts are almost clear. The violence
was instigated by BJP leaders,
their video, messages are available. Terrorists
from outside Delhi were transported, fully armed, in Trucks. The Delhi police allowed these armed goons to
enter the nations Capital even when a foreign dignitary was around. The
Delhi police watched from the side lines as this violence unfolded, they at
best abetted this and in some cases watched the incidents happen. Delhi police
is controlled by the Federal government, Amit Shah is the Minister to whom they
answer to. BJP strategy is to drive the political dialogue to the far right and
portrays Muslims as unreliable and unpatriotic.
. This violence was carried out
by BJP/RSS and the orders cane from the very top.
50.
Iran:
Mar., 3, 2020: Iran has condemned the Delhi riots, terming them as
“organised violence against Indian Muslims”, and has called upon the Indian
government to “not let senseless thuggery prevail” Iran is the first country to
directly use the word ‘condemn’ for the riots that are the worst Delhi has seen
in decades .. https://thewire.in/diplomacy/delhi-riots-iran-foreign-minister
51.
Muslim
concerns: Mar, 3, 3030: The World came very hard, rightly so, in so called
Islamic terrorism. This is now by any definition Right wing Hindu terrorism.
Here is what Muslims need to see happening:
1. RSS , VHP and Sangh Parivar need to be declared terrorist organizations and the key
personal prosecuted as criminals by World bodies.
2. BJP role in this and other affairs
need to be investigated by an outside agency and if found complicit should be
declared as a terrorist organization.
3. EU had deferred their resolution on
Kashmir and CAA, they should move this fast forward.
4. Europe, US and UK should issue
condemnation by their legislators.
5. US and EU should reevaluate their
economic ties with India.
6. OIC should take this incident to UNHRC , Even
private people can do so ( If anyone needs help
I will be happy to provide it )
7. Organizations that contribute to FDI to India should reevaluate their
funding decisions.
8. Saudis and GCC should reevaluate
their investment commitments to India and should reevaluate their stand on
Kashmir.
Muslims seek actions and in the near future.
52.
Managed violence: Mar., 1,
2020: On Sunday evening, Om Veer,
a resident of north-east Delhi’s Bhajanpura was sitting outside his shop on
Pushta Road when he saw around 10 trucks being parked on the service lane
carrying around 70 men with backpacks. All the men were in the 20 to 30 age-group,
and they were all outsiders, Veer said.Just 20 minutes later, another truck
followed, carrying construction debris and pieces of bricks. Though Veer could
not draw a connection between the two immediately, he began getting suspicious
when he woke up to the news of violent communal clashes and stone-pelting
across north-east Delhi the next morning.“These people were not locals. They
did not look like labourers. All were young men. Who knows what they were
carrying in their backpacks? It could be stones, it could be weapons,” Veer
said. several residents claim that
unruly elements continue to enter areas around Seemapuri, Bhajanpura, Maujpur
and Jafrabad using smaller routes. Though three primary entry points -- Laal
Bagh, DLF embankment road in Loni, and Tulsi Niketan border in Sahibabad -- are
now protected by the police from both sides, there are several internal roads
from where cars and two-wheelers can access the Capital..Even on Friday, residents in Seemapuri claimed that they
had seen outsiders being brought into Delhi to insight fresh communal clashes
that have already claimed 42 lives. Mohammad Irfan, a resident of Seemapuri, said that he was
guarding his colony gates with his neighbours around 2am on Friday when he saw
three vehicles, with Haryana registration numbers, come their way. His colony
is less than 2km away from UP’s Shaheed Nagar, and the route is not secured by
any security agency. “We
could not see how many people there were in these vehicles, but when the
residents surrounded them, they quickly turned their vehicles and went away,”
said Irfan. Thirty two-year-old Neelam
Mishra, a resident of Zero Pushta, also bore witness to over a dozen
motorcycles zoom through her neighbourhood late Tuesday night. He said that the
Hindus and Muslims have lived in this neighbourhood peacefully for generations
and any political interference cannot instigate neighbours against each other.
These riots were orchestrated and these people were
brought from outside ”
Mishra said. .
. https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/men-came-in-trucks-carrying-bricks-and-bags-allege-locals/story-69tXeI4LlMU2x308C2shyI.html
48
US : Feb., 28,
2020: A US federal government commission noted on Thursday that efforts were
being made in India to disenfranchise Muslims while the government was
failing inits duty to protectcitizens. Similar sentiments have also been
expressed by other US government bodies, members of Congress, think-tanks and
the media.`The brutal and unchecked violence growing across Delhi cannot
continue,` said Anurima Bhargava, head of the US Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), while reminding the Indian
government that it `must take swift action` to ensure the safety of all of
its citizens. `Instead, reports are mounting that the Delhi police have not
intervened in violent attacks against Muslims, and the government is failing
in its duty to protect its citizens,` she added.`These incidents are even
more concerning in the context of efforts within India to target and
potentially disenfranchise Muslims across the country, in clear violation of
international human rights standards.` Deeply troubled by the deaths from the
communal violence in India over the past couple of days,` said House Foreign
Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel.
Senators Mark R. Warner and John Cornyn, co-chairs of the
Senate India Caucus, said in a joint statement that they were `alarmed by the
recent violence in New Delhi. They urged all sides to engage in `an open
dialogue on issues of signincant concern in order to advance our vital
long-term relationship. Richard Haass President,
President Council on Foreign Relations, noted in a tweet: `One reason for
India`s relative success has been that its large Muslim minority saw itself
as Indian.`But this is at risk owing to govt attempts to exploit identity
politics for political advantage. Truly short-sighted as both economically,
socially costly,` he wrote. Deeply troubled by the deaths from the
communal violence in India over the past couple of days,` said House Foreign
Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel.
Senators Mark R. Warner and John Cornyn, co-chairs of the Senate India
Caucus, said in a joint statement that they were `alarmed by the recent
violence in New Delhi. They urged all sides to engage in `an open dialogue on
issues of signincant concern in order to advance our vital long-term
relationship. Richard Haass President, President Council on Foreign
Relations, noted in a tweet: `One reason for India`s relative success has
been that its large Muslim minority saw itself as Indian.`But this is at risk
owing to govt attempts to exploit identity politics for political advantage.
Truly short-sighted as both economically, socially costly,` he wrote. https://epaper.dawn.com/DetailImage.php?StoryImage=28_02_2020_012_001
|
Monthly update 5: January
2020 : Muslims in India
.
1.
India Detention centers: Jan., 3, 2020:
Ali's brother-in-law failed to make it to the National Register of
Citizens , a list published in Assam
this year which declared 1.9 million
people as "illegal" migrants, who
now face either detention in a camp like the one coming up at Goalpara, or
deportation. Spread around nearly 300,000 square feet (28,000 square metres or
2.8 hectares) of land, the detention centre in Goalpara's Matia village, 126km
(78 miles) from state capital Dispur, can house 3,000 people. "Male and female inmates will be kept in
separate areas divided by a six feet red-coloured wall. There will be 13 male
blocks of four storeys each and two female blocks of the same size,"
Rabindra Das, an engineer with Assam's police housing board and incharge of the
construction of the detention facility, told Al Jazeera. "The entire
compound is surrounded by two walls, the inner being 20 feet high, followed by the
outer wall six feet high," Das said. As a security measure, the detention
centre has six watchtowers for round-the-clock monitoring, supported by a
100-metre high-beam light. According to
officials at the construction site, the centre was sanctioned by India's federal
home ministry in June last year and was supposed to be completed by December.
However, the deadline has now been pushed to April this year. "It is a
central government project. We have to finish the entire construction by
April," said Das. While the government has not yet announced a nationwide
NRC, a number of detention centres are coming up across the country. In Assam,
which has witnessed a movement against mainly Bangla-speaking migrants for more
than four decades, at least six detention centres are already operational. On
December 3, India's Minister of State for Home Affairs, G Kishan Reddy,
in a written response, informed the Parliament that an existing detention
centre in Goalpara has 201 inmates, Kokrajhar has 140, Silchar 71, Dibrugarh
40, Jorhat 196, and Tezpur centre holds 322 inmates. In July, another Minister of State for Home
Affairs, Nityanand Rai, said all the states have been asked to
establish detention centres according to a Model Detention Centre Manual
prepared by the government. On December
22, the southern state of Karnataka opened a centre for undocumented migrants
in Nelamangala, some 40km (27 miles) from the capital city of Bengaluru. The
western state of Goa inaugurated its first detention centre on May 29 last
year, while Rajasthan has a centre located inside a federal jail. Reports said
a detention centre in the state of Punjab is expected to be completed by May
this year. In the national capital of New Delhi, a detention centre has been
operational since 2006 and is run by the Foreigners Regional Registration
Office (FRRO). In the western state of Maharashtra, the previous BJP government
identified a piece of land on the outskirts of the financial hub of Mumbai to
build a detention centre. Reports said the government of West Bengal state
also identified two locations - near capital Kolkata and in North 24 Parganas
district - to construct detention centres.
Though there are no official figures, India's powerful Home Minister Amit
Shah, while addressing an election rally in September 2018, claimed the country
has about four million undocumented migrants. Among the 1.9 million undocumented migrants
who could not make it to the NRC list in Assam, nearly half were Muslims,
according to a report by the United Against Hate group. Now, India's 200
million Muslims fear the process will be implemented across the country by the
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
to marginalise the community. The passing of the contentious Citizenship
Amendment Act (CAA) last month has aggravated such fears, leading to huge
protests across the country and resulting in at least 26 deaths so far. The CAA
grants Indian citizenship to six religious groups, except Muslims, from the
neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who came to the
country before 2015. But Tanweer Fazal,
who teaches political science at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University was
not convinced. "It is an easily understood fact if a non-Muslim gets
excluded from NRC, then CAA can be his saviour. So only Muslims are left to go
to the detention centres," he told Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/human-india-largest-detention-centre-ready-200102044649934.html
2.
Muslims organize: Jan., 5, 2020: As nationwide demonstrations
entered their fourth week, India’s Muslims — long a fragmented group —
organized into a formidable force against a contentious citizenship law. At least 100,000 people gathered Saturday in Hyderabad, India’s
technology hub, to protest
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a new law they say
will strip the country of its secular foundations, maintaining steady pressure
on the government as demonstrations entered their fourth week. The
protests have drawn massive crowds across India, with more than 200,000 people
gathering in Kochi city, in the southern state of Kerala, on New Year’s Day.
And in Delhi, hundreds continued to camp out on a vital stretch of highway that
links the capital to its suburbs, bristling against one of the city’s coldest
winters in decades. While the
protests are the biggest threat
yet to Mr. Modi’s tenure in
office, they may also be the beginning of a deeper political and social
shift in India. From the start the protests have attracted Indians across
political stripes and creeds. But with India’s Muslims spearheading
the demonstrations this past week, the 200-million strong minority showed it
can organize as a formidable force to check Mr. Modi’s Hindu nationalist
government. The protests
began in December when the government passed
a law that uses religion as a criterion for determining whether illegal
migrants in India can be fast-tracked for citizenship. The measure favors
members of all South Asia’s major religions except Islam, India’s second
largest faith. Muslims worry that the law will be coupled with a citizenship
test and used to strip them of their Indian .In
Hyderabad on Saturday, protesters came out in large numbers despite police
restrictions capping the gatherings at 1,000 participants. Organizers said the
demonstrations drew 200,000 people, while the local authorities pegged the number
at 100,000. The city’s Muslim community organized the protests, and volunteers
handed out water and Indian flags. That
Muslims continue to organize protests that turn out such large numbers nearly a
month after demonstrations first began is remarkable, considering the
fragmented nature of the community, among the nation’s poorest and most
illiterate, and its limited political power. Indian Muslims hold slightly
less than 5 percent of parliamentary seats, despite making up 14 percent of the
population. On
Saturday, some protesters held placards reading, “I am an Indian by choice, not
by chance,” a reference to the millions of Muslims who chose to stay in a
secular India during the country’s bloody 1947 partition, when Pakistan was
carved out of the subcontinent as a homeland for Muslims. Since India gained its independence
from Britain, the country’s Muslims have never protested in such large numbers,
said Farhan Nasir, 27, a doctor who attended the protest in Hyderabad, and is
Muslim. “If you will break us, we will unite. For the first time, Muslims are
protesting on the street in large numbers.” Dr.
Nasir said Muslims felt compelled to address the governing party’s divisive
politics and sectarianism. He added that the community historically had been so
focused on making ends meet that it was unorganized politically and socially.
But that is changing, he said, as they feel increasingly threatened by Mr.
Modi’s government.“This could be the beginning of a new politics for Muslims
and for India as well,” he said. “This will not fizzle out; the protest is in a
secular direction.” Some
protesters expressed impatience with Mr. Modi’s sectarian politics, pointing to
inflammatory statements he and other party leaders made ahead of national
elections last year even as the country faced a weakening economy and
unemployment at a 45-year high. “Elections
should be fought on the issues of economy, employment, inflation and not on
religion issues,” said Syed Salman Ahmad, 27, a civil engineer. The atmosphere at Hyderabad’s
demonstration was festive, with hawkers selling lemonade and snacks, protesters
sporting painted Indian flags on their cheeks and groups of women banding
together in song until the sun set. (My comments:
THIS MUSILM UNITY SHOULD ENCOMPASS KASHMIRIS AS WELL) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/04/world/asia/india-protests-modi-citizenship.html
3.
Muslims unite: Jan., 5, 2020: Ironically, the unholy trinity of the National Register
of Citizens-Citizenship (Amendment) Act-National Population Register, designed
to place a question mark on the citizenship of Muslims in India, has had the
unintended consequence of reaffirming their Indian identity. Despite having
chosen to stay in India after independence, weathering the rising tide of
communalism that Partition brought, Muslims in India have constantly had their
patriotism questioned. Most Muslim leaders that the freedom struggle had
produced left for Pakistan, and it is safe to say that since independence,
Muslims have had no leader with a pan-India appeal. As per the report of the Sachar
Committee, the participation of Muslims in all fields of public life,
including their numbers in the armed
forces, the police, bureaucracy, educational institutions and even
organised private sector employment is disproportionately low, lower even than
the Scheduled Castes and at par or lower than the Schedules
Tribes.With the rise of the political right, increasingly, the public discourse
of “nationalism” was coopted by jingoism, toxic masculinity and communalism.
Every bigot started referring to her/himself as a “nationalist”. At every step,
Muslims were accused of being anti-national or pro-Pakistan and told to go to
Pakistan. All individuals, associations and collectives subscribing to liberal
values were put in the box as not being patriotic enough or being soft on terrorists,
separatists, infiltrators and sundry anti-nationals, most of which were
synonyms for Muslims. Symbols are always vulnerable to appropriation and the
tricolour became synonymous with the neo-nationalists, who were carrying it to
their rallies and literally wearing it on their sleeves. The image of the
tricolour flying in the protest march in Jammu taken out being tried for the
brutal rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl in Kathua was seared
into public memory. Lynchings in the name of cow slaughter, extra-judicial
killings, absurd laws criminalising forms of divorce already rendered
ineffective by the Supreme Court, five acres of land given to compensate the
irreparable damage to the secular fabric of the nation caused by the illegal demolition
of a 464-year-old mosque, revocation of Article 370 and the ensuing clampdown
in Kashmir – none of these was able to awaken the Indian Muslim and force them
to leave the safety of their homes to venture onto streets that felt
increasingly hostile and alien. And then, the government went a little too far
and passed a series of laws, the net effect of which is to require Muslims to
prove their citizenship or face prosecution, providing all other communities a
safe passage. The rest, as they say, is history. Finally, the knife had cut too
close to the bone. The protests began in Jamia Millia Islamia and quickly
spread to Aligarh Muslim University and then to the rest of the country. The
fact that the protests started in Jamia is also apt and in keeping with its
historic tradition. Jamia Millia Islamia was founded by Muslim leaders who felt
that AMU was too colonial in its outlook and Muslims should come forward and be
equal participants in the freedom movement. These leaders broke away from AMU
and Jamia was founded as a centre of the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat
movements, with Mahatma Gandhi as its patron. Gandhiji once pledged that if
need be, he would go around with a begging bowl to fund the fledgling
university. “Jo abr yahaṅ se utthega,
wo sarey jahaṅ par barsega (The cloud (of revolution) rising up from here
will rain down on the whole world).” The intention here is not to communalise
and colour what is quintessentially a pan-India people’s movement as a Muslim
movement. It is only to emphasise that for the first time since independence,
Muslims have emerged on to the streets to raise their voice and claim an equal
share in the political discourse of their country. It is true that protests do
not win elections. Let us even assume for a moment that the majority of the
people are still behind Modi and back the discriminatory law. But for the first
time since the Modi-Shah combine came to power, there is nationwide opposition
to their discriminatory and divisive policies and rhetoric. And
this opposition is not by any political party or individual. It is by the
people themselves. The protests are notable for their spontaneity and lack of
leadership. Student leaders, stars of popular culture, local and regional icons
are seen floating from one protest to another, trying to find their own role in
what is in the truest sense a people’s movement. The common Muslim man and
woman have decided to wait no longer for this political party or that, this
leader or that, to voice their concerns. Nor are they lamenting the
lack of national leadership in their community. Men and women, old and young,
have taken to the streets and decided to speak for themselves. Unlike the
#Notinmyname protests of 2017 to protest the lynching of Muslims in the name of
gau raksha (cow protection), where persons of all other communities came
together (on a much smaller scale) to say that they do not want atrocities
against Muslims to be perpetrated on the pretext of protection of Hinduism,
this time Muslims are not merely the object of the protest, they are leading
the movement from the front. The protests have been marked by Muslims
reclaiming India’s national icons and symbols. Men wearing skullcaps and women
wearing hijabs waving the tricolour or even with the tricolour painted on their
faces have taken over the streets and protest venues in practically every city
in the country. Muslims no longer feel constrained to restrict themselves to
pictures of Maulana Azad and Zakir Hussain to rally around. They are reclaiming
national leaders as their own, as people who fought for their freedom, the
freedom that is sought to be taken away today. Mahatma Gandhi, who we hear
about these days only when his assassin
is glorified, is once again a
symbol of resistance. Dr B.R. Ambedkar once again belongs to ‘We The People’ he
gave the constitution to and is not the reserve of one political party in Uttar
Pradesh. Alongside these, as Hasrat Mohani’s “Inquilab Zindabad”, Bismil
Azimabadi’s “Sarfaroshi ki tamanna” and Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s “Hum
dekhenge” become rallying cries once again, it is also a reminder that
Muslims of the sub-continent are no strangers to the fight for civil liberties.
In fact, so perplexed and clueless is the establishment by the uprising that
they have started resorting to absurdities like ordering
an enquiry into whether
Faiz’s “Hum dekhenge” is anti-Hindu in its reference to idol breaking.
Perhaps the director of IIT Kanpur would do well to look up the meaning of the
word ‘iconoclast’, which literally means breaker of idols but has come to mean
someone who attacks entrenched institutions and ideas, and note that Ambedkar
has been described by the famous former Supreme Court judge, Justice V.R.
Krishna Iyer, as a “creative iconoclast”. Perhaps Justice Krishna Iyer was
referring to something other than desecration of idols. As was Faiz.
Simultaneously with the reclaiming of national symbols and icons, there is a
reaffirmation of their Muslim identity by the Muslim protesters. Protests are
paused for namaz, and non-Muslims protestors form human chains around
the people offering prayers. Duas (prayers) for a roll-back of the
discriminatory law are being conducted after namaz in mosques. Rozas
(fasts) have been observed in various places as a statement of solidarity with
the fight against NRC-CAA-NPR and community iftars are being organised.
In Jamia, Shaheen Bagh and surrounding Muslim areas, a whole culture and
routine has emerged around the protests. Over the course of the three odd weeks
that the protests have continued, the number of women participating has
increased steadily. The age demographic has also changed, from a student
movement to a movement of persons of all ages from all walks of life. School
children are seen waving anti-CAA banners from school buses, grandmothers are
coming to protests in wheelchairs and raising slogans. As the number of
headscarves at protest venues has multiplied, the protests venues have
responded by becoming more gender sensitive. One of the two mosques on campus
in Jamia has been converted into a mosque reserved exclusively for women; and
its washrooms have been set aside for their use. In Shaheen Bagh, a shamiana
has been erected in the middle of the road with carpets for seating to provide
some barrier against the biting cold to the women who have been sitting on
dharna day and night, some of them with their children. For a community that is
often accused of gender inequality, these are welcome signs that the churn is
not just outside but also within. It is a little-known fact that Allama Iqbal
actually wrote two taranas. One, which we know so well – “Saare jahan
se achcha Hindustan hamara” to imbue a national identity and sense of pride
among the people of India, and the other lesser known one – “Cheen-o-Arab
hamara Hindustan hamara, Muslim hein hum watan hai saara jahana hamara” to
engender a global Muslim identity and emphasise the stake Muslims have in
India. It seems today that Indian Muslims have fused together the two to raise
a new slogan – “Muslim hein hum watan hai Hindustan hamara”. https://thewire.in/rights/anti-caa-nrc-npr-protests-muslims
4.
Muslims targeted: Jan., 6, 2020: A
video recorded by human rights activist Kavita Krishnan, who visited the area
of Muzaffarnagar in the norther Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, shows one home
that has been broken into with furniture and glass smashed, in what she says
was a deliberate attack by police to intimidate those protesting against a
proposed citizenship law in India. Other pictures show homes completely
destroyed, with belongings strewn across the floor Krishnan posted pictures of damage to
properties she alleges was caused by Uttar Pradesh . During the incident in Muzaffarnagar on the
night of December 20, Kavita told Metro.co.uk that a number of Muslim homes had
been targeted by the police, with pictures showing widespread damage to another
property, with the bathroom and living room destroyed. Human Rights Watch has
accused the government of targeting Muslim communities to quell the
protests Kavita, who visited the area as
part of a fact finding mission for human rights organisations such as United
Against Hate, said many of those whose homes were alleged to have been involved
were fearful of speaking out due to reprisals. She said: ‘The Uttar Pradesh
police destroyed every last bit of furniture. ‘The families told me that the
reason they didn’t destroy the entire property and kept it standing was because
they said once we’ve kicked you out of the country, we will come and live
here’. She added that it ‘was only Muslims families that had been targeted’ and
described the level of violence as ‘unprecedented’. India has been gripped by
protests over the last month over changed to citizenship laws She claims the homes had been attacked as
part of a message to the whole neighbourhood not to protest against the
citizenship law. Kavita claims that a number of people were also taken away by
police during the raids on their homes, with their plight still unknown. She
said: ‘What is happening right now in India, is politicians from the ruling BJP
government are stirring up violence against minorities. ‘The citizenship law is
an attempt by the government of India to select who can and cannot be citizens
of the state’. Human rights groups have asked the police to exercise
restraint . A spokesperson from Human
Rights Watch said: ‘The police, particularly in Uttar Pradesh state, has
targeted Muslim communities to quell protests. ‘At least 19 people have been
killed. There are serious allegations of police abuse in custody
including against children. ‘Instead of investigating allegations and ordering
security forces to respect human rights laws and exercise restraint during
violent protests, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh
state, a prominent BJP leader, has called for revenge and threatened to
confiscate properties of those arbitrarily accused of violent protests.’ Australian hillside on fire 'looks like it's covered in lava' The
spokesperson added that there has been a record of human rights abuses across
India ‘where the BJP is responsible for state administration’ and rather than
‘dispelling concerns about its anti-secular policies, have accused activists
and critics’. It also called on the government to abolish the recent amendments
to the citizenship law which it said it are: ‘Inherently discriminatory since it
privileges religious minorities who became irregular migrants to India from
Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan before 2014. ‘It discriminates asylum
claims both on the basis of country of origin and faith.’https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/05/muslim-homes-ransacked-indian-police-amid-crackdown-protests-12004978/
5. Muslims targeted: Jan., 8, 2020: Sometimes Arshad
Hussain disappears. He will be sitting on the bed, watching relatives,
neighbors and journalists pour into his house when suddenly scenes of his dead
son wash over him.“I find myself on the street, staring at the concrete path
where my son bled to death,” he said quietly, leaning against the exposed brick
walls of his house in Nehtaur, a small north Indian town about 190 kilometers
(120 miles) from New Delhi. His 20-year-old son, Anas Ahmad, was among 16
Muslims killed across the state of Uttar Pradesh on Dec. 20, the
deadliest day in unrelenting violence that has engulfed India for almost a
month. The victims included an 8-year-old boy. Tens of thousands of people have
taken to the streets to oppose a new law that grants a path to citizenship for
immigrants of every religion except Islam. Many say the law, passed by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government, discriminates against
Muslims and undermines the country’s secular foundations. Police have used
baton charges, tear gas and sometimes live ammunition against protesters,
leaving at least 23 dead nationwide.The crackdown has been the harshest in the
heartland state of Uttar Pradesh, where Muslims comprise 20% of the population
of 200 million.Relatives of eight of the 16 people who died on Dec. 20 told the
AP that their family members had been killed by police fire. Police deny using
guns, but a smartphone video seen by the AP shows an officer firing at
protesters in Meerut and residents of the city said they saw police firing
weapons that day.Five people died in Meerut, the highest toll
anywhere that day. The city, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of New
Delhi, was teeming with people marching toward a market intersection to protest
after Friday prayers, residents said. At first, people emerged from the city’s
narrow lanes in twos and threes. A crowd of 30 to 40 formed. Half an hour
later, the number had risen to the hundreds. By the time police arrived in
protective gear, the gathering had become a buzzing congregation. Soon officers
resorted to baton charge and tear gas. Several residents said this was followed
by gunfire, forcing people to scamper for safety. Hours later, the town
convulsed in tragic news: Five men had died of gunshot wounds. Mohammad Naseem
said he was standing beside his 45-year-old friend, Zaheer Ahmed, when a hail
of bullets, which he said came from the police side, tore over their heads.
Naseem said his friend was sitting next to a shop front, puffing on a
cigarette, when he saw him fall sideways. “When the sound of bullets stopped, I
went closer to check on him and he was dead,” he said Residents in Meerut and Nehtaur say the
deaths were followed by a police crackdown, deepening fear among Muslims.
Others offered similar accounts elsewhere in the state, alleging police
killings and vandalism. The police deny the charges. CCTV surveillance video and
mobile phone footage from Meerut shows officers vandalizing cars and
motorbikes, breaking house windows and dragging people in the streets after
making arrests. Police could also be seen destroying CCTV cameras in one place.
Competing narratives of the violence illustrate the brewing tensions in a state
led by a hard-line Hindu monk, Yogi Adityanath, who has called for revenge
against protesters. A day before the deaths, he told reporters that those
vandalizing public property in protests would have to pay damages. Many believe
that Adityanath, the state’s chief minister, is following Modi’s path of Hindu
nationalism. Activists who visited the state on fact-finding mission days after
the deaths accused police of a “reign of terror” and “brazenly targeting”
Muslims. “For the state, Muslims are like insects. They kill us at will,”
said Anwar Usmani, whose nephew Mohammad Sulaiman was killed in Nehtaur.
In Muzaffarnagar, a town 60 kilometers (35 miles) from Meerut, 74-year-old Haji
Anwaar Ilahi said dozens of policemen barged into his four-story house on the
night of Dec. 20, “destroying everything that came in their way.” His
grandchildren examined what they said was proof of police vandalism: a
transparent police baton left behind in a pile of electronics, broken crockery,
and torn books. https://apnews.com/438b3ce98203991115beb8aa5d5db06b
6.
Creeping nationalism: Jan., 10, 2020: There are times when a people
must be reminded that their thoughts, speech and actions are self-destructive
and threaten their country and the values that hold it together. Such a time is
upon India’s Hindus. A growing number of Hindus now speak the insecure and
angry language of those willing to discard their own culture, law and
constitution and succumb to the dark fantasies of Hindu supremacy. Majoritarian
visions, now openly expressed, empowered and normalised as reality, are the
armoury from which India’s ruling party fashions its arsenal of Hindu
supremacist behaviour, from the assaults on India’s universities to using a
raft of laws, new and old, against Muslims.
The fundamentalists among the Hindus may not even be a majority. But they
are more than they were, and they hold the key to determining the course India
will take. The radicalised, or those they have brow-beaten into submission, now
control large swathes of India’s unfolding narratives. Hindu-first policies,
symbols and feelings are now predominant in politics, in the media, among the
judiciary and the police and in public life. Hospital unions in Mumbai fly the
bhagwa dhwaj, the Hindu flag, while police vehicles and public transport in
Bangalore and elsewhere are adorned with images of Hindu gods. The main
opposition party, created by secular consensus, now promotes cow shelters,
corporate India makes pilgrimages to the bastion of Hindutva in Nagpur and
Bollywood crafts movies that demonise Muslims and celebrate — often through
fictionalised history — Hindu warriors. The rest of India has not entirely been
levelled by the rising storm of Hindu radicalisation. Indeed, it has sparked a
rediscovery and reclamation of the flag, the Constitution and poetry of
resistance from the younger, violent days of the republic’s birth. That is why
beleaguered Muslims, have found their voice. That is why teachers and students
– of all religions – defy violent Hindu goons and radicalised police forces who
disgrace their uniform, the law of the land and the Constitution they have
sworn to uphold. That is why a war for the soul of India rages on the streets,
in universities, homes, families and WhatsApp groups. The unspoken trigger for
Hindu radicalisation over the years, we hear, is Muslim radicalisation. We
hear of a proclivity for terrorism, evident after a spate of bombings in the
wake of the Babri Masjid’s destruction in 1992 and the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom
in Gujarat. Those days of actions and reactions were instrumental
in dividing India, the schisms enabled and widened by what were then considered
"fringe" Hindu groups, including a fledgling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Yet, as the Muslim middle class joined the India growth story, a generation has
risen that is proudly Indian and, often, avowedly Islamic, something that many
Hindus — themselves given to a rising religiosity — find hard to accept. The
common perceptions about Muslims today, even among many liberal Hindus, include
their fecundity, violence, "appeasement" by political parties except
the BJP, and their special privileges. These are patently false. We know that
Muslims are among India’s most disadvantaged and discriminated communities. In
the Modi era, despite insult, humiliation and lynching, they have been silent —
until now. State-sponsored or police atrocities against Muslims are not new. One of the most egregious was in 1987, the year of what came
to be called the Hashimpura massacre, when the Uttar Pradesh police rounded up
42 Muslim men, lined then up near a canal and shot them dead firing-squad
style. They dumped the bodies of the mostly young Muslims in the water, went
home and slept. Many of the policemen involved were arrested and tried. The
court verdict came 28 years later in 2015. All the suspects were acquitted but,
on appeal, convicted in 2016, which is when Vibhuti Narain Rai, the
superintendent of police at the time, released his book, Hashimpura 22
May, an account of the massacre and its aftermath. "The relation between
the Indian state and the minorities is almost the same now as it was then in
1987 or even earlier, in the 1950s and the 1960s," Rai, who became a
university vice-chancellor and literary editor after his law-enforcement days,
wrote in 2016."The same absence of trust, the same hatred, the same prejudices,
the same notions, and the same requirement and attempt to prove their
‘Indian-ness’. Nothing has changed. It is as if the more things change, the
more they remain the same. Or perhaps, worsen." Rai writes about "a spineless,
politically expedient government lying prostrate before its own men in 2015 —
the killers". The difference in 2019 UP and Delhi is that it is the police
who prostrate themselves, willingly, because they are overwhelmingly Hindu and
more open to the call of religious radicalisation than ever. The planning that
determines police actions often comes from the top — Adityanath in UP, Amit
Shah in Delhi. In other states, such as Karnataka, Jharkhand and Gujarat, the
police act of their own accord. In Jharkhand, they have protected or ignored lynch
mobs. In Karnataka’s Mangaluru city, the hub of an educated, prosperous
Hindutva, officers were caught on video mocking colleagues with rifles for not
killing Muslim rioters. In Hyderabad, Telangana, the police admit they profile
Muslims in international IT companies. The radicalisation template was, of
course, created in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, where a rich Hindu can stop a rich
Muslim from buying the house next door by filing a case under a "Disturbed
Areas Act", meant to keep the communities apart and relegate Muslims to
ghettos. The complicity of government officials, police, politicians and judges
in the creation of the Hindu rashtra, the Hindu nation, has now gone national,
as we have seen in subjugation of the Constitution and the law in reducing Jammu
and Kashmir and clearing the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The protests sweeping India
are essentially a fightback, however delayed, against the ongoing process of
creating a Hindu nation. Until yesterday, it appeared a foregone conclusion.
Today, we are not so sure. The ruling party and its affiliates believe the
protests do not have the cachet they appear to have, that half a million people
marching on any day are but a fraction of 1.3 billion, that almost all Hindu
India is with the government. The ruling party
and its affiliates believe they can disregard not just the secular consensus
and Constitution holding India together but continue the march towards a Hindu
nation forged by fear and force. Only Hindus can prove this
proposition — and the depth of their own radicalisation — wrong. If they do
not, we know what awaits. https://www.dawn.com/news/1527252/the-growing-radicalisation-of-hindus-threatens-the-indian-republic-and-the-constitution
7.
Muslims evicted: Jan., 10, 2020:
As many as 450 houses were razed and over 3,000 people were evicted in Sootea
in Assam’s Sonitpur district on 5-6 December 2019 after “a local legislator
entered 10 villages in the area with bulldozers and paramilitary personnel,” Arab News
reported. A press release issued by Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind (JIH) on 26
December 2019 claimed that 426 Muslim families were evicted because “they
belonged to the minority community and did not vote for BJP MLA Padma
Hazarika of “cultivation”. BJP MLA
Padma Hazarika told Afroz Alam Sahil, a freelance journalist who did a ground
report on this, that they are “encroachers, and are Bangladeshis, so we
wouldn’t let them stay.” Afroz told The Quint that all the families
that have been evicted are Muslim families and are living in three different
camps. However, Singh denied that they are living in any camps. According to Arab News,
people living in the camps mentioned that no government official has visited
them. The evicted families have settled in three different camps. People who
have been evicted claim that Hazarika did so because they are not voters of
that area. According to Arab News,
65-year-old Akkas Ali, a farmer who is staying at a nearby makeshift camp,
said, “My fault is that I am not registered as a voter in the Sootea Assembly
constituency where my village falls. I have my vote in the neighboring
constituency. Local Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Padma Hazarika, with
support from the administration, threw me and more than 450 families out from
the area just because we don’t vote for him.” Ali further told Arab News, “The
government says we are encroachers and Bangladeshis, and they evicted us from
our own land despite having all the documents. The larger goal, I feel, is that
the BJP wants to settle down Hindu Bengalis in this area who will act as a
permanent vote bank for the party They
didn’t get their voter IDs changed because in Assam, the chances of them
becoming a ‘D’ Voter’ increase, he added. If you are a D (Doubtful) voter in
Assam, it means your citizenship is doubtful or under dispute. “In the
recent process of NRC, they didn’t get the time to get their voter IDs
changed,” he said quoting the locals.
Afroz said that people who have been evicted have the relevant NRC
documents. “Their names are there in 1951 NRC, 1971 NRC, even the latest NRC,”
he said. The Citizenship Amendment Act,
passed by Parliament, seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslims from
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The cut-off date to qualify for citizenship
under CAA is 31 December 2014. https://www.thequint.com/news/families-evicted-in-assam-bjp-mla-claims-they-are-encroacher-bangladeshi
8. Saudi India ties: Jan., 13,
2020: Tremendous strides have been made in India’s relations
with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in the past few years. The relationship
has indeed progressed “from a purely
buyer-seller relationship” toward a “closer strategic partnership that will
include Saudi investments in downstream oil and gas projects.” However, the
delay in welcoming Saudi money and recent events in India regarding Kashmir and
CAA have made the relationship tenuous.
India is the third largest export destination of Saudi Arabia at $19.4
billion (after China and Japan). In 2018-19 (as
per DGFT), the India-Saudi bilateral trade has increased by 23.83 % to US $
34.03 billion. India imports 200,000 tons of LPG every month from the Kingdom.
The 2.6 million (as of August 2019) strong Indian community in Saudi Arabia is
the largest expatriate community in the Kingdom. The Haj pilgrimage is another
important component of bilateral relations. Nearly 7,00,000 Indians also visit
the Kingdom to perform Hajj or Umra every year. The Hajj quota was
increased by 24, 975 in 2019, enabling 2,00, 000 Indians performing Hajj in 2019.
This determines that until now the bilateral relationship has been defined by
religious travel, migrant workers, remittances and oil trade. However, the
scope to go above and beyond this towards more meaningful investment has been
tapped by both the governments. In its largest ever push to bilateral
relations, Saudi Arabia is believed to be looking to invest US $100 billion in
India, in areas of energy, refining, petrochemicals, infrastructure,
agriculture and mining. Oil giant Saudi Aramco has two major investment plans
in the country: strategic investment in the greenfield petroleum refinery in
Maharashtra and a $15 billion worth 20% stake acquisition in the refining and
petrochemicals business of Reliance Industries (RIL The proposed Maharashtra
project is the largest greenfield refinery in India and will involve
investments from Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, the United Arab Emirates’ ADNOC and
Indian public-sector oil companies. Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd
(RRPCL) which is implementing this project is a joint venture between the
Indian Oil Corporation (IOCl), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL). Saudi Arabian Oil Company – Saudi
Aramco and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) are also partners for this
project and own 50 % stake in the mammoth project. The 1.2 million barrels a
day refinery and associated petrochemical project has been projected as one of
the biggest projects in the country that will bring large foreign direct
investment (FDI). Recent reports indicate that the benchmark value has been
raised from $44 billion to $70 billion for the project. This would require
Indian PSUs to raise their investment from $22 billion to $35 billion, an
increase of Rs 1 lakh crore, financing plans for which are not yet public, and
are the object of much discussion, given the weakened cash flows of Indian PSUs
and public finances. There have already been incredible delays on part of the
government of India (GoI) with regard to the refinery and the Saudi’s have of
late clearly begun to indicate their restlessness “the
ball is in their court” Earlier the project was proposed to come up in
Nanar village in Ratnagiri district some 400 kms South of Mumbai. Due to
opposition from the locals the project was relocated to neighbouring Raigad,
100 km south of the financial capital. Of course, there would legitimate concerns
of the locals, but it is beyond belief that an agreement of this scale was made
without providing adequate assurances to the original owners of the land or
making them partners in this huge investment. Apart from land acquisition
issues now there are reports that India is looking at cutting capacity at this
oil refinery to match lower fuel demand projections and contain costs which
jumped to $70 billion due to stringent environment norms and relocation of the
site. the refinery which was initially projected to cost $44 billion (about Rs
3.08 lakh crore) will now cost to an estimated $70 billion (about Rs 4.9 lakh
crore) because costs of meeting environment norms such as not producing
petroleum coke, and relocation of the plant were not estimated. Also, the cost
of land acquisition should have been calculated when plans of the project of
such size were being made. The mega project was anticipated to be commissioned
by 2022, however incessant delays have pushed the deadline to 2025 India also needs Saudi support to build its
planned emergency crude reserves as a buffer against volatility. India has at
present 5.3 million tons of underground reserves in 3 locations Vizag,
Mangalore and Padur which can meet about 10 days of the country’s oil needs.
New Delhi plans two new reserves with a combined capacity of 6.5 million tons
enough to cover for an additional 12 days. Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Ltd (ISPRL) has signed an agreement with Aramco to lease part of the 2.5
million tone Padur storage in Karnataka.
Investment from Saudi Arabia cannot be left to errors if India wants to
achieve emergency crude reserves of its seven (another 6.5 mt facility at Padur
in Karnataka, Chandikhole in Odisha, at Bikaner in Rajasthan and Rajkot in
Gujarat) Strategic Petroleum Reserves facilities which would together
hold about 128 million barrels of oil. Riyadh has become more amenable to
India’s concerns on radicalisation and terrorism. Cooperation in the fields of
anti-piracy operations and CT has been an important part of India’s ties. The
extradition agreement between the two countries has greatly aided the cause of
India’s fight against terrorism with Riyadh handing over individuals wanted in
India. Saudi Arabia has also been extremely obliging in its position on Kashmir,
providing subtle support to GoI’s policy. Closer relations with the custodian
of the Muslim holy shrines assists in appeasing and validating the Indians
government’s actions among sections of the Muslim community. When the
Saudi Crown Prince Md Bin Salman expressed understanding about India’s approach
and actions in Jammu and Kashmir, it was a significant accomplishment for the
Modi government and a definite snub to Pakistan. However, the blowback over the
vociferous criticism of India’s policies vis-à-vis CAA-NRC led by a bloc of
Muslim countries (Pakistan, Malaysia and Turkey) will eventually affect India’s
foreign relations with all the Gulf nations especially with the KSA. Within the
Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), the pressure is beginning to show on
Saudi Arabia and UAE. It is only a matter of time before the Kingdom and
self-professed leader of the Sunni Muslim world, succumbs to the negative
propaganda by Pakistan wrapped around a Hindu-Muslim narrative, and withdraws
its subtle support to India over Kashmir. In fact, the negative repercussions
have already come in the form of Saudi Arabia agreeing to convene a special
Foreign Ministers’ meeting of the OIC devoted to Kashmir. Although this is
being touted as quid pro quo to Islamabad for giving a pass to the Islamic
Summit in Kuala Lumpur, the fact remains that this recompense to appease
Pakistan is at the expense of India’s foreign policy interests. Projected to
become the world’s third largest economy Saudi Arabia is contemplating large scale
investment in India. The fact that India has the world’s third largest Muslim
population is certainly a consideration in Saudi Arabia’s Asian portfolio.
Commencing work on the refinery would have opened the doors to Saudi investment
in other sectors such as agriculture and infrastructure which PM Modi himself
has touted as an “opportunity
multiplier.” However, with blisters in the very first trial it is
doubtful that the Saudis would want to further scald themselves on purpose. In
any case a slowdown in the economy as well as a shift towards EVs has affected
fuel demand. Aramco, which raised $25.6 billion by selling 1.5% shares in the
world’s biggest initial public offering recently, has also been expected to
participate in the proposed sale of public sector oil marketing and refining
company BPCL. The participation of Aramco in the sale programme through the
disinvestment of BPCL and other state assets is crucial for bridging the huge
fiscal deficit that India faces currently
Growing pressure from non-Wahabbi Muslim nations on Saudi Arabia with
regard to Kashmir and CAA requires close monitoring by the MEA. If that support
snaps, then UAE may follow and OIC, hither to quiet, may become belligerent. A
friendly Saudi royalty can be ensured only via investment red carpets. The lack
of it could lead to unsustainable diplomatic pressures and worrying noises on
oil export to India. The only relationship that will continue is of NRIs
continuing to work in Saudi Arabia and remit nearly $10 billion per year. https://thewire.in/external-affairs/india-saudi-arabia-ties-caa-nrc
9.
Free Kashmir posters: Jan., 13, 2020: Chennai, January 12 (KMS): In a series of one after another
incident indicating that the freedom struggle in occupied Jammu and Kashmir has
become an icon for the Indian masses, especially minorities, living under
Modi-led fascist government, posters reading ‘Free Kashmir’ are now being
frequently spotted during protest demonstrations in length and breadth of
India. Despite registration of treason cases against the people displaying such
posters in the recent past, the newest reading ‘Free Kashmir’ was spotted at a
protest demonstration against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Law in
Chennai, the other day. Earlier, such placards were also seen during protests
in New Delhi and Mumbai. A poster was raised by a woman protesting violence
against the students and faculty members of the Jawaharlal Nehru University
(JNU). After Delhi, something similar also took place during a Mumbai protest
on January 6 when a girl was seen holding a ‘Free Kashmir’ poster. Other
demonstrators were also seen holding placards that said various things they
were protesting against. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/01/12/after-delhi-and-mumbai-free-kashmir-poster-seen-in-chennai/
10.
11.
12.
BJP and Muslims of India: Jan., 14, 2020:
The BJP wants to suppress Indian Muslims and secularists who see them as equal
citizens. But police violence has backfired
In the middle of December,
Delhi police tried to shut down university protests against the religiously
discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) by caning Muslim students into
submission. Police officers smashed their way into the library at Jamia Millia
Islamia university (where I teach history), trashed bookcases and beat the students
inside, badly damaging the
eyesight of one in the process. They threw teargas
grenades into the reading room to force students out. Their excuse was they
were chasing violent demonstrators who had taken refuge in campus buildings.
Last week, Delhi police also assembled outside another educational
establishment. This time the police remained decorously outside the gates of
Jawaharlal Nehru University, India’s most well known, cordoning off the campus
as masked goons armed with iron rods and improvised bludgeons ran riot inside.
They broke into a hostel reserved for women students, inflicted head injuries
on the president of JNU’s student union, who is a woman, and attacked faculty
members who tried to protect them. Some 20 students and teachers were
hospitalised. After three hours of thuggery the police entered the university
at the vice-chancellor’s belated invitation
but made no arrests because the criminals had mysteriously slipped away despite
the police cordon.The Delhi police was the common factor in the two assaults,
in the first instance as perpetrator and in the second as auxiliary. The force
reports to the home affairs minister, Amit Shah, prime minister Narendra Modi’s
right-hand man. Jamia and JNU are centrally funded universities that have
attracted the violent displeasure of Modi’s government for different but
related reasons. Taken together, these reasons define the ruling Bharatiya
Janata party’s majoritarian project – its reason for being. The government was confident
that making a violent example of a Muslim university would play well in public
The attack on Jamia was triggered by the BJP government’s determination to
snuff out protests against the CAA, which excludes Muslim migrants from the
amnesty given to others from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Having
smuggled into law a religious test for citizenship for one class of migrants,
the government hopes to press its advantage further by forcing Indians to prove
their citizenship to a latterday inquisition, the National Register of
Citizens. The NRC is the citizenship act’s evil twin; those who aren’t able to
document their claim to being Indian before the tribunals of the NRC will be
cast into limbo – but non-Muslims among them can hope to be rescued by the
CAA’s amnesty. Undocumented Muslims will have no such recourse; they will be
interned and deported as Amit Shah promised in the speeches he made all over
the country. This destabilisation of Muslim
citizenship is a great prize for a majoritarian party such as the BJP which
sees India
as a Hindu nation, Hindus as its natural citizens and Muslims as potential
fifth columnists with extraterritorial loyalties. Jamia was brazenly attacked
by the police of this would-be Hindu nation because the government was
confident that making a violent example of a Muslim university would play well
in public. Against
the odds, this attempt to shock Indian Muslims into submission by brutalising a
Muslim university backfired – for two reasons. First, the assault galvanised
Muslims all over the country into spontaneous and sustained resistance to the
CAA and NRC. Second, the police atrocities in Jamia led to huge demonstrations
of solidarity in colleges and universities all over India and sparked a fire of
resistance, against the furtive bigotry of the CAA, which continues to burn.
The BJP has long believed that its anti-Muslim project has two enemies: Muslims,
and those non-Muslims who see Muslims as equal citizens under the constitution. The Delhi police made an example of Jamia as a warning to
India’s Muslims. When that didn’t go according to plan, the
same police travelled several miles across the city to help make an example of
a university that the BJP sees as the institutional incarnation of the
secularism that might yet thwart its dreams of a Hindu nation. Since
majoritarian parties are constitutionally incapable of empathy, the BJP
understands JNU’s brand of secular solidarity as a form of Hindu self-hatred.
For the better part of Modi’s first term in office, there has been a running
battle between JNU students and central government, a David and Goliath
standoff that has turned student politicians into national figures. But the
BJP’s loathing of the university is obsessive and wildly out of proportion to
the threat that its students and teachers pose. Stung by the pan-Indian support
that Jamia’s anti-CAA protests have provoked, Modi’s government seems to have
concluded that it was all JNU’s fault. Otherwise it is hard to believe that a
dispute over accommodation charges – the last source of conflict
between JNU students and the authorities to make headlines – could goad a
national government into risking complicity in this violent charade. The only
other explanation for the attack is that it was an attempt to turn attention
away from the anti-CAA protests by giving people something else to be outraged
about. It’s hard to predict what lasting effect the assaults on these two
universities will have on Indian politics. A party that controls the state will
generally outlast spontaneous civil society movements that lack political
leadership. For the moment, though, the passion (and existential panic) that
has powered this campaign against sectarianism seems to have deranged Modi’s
leviathan. . https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/13/attacks-delhi-universities-modi-muslims-allies
13.
Protest
spreads: Jan., 16, 2020: The cool and hip graffiti on the shutters of an abandoned
building in Church Street, in the heart of Bengaluru, where youngsters are
often spotted taking selfies and shooting amateur music videos, turned into
ground zero over the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, and the
National Register of Citizens (NRC) on Tuesday. The commotion began when office
goers and others spotted spray-painted graffiti with protest slogans saying ‘No
CAA, No NRC’, ‘I will not show my papers’, ‘Detention Camps’ and ‘Free Kashmir’
in black, red and other colours
Bengaluru, like other places in the country, has seen a sharp rise in
demonstrations and protests, both for and against CAA. But it has remained
largely peaceful in contrast to some other places, including Mysuru, where a
girl was recently served a notice after she was spotted carrying a ‘Free
Kashmir’ poster at an anti-CAA-NRC rally. https://www.livemint.com/
14.
HRW: Jan., 16,2020: The New York-based Human Rights
Watch has criticized the Indian government for gross human rights violations
including arrests, torture and communication blackout after abrogation of
Kashmir’s special status in August, last year. Human Rights Watch in its World
Report 2020 posted on its website said, Indian authorities also failed to
protect religious minorities, used draconian sedition and counter-terrorism
laws to silence peaceful dissent, and invoked foreign funding regulations and
other laws to discredit and muzzle nongovernmental organizations, critical of
government actions or policies. “The Indian government has tried to shut down
Kashmir, hiding the full extent of the harm caused there,” said Meenakshi
Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch in a press release. “Instead
of addressing growing attacks on minorities, Indian authorities bolstered their
efforts to silence critical voices in 2019,” she added. The report said, “Prior
to its actions in Jammu and Kashmir, the government deployed additional troops
…, shut down the internet and phones, and arbitrarily detained thousands of
Kashmiris, including political leaders, activists, journalists, lawyers, and
potential protesters, including children. Hundreds remain in detention without
charge or under house arrest to prevent protests.” It said that the Indian
government blocked opposition politicians, foreign diplomats, and international
journalists from independent visits to occupied Kashmir. “The Indian government’s
actions in Kashmir have led to loss of livelihood and access to education.
The repression resulted in international criticism including in the United
States’ Congress, the European Parliament, and the United Nations Human Rights
Council. Throughout the year, UN experts have raised concerns over a series of
issues in India, including extrajudicial killings, potential statelessness of
millions in Assam, possible eviction of tribal communities and forest-dwellers,
and the communications blackout in Kashmir,” the report added. The report said
that the February 14 Pulwama attack in which over 40 Indian troops were killed,
led to military escalation between India and Pakistan. Following the incident,
Kashmiri students and businessmen in different parts of India were harassed,
beaten, and even forcibly evicted from rented housing and dorms by BJP
supporters. In the 652-page World Report 2020, its 30th edition, Human Rights
Watch reviews human rights practices in nearly 100 countries. The report said
that despite numerous independent recommendations, including by United Nations
experts, the India government did not review or repeal the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act, which gives soldiers effective immunity from prosecution for
serious human rights abuses. The law is in force in occupied Kashmir and in
several states in northeast India. The HRW said that in November, following a
petition by child rights activists, the Indian Supreme Court sought a detailed
report from the juvenile justice committee of occupied Kashmir High Court on
the detention of children and other abuses during the lockdown imposed since
August. The committee earlier submitted a police list of 144 detained
children, the youngest being 9, it added. About mob lynching of
Muslims by Hindu extremists in India, the report said, “The government failed
to properly enforce Supreme Court directives to prevent and investigate mob
attacks, often led by BJP supporters, on religious minorities and other
vulnerable communities. Since May 2015, extremist Hindu groups
have killed 50 people and injured over 250 amid rumors that they traded or
killed cows for beef. Muslims were also beaten and forced to chant Hindu
slogans. Police failed to properly investigate the crimes, stalled
investigations, ignored procedures, and filed criminal cases against witnesses
to harass and intimidate them.” “Nearly two million people from tribal
communities and forest-dwellers remained at risk of forced displacement and
loss of livelihoods after a Supreme Court ruling in February 2019 to evict all
those whose claims under the Forest Rights Act were rejected,” the HRW report
maintained. “In the northeast state of Assam, the government published the
National Register of Citizens, aimed at identifying Indian citizens and lawful
residents following repeated protests and violence over irregular migration of
ethnic Bengalis from Bangladesh. The list excluded nearly two million people,
many of them Muslims, including many who have lived in India for years, in some
cases their whole lives. There are serious allegations that the verification
process was arbitrary and discriminatory. While there is a right to appeal, the
government plans to build detention centers for those denied citizenship after
appeal,” the report said. “The government has also said that citizenship
verification will be implemented across the country and that the government
will amend the citizenship laws to include all irregular migrants from
neighboring countries, but excludes Muslims from the list,” it pointed out. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/01/15/hrw-condemns-indian-government-over-atrocities-in-iok/
15.
CAA: Jan., 21, 2020: Bangladesh
and Afghanistan have opposed India’s
controversial law — the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) —
which cites the two together with Pakistan as the three neighbours that
discriminate against non-Muslim minorities. Former Afghan President Hamid
Karzai told The Hindu that the law which excludes Muslims and
woos Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis from the three
countries for citizenship rights should be extended to everyone equally.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, seen as a key regional ally of India’s
rightwing Hindu revivalist government, criticised the new law in an interview
with Dubai’s Gulf News, saying the new law was not necessary.
Ms Hasina said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had personally assured her that a
related new measure — the National Register of Citizens (NRC) — was an internal
matter of India that would not affect her people. But the NRC is being
implemented in Assam, and is proposed to be extended across the country, with a
view to sending back alleged illegal Bangladeshi migrants to their country.
Home Minister Amit Shah has said the proposed countrywide NRC would be used to
evict Muslim “termites”. “We don’t understand why (the Indian government) did
it. It was not necessary,” Ms Hasina told Gulf News in Abu Dhabi where she held
high-level meetings. The statement is the first by the Bangladesh leader since
the disputed law, that has triggered protests across India, was cleared by the
Rajya Sabha on Dec 11.During the parliamentary debates, Home Minister Amit Shah
repeatedly referred to persecution faced by minority communities, mainly the
Hindus, in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan arguing that these groups
should get citizenship rights in India. Ms Hasina distanced her country from
the line taken by the Indian government.
“But within India, people are facing many problems,” she declared.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1529438
16.
CAA:
Jan., 22, 2020: India’s former top diplomat, Deb Mukharji, has exposed brutalities of law enforcement
agencies against Muslims of Uttar Pradesh (UP) for protesting against the
recently passed controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). At least 28 people
have been
killed in the protests and hundreds more sustained injuries in clashes with
police, fuelling public anger. Chief Minister
UP Yogi Adityanath in December 2019 declared a war against Muslims after he
vowed to “take revenge” on people protesting against the controversial
citizenship law. “The attitude of the Uttar Pradesh police was perhaps best
appreciated by the Bengal BJP president, who was happy that they shot
protesters like dogs.” The diplomat,
in his article titled “Extraordinary horrors inflicted on Muslims of UP”,
writes that a “people’s tribunal” was held in Delhi on January 16, where the
jury comprised former justices of the Supreme Court, a former chief justice of
Delhi High Court, eminent academics and retired civil servants. In the
article, he states: “The jury was ‘deeply worried and dismayed by the
testimonies placed before it. It is convinced that the entire state machinery, led from the top,
acted with grave prejudice and perpetrated violence targeting one particular
community, the state’s Muslim population, and the
social activists leading the movement.” He further writes
that apart from the violence on the protesters, the police brutality included
“the arrest of and filing of false cases against innocent people; the
destruction of vehicles and property by entering people’s homes, as well as
CCTV cameras; threats to and intimidation of people picked up [for] speaking
the truth about what happened; communalised abuses against victims; custody
violence even on minors; firing and killing people without following the law;
preventing medical personnel from treating the injured and threatening the
injured against accessing medical care”.The former envoy also discloses that
the injured protesters being denied treatment at the hospital as hospital
authorities “were apparently concerned about displeasing the government”.
This is a clear violation of Article 21 of Indian constitution. There were also allegations that ambulances were not
provided when necessary, although the Red Cross is honoured even in
war. This type of human rights violation is a crime in the international court
and UP would be brought to trial if it was an independent country. The jury concludes: “The state of affairs in UP shows a
complete collapse of the rule of law. In fact, the very state administration
that is charged with protecting the rule of law is perpetrating violence upon
its own people.” Uttar Pradesh is considered a holy place,
but with the police mercilessly beating the innocent Muslims, has today become
the heart of darkness, Mukharji concludes
18.
British law makers:
Jan., 23, 2020: Ambedkar International Mission (UK) and the South Asia Solidarity
Group (SASG) hosted a meeting in the British parliament on Monday to talk over
India's recent citizenship laws and the countrywide protest following them.The
meeting discussed the Citizenship Amendment Act, National Register of Citizens
and National Population Register and the protests against them across India.
Several British MPs expressed their concern about the legislation, its
implications for human rights and potential for mass disenfranchisement of
Muslims, and the situation in India more generally.Introducing the meeting,
Amrit Wilson of SASG highlighted the scale of the protests by students, women,
Muslim communities, Dalits, urban and rural workers, and many others and the
violence which had been unleashed on the protesters. Announcing the UK release
of a jury report from the People’s Tribunal on State Action in Uttar Pradesh
(India), she noted that it documented appalling violence against Muslims by the
police accompanied by armed thugs affiliated to the ruling party and that this
was a direct response to directions from the Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath who
had called for ‘revenge’ to be carried out against the Muslim community for
protesting. The meeting, sponsored by Stephen Timms MP, was addressed by lawyer
and legal scholar Gautam Bhatia who is currently involved in the Supreme Court
challenge to the legislation. He explained the brazenly discriminatory nature
of the CAA, the potential for mass disenfranchisement of Muslims, and why it
undermines the Indian citizenship guaranteed by the Constitution. Satpal Muman,
chair of the UK’s largest Dalit organisation CasteWatchUK, reminded the
audience of BR Ambedkar's warning that “Hindu Raj” would be a calamity for
India, and expressed solidarity with the masses on the streets in India
defending their fundamental right. He noted the active role of the Hindu
Swayamsevak Sangh and other overseas Hindutva organisations in blocking
legislation in the UK which would make caste discrimination illegal. Timms
said: “I have been struck by the diversity of the people who are protesting
against these measures in India in my constituency. Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs
are all coming together Claudia Webbe,
MP for Leicester East (Labour) pledged to call on PM Modi to revoke the
discriminatory CAA which violates human rights. She also spoke about the
“unprecedented hate campaign” she faced in the UK election 2019. Pat McFadden,
MP for Wolverhampton South East (Labour) expressed his concern about the way
the Conservative Party had blocked the implementation of legislation outlawing
caste discrimination in the UK, under pressure from pro-Hindutva organisations.
Several of the MPs said that they would table an Early Day Motion in parliament
calling for the CAA and NRC,NPR to be discussed in parliament. January 25 will
see a National Demonstration Against Fascism in India on the eve of Republic
Day which brings together many different diaspora organisations in solidarity
with the resistance to the CAA, NRC and NPR. https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/602066-british-mps
19.
Worldwide protests: Jan., 17, 2020: Yet amid developments in recent weeks,
Naqshband has been feeling differently about India, and is growing increasingly
concerned for her family members — including her maternal grandmother — living
in the southeastern state of Pondicherry. Last month, the ruling Hindu
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) passed the Citizenship Amendment Act
(CAA), a bill which
fast-tracks naturalization of non-Muslim refugees
who came to India from neighboring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before
2015. While the bill covers Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and
Christians in the three countries, it excludes Muslims. The government says the
bill will protect persecuted minorities, but critics say it is discriminatory
and violates the country's secular constitution. On Wednesday, India's Supreme
Court refused to put the CAA law on hold.
The CAA bill follows government plans to implement the National Register of
Citizens (NRC), which requires every person in India to provide documentary
evidence of their legal right to live in India. Muslims, who make up nearly 15
% of the 1.3 billion population, fear the move is aimed at marginalizing them.
Opposition voices, meanwhile, say this is the latest measure in the
government's agenda to create a Hindu nation.“I'm concerned about my family and
the potential for uncontrolled violence," says Naqshband, who's based in
Berlin. "I was always proud to be South Asian and Muslim, and in Indian
culture, there's so much space for pluralism and diversity. But this is now
being destroyed by fascism." Naqshband, an activist, academic and
researcher, is among a growing number of German Indians
opposed to the latest measures, such
as Harpreet Cholia, President of the Refugee Council of the state of
Hesse in Frankfurt am Main. "Not only are the recent developments
discriminatory towards Muslims but the CAA is also a divisive law. Although its
premise is to protect minority religions in majority Muslim countries, it does
not protect all religious minorities. The category of citizenship cannot be be
given on grounds of religion." Kerti P. is a master's student born and
raised in Berlin to north Indian parents. She says the implications of the NRC
register go beyond religious discrimination."This is also about class and
gender. With the NRC citizens will have to prove their citizenship or will be
rendered stateless, but most rural and poor people don't have those documents.
Neither do many women, transgender or queer people. The question is, what is
India going to become after the NRC bill is passed?" “The measures have
triggered large-scale protests
across India, amid reports of police violence in
certain states. Videos have emerged showing police in the capital Delhi
attacking students, while at least20 anti-CAA
protesters were killed in the BJP-led northern state of Uttar
Pradesh.The demonstrations have also spread outside the country to countries
such as Germany, which in recent weeks has seen protests in a
number of cities, including Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt. Last
Saturday, hundreds of predominantly Indian students marched from Berlin's Brandenburg
Gate to the Indian Embassy. Further protests will be held this
weekend to coincide with India's Republic Day on Sunday, while plans are underway for a
rally at the UN's European headquarters in Geneva on February 1. Ray, who didn't want to give her full name,
is one of the student organizers who traveled to Berlin from Cologne.
"People are angry with the government. So in that way, the reason for
protesting outside of India is the same as protesting inside. But at the same
time, we want to bring awareness to the international community. No government,
however fascist, likes their activities to be on display on a world
stage." Kerti says she is keen to see more solidarity among German Indians
for these protests and the wider issue. "Growing up in Germany, we learned
a lot about the rise of the Nazis and the questions in the room were always,
how did it get so far? How could so many people be silent about this violence
and discrimination towards a set of people? And right now, our generation is at
this same point." Naqshband says she's deeply worried about the recent
developments. "I recently read an article about a girl who was wearing a
hijab in the same city where my Indian family lives. She was at a university
awards ceremony attended by the Indian president and was reportedly asked to
leave for wearing a hijab." That, says Naqshband, is something that hit
home particularly for her. "It was a sad story to read and one
that I could relate to as I used to wear a hijab in Germany. Muslim communities
in Europe have been struggling so much after 9/11 and then for this type of
hatred to reach India is just crazy. We are seeing an increase of nationalist
and fascist sentiment in India, and none of us can tell which way this will go." https://www.dw.com/en/indian-diaspora-in-germany-deplores-fascist-citizenship-act/a-52134412
20.
BSF Jawan: Jan.26, 2020: A BSF jawan, said to be an expert in handling explosives,
was arrested in connection with the delivery of a parcel bomb at his camp in
Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district early this month, official sources said on
Wednesday. Samarpal, a native of
Kolkata, was detained from his residence in Hubli area on January 10 and later
arrested, they said. BSF jawan, said to be an expert in handling explosives, was
arrested in connection with the delivery of a parcel bomb at his camp in Jammu
and Kashmir's Samba district early this month, official sources said on
Wednesday. "The jawan has been arrested for questioning and further
investigation is on," Senior Superintendent of Police, Samba, Shakti
Pathik, told PTI.He refused to divulge any further details. A parcel containing
an improvised explosive device (IED) was delivered to the 173rd battalion
headquarters of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Samba on January 5, the
police had said. It was addressed to the second-in-command Gurvinder Singh, who
got suspicious about it and informed the bomb disposal squad, they had said.
According to the sources, a case was registered under various sections of the
Indian Penal Code and the Explosive Substances Act and an investigation
launched, which led to the detention of Samarpal. Sources said that Samarpal is
an expert in handling explosive substances and is believed to have prepared the
IED as he wanted to take revenge from his assistant commandant over some issue.
Samarpal had left the parcel bomb at the main gate of the camp before leaving
for home, they said. . https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/jammu-kashmir-jawan-arrested-delivering-parcel-bomb-bsf-camp-in-samba-1639281-2020-01-23?fbclid=IwAR1qmBP9ynxaJEgotztUeK_cRkQTKrgnJMGklsCl8iPnwt0T9sKlbMBgnSU
21.
Boycott: Jan.,
26, 2020: Activists from
South Asian caste and religious minority communities are coming together to
organize against Indian American businesses that support India’s move to strip
its 200 million Muslims of their citizenship. On January 19, around 50
protesters gathered in Jersey City, New Jersey, where they marched against
India’s polarizing Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which extends citizenship
to non-Muslim refugees exclusively. The action helped mark the beginning of the
“Stop Funding Genocide” protests, which are pushing back against Indian
American support for the BJP. The actions have been co-organized by a number of
groups advocating for marginalized South Asians, including Equality Labs, the
South Asia Solidarity Initiative (SASI) and Stand With Kashmir. The uproar over
the CAA, NRC and NPR coincides with ongoing activism against New Delhi’s de
facto annexation of Muslim majority Jammu and Kashmir last August.
This helped create a basis for Dalit-Bahujan (an umbrella term for marginalized caste identities),
Indian Muslim and Kashmiri organizers to collaborate. Soundarajan runs an
advocacy group centering marginalized South Asian communities called Equality
Labs. The organization has surveyed the significant impact of caste
within Indian diaspora communities and how it enables upper-caste communities
to exclude and discriminate against Dalit-Bahujans across the world. The
survey also reported that one in three Dalit students in the U.S. report being
discriminated during their education. Twenty-five percent of Dalits have faced
physical or verbal assault due to their caste. One in two Dalits fear of having
their caste “outed.” These impacts are compounded by the BJP’s commitment
to suppressing activists who combat casteism
within India, which is mirrored by upper-caste organizing in the
diaspora.
Thus, organizers and activists have urgently taken to the streets of Los
Angeles; Decatur, Georgia; Chicago and Jersey City to confront Indian American
casteism and Islamophobia head for
Modi “We’re strategizing a
boycott-divestment sort of initiative to target Indian organizations,” they
explained. “What are economic targets for Indian people? Where can we also do a
cultural and academic boycott? That information is forthcoming from Equality
Labs, Stand With Kashmir and South Asia Solidarity Initiative within the next
few months.” In the meantime, more Stop Funding Genocide protests
have been planned for January 26. This time, mobilizations will take place in
Washington, D.C., New York City, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver and
Minneapolis. “These mass demonstrations are really important
for us to wield our power, our financial power and the voices that we get to
have as people in the diaspora to say no to CAA, no NRC, no to the occupation
of Kashmir,” said Fatima. https://truthout.org/articles/activists-plan-boycott-of-us-companies-backing-indias-anti-muslim-policies/
22.
London protests: Jan.,
27, 2020: the protesters, the vicinity of Downing Street—where the
official residence of British Prime Minister is— today briefly presented the
scene of Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh where hundreds of diaspora Indians representing
various faiths and ethnicities assembled to march to the Indian High Commission
to protest against the ignoble CAA and NRC. For more than an hour, speaker
after speaker addressed the gathering, paused by chants of same slogans as
raised by Shaheen Bagh protesters like ‘Ham kia chate? Azadi’; ‘Hai jan se
piari Azadi’; ‘ham cheen ke leN ge Azadi’; ‘Tum kuch bhi karlo, Azadi’; ‘Modi
ham se darta hai, ‘police ko samne lata hai’; ‘Jamia tum aage badho, ham
tumhare saath haiN’; ‘AMU tum aage badho’, ‘ham tumhare saath haiN’; ‘Modi-Shah
you can’t hide’; ‘NRC is genocide’.Holding India’s tricolour and placards and
chanting slogans, they marched to India House through London’s iconic Trafalgar
Square. As the march reached India House, the contained anger of the protesters
expressed itself in more vigorous chants of anti-Hindutva and anti-BJP slogans.
The marchers read and repeated the preamble of the Indian Constitution and
dispersed after singing India’s national anthem. Those who addressed the
gathering included Labour MP from Ilford South, Sam Tarry who expressed deep
concern at the growing fascism in India under Narendra Modi and said that this
situation must be causing lot of hurt to the souls of founding fathers of
modern India including Mahatma Gandhi. The demonstration was organised by the
human rights body South Asia Solidarity
Group(SASG) and was supported by the Co-ordinating Committee of
Malayali Muslims, SOAS India Society, Tamil People in the UK, Indian Workers
Association (GB), Indian Muslim Federation (UK), Federation of Redbridge Muslim
Organisations (FORMO), Kashmir Solidarity Movement, South Asian Students
Against Fascism, Newham Muslim Alliance and Ghadar International. Five Labour
MPs who were unable to attend the rally expressed their support in messages
sent to SASG, saying: “Some will characterise these movements for democracy as
‘anti-India’. But this is part of a global fight against the far-right— whether
in India, Hungary, Brazil, or here in the UK. In South Asia and the diaspora,
we can only overcome the politics of division by banding together on what
unites us: aspirations for a good standard of living, a decent wage, safety,
and a world in which our children can breathe clean air,” said Nadia Whitthome
(MP Nottingham East), UK's youngest MP. Some MPs have written
letters to the British Foreign office and Indian High
Commissioner in London expressing their concern on the continuously
deteriorating political situation in India. In a special message, veteran
anti-war activist and writer Tariq Ali said, ‘Thank you Modi for uniting Hindus
and Muslims.’The organisers have also written anopen letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing, “our outrage
at India's descent into open fascism under your government. Since 2014, we have
watched the growing epidemic of mob-lynching, rapes and attacks on Muslims,
Dalits, Christians and Adivasis, along with attacks on dissenters, human rights
defenders, journalists, lawyers and even judges who dare to speak out and
uphold the truth about what is happening in India under your government.” The
letter further said, “The events of the last six months have been particularly
disturbing. First the revoking of Article 370,further militarisation of Kashmir
, India’s only Muslim majority state, which was already the most highly
militarised zone in the world, the imprisonment of its leaders, continued
curfews, torture, including torture of minors, and the imposition of a
lockdown on internet services while outsiders including your corporate
friends such as Reliance’s Ambani buy up land in the Kashmir valley. This was
followed by the handing over of the land on which the iconic Babri Masjid had
stood for some 500 years, before it was demolished by RSS stormtroopers, to a
Hindu right-wing organisation for the construction of a massive Ram temple.”
Highlighting BJP-led government's historical anti-Muslim hatred, the letter
further said, “We note with alarm that historically mass disenfranchisement of
a targeted minority has been closely followed by ethnic cleansing and genocide.'
The letter strongly condemned the CAA and NRC and urged Mr Modi to “to listen
to the voices of mass democratic united protest in India and revoke the CAA and
abolish the NRC and the NPR as a matter of urgency.” http://www.milligazette.com/news/16871-shaheen-bagh-slogans-resound-in-london
23.
Protests: Jan., 27, 2020:
Thousands of protesters have gathered in a predominantly-Muslim neighbourhood
in India's
capital as the country celebrated Republic Day
to commemorate the day its constitution came into effect For 42 days now, demonstrators, mainly Muslim
women, have blocked a highway in the southeastern part of the Indian capital to
protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA),
passed by Parliament last month. On
Sunday, as the clock struck midnight, protesters at Shaheen Bagh read
out the preamble to the Indian constitution, which on this day in 1950, came
into effect."We impress upon the government to understand the preamble of
our constitution and in light of that announce a rollback of the controversial
law. The law is in contravention of the constitution." Similar "Save the constitution"
events were held at other sites in New Delhi and in Kolkata, Bengaluru,
Hyderabad, Mumbai, Lucknow and other cities. In the southern state of Kerala,
hundreds of thousands of people formed a 620km (385-mile) human chain from
Kasaragod in the north to Kaliyakkavilai in the south, demanding the CAA's
withdrawal. The massive protest was organised by the governing Left
Democratic Front party, with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan himself joining in
the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram."The movement in Kerala is to resist
attempts to undermine India's secular fabric, its plural ethos, federal
structure and democratic values," politician S Ramachandran Pillai, who
flagged off the protest at Kasargod, told Al Jazeera. Pillai said the human
chain was one of the largest mass mobilisations ever in Kerala. "The
central government will be forced to withdraw [the citizenship law]," he
said. In the eastern state of West Bengal, thousands in the capital
Kolkata also formed an 11km (seven-mile) human chain. The protest
in Kolkata was organised by the United Interfaith Foundation India, a group
comprising leaders of different religious communities in the state. "CAA,
NRC and NPR are inherently discriminatory. The human chain today is a message
to everyone in power that we Indians are all together in this fight," he
said. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/india-soul-protests-mark-republic-day-celebrations-200126140155387.html
24.
EU: Jan., 27, 2020: The
European Union Parliament is set to debate and vote on a scathing resolution
against India’s annexation of occupied Kashmir in clear violation of United Nations
Security Council resolutions and the country’s enforcement of new citizenship
laws which have been widely criticised fordiscriminating against Muslims. The resolution, which has been drafted and supported
by lawmakers from the Renew Group, has called on the European Union and its
member states “to promote the implementation of the UN Security Council
resolutions on Kashmir”. Condemning the “unilateral changes made to the status
of Kashmir by India”, the draft resolution noted that India has never
implemented UN “Security Council resolutions requiring a referendum allowing
all Kashmiris to determine the future status of Kashmir”. It also viewed with concern the rise in
tensions between Pakistan and India – “both being nuclear weapons states” –
which it said were “fuelled by the controversial decisions of the Government of
India on Kashmir and citizenship”.Urging India to repeal the “discriminatory
amendments” to its citizenship law, the draft resolution says the new law
“violates India’s international obligations to prevent the deprivation of
citizenship on the basis of race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin
as enshrined in the ICCPR and other human rights treaties.” Noting that the new
law has “encouraged” violence both from the police and pro-government groups,
which “are clear breaches of the human rights of residents of India and its
neighbouring countries”, the resolution urges the government of India “to
immediately engage in peaceful dialogue with various sections of the
population” and “to ensure that security forces comply with the United Nations
Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement
Officials”.The resolution also mentions the violence that ensued at the Jawaharlal Nehru University earlier this month, referring to the university as a “a leading
location for students protesting against the CAA and the National Register of
Citizens (NRC)” and where “police witnessed the attack but refused to control
and arrest the mob”.“According to the Indian Constitution, India is a sovereign
secular democratic republic and including religion as a criterion for
citizenship is therefore fundamentally unconstitutional,” reads the resolution,
which will be debated in the parliament on January 29, according to the plenary schedule available on the EU Parliament’s
website. The resolution, which will be put up for voting on January 30, says
the CAA “sets a dangerous precedent and represents an intensification of the
[Indian] Government’s Hindu nationalist agenda”, adding that “it is difficult
to view the CAA in isolation, as both the amendments and the NRC could deprive
minorities of their citizenship of India” while “only Muslims excluded from the
NRC will have
difficulty winning their cases at foreign tribunals”. https://www.dawn.com/news/1530682/eu-parliament-to-vote-on-scathing-resolution-against-india
25.
Republic day protests
in USA amd UK: Jan., 28, 2020: India’s
71st Republic Day was marked by rallies held across cities in the United States
and London in United Kingdom, to protest against the controversial Citizenship
Amendment Act (CA), calling for protecting the Constitution of India that does
not discriminate citizenship on the basis of religion. In the US, a broad
coalition of Indian Americans and US-based civil rights organisations and
activists organised huge rallies in multiple cities to demand repeal of CAA by
the Indian government. “The law is blatantly undemocratic, unconstitutional and
divisive in both letter and spirit,” said a joint release issued on Sunday.“Protesters
are demanding an end to India's continued repression of minorities and are
urging the US Government to impose sanctions on India's Home Minister Amit
Shah, as recommended by the US Commission for International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF),” the release added. In London, over 2,000 people
from diverse and multi-faith Indian communities demonstrated against the
“fascist” policies of the Narendra Modi government on Saturday, January 25, the
eve of India's Republic Day, according to a release by South Asia Solidarity
Group (SASG), an umbrella of various disapora organisations in the UK. At a
rally outside 10 Downing Street, they protesters also called for repeal CAA,
which “undermines India's secular Constitution, and the abolition of
the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR),
which in conjunction with the CAA open the way for selective mass
disenfranchisement of India's Muslim population and ethnic cleansing,”, said a
release by SASG. The rallyists also expressed solidarity with the massive
protests underway across India, led by women and youth. Those who took part in
the London rally included the SOAS India Society and South Asian Students
Against Fascism, along with Brazilian anti-fascists marching from an earlier
protest at the Brazilian Embassy, against the Modi government’s invitation to
Jair Bolsonaro as the chief guest at India’s Republic Day. The demonstration in
London was part of a global two-day action against India's new, “discriminatory
and unconstitutional laws and other measures to change the basis of Indian
citizenship”, the release said. “As the Modi regime takes a massive step toward
ethnic cleansing of Muslims, we, in the diaspora, stand with the united mass
resistance led by women and students which is spreading across India in the
face of unspeakable violence from the police and right-wing gangs sponsored by
the government. This protest exposes once and for all the myth that Modi can
rely on unquestioning support from the diaspora,” Sarbjit Johal of SASG was
quoted as saying. Among the groups that took part in the rally were South Asia
Solidarity Group, CasteWatch UK, Co-ordinating Committee of Malayali Muslims,
SOAS India Society, Tamil People in the UK, Indian Workers Association (GB), Indian
Muslim Federation(UK), Federation of Redbridge Muslim Organisations
(FORMO), Kashmir Solidarity Movement, South Asian Students Against Fascism
, Newham Muslim Alliance; Ghadar International, and others In the US, the
protests under the banner of "Coalition to Stop Genocide," which
includes organisations, such as Indian American Muslim Council, Black
Lives Matter, Jewish Voice for Peace, Equality Labs, and Hindus for Human
Rights, among others. "This largest ever rally of Indian Americans
represents an extension of the massive unrest in India against the ruling Hindu
nationalist government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its
relentless attacks against India's secular Constitution," Ahsan Khan,
President of IAMC, was quoted in the release. Stefan Shaw of Jewish
Voice for Peace was quoted as saying that: “The CAA is an attempt
to make an exception of Muslims and to strip them of their rights," adding
that “As we have opposed Jewish exceptionalism in Israel, we oppose Hindu
exceptionalism in India,”https://www.newsclick.in/indian-diaspora-rally-US-UK-R-day-protest-CAA-protect-constitution?fbclid=IwAR0woXPsz-uiGJjzSpM51ZefMELOBzx_r4JPRe9lJJPUdDktPqwusuX-ym8
26.
International protest:
Jan., 28, 2020: demonstrations across
major cities of the world, including London, Washington, New York, Cape Town,
Munich, Warsaw..Campuses have joined in with the list including
students from Universities in Poland, US, UK, Finland to name just a
few with the numbers increasing from ones and twos to the hundreds. Media
reports quote Indians abroad expressing solidarity with the protests in India,
with CAA becoming a major point of controversy. Republic Day not only say lakhs gathering at Shaheen Bagh and 70
lakhs participating in a human chain in Kerala, but found an echo in
street demonstrations in world capitals as well. Interestingly, several
students started an impromptu protest (see video) at the Jaipur Literary
Festival with a large audience to join in some of the songs and slogans against
CAA. The anti-CAA protests have had an impact on lawmakers over the last week.
As many as 626 members of 751 European Union have moved six resolutions against
CAA as well as the clampdown on Jammu and Kashmir.This follows 150 EU lawmakers
who in a resolution have accused the government of India of
"discriminating against, harassing and prosecuting national and religious
minorities and silencing any opposition, human rights groups... and journalists
critical of the government". The lawmakers urged EU to insist on a
"strong human rights clause with an effective implementation and
suspension mechanism" during any trade agreement.. This five
page resolution is to be tabled during the plenary session of the European
Parliament in Brussels in a few days. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected
to attend the EU summit in response to an earlier invitation. Several British
MPs attended a meeting organized by Ambedkar International Mission (UK) and the
South Asia Solidarity Group in the UK Parliament (House of Commons) in London
last week on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Register of Citizens and
National Population Register and the protests across India. The meeting was
organised by Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham (Labour) where he said,
“I have been struck by the diversity of the people who are protesting against
these measures in India in my constituency. Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs are all
coming together’. He stated that he has written to the UK Foreign Office urging
it to take a stand and has also written to the Indian High Commission
expressing his deep concern about the CAA-NRC-NPR and their impact. He also
recounted that he was a frequent visitor to a Hindu temple in his constituency,
but he was shocked when some of his Indian constituents told him that they had
been told at the temple that they were ‘not allowed’ to vote Labour during the
2019 UK elections. Claudia Webbe, MP for Leicester East (Labour) pledged to
call on PM Modi to revoke the discriminatory CAA which violates human rights.
She also spoke about the ‘unprecedented hate campaign’ she faced in the UK
election 2019. Despite this she was elected from her constituency which has a
large Indian community. Pat McFadden, MP for Wolverhampton South
East (Labour) expressed his concern about the way the Conservative
Party had blocked the implementation of legislation outlawing caste discrimination
in the UK, under pressure from pro-Hindutva organizations The meeting was also
attended by John Hilary Head of International Liaison of the Labour Party.
Several of the MPs said that they would table an Early Day Motion in Parliament
calling for the CAA and NRC/NPR to be discussed in Parliament. Speakers
included Amrit Wilson, lawyer Gautam Bhatia, Satpal Muman and others. In Washington, while the Indian embassy
carried out a formal ceremony on Republic Day, scores of Indian gathered
outside the White House as part of a people call for ‘Day of Action’
across at least 30 cities in the US. Shouting ‘bharat mata ki jai’ and singing
‘sare jahan se accha’ the protesters marched from the White House to the Indian
embassy demanding sanctions against India’s Home Minister Amit Shah. The
embassy dismissed the protests with sources reiterating that the CAA was passed
by Parliament. Shah has made it clear that there is no question of revoking CAA
or for that matter the NPR and NRC. https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/9/18226/Protests-Across-the-World-Against-CAA
27.
US
Congress: Jan., 28, 2020: Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch
on Monday began testifying at a briefing on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)
at the US Congress. The Congressional briefing will discuss the executive and
legislative actions for US Government and US Congress to ensure that CAA does
not discriminate against any section of Indian society. The expert panel at the
US Congress briefing includes Magsaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey, Amensty’s
Franciscos Bencosme who had testified on Kashmir before the House of Representatives'
Subcommittee on Asia, Pacific and Non-proliferation on October 22, John Sifton
of Human Rights Watch, who had testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights
Commission of the House of Representatives on November 14. https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amensty-uscirf-to-testify-at-us-congress-briefing-on-caa-31970
28.
Convicts released: Jan., 29, 2020: India's top court on Tuesday released on bail at least 17
convicts jailed for life for taking part in an anti-Muslim pogrom, local media
reported. The Supreme Court of India issued bail orders for the convicts who
were found guilty for the 2002 Sardarpura massacre in which 33
Muslims were burned alive in the western province of Gujarat the
country's apex court ruled to send the convicts in two groups to the
neighboring central Madhya Pradesh province for "community service." At
least 33 Muslims, including 22 women, were burned alive in Sardarpura on the
night of Feb. 28, 2002, following the infamous Godhra train riots a day
earlier. Some 59 people who were returning from Ayodhya, Uttar
Pradesh were killed in the incident. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/-india-convicts-of-anti-muslim-massacre-get-bail/1717029
29.
Firing on protestors: Jan., 31, 2020: An unidentified man fired at a protest against India's new
citizenship law near a university in Delhi on Thursday, wounding one person,
witnesses said, the first such incident in the capital city during more than a
month of demonstrations. Witnesses said the man holding a gun shouted slogans
against the protesters near Jamia Millia Islamia University, before firing at
them."The
police stood nearby," Ahmed Zahir, a witness,
told Reuters. The man challenged protesters as they started marching from
the university to the mausoleum of India’s independence leader Mohandas Gandhi
on his death anniversary, said Ahmed Azeem, a Jamia Millia Islamia University
spokesman. A Reuters photograph showed the man, dressed in a black jacket and
brandishing a single-barrel weapon, standing meters away from dozens of
policemen deployed outside the university, where protesters had gathered for a
march. Police said they had subsequently detained the gunman. The man’s name
wasn’t released. As he was taken away by police, the man told reporters he was
named “Ram Bhakt Gopal”. Ram Bhakt means a devotee of the Hindu god Rama. This
week, India's junior finance minister Anurag Thakur encouraged supporters at a
state election rally in New Delhi to chant slogans calling for traitors to be
shot, drawing a reprimand from the country's
https://www.dawn.com/news/1531456/gunman-opens-fire-at-dehli-student-protest-against-indias-citizenship-law-1-wounded
Monthly update 4: December
2019 : Muslims in India
.
1. India
no country for Muslims: Dec., 5, 2019:
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's daughter slammed the
approval of the Citizenship Amendment Bill by the Union cabinet today, terming
it as an indication that the country's BJP-led central government discriminates
against those from the Muslim community. "India - No country for
Muslims," a message posted through the Peoples Democratic Party chief's
Twitter handle claimed, hours after the Union cabinet cleared the controversial
bill for tabling in the parliament. As the Peoples Democratic Party chief has
been in detention since August 5, when the special status of Jammu and Kashmir
under Article 370 was scrapped, her daughter Sana Iltija Javed operates her
social media accounts. The legislation, which seeks to make it easier for minorities
from neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to
obtain citizenship, has been accused by rights groups as well as opposition
parties of being discriminatory towards Muslims. However, the centre has
defended its decision, claiming that it is duty-bound to help
"persecuted" minorities from surrounding countries The Citizenship Amendment Bill aims to grant
Indian citizenship to people from six communities - Hindus, Christians, Sikhs,
Jains, Buddhists and Parsis -- who had migrated to India without valid travel
papers or whose documents have expired. The bill amends a 1955 law to grant
exemptions to illegal migrants from these six communities who reached on or
before December 2014. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had justified the proposed
legislation on Tuesday, saying that as the three neighbouring countries were
essentially Islamic, their non-Muslim communities often found themselves
subjected to religious persecution. https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/mehbooba-muftis-daughter-on-citizenship-bill-no-country-for-muslims-2143370
2.
Citizenship bill : Dec., 7, 2019: More than 1,000 students marched on Friday in India's northeast
against a bill approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to grant citizenship to
non-Muslim migrants from India's three Muslim-majority neighbours. The marchers
took to the streets of Gauhati, the Assam state capital, carrying placards
opposing the bill that's likely to be introduced in Parliament next week for
approval. A large number of migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan
live in the state. Main opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi said on
Thursday the bill was discriminatory as it aimed at excluding Muslim migrants.
It will entitle only communities like Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians
for India's citizenship. Critics have called the Citizenship Amendment Bill
(CAB) anti-Muslim, and some opposition parties have also pushed back, arguing
citizenship cannot be granted on the basis of religion. https://www.dawn.com/news/1520810
3.
Fire: Dec., 9, 2109: A fire broke out at a factory in
India's capital New Delhi early on Sunday morning. At least 43 people have been
reported dead. Most of the victims were Muslim migrant workers who came from
the Eastern state of Bihar, the AP reports, earning as little as $2.10 a day
making a variety of garments. The BBC reports that about 100 people were sleeping in the factory when the
fire broke out. https://www.npr.org/2019/12/08/786066785/43-dead-in-extremely-horrific-fire-at-new-delhi-factory
4.
Citizenship bill: Dec., 12, 2019: India's parliament on Wednesday passed a contentious bill that seeks to grant citizenship to
non-Muslim immigrants from some countries, as hundreds of troops were deployed
in the northeast which has been hit by violent protests. The bill will let the
Indian government grant citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants who entered
India from three neighbouring countries before 2015 — but not if they are
Muslim. The legislation was passed 125-105 by the upper house, after the lower
house voted in support of it just after midnight on Tuesday. It will be sent to
the president to be signed into law, with his approval seen as a
formality. Opponents of the legislation
have threatened to challenge it in the Supreme Court, saying it violates the
principles of equality and secularism enshrined in the constitution. For
Islamic groups, the opposition, rights groups and others this is part of Modi's
Hindu-nationalist agenda to marginalise India's 200 million Muslims — something
he denies. Besides stoking concern among Muslims, the proposed changes have
also led to demonstrations in the northeastern states where residents are
unhappy about an influx of Hindus from neighbouring Bangladesh who stand to
gain citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). In a third day of
protests in the far-flung region, several hundred troops were deployed in
Tripura state and in Guwahati, Assam's biggest city, a senior army official
said. Police fired tear gas in different parts of Guwahati as several thousand
demonstrators attempted to barge past security barriers to converge on the
adjoining state capital Dispur. Tripura and parts of Assam suspended mobile
internet services, with Assam wanting to avoid social media posts that could
“inflame passions”. Gatherings of more than four people were banned for 24
hours. ,” local activist Akhil Gogoi said ahead of the upper house vote. Derek
O'Brien, an opposition lawmaker in the upper house, on Wednesday said the
legislation bore an “eerie similarity” to Nazi laws against Jews in 1930s
Germany. “In 1935 there were citizenship laws to protect people with German
blood ... today we have a faulty bill that wants to define who true Indian
citizens are,” he said. Many Muslims in India say they have been made to feel
like second-class citizens since Modi stormed to power in 2014. Several cities
perceived to have Islamic-sounding names have been renamed, while some school
textbooks have been altered to downplay Muslims' contributions to India In
August, Modi's administration rescinded the partial autonomy of Muslim-majority
occupied Kashmir and split it into two. A citizens' register in Assam finalised
this year left 1.9 million people, many of them Muslims, facing possible
statelessness, detention camps and even deportation. Modi's government has said
it intends to replicate the register nationwide with the aim of removing all
“infiltrators” by 2024. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom on
Monday termed the bill as a “dangerous turn in the wrong direction”. https://www.dawn.com/news/1521685/india-passes-contentious-citizenship-bill-excluding-muslims-amid-violent-protests
5.
CAB: Dec., 13, 2019: India is
home to 200 million Muslims. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they have
faced mounting threats to their status in the majority-Hindu country. And on
Wednesday, they were walloped by a new worrisome development: The upper house
of India’s Parliament passed the Citizenship
Amendment Bill (CAB).The legislation turns religion into a
means of deciding whom to treat as an illegal immigrant — and whom to
fast-track for citizenship. At first glance, the bill may seem like a laudable
effort to protect persecuted minorities. It says Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists,
Jains, Parsis, and Christians who came to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
and Pakistan won’t be treated as illegal. They’ll have a clear path to
citizenship.But one major group has been left out: Muslims.That’s no
coincidence.The CAB is closely linked with another contentious document:
India’s National Register of Citizens (NRC). That citizenship list is part of
the government’s effort to identify and weed out people it claims are illegal
immigrants in the northeastern state of Assam. India says many Muslims whose
families originally came from neighboring Bangladesh are not rightful citizens,
even though they’ve lived in Assam for decades. When the NRC was published in
August, around 2 million people — many of them Muslims, some of them Hindus —
found that their names were not on it. They were told they had a limited time
in which to prove that they are, in fact, citizens. Otherwise, they can be
rounded up into massive new
detention camps and, ultimately, deported. So far,
this measure affects potentially 2 million people, not all 200 million Muslims
in India. However, Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has
said it plans to extend the NRC
process across the country. Muslims
have faced increasing discrimination and violence over the past few years under
Modi’s BJP. But the one-two punch of the NRC followed by the CAB takes this to
a new level. The country is beginning to look less like a secular democracy
and more like a Hindu nationalist state. If the Indian government proceeds with
its plan, in a worst-case scenario we could be looking at the
biggest refugee crisis on the planet. The United Nations,
Human Rights Watch,
and the US Commission on
International Religious Freedom have all
warned that this could soon turn into a humanitarian disaster of horrifying
proportions. The CAB will grant citizenship to a host of religious minorities
who fled three nearby countries where they may have faced persecution —
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan — before 2015. But Muslims will get no
such protection. In fact, this bill is likely to increase the suffering of many
Muslims and is discriminatory on its face, as some of the BJP’s political
opposition and several human rights advocates in India have noted.Shashi
Tharoor, whose Congress party opposes the CAB, dubbed it
“fundamentally unconstitutional.” Cedric Prakash, a Jesuit priest and human
rights advocate, said in an emailed statement that by “assuring citizenship to
all undocumented persons except those of the Muslim faith, the CAB risks ...
destroying the secular and democratic tenets of our revered Constitution.”
India’s Constitution guarantees everyone equality under the law. Religion is
not a criterion for citizenship eligibility, a decision that goes all the way
back to the 1940s, when India was founded as a secular state with special
protections for minorities like Muslims. Harsh Mander, a noted rights advocate
of Sikh origins, wrote
that the CAB represents “the gravest threat to India’s secular democratic
Constitution since India became a republic.” He said that if the bill becomes
law, he’ll declare himself a Muslim out of solidarity. Meanwhile, he’s also
calling for Indians to fight the CAB with a nationwide civil disobedience
movement. Already, protests are underway. In Assam’s capital, authorities have
shut down the internet and implemented a curfew. The New York Times
reported: The Indian Army was deployed in the northeastern states of Assam and
Tripura as protests grew bigger and more violent. The police were already
battling demonstrators over the past few days with water cannons and tear gas.
More than 1,000 protesters gathered in the heart of Assam’s commercial capital,
Guwahati, yelling: “Go Back Modi!” In other areas, angry men stomped on
effigies of Mr. Modi. Crowds set fire to tires and blocked thoroughfares with
trees. “The idea of India that emerged from the independence movement,” said
a letter signed by
more than 1,000 Indian intellectuals, “is
that of a country that aspires to treat people of all faiths equally.” But this
bill, the intellectuals said, is “a radical break with this history” and will
“greatly strain the pluralistic fabric of the country.” Meanwhile, international
human rights organizations are up in arms. The US Commission on
International Religious Freedom said
India is taking a “dangerous turn in the wrong direction,” adding that the US
should weigh sanctions against India if it enshrines the bill in law. India is
known as the largest democracy in the world. But its current government is
leading it away from democratic norms.Modi champions a hardline brand of Hindu
nationalism known as Hindutva, which aims to define Indian culture in terms of
Hindu history and values and which promotes an exclusionary attitude toward
Muslims. UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet recently expressed concerns
over increasing harassment and targeting
of minorities — in particular, Muslims.” Under Modi, vigilante Hindus have increasingly
perpetrated hate crimes against Muslims, sometimes in an
effort to scare their
communities into moving away, other
times to punish them for
selling beef (cows are considered sacred in
Hinduism). And this summer, Modi erased the
statehood of Jammu and Kashmir, India’s
only Muslim-majority state, which had previously enjoyed considerable autonomy
over its own affairs.Muslims comprise approximately 14 percent of the national
population. And more than twice that
in Assam state. In the 2019 Indian election, one of Modi’s
central campaign promises was that
he’d get the NRC in shape and deal with the Muslim migrants in Assam once and
for all. Other BJP members have used dehumanizing language to describe the
Muslims there.“These infiltrators are eating away at our country like
termites,” BJP president and home minister Amit Shah said
at an April rally. “The NRC is our means of removing them.” Shah has openly
said the goal is to deport
those who are deemed illegal immigrants. Last month, Shah said
the government will conduct another count of citizens — this time nationwide.
This could be used to clamp down on Muslims throughout India, potentially
triggering a huge humanitarian disaster. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/12/12/21010975/india-muslim-citizenship-bill-national-register
6.
Protests: Dec., 14, 2019: Thousands took to the streets of Assam’s capital Guwahati for
the third day, following the death of two protesters who were caught in police
fire on Thursday. The north-eastern state has been the epicentre of the
protests against the citizenship amendment bill (CAB). A 48-hour block on both
mobile and broadband internet was implemented, while schools were closed and
roads blocked off, as demonstrators set fire to cars and tyres and a 10pm
curfew was imposed on the north-east city.
The controversial bill, which was signed into law at midnight on
Thursday, has stirred up opposition in Assam and across the country. Under to
the new legislation, tens of thousands of Hindu, Christian, Jain, Buddhist and
Sikh migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan will be allowed to
claim Indian citizenship. The same will not apply for Muslims. In Delhi, protests turned violent after hundreds of students
demonstrating at Jamia Millia Islamia university were fired at with teargas by
police with batons, who tried to push the crowds back with batons. Several
students were taken to hospital with injuries while over 50 protesters were
detained. Protesters set fire to placards in Amritsar and other rallies were
held in Kolkata, Kerala and Gujarat, the home state of the prime minister,
Narendra Modi. There was also unrest in West Bengal, with several trains
vandalised. The state is due to be the first where a new national register of
citizens (NRC) is due to be rolled out, which will require citizens to provide
documents to prove they are not illegal immigrants. Following the passing of
CAB into law, it is feared that only Muslims will be targeted by the exercise
and be detained in their thousands. However West Bengal chief minister, Mamata
Banerjee, has vowed that she will not allow CAB to be rolled out in Assam and
announced state-wide protests. Over 20 activists were also arrested in Mumbai
for protesting the bill.The unrest led the Japanese prime minister, Shinzō Abe,
to cancel a planned visit to India from Sunday for a summit with Modi. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/13/violent-clashes-continue-in-delhi-over-new-citizenship-bill
7.
Jamia Millia Protests: Dec., 16, 2019: The Indian government led by the
Bhartiya Janta Party under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
recently passed a Citizenship Amendment Bill that allows only non-Muslim
migrants from its Muslim majority neighboring countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh,
and Afghanistan) to become Indian citizens. Hundreds of student’s protesters
have clashed with the police in the Indian capital of Delhi, where police have
entered a prominent university in an effort to clamp down on protesters
opposing a controversial new law on migrants. Several leading Indian
journalists claimed that the police entered the university campus, include the
library. On Sunday, students from the prestigious Jamia Millia Islamia
university held a protest, which turned violent. Video clippings shared on
social media indicate that the Indian police fired tear gas into the library
and attacked students, who were merely studying in the library.https://www.ibtimes.sg/video-hong-kong-like-protest-students-police-clash-india-over-new-migrant-law-36044
8.
Social Media: Dec., 16, 2019: After Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg,
Google’s India-born head Sundar Pichai has come out in support of Muslims
saying it is important to have a diverse mix of voices and backgrounds to build
a company or leading a country. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/must-support-muslims-and-other-minorities-google-ceo-sundar-pichai/articleshow/50150762.cms?utm_source%3Dfacebook_web%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dsocialsharebuttons
9.
Protests: Dec., 17, 2019: Fresh protests rocked India on Monday as anger grew over new citizenship legislation slammed as anti-Muslim, with six people dead in the northeast and up
to 100 reported injured in New Delhi. In the country's
northeast, however, even allowing non-Muslims citizenship is opposed by many
locals who fear their culture is threatened by Bengali-speaking Hindus On
Sunday night in Delhi, police with batons fired tear gas and charged protesting
students before storming a university. On Monday fresh protests took place in
Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Lucknow, where hundreds of students — most of
them Muslims, television pictures indicated — tried to storm a police station,
hurling volleys of stones at officers cowering behind a wall. In the east in
Kolkata, capital of West Bengal, thousands gathered for a major demonstration
called by state premier Mamata Banerjee, a firebrand opponent of Modi. In
recent days empty trains were torched there and on Monday internet access
remained suspended. In Kerala in the south, another state whose government
refuses to implement the citizenship law, several hundred people also
protested. Kerala's finance minister Thomas Isaac tweeted: “United action of
all secular force is the need of the hour.”
Protests were reported in Mumbai, West Bengal, Aligarh, Hyderabad, Patna
and Raipur over the weekend. Authorities in northern Uttar Pradesh, meanwhile,
have cut internet access in western parts of the state following demonstrations
in Aligarh, home to a large university and a sizeable Muslim population. The
main epicentre of the protests has been in India's far-flung northeastern states,
long a seething and violent melting pot of ethnic tensions. There, where
protesters are mostly Hindu, late last week four people died from gunshot
wounds, one in a fire and a sixth beaten to death. On Sunday night in Assam
state — following days of rioting and clashes with police — around 6,000 people
protested on Sunday evening, with no major incidents reported. The UN human rights office said last week it
was concerned the law “would appear to undermine the commitment to equality
before the law enshrined in India's constitution”, while Washington and the
European Union have also expressed concern.
“The protest is getting international attention and also spreading to
different parts of the country. This certainly will add pressure on the regime
when the economy has failed,” Swain told AFP. https://www.dawn.com/news/1522589/india-protests-rage-over-anti-muslim-law-as-hundreds-of-students-take-to-the-streets
10.
Delhi Police: Dec., 17, 2019: Nobody anticipated what happened inside our Jamia Millia Islamia
campus yesterday (Dec. 15). In the morning, we approached the Delhi police for
permission for a protest march in the Batla House community near our
university, and they allowed us to use a particular lane. Around noon, we
marched, raised slogans, and put across our point that the Citizenship Amendment
Act is discriminatory. We sat on the road and raised slogans. I want to
emphasise, all this was peaceful. The Delhi police personnel were positioned
only kilometres away from us. After an hour or so, we saw residents of Jamia
Nagar and other nearby areas join us. They marched towards Surya hotel in New
Friends Colony, a short distance from Batla House. We Jamia Millia students
then appealed to our groups to stay put and not join the locals. We continued
to protest at the spot we had permission for. Around 2pm, the students of Jamia
Millia’s Faculty of Law were to join us and then we were to march peacefully
towards the Delhi police headquarters. It was decided there won’t be any
sloganeering anymore. However, before that could happen, the locals, who had
entered New Friends Colony, turned violent. Soon, news began pouring in that they were pelting stones at
parked cars and moving buses and damaging property. We got to know that they’d
also torched a bike. What followed was
unbelievable. We saw police personnel light a fire from the torched bike and
burn the buses. We know the Delhi police is responsible for it. Some students even recorded the entire incident on their cell
phones. These videos confirm there wasn’t a single student near the torched
buses, it was just the officers and constables of the Delhi police. Now I want to ask those
blaming us students for the violence, did we torch the buses sitting inside our
homes or from inside the campus? Moreover, as soon as the students received news of violence, we
called off our protests and returned to the university. When we returned, everyone
made sure that outsiders don’t enter the campus. We knew (or that’s what we
thought) that the police weren’t inside the university, so the miscreants could
possibly enter. We were extra cautious. The security guards at the gates
checked the identity cards of the returning protesters, entering the campus. It
was only us, the students. We thought the worst was behind us. We were angry. To analyse what
had happened, we met at the canteen; some of us hadn’t eaten since morning. A
few minutes after we settled down, a tear-gas shell was fired inside our
canteen from the direction of our library. The entire campus was soon taken over by the police. Four or five
more tear-gas shells were fired. The police harassed the security guards and
forced them to open the university’s gates. Now, the police were inside the campus. We were scared, really
scared. Out of fear, some of us ran towards the library. The police then
bombed the reading hall with more tear-gas shells. Some students were caught by
the police and told they would be escorted to their hostels safely. The police
said they were only looking for “outsiders.” Later, we heard gunshots. I have recorded some videos of the
police firing inside the campus. We got to know that the students supposedly being taken to their
hostel rooms were being detained and beaten up badly. The police took them
somewhere, we think it’s Kalkaji police station, but we are not sure. When we
asked the police, they hurled abuses at us. I, along with my friends, was inside the campus, but when the
police began firing gunshots, we escaped through the gate near Batla House. Chief proctor Waseem Ahmed Khan confirmed that the police did not
have permission to enter Jamia. I can guarantee their (police’s) intention
wasn’t to catch outsiders; they wanted to fuel communal tensions. Let me tell you what some
of the personnel were saying while beating us up: “Maaro
inko, ye katwe hai” (Thrash them, these circumcised). I heard them saying this many times. They opened fire at the
campus, damaged the mosques, and beat up students. Please, remind them if you
can that we are students, not terrorists. https://qz.com/india/1768876/i-saw-delhi-police-target-jamia-millia-islamias-muslim-students/
11.
Protests: Dec., 18, 2019: Twenty-one people were injured when a protest at Seelampur in east Delhi
against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the
National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the police action against students at
Jamia Millia Islamia University in the capital turned violent on Tuesday “A
total of 21 persons sustained injuries, including 15 security personnel and six
members of the public. The injured include three Rapid Action Force officials,
12 Delhi police officials and six
members of the public,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Eastern Range) Alok Kumar
said Some videos, thought to be of the
incident and shot by the locals, showed the police beating the protesters with
lathis. Sunday’s clashes; none of them
was a student. All have criminal backgrounds, and were identified from CCTV
footage. Multiple protesters said the Citizenship Amendment Act and
the National Register of Citizens are against Muslims. They said they will
continue to raise their voice against them. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/21-hurt-as-protesters-clash-with-police-in-delhi/article30333803.ece?homepage=true
12.
Protests: Dec., 20, 2019: Two protesters were killed in police firing on Thursday in Mangaluru while one died of
gunshot wounds in Lucknow as the agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act, brewing since last week flared up nationwide. Huge crowds came out on to the streets of
cities and towns that were so far untouched by the unrest. Parts of UP,
including Lucknow, and Mangaluru in Karnataka witnessed
the day's most violent proteats. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/2-die-in-mangaluru-1-in-lucknow-as-anti-caa-stir-spreads-across-india/articleshow/72893831.cms
13.
Indians protest against bill: Dec., 21, 2019: Indians are defying bans on assembly in cities nationwide as
anger swells against a citizenship law seen as discriminatory against Muslims,
following days of protests and clashes that have left nine dead. Two people
died of injuries suffered in violent protests in the southern Indian city of
Mangalore, on Thursday, according to hospital officials. Shah said police fired
their weapons after some 200 demonstrators refused to stop their march.
Stone-throwing protesters clashed with police and set fire to vehicles in
Lucknow, where orders prohibiting gatherings of more than five people are in
place. Hundreds of demonstrators were detained on Thursday in the Indian
capital of New Delhi and the southern IT hub of Bengaluru, where a leading
historian was among those taken away by the police. Two major Indian telecom
firms, Vodafone and Airtel, on Thursday said they have cut mobile services
in parts of New Delhi on government orders. Fourteen Delhi metro stations were
shut including one near police headquarters, besieged by protesters earlier
this week, as some roads into the megacity were blocked, causing immense
traffic jams Critics say it is further proof
that Modi, emboldened by a resounding election victory this year, is moving
quickly to reshape India as a Hindu nation and weaken
its secular foundations. Reporting from New Delhi, Al Jazeera's Sohail Rahman
said the overwhelming participation of non-Muslims in the nationwide protests
"has surprised the government"."I think the government was
completely unprepared for the anger that this particular passage of the law was
going to present, because Muslim communities have kept pretty quiet over the
issues of triple divorce and Kashmir's autonomy," he said. "This law
is deemed to be something that strikes the heart of the constitution about
everybody's liberty." Demonstrators on Thursday ignored the bans on assembly
including in New Delhi and Hyderabad where television pictures showed police
dragging and carrying demonstrators away as they brandished placards and
chanted slogans. One
protester, Kawalpreet Kaur, who according to her Twitter profile is the Delhi
president of All India Student's Association, posted that police had filled 14
buses with detainees at the Red Fort landmark. "But more and more people are pouring in, too many to be
detained," she added. Al
Jazeera's Rahman said police barricaded and blocked the road around the
Mughal-era fort, whose iconic grounds have seen some of India's biggest
protests. "Some
of them got through in the morning, but they were later uniformly arrested and
put on buses," he said. In
Bengaluru, those detained included internationally renowned historian
Ramachandra Guha while in the northern state of Bihar, protesters blocked
several railway stations and national highways. "I am protesting non-violently, but look, they are stopping
us," said Guha.
Seventeen left-wing parties in the
eastern state of West Bengal, long a hotbed of political violence, were due to
rally in Kolkata later. In
the financial and entertainment capital Mumbai, Bollywood stars were expected
to join a protest largely organised by students and young professionals on
Thursday afternoon.Actor-director Farhan Akhtar tweeted on Wednesday that the
"time to protest on social media alone is over." During
the past week of unrest, police fired tear gas into crowds and have been
accused of beating protesters at various places, including women and students,
heightening the anger. Police
fired shots in the air in a Muslim-dominated part of the capital to repel
thousands of demonstrators throwing stones and glass bottles, demanding the law
be withdrawn. New
Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia university and Uttar Pradesh state's Aligarh
Muslim University, 130km (81 miles) from the capital, were stormed by police on
Sunday night, leaving more than 200 students injured. "This government
wants to turn us into second-class citizens," said 70-year old Fasiur
Rehman, accusing Modi's administration of singling out Muslims, as several
hundred protesters around him in New Delhi raised slogans, held up banners, and
waved the Indian flag. The
UN secretary-general's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday the global
body was "concerned about the violence and alleged use of excessive force
by security forces that we've seen that have been taking place". The United States's State
Department urged New Delhi to "protect the rights of its religious
minorities in keeping with India's constitution and democratic values". At a news conference with his
Indian counterpart on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said
Washington cares deeply about protecting religious rights everywhere but gave a
muted answer on the issue. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/protests-rage-india-citizenship-law-restrictions-191219033044980.html
14.
New York Times: Dec., 21, 2019: India’s new citizenship law aims to marginalise Muslims and turn
India into a homeland for Hindus, says a New York Times editorial
published on Thursday. The editorial also condemns India’s Aug 5 decision to
illegally merge Kashmir with the union and to turn nearly two million Muslims
in Assam into a stateless crowd. “The law, as India’s 200 million Muslims have
correctly surmised, has nothing to do with helping migrants and everything to
do with the campaign by Mr Modi and his home minister, Amit Shah, to
marginalise Muslims and turn India into a homeland for Hindus, who comprise
about 80 per cent of the population of 1.3 billion,” the newspaper wrote. It
noted that last summer, the Modi government “abruptly stripped statehood and
autonomy from India’s only Muslim-majority state, Kashmir, arresting many of
its leaders and shutting down the internet.” Also in August, Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi “aggressively escalated a program of citizenship tests
in the northeastern state of Assam, leaving nearly two million people, many of
them Muslims, potentially stateless,” NYT added. The newspaper noted that Mr
Modi has vowed to extend the process, “which requires Indians to prove they’re
Indian, to the entire country and is building large new detention centers for
those who can’t”. The newspaper noted that the new law offers accelerated
citizenship to members of the Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Parsee and Jain
religions — but not to Muslims. And the only neighbouring countries named in
the law are Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, all majority Muslim. “The
not-so-hidden message is that … Muslims from such countries cannot be refugees
— even people like the Rohingya, some of whom have reached India after fleeing
to Bangladesh from brutal repression in Myanmar,” NYT added. The newspaper also
noted that Mr Shah “has taken to demonizing the primary target of the dragnets,
Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, whom he refers to as termites”. Noting that
the citizenship law has provoked furious protests across India, the newspaper
adds: “The government has also shut down the internet in several regions, a
tactic against dissent used by India more than any other authoritarian-leaning
government in the world, claiming it is necessary to prevent violence and false
rumors.” “Kashmir has been offline since August, and India is by far the
world’s leader in the number of internet shutdowns.” The newspaper notes that
since he took office in 2014, Mr Modi has actively worked to change India,
“even rewriting history books to exclude Muslim rulers — who, among other
things, built the Taj Mahal — and changing official place names to Hindu from
Muslim. Hindu mobs that lynch Muslims are rarely punished.”NYT points out that
some non-Muslim Indian liberals, including members of the once-dominant
Congress Party, have joined in the protests against the law, which has also
drawn sharp criticism from human rights groups and governments.
15.
Sikhs at UN: Dec., 21, 2019: The Dal Khalsa has reached out to the UN about the volatile
developments that spell an anarchic situation for minorities in India. Kashmir
Babri mosque also cited as evidence
https://sikhsiyasat.net/2019/12/20/sikh-body-knocks-at-un-door-over-developing-crisis-in-indian-subcontinent-says-minorities-are-in-danger/
16.
Mahathir:
Dec., 22, 2019: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad has criticised India's new citizenship law, which is seen as
discriminatory against Muslims and has sparked deadly protests across the South
Asian country. Speaking on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur Summit
2019 on Friday, Mahathir questioned the
"necessity" of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), when Indians have "lived together for 70
years"."People are dying because of this law. Why is there a
necessity to do this when all the while, for 70 years, they have lived together
as citizens without any problem?" he asked. The CAA makes it easier for
"persecuted" minorities from three neighbouring countries to get
citizenship but not if they are Muslims. "I am sorry to see that India,
which claims to be a secular state now is taking action to deprive some Muslims
of their citizenship," said the 94-year-old leader. "If we do that
here, I do not know what will happen. There will be chaos and instability, and
everybody will suffer." Mahathir's comments came amid
deadly protests in India over the CAA, in which at least 20 people
have been killed so far, including nearly a dozen on Friday. The United Nations has called the CAA "fundamentally discriminatory" while
the United States's State Department has urged India to "protect the rights of
its religious minorities". Meanwhile, tensions prevailed throughout the
country as authorities suspended internet and banned public gatherings in some
regions. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, at least 11 people died on
Friday while another death was reported on Saturday. India's capital New Delhi
witnessed street battles on Friday evening with police firing a water cannon,
baton-charging protesters and arresting dozens of people. Thousands of people
in a Muslim-dominated district of the capital marched after Friday prayers,
some carrying a huge Indian flag, raising slogans against the Modi government.
More protests continue to be organised in various Indian cities. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/modi-summons-ministers-india-protests-death-toll-increases-191221063611978.html
17.
CAIR: Dec., 23,
2019:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim
civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned India’s adoption of a
citizenship law that discriminates against the naturalization of Muslim
immigrants from neighboring countries. CAIR also called on the House of
Representatives to immediately adopt H.R. 745, a resolution urging the Indian
government to respect the human rights of all people, and for the U.S.
government to sanction key Indian government leaders responsible for enacting
and implementing the anti-Muslim policy. The Indian state of Assam has already
stripped at least 1.9 million Indians of their citizenship and is constructing
prison camps to detain these now stateless people — and expelled all
international journalists from the state.“Our government must follow the
recommendations of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and
sanction ‘principal leadership’ in the Indian government responsible for this
discriminatory anti-Muslim citizenship law,” said CAIR National Executive
Director Nihad Awad. “Congress must also send a clear message to Indian Prime
Minister Modi that we will not tolerate the state persecution of any minority
in India, including Muslims.”Awad added: “We are getting close to a situation
in which the Indian government will round up Indian Muslim citizens and Muslim
immigrants and indefinitely detain them in state run concentration camps – a
human rights disaster in the making that must be avoided through immediate
diplomacy and civil action.”CAIR is also calling on all Americans to urge their
U.S. House representative to co-sponsor and support the adoption of a
bipartisan resolution by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Steve Watkins (R-KA)
— House Resolution 745 — titled: “Urging the Republic of India to end the
restrictions on communications and mass detentions in Jammu and Kashmir as
swiftly as possible and preserve religious freedom for all residents.” CAIR
notes that Congresswoman Jayapal is the first Indian-American woman elected to
Congress. The resolution in part urges the government of India to reject
arbitrary detention, use of excessive force against civilians, and suppression
of peaceful expression of dissent as proportional responses to security
challenges – and ensure that any actions taken in pursuit of legitimate
security priorities respect the human rights of all people and adhere to
international human rights law. Since the passage of CAA bill, many political
parties, human rights organizations and Indian Muslim organizations have
opposed the CAA in democratic and peaceful ways, including marches, statements
and hunger strikes. Students of two universities, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI),
based in New Delhi, and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), based in Aligarh, have
been protesting the adoption of the CAA. There have been numerous reports of
excessive force by Indian Police with eight killed and more than 1,200
protestors across the county detained. The Indian government has now banned
protests and cut internet in parts of the nation’s capital Delhi and throughout
the states of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. In October, CAIR submitted a written
statement to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific,
and Nonproliferation’s hearing on “Human Rights in South Asia: Views from the
State Department and the Region.” CAIR’s statement focuses on Kashmir and the
Indian government’s revocation of that region’s protected status and
accompanying human rights abuses. The hearing was convened by Subcommittee
Chairman Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA). . https://indianewengland.com/2019/12/the-council-on-american-islamic-relations-condemns-indias-citizenship-law-calls-on-u-s-to-sanction-indian-leaders/
18.
Rana Ayyub : Dec., 5, 2019: “Heartbreaking calls from
Muzaffarnagar and Kanpur. Locals are saying RSS members’ along with cops and
local leaders are attacking Muslim localities. Families are leaving for safer
places. Cars and houses are being burnt. Remember the initial days of Gujarat
2002.”
19.
Muslims targeted: Dec., 26,
2019: A pitched battle between anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act , or
CAA, protesters and the police in Meerut was beginning to shift from the main
roads to the narrow by-lanes of the Bhumiya Ka Pul neighbourhood at around 4pm
on Friday, December 20, when Zaheer Mohammad, a labourer who works at a cattle
fodder unit, walked out of his home to purchase beedis from a shop. The police
and protesters were positioned at opposite ends of the lane at that moment, and
the shopkeeper, Gulshan, a 40-year-old woman, decided to down the shutters when
Zaheer asked her to pause and give him a bundle of beedis and a match. “He
handed me Rs 10 and then squatted on a platform next to my shop to smoke,” said
Gulshan. Moments later, a bullet hit Zaheer, 45, in his head and he collapsed
on the floor. “Had Zaheer not been there, the bullet may have hit me,” said
Gulshan. She doesn’t know who fired the fatal shot, but she is certain that it
came from the police’s direction. “Zaheer was a simpleton. He didn’t even seem
curious of bothered about the protests,” said Gulshan. Zaheer was among at least
five civilians killed during protests that Friday in Meerut - the district with
the highest casualty count. Each of them fell to bullets that the police insist
were fired by the protesters themselves. Five days later, on Wednesday, the
biggest grouse of the families of each of these men was that the police
allegedly forced them to bury the dead urgently, secretly, away from their
neighbourhoods, and in the absence of some of their nearest ones. In addition,
each of the dead have been named as accused in the FIRs registered after their
deaths. “These men were present at the scenes of violence and remain under
suspicion. In the FIRs, they have been named as accused and their roles will be
probed scientifically,” said AN Singh, superintendent of police (Meerut City). The
SP said that there was “heavy firing” by the protesters in Meerut in which nine
police and paramilitary personnel were hit and 69 empty cartridges were found
during clean up. He also admitted that the police fired at the protesters,
making it the third instance after Bijnor and Kanpur where police are now
admitting to opening fire. “We fired seven rounds,” said the SP, adding that no
deaths occurred at those spots. In the immediate aftermath of the statewide
protests, police insisted that they did not fire at protestors. The violence
has claimed 18 lives, of which at least 14 are from bullet injuries. The police
have registered 14 FIRs and arrested 37 suspects so far for the violence.
20.
Zaheer’s father, Munsi Ahmed, said, “Only four members of our
family were around when Zaheer’s body was buried around 6.30am on Saturday,
within two hours of us receiving his body. When we sought more time, the police
told me that I would be held legally responsible for any disturbance. The
police only dug the grave and hundreds of them stayed around till we were done
with the burial. I couldn’t even bring his body home,” said Ahmed. A few lanes
away, 28-year-old Mohsin was shot dead around the same time when he left his
home to get fodder for his two buffaloes. “He had returned from namaaz. He gave
two toffees to his four-year-old daughter and left home. Minutes later, we
heard gunshots and someone came home to inform that my son was killed by a
bullet in his chest,” said Mohsin’s mother, Nafeesa. Mohsin’s two younger
brothers work as scrap dealers in Karnataka, and they heard of his death on
Friday evening. “We had no money for flight tickets, so our friends pooled
money for our travel. By the time we reached Meerut on Saturday noon, my
brother was already buried. I loved my brother. He was older, but never beat
me, never scolded me. I couldn’t see him one last time and I feel guilty about
it,” said his brother, Mohammad Rameez, 19. The story of Asif, a 32-year-old
orphan who worked as a labourer at a tyre shop is similar. “He was headed to a
nearby mosque to offer prayers amidst the violent protests when he was shot in
his back. The police compelled us to bury him just after morning namaaz on
Saturday,” said his mother-in-law, Shameem. Asif has left behind a pregnant
wife and three children. About four kilometers away, in the Ahmed Nagar
neighbourhood of Meerut city, two other men were shot dead about a kilometre
from their homes. One was Mohammad Asif, a 20-year-old e-rickshaw driver and
the other was Aleem Ansari, a 24-year-old man who baked tandoori rotis at a
dhaba on the Hapur Road where many violent protests unfolded on Friday. As for Ansari, his autopsy was conducted in
the absence of his family, police said. “His dhaba shut down due to the
protests and he left for home. His body was found with a bullet wound to his
head on the roadside along the route he took to return home,” said his brother,
Mohammad Salauddin. His family, too, got to know of his death by seeing the
images of the dead men on a mobile phone. “All night we couldn’t leave our
neighbourhood because of the tense situation and the heavy police presence. In
the morning, I reached a hospital and checked a body in the mortuary to find it
wasn’t my brother’s,” said Salauddin. That body was Mohammad Asif’s. The family
finally got Ansari’s body at 5pm. The autopsy had already been conducted. The
SP said that since an identity card was found on Ansari’s body, the police
didn’t feel the need to wait for his family before carrying out the post-mortem
examination. Ansari’s body was handed over to his family on two conditions,
said his other brother, Mohammad Mubarak. “We had to give an assurance that we
wouldn’t take his body home and also not bury it in our immediate neighbourhood “If the mob was shooting at the police, why
weren’t any policemen killed? Why would the protesters shoot their own people?”
asked Salim Siddiqui, a local social worker. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/meerut-families-allege-forced-burials-say-police-covering-up-excess/story-N76IEObf3Cunyk0uoCICgI.html
21.
Arundhati Roy : Dec., 26, 2019: Mass protests have gripped parts of
India over a controversial citizenship
law that the country's 200 million Muslims fear will marginalise them.The
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed earlier this month grants
citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan,
Afghanistan and Bangladesh, but does not include naturalisation for Muslims. At
least 25 people have been killed as hundreds of thousands rally in cities
across the country against the law. Critics argue it goes against India's
secular constitution The law follows the
publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in India's northeastern Assam state in August, which
excluded nearly two million people - about half Hindu and half Muslim - from
the official list of citizens, raising fears they could be rendered
stateless.On Tuesday, India's federal cabinet approved funds for a census and
population survey that many fear could be used to build a controversial
citizens register.Acclaimed writer and activist Arundhati Roy joined in the
protest in New Delhi on Wednesday, urging Indians to protect each other and
guard against any oppression by Indian police and security forces. Arundhati
Roy: I am hopeful because this movement intellectually
understands and emotionally and passionately understands the horror of this
Hindutva programme that Modi, BJP, RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu
supremacist organisation) have been selling for so many years and of course in
power since 2014. They have only this as the one answer to every problem -
economic, social, education, whatever it is. The idea is to ratchet up the
hatred. And suddenly young people are saying "sorry, we are not buying
this". And that's why I'm hopeful.
It is a precursor. It is the database. They are going to go through with
whatever they can go through. They are going to go through with every bit of
their agenda. And they are going to shed blood. And they are already killing
people all over the state of Uttar Pradesh because that's where they have the
most vicious chief minister, acting in tandem with the central government. But
they are losing power in all the other states. So just a few years ago they
were in power in so many separate states, and now they hold power in just three
or four states. Ten chief ministers have already said they will not allow the
National Register of Citizens. They will not allow the NPR, which is the soft
entry to this. I think people still have to understand that this is a very
dangerous thing. But I think there is still a chance. If there was ever a
chance, here is the chance to stop them. I don't know. I don't have
much hope there. Look at what happened with Assam. They went ahead with the
national register while the Supreme Court is still hearing the case about
whether or not it's constitutional. So all the damage is already done. The
Supreme Court is still going along and prodding away. And the horror that's
been unleashed on the people of Assam because of this few people in India know
this.So I'm just hoping that it's going to take much more than the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court has not so stood in the way of the government in any of its
agenda so far. I hope it will, but I don't have that much hope. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/arundhati-roy-protests-india-citizenship-law-give-hope-191225131227378.html
22.
Human rights violations:
Dec., 27, 2019: In
the aftermath of chief minister Adityanath’s exhortation that the Uttar Pradesh
police take the “strictest” action against those protesting the Citizenship
(Amendment) Act in the state, this small town some 35 km from the district
headquarters of Bijnor saw some of the worst instances of police violence with
disturbing accounts of children being attacked and brutally beaten. In Nagina,
there is a palpable terror amongst the Muslim residents – who form the vast
majority of the population of Bijnor district – following the
detention of over a hundred people on the afternoon of Friday, December 20,
when a protest was forcibly broken up and then followed by police brutality. On
Friday afternoon, after the namaz in the Jama Masjid, a large crowd had
gathered outside the mosque. The previous Friday, a protest march had been
planned which the police had given permission for only to withdraw clearance at
10 pm the night before. As a consequence, that protest never took place with
the organisers swiftly informing the community about its cancelation. This
Friday’s protest was different, however. It was unorganised and much larger,
even though there had been no call to action from leaders within the community
as before. According to residents, there were anywhere between 10,000-12,000
people at the mosque that afternoon, a congregation size usually only reached
on festive occasions. The crowd that had gathered had come to pray, and after
prayers, wanted to walk from the masjid to a town square called Gandhi Murti
where protests are usually held. Shahnawaaz, a prominent member of the
community and the son of the current nagarpalika chair Tahira Beghum,
said that on realising the strength of the crowd, the shahi imam along with the
other senior members of the community convinced the vast majority of people to
go home peacefully. That left between 200-400 young people still in the
streets, who decided they would walk to their destination via the protest site.
“They had just got it into their heads that
they would reach Gandhi Murti. There was no unified plan, and no organisers,”
Saeed, a lawyer who has been working with detainees, told The Wire. The protestors say that a few hundred
metres from their destination, the police came into the road and began a lathi
charge, triggering chaos. The protestors dispersed, with people trying to run
away into the narrow lanes within the area as well as into houses, shops, and
ATM booths, with the police starting to catch and detain all of those who were
in the area. In all, the police arrested over a hundred people. The youngest
person detained was a child of 13. From there, those detained were taken to
Bijnor Police Lines, where they were held in a large hall through the night
until they were presented in court the next day 24 hours later. While they were
beaten en route, many of the persons detained – bystanders as well as
protestors – said the worst of the brutality took place while they were in
police custody at Bijnor. Abdul*, 17, was in bed under a quilt on the
freezing afternoon when The Wire’s reporters met him. He and his family
insisted on their identity being hidden, torn between wanting the world to know
about what happened and trying to keep themselves safe from a police force that
was still keenly present in the locality. “They beat us a lot,” he said, using
lathis. “They beat us in the street. They beat us in the vans. Then they beat
us when we were inside.” At the Bijnor Police Lines, the police
offered them water, which they drank. When some of them asked later to be
allowed to go to the toilet, the police would take them out and beat them
before letting them back in. People soon stopped asking for water, and soiled
themselves where they stood. Abdul showed us visible bruises of lathi
marks across his legs. Atifa*, his six-year-old sister came shyly and sat
beside us, and on asking her what happened that evening, just said. “They took
him away. Ammi was crying.” Asim*, another child who was
detained, is only 13. He has yet to venture outside since the
police released him on December 22. When we went to meet him, he was trembling
under his quilt while his mother recounted what he had said to her when he
returned. She said that he had told her the police
had offered him water, and he had taken it because he was extremely thirsty.
When shortly after he had to relieve himself, he was taken outside and brutally
beaten. His older sister, who was sitting in
another room, cried out, “They did more than that. He didn’t tell ammi but he told me – two policemen
held his arms and held him against a wall and a third one hit him on his back
with his lathi. He told me that they shoved his face to the ground with their
shoe and pulled his hair, saying that they would pull it out. They had been
pulling the beards of the others.” Asim stopped drinking water then so he would
not have to go to the bathroom. Water was the first thing he asked for when he
reached home two days after being detained. His sister is helplessly furious, and the
only one in the home who has reached the stage of rage; the rest are all still
terrified of what could come next. Asim’s uncle says, “Who do we go to? The
police are outside our houses, they know where we live.” Since he came back home, Asim has stopped
talking. He does not eat, and does not leave the house. He wakes up at night
with nightmares of police beatings, his family members say. When we spoke to
him, he refused to let us see his face, terrified of anyone taking pictures
which would then lead the police to him. The only thing he does is ask for
water. Some of the relatives of those detained by the police said some of the
detainees have found blood in their urine. The
Wire has learned that 104 people were detained on Friday, December 20, and
that up to 21 minors who were part of this group were released by Sunday night.
An FIR has been filed against the remaining 83 people, under 15 different IPC
sections including Section 307 – attempt to murder. Tyagi pleaded ignorance
about this information. Tyagi’s line is that his force stopped a
major riot from taking place by acting judiciously and swiftly to contain any
violence. However,
witnesses say that the only people who were committing violence were the police. Tyagi admits that his force detained
whoever was on the street at the time, saying that as per Section 144 – which
had been imposed – the presence of people in groups was wilful disobedience
that gave cause for them to be detained. The Wire has seen videos of people in the Nagina area
where the violence took place, including those identified by local residents as
non-Muslims, standing in groups larger than 4, watching as the protestors were
being beaten. When asked why all the people detained by the police were Muslim
if the protocol was simply that everyone in the area was being picked up, Tyagi
deflected the question. He said that police action had prevented communal
violence from taking place. In fact, every family The Wire spoke
to has stoutly denied there being any communal sensitivity in the area at all.
There was no pushback against the Hindus of the area, just the police https://thewire.in/communalism/in-bijnor-children-give-harrowing-accounts-of-beating-by-up-police-after-caa-protest
23.
House to house verification: Dec., 27, 2019: The Narendra Modi government proposes to update the existing National
Population Register, which already has an electronic database of more than 119
crore residents, by verifying the details of all respondents through
house-to-house enumeration, according to an official manual on conducting the
fresh NPR exercise. The NPR exercise has become controversial because the
Citizenship Rules 2003 link the Population Register to the creation of a
National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) or National Register of
Citizens.According to the government manual seen by The Hindu, the enumerators,
all government officials, will “modify and correct the demographic data items”.
They are also tasked with collecting mobile, voter card, Indian passport and
driving licence numbers from residents.The manual requires the “inclusion of
all new residents, new households found in the local area during the field
work However, the Modi Government has
repeatedly told Parliament that the NPR was the first step towards compiling
the NRC. The Assam-specific NRC, conducted under the supervision of Supreme
Court, had excluded 19 lakh out of 3.29 crore residents. There are
apprehensions that people will have to dig out old documents to prove their
residency in India on the lines of the exercise conducted in Assam. So far, the
Modi government has not revealed the cut-off date for a nationwide NRC, which
Home Minister Amit Shah has committed to in Parliament. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/npr-house-to-house-verification-planned/article30405387.ece
24.
Kuwait MPs: Dec., 27, 2019: A group of lawmakers in Kuwait have expressed “deep concern”
over the situation of Muslims in India and China, local media reported.In a
statement issued on the sidelines of the National Assembly session on Tuesday,
December 24, a group of . 27 lawmakers called on the Kuwaiti government to
‘exert diplomatic efforts’ and approach the United Nations to address the
situation, Kuwait Times reported. The statement expressed “deep
concern” on the “abusive legislative and repressive security measures taken by
the Indian government against Muslims”, the report said. “We are concerned about the violence and
alleged use of excessive force by security forces that we’ve seen that have
been taking place in the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. We
very much call for restraint and urge full respect for the rights of freedom of
opinion and expression and peaceful assembly,” he said. https://gulfbusiness.com/kuwaiti-mps-express-deep-concern-situation-muslims-india-china/
25.
UP : Dec., 27, 2019: “For the last one week, Uttar Pradesh is
under a reign of terror,” a group of political activists, who were part of a
fact-finding team that just returned from the state, said while listing out
several incidents of police crackdown on protesters against Citizenship
Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens.Addressing the
media, the fact-finding team who recently visited Uttar Pradesh, including
Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, Communist Party of India (ML)’s Kavita
Krishnan, civil society group United Against Hate’s Nadeem Khan, and human
rights activist Harsh Mander said that the state’s security situation is so
volatile that a communal riot can break out at any point. They accused the
police of fomenting such a situation while pointing out successive instances of
how police have targeted Muslims and peaceful protesters across India’s most
populous state.“The Uttar Pradesh government is employing unlawful and lethal
tactics to harass and intimidate the citizens that are protesting against CAA
and NRC,” Yadav said, adding that the police are “brazenly targeting” Muslims
and civil society activists. “The goal is not just to suppress all dissent
against CAA or NRC in Uttar Pradesh, but to send a signal to anyone who may
dare to raise a voice against anything,” a press note released by them said.
Reports of severe custodial torture have been reported. According to various
reports, between 18 and 24 people have been killed in police firing. An eight-year-old boy was killed as the
police lathi-charged the protesting crowd in Varanasi. “Those who have been
killed are being framed in false cases. One of them, for example, was an
e-rickshaw driver. His identity papers show he has lived in Delhi but has been
staying in Meerut for some years. Now, the police has named him as the
‘mastermind of the riots’ and that he was the one who got many outsiders to
participate in the riots. Everybody who knew this young man said this was a
complete lie,” said Krishnan, who visited Meerut.She said she met a man, Habib,
who son Ali was killed in police firing in Meerut. “I was so ashamed to even
face him. He kept saying that his children grew up in the laps of his Hindu
neighbours, and that they don’t see any hate in the eyes of the Hindus. Then
why has this government turned against them. “A prejudiced government, which is
filled with poison against Muslims, can’t decide through the National Popular
Register who is a doubtful citizen and who is not. The government is trying to
distract attention from such large-scale violence on its own people by showing
one video clip of a stone pelter, or one arm-bearing protester, or a miscreant.
We must ask whether such exceptions can justify the brutal police crackdown on
people,” she said Nadeem Khan said that
while the highest number of attacks took place on Muslims, a large number of
rights activists have also been arrested in Varanasi and Lucknow. “Throughout
the state of Uttar Pradesh, you will find that police has sponsored hoardings
seeking information on prominent activists. These activists are well-known, yet
the police are calling people to share their information in return for
rewards. There appears to be a competition between top police officials as
to who would register the most number of FIRs,” he said. “More than 1 lakh FIRs
with anonymous accused have already been registered in UP over the last one
week. More than 22,500 FIRs have been filed only in Kanpur; 5,500 in
Muzaffarnagar; 5,000 in Meerut, 2,200 in Bahraich. This has allowed the police
to detain anyone.” The whole Muslim community is in anxiety, he said. “The
terror is so much that people have fled their homes. In so many places, police
first booked people and then depending on their financial condition
sought bribes to release them,” Khan added. More importantly, he asked, why is
it that such incidents are being reported from only BJP-ruled states like UP,
Assam, Karnataka or Delhi, where the Union government oversees the police “Big
protest rallies have happened across India, in Nagpur, Mumbai, Kolkata, and
Jaipur. Not even one violent incident was reported. It is clear that the BJP
governments have a role to play in creating a ruckus during peaceful protest
rallies,” he said. Yadav said that such is the reign of terror
that they were advised not to hold this press conference in Lucknow.“We got
reports that all private hospitals in Meerut and Muzaffarnagar were strictly
instructed by the police not to admit people with bullet injuries. They were
admitted only in government hospitals, where families of the victims were not
allowed to meet them at all,” he said. He said Muslims were being treated as
foreigners in UP. Those arrested were not even allowed legal help. “Some
advocates who reached out to victims were also arrested. Such is the state,”
Yadav said https://thewire.in/rights/uttar-pradesh-caa-protests-report
26.
European expelled: Dec., 28, 2019: A Norwegian tourist has said
authorities have ordered her to leav India
after taking part in protests against a new citizenship law, becoming the
second European to be ejected over the demonstrations. Janne-Mette Johansson,
71, on Friday said police gave her "verbal assurances" that she could
take part in peaceful demonstrations against the law that critics say
discriminates against India's 200 million Muslims. "Yesterday [Thursday],
Indian immigration officials came to my hotel for questioning and I was mentally
tortured. Today, they again showed up at my hotel asking me to leave the
country or they will take a legal action and deport me," she said 23 protest in Kochi Earlier
this week, a German physics student in the southern Indian city of Chennai was
also asked to leave
after taking part in a protest and comparing the law with anti-Jewish Nazi
legislation. Photos on
social media purportedly of the student, named as Jakob Lindenthal, showed him
carrying a placard saying "1933-1945 We have been there".
"After
the Nazi era, many people claimed not to have known anything about genocides or
atrocities or stated that they were only passive," Lindenthal told German
broadcaster, Deutsche Welle. "Therefore
I see it as a duty to learn from these lessons and not only watch when things
happen that one believes to be the stepping stones to a possibly very dangerous
development." https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/norwegian-asked-leave-india-citizenship-law-protests-191227082023038.html
27.
Police excesses
video: Dec., 28, 2019: On
December 19, even as the Mangaluru police had begun beating and shooting at
people protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, a short video clip
of a man desperately clutching his
three-year-old daughter and resisting the police went viral on social media.
The man was seen jostling with the police – both men and women – and resisting
their attempt to drag him and his daughter closer to a parked bus. The child,
terrified by the men in uniform, was heard screaming. Her elder sister and mother
could also be seen in the video clip, trying to save her and pleading with the
police to let them go. registered at the Pandeshwara police station. Ibrahim, a 32-year-old scrap dealer, was at
his workshop on Bunder road when he got a panicked call from his wife. It was
around 3 pm, and Ibrahim’s wife had gone to pick up their elder daughter from
school. Their younger daughter had accompanied her too. As the autorickshaw in
which the mother and daughter were travelling pulled into the Clock Tower area,
a mob was being chased by the police. The auto driver refused to ply further
and asked Ibrahim’s wife and children to get off the rickshaw. “My wife called
me and told me to come and pick her up immediately. I knew things were tense in
the city, so I rushed to the spot,” Ibrahim tells The
Wire.
“I
had to dodge the police and the crowd to get to the spot my family was
stranded. It was a horrifying feeling to think of them stranded amid violence,”
he adds. Ibrahim says as he got to the spot and saw his family there, he was
finally relieved. “I was on the other side of the road and
when I began to move closer to my family, some policemen, all dressed in riot-
gear, came close to me and began to drag me towards a parked bus. I tried to
explain to them that I was on the street because of my family and they should
let me go. They did not budge.” Ibrahim says his wife and children soon joined
him and pleaded with the police. “My younger daughter, my jigar ka tukada (my beloved child), leaped over me and held
on to me. There was such chaos that I couldn’t make sense of anything that was
happening. All I knew was I have to protect my family,” a visibly disturbed
Ibrahim says. The fear is evident in Ibrahim’s eyes when
he tells this reporter that she can speak to his wife and children, but
shouldn’t mention their names or use their pictures anywhere. “I don’t know how
long will I be around to protect them. I am trying to do everything in my
capacity to ensure their safety,” he says. Even as Ibrahim continues to speak
to The Wire, his wife stands around nervously and
utters a few words in Byari, a language spoken particularly by the Muslims of
Dakshina Kannada. Their daughter, clueless about what had befallen her family,
continues to play on the side and breaks the tense air in the room with her
spontaneous giggles. In these difficult times, however, Ibrahim’s neighbours
have stood by his side, which he says is reassuring. When this reporter visited
Ibrahim, at least half a dozen people peeped into the tiny room just to ensure
Ibrahim was okay. Ibrahim has challenged the police’s claim and dares them to
show a single scrap of evidence that shows him being involved in the protest or
pelting stones anywhere. “If the police were to show a single picture or video,
I will walk up to the police myself and surrender. I know they have nothing
against me and this case, like against a thousand others, is only filed to
torture us in the coming years,” Ibrahim says. https://thewire.in/rights/mangaluru-police-excess-anti-caa-protests
28.
Government’s disinformation: Dec., 29, 2019: In September, three months before this condemnation of jhoot, a
detention centre with capacity to house 3,000 inmates was nearing completion in
Matia in western Assam at a cost of Rs 146 crore. This was the
first of 10 centres planned. A few days before his speech, Karnataka opened its first
detention centre “for illegal immigrants” 40 km outside Bengaluru.
So, whose words are jhoot hai, jhoot hai, jhoot hai? When December witnessed,
across India, protests of a kind never seen since Independence, the spontaneity
of it surprised everyone. It was a people’s movement, spearheaded by no one in
particular. For two weeks, even Modi was too stunned to speak. The notable
feature of the nationwide protest was the absence of a central leadership.
Students and young women seemed to be their own leaders. In Yogi Adityanath’s
UP, Muslims, who oppose the (amended) Citizenship Act, are
picked up and killed. Activist Rana Ayyub released a list of 14 young men who
were thus eliminated. Other reports describe
how Muslim families flee as police vandalise their homes and harass their women.
All the 23 deaths in the course of the protests have been in BJP-ruled states.
This new India is getting international attention as well. The outside world
sees the citizenship laws as essentially anti-Muslim. India’s stock in
countries from Japan to Europe and the US has gone significantly down if
foreign reports are any indication. https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/columns/t-j-s-george/2019/dec/29/in-other-words-who-is-lying-2082153.html
29.
OIC:
Dec., 29, 2019: the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC) has decided to convene a meeting on the grim human rights situation in
occupied Jammu and Kashmir and enactment of an anti-Muslim law in India, The Express Tribune
learnt on Saturday. According to the sources, the ministerial level OIC meeting
is expected to be held in Islamabad in April 2020. Sources claimed
that the official communiqué of the meeting will specifically mention
the human rights violation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and the passage
of Citizenship Amendment Bill, which is fundamentally
discriminatory against Muslims in India. Insiders said the meeting will push
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lift the curfew in IOK — in place since
August 5 when New Delhi revoked its special status in a bid to convert the
region’s Muslim majority into minority. The forum would also put pressure on
the Modi government to protect the rights of the Muslim community in India. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2126598/1-oic-convene-meeting-iok-lockdown-anti-muslim-law-india/
30.
Preempt protests: Dec., 30, 2019: The clampdown of the Uttar Pradesh police against the Muslim
community has now extended to those who have not taken part in the ongoing
protests. In three villages located less than 30km from Lucknow, at least 100
Muslim men have been made to furnish a bond of Rs50,000 each under Section
107/116 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which virtually serves as an assurance
that they will not participate in any protest. They will have to appear in
court every fortnight or so for at least the next six months. The section is
meant to be a preventive measure: it is invoked by an Executive Magistrate
against anyone under his jurisdiction who could pose a reasonable threat to the
peace. He is supposed to do this after receiving information and forming an
opinion that there is substantial ground for proceeding against the individual.
Its invocation on a mass scale against those who have never violated the law in
the past has come as a shock to the residents of these villages. The residents of Kamlabad Badhauli
told Scroll.in that on December 19, even as protests broke out in
Lucknow to be followed by a brutal police crackdown, the day passed off
normally in the village. No one from the village had gone for the protests, at
least none of the 37 who have been served notices. According to them, the first
they heard of these notices was when on December 23, Vishnu Kumar, a chowkidar,
was ordered by the local police station to go door to door with a list of names
and addresses of the men charged under Section 107/116 of CrPC. They were asked
to sign against their names but none of them realised what had transpired until
December 26 when they were told they had to appear in court. It is then that
they consulted a lawyer. To make matters worse, it is not clear whether these
charges will result in a criminal record being entered against their name. For
many of the young men preparing for examinations and looking for government
jobs, this has become an additional source of anxiety. While charges under
preventive sections do not amount to a conviction, and ordinarily should not
amount to a criminal record, there are conflicting legal opinions about this. A
judgement of the Chhattisgarh High Court has held that proceedings under
Section 107 of CrPC make a person unfit for government employment. Even without
a criminal record, the men who have been served notices as potential
troublemakers could become easy suspects, even fodder, for the next time the
police wanted to pick up anyone for any perceived crime or breach of peace,
said a lawyer. Worse, notices under Section 107 of the Criminal Procedure Code
allow a magistrate to order the arrest of an individual if he is convinced that
only an arrest could avoid breach of peace. In the past, the Supreme Court and
several High Courts have admonished the police for keeping people in jail for months using Section 107
and without registering any criminal case. The young man who was preparing for
the state public service commission exams said other than him and his elder
brother, two other men from their family have also been charged. The youngest
of them will turn eighteen next month. “They haven’t arrested us or beaten us,
and they couldn’t recover damages from us, but they have marked us for life,”
he said. “All of us will have a criminal record for no other reason than being
Muslim.” The fear in this village is compounded by bewilderment. The villagers
repeatedly pointed out that Kamlabad Badhauli, with its 30 per cent Muslim
population, has never seen communal tension. Kamlabad Badhauli, though, is not
the only village to be targeted. A kilometre away similar stories emerged at
Muslim Nagar, a larger Muslim-dominated village. Here, 20 men have been charged
under Section 107/116 of the CrPC. Many of them had gathered at a barber shop
run by a man in his early thirties. Two of his brothers are also facing the
same charges.“There is no case against any of us,” he said. “On the day of the
protests, there is CCTV footage of my brother and I at the electricity board
office paying our bills, then we were at the Vodaphone store to sort out our
mobile issues. There is a camera there too which would have recorded our
visit.”He went on to detail the whereabouts of the others in the village who
have also been charged: one man who was at the hospital, accompanying his
brother for his chemotherapy, another man who was in Bombay, a third who was on
duty at the Trauma Centre at KGMC hospital in Lucknow.“We are innocent, but
that’s not the point. We are Muslims and that’s the real issue,” he said in
conclusion. Another four kilometers from Muslim Nagar, at Madhion village,
residents said as many as 150 Muslim men had been charged under Section 107/116
of the CrPC. Three Muslim men told Scroll.in that at first they were
so terrified that they thought of fleeing the village but then a lawyer in the
village told them this would aggravate the charges against them.“We have no
choice but to live with this torture,” one of them, employed as a tailor, said.
As this reporter turned to leave for Lucknow, one of the men in Muslim Nagar
said: “This could destroy our lives forever. Is this the badla [revenge] that
the chief minister was talking about?” https://www.dawn.com/news/1524904/no-criminal-record-no-protest-yet-indian-muslim-men-made-to-sign-bonds-in-uttar-pradesh-villages
Monthly update 3: November
2019 : Muslims in India
.
1. Education of
Muslim’s: Nov., 1, 2019: Muslim youth in the Hindi heartland
fare the worst. Their educational attainment is the lowest in Haryana, 3 per
cent in 2017-18; in Rajasthan, this figure is 7 per cent; it is 11 per cent in
Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh is the only north Indian state where the Muslims
are doing relatively better in education — their educational attainment is 17
per cent. In all these states, except MP, SCs fare better than Muslims. The gap
between SCs and Muslims with respect to educational attainment is 12 ppt Haryana
and Rajasthan and 7 ppt in UP. In 2011-12, in all these states, SCs were
slightly above the Muslims on this parameter. In eastern India, the educational
attainment among the Muslim youth in Bihar is 8 per cent, as against 7 per cent
among SCs, in West Bengal it is 8 per cent, as against 9 per cent for SCs, and
in Assam it is 7 per cent as against 8 per cent for SCs. While the gap between
Muslims and SCs has narrowed in the last six years, the latter still fare
better. In western India, the educational attainment figures for Muslims are
better compared to 2011-12. But they do not necessarily reflect a significant
educational improvement when compared to the SCs and Hindu-OBCs. In Gujarat,
the gap in educational attainment between the Muslims and SCs is14 ppt in
2017-18; six years ago, it was just 8 ppt. In Maharashtra, the Muslims were
marginally — by 2 ppt — better off than SCs in 2011-12, they have now not only
lost to SCs but the latter has now overtaken them by 8 ppt. While
the marginalisation of Muslims began several years ago, the phenomenon seems to
have gathered pace in recent years. As Sam Asher et al point out in their
recent study, ‘Intergenerational Mobility in India: Estimates from New Methods
and Administrative Data’, “Muslims are being left out from educational mobility
in India while the SCs are getting integrated into it”. More studies are needed
to link this disturbing process to the political marginalisation of Muslims.
The activities of vigilante groups could possibly have led young Muslims to
withdraw in to their shell. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/muslim-community-youth-india-marginalisation-6096881/
#MuslimsInIndia
2.
Indian Judiciary and Muslims: Nov.,2,2019: To abrogate Article 35-A and to rundown Article 370, the GOI
passed the J&K reorganization Act. At present 18 petitions are pending
before the Supreme court challenging government’s move. The court has not given
any interim respite and hence the law is very much in place, furthering
government’s agenda.To criminalize Triple Talaq government brought Muslim women
protection of rights on marriage law. At present 4 petitions are pending before
the Supreme Court challenging government’s move.The court has not given any
interim respite and hence the law is very much in place, furthering
government’s agenda. The government introduced Citizenship Amendment Bill in
its previous term, which lapsed after it failed to pass the Upper House. They
are planning to reintroduce the bill in the winter session. Given the majority
it has been able to achieve since, the bill is sure to pass and would surely be
once again, like the other similar discriminatory laws would land in court. The
court is most likely not to give any interim respite and hence the law would be
very much in place and by the time the judgement would come a lot of damage
would have been done. In case of Babri Masjid things may turn out the same. A
judgement in favour of Muslims just in case would compel the government to
overturn it through a legislative enactment, which would land the matter once
again in court. Now given the sensitivity of the matter whether the court would
put any immediate stay on any construction activity remains to be seen. For
once the law is enacted no time would be lost before construction would start.
Any delay and the construction of the temple would achieve irreversible
milestones and create further legal hassles. In the event of the other
possibility i.e the verdict being in favour of the Hindus, there is nothing
stopping the temple from coming up at the disputed site. In both the cases, it
will be a record low for Indian judiciary. Not for the government. Not for the
people. But for the judiciary. And not for the first time indeed. That we never
took notice of the falling credibility of the Supreme court is our own sin.
Recently, The Supreme court of India came under some strict scrutiny when the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement
criticizing the delay in adjudication of petitions raising fundamental rights
violation in Kashmir. The UN watchdog in a scathing remark raised some serious
issues of law that need to be answered by the Supreme Court of India.
Itquestioned why the lockdown in Kashmir was not tested on grounds of
reasonable restrictions even when it had been over 80 days since it came into
effect. It states that the curtailment of fundamental rights of an entire
people was not a necessary and proportionate response and questions the
preventive detention of the entire Kashmir leadership without proper
justification. The statement is also critical of the manner in which the law
was passed without any consultation with the people of the state and on the
basisof which the state has been reorganized. Not least for the supreme court
it points out the violence committed by the security forces and highlights the
adverse use of pellet guns. If only the court was listening. https://countercurrents.org/2019/11/kashmir-supreme-courts-delaying
tactics?fbclid=IwAR1_RXlvSUhWsBSTQ4jubnGG4dYTmRDbcWKL2RnLOJWHZNV50DtZCxgpkrA
3. Muslim writers: Nov., 3, 2019: "I am scared of words like 'Are you a
Muslim', Shahnaz Bashir said. He said, "People set up decrees as soon as
you start talking about it [being a Muslim]. It all boils down to the Muslim-ness."
Bashir said, "The fate of a Muslim writer
in India can be judged now by the fear that he/she carries to places like these
[Delhi] and hesitates in talking about that fear." Further, hinting at the
situation in Kasmir, Bashir said, "Sometimes I wonder if everything is
seditious, is there something called free expression. Does it really
exist?" https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/muslim-writers-in-india-fear-shahnaz-bashir-1615150-2019-11-02
4.
Judiciary and Muslims: Nov., 4, 2019: Muslims facing 'systematic
discrimination' in criminal justice system: Owaisi on Sunday alleged the
members of the minority community were experiencing "systemic discrimination"
in the criminal justice system regardless of the party in power. He was
reacting to the acquittal of one of the accused in the 2008 Rampur CRPF camp
attack case by a court in Uttar Pradesh
-justice system- , the Hyderabad MP said, "Muslims are incarcerated
in terror cases only to be acquitted after decades." Muslims are
incarcerated in terror cases only to be acquitted after decades. We experience
systemic discrimination… https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/muslims-facing-systematic-discrimination-in-criminal-justicesystem-owaisi/articleshow/71881877.cms
5. Assam: Nov., 4, 2019: Welfare
Party of India held a national convention at Constitutional Club of India, New
Delhi in which noted political and social personalities participated. They
alleged that Modi Govt. is doing vote bank politics on religious grounds.
Supreme Court of India did not overlook anyone but our biased media is engaged
in propagating that all those whose names are not found in NRC are the
intruders. It is preparing an atmosphere for sending such persons out of the
country. It is an organized conspiracy to deprive some persons of their Indian
citizenship. The participants condemned the statement made by Home Minister,
Mr. Amit Shah in which he had stated that there is no need to be afraid of NRC
for the Hindus, Sikhs and Christians. Noted Human Rights activists told that
all those who have Aadhar card, Passport and those whose parents have been in
Assam, their names have been deleted. It only shows that under the pretext of
NRC, a planned conspiracy has been hatched to dislodge the Muslims from Assam
which has the second largest Muslim concentration after Kashmir.
Persons whose surname or language is Bengali
have been deleted from the NRC https://www.siasat.com/planned-conspiracy-dislodge-muslims-assam-1716636/
6.
HR status of Muslims in India:
Nov., 5, 2019: Minorities constitute 20.2% of India’s population, but only 7.5%
in HE enrollment. Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and others—and are
collectively at 2.3% of total enrollment against 6% of the population.The
Muslim community experienced a 23% decrease in fertility rates between 2003-05
and 2013-15 correlating with an increase of 30% in female literacy (only 14% in
male literacy). Other religions too saw significant drops in fertility . https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/the-minority-report-muslim-community-must-take-charge-of-improvinjg-their-human-capital/1754331/
#MUslimsInIndia
7. Lynching:
Nov.,5 ,2019: an 80-year-old Muslim man was lynched in
Sitamarhi , Rumours had
swirled about a Durga idol being damaged by a stone hurled from a mosque.
Zainul Ansari paid the price. Zainul
Ansari, his body burned beyond recognition by a lynch mob of strangers,
including children and a woman. Sitamarhi, around 150 km north of
Patna, does have a history of communal tensions. In 1992, after the Babri
Masjid was demolished, this town saw the fresh flowing of blood. But recent
years were peaceful, until the Bharatiya Janata Party and Nitish Kumar’s Janata
Dal (United) joined hands to form the state government. It began to look as though
activists of the Sangh organisations were raring for a fight with the Muslim
residents of the area. https://www.dawn.com/news/1515062/one-morning-returning-from-visiting-his-sister-an-80-year-old-muslim-man-was-lynched-in-sitamarhi
8. Muslim policemen in India: Nov., 8, 2019: Muslim
representation in Indian police has “remained consistently low” at 3 to 4 per
cent, the number stood at 8 per cent
even for Jammu and Kashmir, India’s lone Muslim-majority state that was
bifurcated into two union territories last month. https://theprint.in/india/governance/only-8-of-policemen-in-muslim-majority-jk-are-muslim-study-finds/317337/
9.
Babri Mosque: Nov., 9, 2019: A Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on
November 9 has delivered its judgment in the cross-appeals filed by the Hindu
and Muslim sides challenging the three-way partition of the disputed 2.77 acres
of Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land among Ram Lalla, Nirmohi Akhara and the Sunni Waqf Board in September
2010. The Bench has ordered that
a temple must be constructed at the disputed site and the Muslims must
be compensated with five acres of land at a prominent place in Ayodhya .
Babri Mosque was a mosque in Ayodhya India.
Located in Ayodhya district, at a spot believed by
Hindus to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Rama, it
has been a bone of contention between the Hindu and
Muslim communities since the 18th century. According to the mosque's
inscriptions, it was built in 1528–29 (935 AH) by a general Mir Baqi, on orders of the Mughal emperor Babur.
The mosque was attacked and demolished by Karsevaks in 1992 and ignited
communal violence across the country. On 6 December 1992, a large group of
Hindu activists belonging to the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organizations demolished the mosque, triggering riots all over India, killing around 2,000
people, most of them Muslim https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ayodhya-verdict-live-updates/article29929219.ece?fbclid=IwAR08enDQdJvzAC1X9CJlXP47VmZCRAo48fbK0V58lfz3icUz-PE3ENQD1C8
10. Babur and Ayodhya
mosque: Nov., 10,201i: “Babur ki aulad” is a
pejorative Hindu nationalists often use for Indian Muslims. It translates to
“Babur’s progeny.”This phrase condenses hatred and xenophobia into a potent mix
to be used to provoke Muslims or put
them down. On the other hand, it is also used to exhort other Hindu
nationalists into action. To many modern
Hindus, he was the Muslim tyrant who demolished the Ram temple at
Ayodhya in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, to build a mosque in its
stead. This temple, it is believed by Hindu nationalists, originally marked the
birthplace of their god Ram. In 1992, Hindu right-wing groups demolished the
Babri Masjid in Ayodhya to “avenge” the years of “injustice.”And this elevation
of Babur’s status to an arch-rival was no accident. The Babri Masjid-Ram Temple
dispute in Ayodhya is about 150 years old. The first recorded instance of
communal violence dates back to 1853,
when Hindus stepped forward to claim the right to worship at the site of the
mosque. India was still under the British rule, but the British empire’s
“divide and rule” policies were altering the religious fabric of India. This
eventually culminated in the partition of the subcontinent in 1947,
crystallizing the Hindu-Muslim rivalry and, in turn, demonising historical
Islamic rule in India. When
idols of Ram mysteriously appeared inside the Babri Masjid precinct in 1949,
Babur was already fighting a losing battle against a Hindu god who had mass
following in India. The first court case in this dispute under independent
India was filed in 1950, where Hindus and Muslims both claimed ownership over
the land parcel in question. The
Ramjanmabhoomi movement, which began in the 1980s, also needed an “evil” that
the good of the Ramayan could defeat. In essence, at the heart of the Ramayan
epic lies this moral and physical victory over “demonic” forces. Ram, the good
king, a true statesman, was pitted against Ravan, the “evil” king. In modern
politics, Babur replaces Ravan, symbolizing all the Muslims invaders who
“destroyed” Hindu religious sites and strengthened the foundation for Islamic
rule in the country Babur’s symmetrical
gardens, for instance, do not feature in the trope of his role in the Ayodhya
controversy. Instead, a mosque that bears his name—Babri Masjid was in reality
built by one of Babur’s generals and not Babur himself—has etched him in the
Hindu nationalist’s mind simply as an evil force to be defeated. https://qz.com/india/1745432/babur-replaced-ravan-as-ramayans-villain-in-modern-day-ayodhya/
11.
Babri
Mosque: Nov., 11, 2019: The Muslim side in the legal battle of the Babri Mosque case
possessed all the evidence under the law that the site belongs to the masjid,
said a lawyer fighting the case. “Never were Muslims
stopped from offering prayers inside the Babri Masjid as there was no such
claim of any idol being at the site where the Masjid was built,” Jilani told
Anadolu Agency in a telephone interview from New Delhi. Jilani, however, said
the Muslim side challenged the judgment in Supreme Court that that only Muslims
prayed inside the mosque. “The court verdict was baseless and was not based on
any evidence that Hindus also offered prayers at the same site,” Jilani claimed. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2097176/3-babri-mosque-evidence-us-says-muslim-lawyer/?fbclid=IwAR1mqR8e8C-V4ooYw-gOrioqb9Qvr1w_CNDyyEFnvptPwsTdmoX5eXE8u1s
$muslimsInIndia
12. Hindutva pop: Nov., 12, 2019: Some of the most violent expressions in
Hindutva pop focus on Kashmir, the Muslim-majority territory that is disputed
by Pakistan and that was stripped
of its autonomy by Mr. Modi’s government
in August. Popular lyrics call for harsher action against Pakistan and
separatist Kashmiri militants, and for forced conversions and a Hindu
settlement campaign in Kashmir. During
Hindu festivals, the processions have started blasting the music in Muslim neighborhoods in shows of intimidation. Most of the songs
prominently feature the call of “Jai Shri Ram!” Meaning “Hail Lord Ram,” a
major Hindu god, it has become the battle cry for Hindu nationalists. Mobs have
attacked Muslims who refuse to chant it along with them.https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/world/asia/india-hindutva-pop-narendra-modi.html
13. NRC: Nov.,
17,2019: A federal US commission on international religious freedom
has alleged that Register of Citizens
(NRC) in Assam is a tool to "target religious minorities and to render
Muslims stateless" Observing that the final NRC list, which validates bona
fide Indian citizens of Assam, has excluded 19 lakh residents, the US
Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Friday said that a
number of domestic and international organisations have expressed concern that
the NRC is a "targeted mechanism to disenfranchise Assam's Bengali Muslim https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/assam-nrc-a-tool-to-render-muslims-stateless-us-panel-on-religious-freedom-119111600636_1.html
14. UCC: Nov., 17, 2019: Uniform
Civil Code as one of the top three poll promises of the ruling party is hard to
ignore. an
organization that goes by the name of Bharatiya Matdata Sangathan has rekindled
demand for a Uniform Civil Code.The organization, which is headed by Delhi BJP
leader Ashwini Upadhyay will hold a seminar on November 23 this year, whose
core agenda remains “Universal Civil Code for all Indians”. https://www.sentinelassam.com/editorial/is-uniform-civil-code-now-on-bjp-sangh-radar/
15.
Minorities denied academic positions: Nov., 17, 2019: The suicide of bright young scholar Fathima Latheef at the IIT
Madras is reflective of the brutal and atrocious caste order prevailing in
these institutions which discriminate against Dalit, OBC, Adivasi and Muslim
students. This suicide is an institutional murder where the masterminds and
caste supremacists are well protected. The list is long in recent years as how
bright young dynamic scholars particularly hailing from Dalit Adivasi Muslim
background are being targeted not merely by the Savarna students but their
faculties. It is difficult for India’s racists savarnas to accept brilliant
self respecting bright scholars from other communities who dont agree with
them. These institutions who I term as Gurukuls now where a Droancharya is
ready to cut the fingers of students from marginalized sections, are today
becoming the hunting ground for these students who aspire high though their social
location might not be that strong. Rohith Vemula was murdered in Hyderabad
Central University Campus, Dr Payal Tadvi faced very similar pressure in her
medical college in Mumbai while nineteen years old Fathima became the latest
victim of this murder series. Fathima was a topper in the entrance examination.
She topped in her earlier exams too. Hailing from Kollam district in Kerala,
Fathima had big dreams when she got into Integrated MA programme in Humanities
and Social Sciences at the IIT Madras. Her parents have accused Prof Sudarshan
Padmanabhan for mentally torturing her. Fathima’s story is not alone. The caste
forces have revolted with a vengeance everywhere. There are attack by targeting
institutions and individuals. Look at the JNU and how the government and all
others have joined hand to destroy this credible institutions. They are unable
to break the spirit of the University and yet through media and the paddlers of
lies, we are witnessing a campaign against provisions which ensure that children
of all the communities who are the margin can enter into a credible and
privileged institution. IITs and IIMs are actually much regressive in their
caste prejudices and that is why it is very difficult for girls like Fathima to
survive there. Not long ago, a Ph.D award of a scientist who happened to belong
to scheduled caste community was held up by the brahmanical faculty in IIT
Kanpur, accusing the scholar of plagiarism, when everybody knew the track
record of the senior scholar as brilliant. His father passed away hearing about
the same that his son might not get his hard earned Ph.D. Finally, after much
campaign by friends the IIT K appointed a committee and ultimately charges
against him were dropped Sad part is that there is no out cry. Political parties
as usual remain silent as these are not issues for them. More criminal is the
silence of those who ‘represent’ Dalit Bahujan-minority communities. It is not
the issue of making one statement. It is time, they develop their vision for
education particularly how are they going to strengthen and encourage India’s
huge Bahujan communities into these institutions. Fathima Lateef’s killing is
the story of discrimination against Muslims too who are now increasingly
feeling it at every level. Isolation, contempt and attempt to define them
further. We must speak up against such efforts. You blame communities are being
pampered. You blame them for not being ‘educated’ but what happens when the
students come at their own. Fathima was not wearing ‘Burqa’ so by all the
‘standards’ of the brahmanical IITs, she was a modern Muslim girl and yet she
was forced to die . https://countercurrents.org/2019/11/why-have-indias-elite-institutions-become-murderers-of-dalit-adivasi-muslim-scholars?fbclid=IwAR3XSPiNZ0vag3tKtJNl76SqEvdh4cfAGzgbi6-DjHbxN7z2HTp0dvVX-ko
16. Muslims second class citizens: Nov., 22, 2019: The
ruling on the Ayodhya site was seen as a blow to Muslims. It also came at a
time when Muslims increasingly see themselves as second-class citizens in the
predominantly Hindu country. India has a long history of sectarian violence,
but over the past few years, there has been a rise in suspected hate crimes against Muslims. All of
this comes under the shadow of the country's Prime Minister Modi, a self-proclaimed Hindu nationalist
who has spoken out repeatedly against India's secularism. Modi's Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) has roots in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing
organization founded in 1925 that promotes the vision of a Hindu nation. So
when the BJP was reelected in May, Indian Muslims worried that the fabric of society
could change. Modi dismissed their fears as "imaginary" -- but less
than six months into his second term, there are signs things could get worse
for India's Muslims. Verniers
said Modi's BJP was creating a nation where citizens of different religions
were increasingly second-class citizens. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/19/asia/india-muslim-modi-intl-hnk/index.html
17.
Muslim scholar: Nov., 23, 2019: Muslim scholar of Sanskrit has gone
into hiding after protests from some rightwing Hindu students claiming that, as
a Muslim, he cannot teach Sanskrit, the ancient classical language of Hinduism.
Feroz Khan, 29, was the unanimous choice of a selection committee at Banaras
Hindu University in Varanasi for the post of assistant professor of Sanskrit
literature. The committee members were impressed with his erudition, which
stems from a childhood passion for the language that continued into further
education. But on 7 November, two days after Khan took up the post, members of
the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad,
a rightwing student
organisation with a Hindu nationalist ideology, staged a campus protest demanding
that Khan be moved to a different faculty. One placard read: “A Muslim cannot
teach us our religion.” They vowed to keep protesting until Khan was
transferred to another post. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/21/india-muslim-sanskrit-professor-forced-to-flee-by-hindu-students
Indian Muslims: Dec., 2, 2019: In recent years Indian
society has largely become polarized on religious lines as it never was
earlier. Communalism had existed earlier too in India, but it was largely
latent, and erupted only on occasions. But after the Hindu right wing Bharatiya
Janata Party came to power in 2014 it has become open, virulent, and
continuous. Lynching and atrocities on Muslims have increased steeply. Hate
speeches against them are common, and in many places they live in fear. Muslims
are often attacked if they have an affair with a Hindu girl (known as ‘love
jihad’) for sporting a beard or wearing a skull cap, or for not saying ‘Jai
Shri Ram’. A Union Minister, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, called Muslims
‘haraamzadas’ and a former Union Minister, Jayant Sinha, garlanded alleged
lynchers.. In many schools in India Hindu students often call Muslim students
anti-national, traitors, terrorists and Pakistanis (sometimes with the tacit
suggestion/approval of the teachers). This traumatizes the Muslim student, who
is made to feel he does not belong here. Communalism has sharply increased even
in states which were earlier regarded as bastions of secularism, like West
Bengal (no doubt helped by the Muslim appeasement policy of Mamata Banerji).
Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha may soon follow suit..
Institutions in India have been ‘saffronized’, the media has largely been
‘Modified’, history and science perverted, and freedom of speech suppressed by
frequent use of sedition and preventive detention laws. The Indian Constitution
proclaims India to be a secular country, but the ground reality has become very
different, with ‘Hindutva’ ruling the roost. The one institution which could
have prevented this, the Indian Supreme Court, has shamelessly surrendered
before the BJP, as is evident from: (1) Its disgraceful Ayodhya verdict in
which it sanctified naked aggression; (2) Its agreeing to appoint Justice
Kureshi of the Bombay High Court as chief justice of the much smaller Tripura
High Court instead of MP High Court to which he had been recommended earlier by
the Collegium, obviously on pressure of the government as he was a Muslim; (3)
Its refusal to quash the undemocratic clampdown in Kashmir and arrest of the
82-year-old Farooq Abdullah and other Kashmiri leaders despite liberty being a
fundamental right guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Even
the NRIs living outside India and Indian Americans have become largely
polarized, as I have myself noticed in the Bay Area of California (where I am
presently staying). The intense polarization in India today is because the
ruling BJP thrives on communal hatred. The BJP is dominated by an organization
called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which is rabidly anti-minority,
particularly anti-Muslim.Top BJP functionaries can ordinarily only be those who
have been RSS members for several decades, e.g., Prime Minister Modi, Home
Minister Amit Shah, etc. Can the mindsets of such persons, drilled and crammed
for decades with a reactionary feudal and minority hating ideology, change
merely because they have come to power? Can a leopard change its spots?
Communalism is going to increase in India in the coming times because that is
what brought the BJP, which had only 2 seats in the Lok Sabha in 1984 and has
303 today, to power. It is the mantra of BJP success, and the gullible Hindu
majority in India has been largely hypnotized by it, just as the Germans were
by Hitler. https://www.indiawest.com/letters_to_editor/dark-clouds-ahead-for-india/article_e86a3e3a-12db-11ea-a360-4398598ceed7.html
Monthly update 2 October 2019 : Muslims in India
.
1. Assam: Oct., 1, 2019:
On August 31, the right-wing Hindu Indian government labeled 1.9 million of its
residents as stateless. The official purpose given by the government was to
root out undocumented people. But it is widely known that the true motivation
was to displace Bengali Muslims from the northeastern Indian state of Assam.
This was made obvious in speeches and promises made in the run-up to the
recently held national elections that brought the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)
government back to power for a second consecutive term.A noxious act in and of
itself, the implications of the roundup are likely to be even more
consequential for the future of the Indian polity, furthering a project of
isolating and punishing Muslims while expanding detentions of undocumented
people, Muslims, and others. The instrument stripping 1.9 million people of
rights is the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a now-arcane institution
that was created in 1951 to identify who belonged to India at the time. It was
reincarnated in 2014 and completed its work in Assam this year. 1.9 million people amounts to 6 percent
of the total population of Assam and is two times the number of Rohingya
refugees in neighboring Bangladesh. The
current incarnation of the NRC’s purpose was to identify undocumented
immigrants from neighboring, Muslim-majority Bangladesh. But its reach goes far
beyond.The new NRC forced all of Assam’s residents to submit documentation like
passports, land records, or birth certificates to show they had been in the
country or were descended from people who were in the country on or before
midnight of March 24, 1971, the day when Bangladesh went to war for
independence from Pakistan, with India’s eventual armed support. the government has ordered states to
build detention centers across the country in places as far flung as Assam in
the northeast, Karnataka
in the south, and Maharashtra in the west (all states that have BJP majority
governments, incidentally). It has indicated that its inclination is to round
up Bangladeshi undocumented migrants across the country. By September 9, it had
become clear that the vast majority of those left out of the NRC were Bengali
Hindus who form the traditional voter base for the BJP in Assam and part of its
vision for a Hindu nation https://jacobinmag.com/2019/09/india-narendra-modi-bjp-assam-bengali-muslims-displaced
2. Muslim plight: Oct., 5, 2019: Amid
rising persecution of minority groups in India, a former judge of India’s
Supreme Court has issued a chilling warning to Muslims residing in the
Hindu-dominated country. Justice (retd) Markandey Katju, who is also an
ex-chairman of the Press Council of India, has cautioned that “Muslims in India
will be targeted in coming times, like Jews in [Nazi] Germany, as scapegoats”.
In an article published in an international magazine,
‘The Week’, earlier this month, Justice Katju wrote that “India has sown seeds
for a large-scale guerrilla war in [occupied] Kashmir by stripping the
territory of its special. Another report published by the United States
highlighted the “downward trend” witnessed in religious freedom in India
and accused New Delhi of “engaging in or tolerating religious freedom
violations”. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF) Annual Report 2019 placed India on ‘Tier 2’ for actions it said “meet
at least one of the elements of the systematic, ongoing, egregious standard for
designation as a country of particular concern or CPC, under the International
Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)”.The report stated that “the growth of
exclusionary extremist narratives — including, at times, the [Indian]
government’s allowance and encouragement of mob violence against religious
minorities have facilitated an egregious and ongoing campaign of violence,
intimidation, and harassment against non-Hindu and lower-caste Hindu
minorities.” And persecution.” It
further stated that PM Modi “seldom made statements decrying mob violence,
and certain members of his political party have affiliations with Hindu
extremist groups and used inflammatory language about religious minorities
publicly”. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2072221/1-muslims-india-will-targeted-like-jews-germany-ex-indian-sc-judge-lays-bare-bjp-agenda/
#MusimsInIndia
3. Muslim couple: Oct., 8, 2019: A Muslim couple, who
was travelling to Haryana, was accosted by two youth at the Alwar bus stand
when they were having dinner. The men, identified as Vansh Bharadwaj and
Surendra Bhatia, beat up the husband for not chanting 'Ram-Ram'. They also
allegedly stripped and made obscene gestures at the woman. Hearing the couple's
cry for help, nearby people gathered and beat up the accused and took them to
the police station. The couple has filed a complaint against the Bharadwaj and
Bhatia at a women's police station in Alwar. https://www.indiatoday.in/crime/story/alwar-two-men-beat-up-muslim-couple-sexually-harass-woman-for-not-chanting-ram-ram-1606824-2019-10-07
4.
Bangladeshi
Muslims: Oct., 10,2019: “Shah has brought to the fore the great communal
divide of 1947,” Mesbah Kamal, one of the four participants in Democracy
Now, told me over the phone from Dhaka. A professor of history,
Dhaka University, Kamal was specifically referring to the Home Minister’s
October 1, speech in Kolkata. In that speech, Shah declared that the NRC
exercise will be undertaken in West Bengal, but those who are religious
minorities in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan need not fear it as they
will be protected from detention and deportation under the Citizenship
(Amendment) Bill, which is scheduled to be enacted later this year. Ever since
the updating of NRC for Assam began in full swing in 2015, Bangladeshis have
been worried over its spill out. At the nub of their worry is Assam and India’s
common sense that those excluded from the NRC are primarily Bangladeshis. Will
India deport or dump them on Bangladesh? This question fans anxiety in
Bangladesh as it is already reeling under the burden of hosting an estimated
1.1 million Rohingya
refugees evicted from Myanmar. With a population density of 1115.62 persons per
sq km, Bangladesh just doesn’t have space to accommodate more people. (India’s
population density is 416 persons per sq km.) . Bangladeshis, regardless of
their religious identity, think Shah’s NRC statements are a portent of the dark
times ahead. https://www.newsclick.in/Bangladeshis-Amit-Shah-Playing-Jinnah-Game
5. Hindu
nationalism: Oct., 18, 2019: By posturing Muslims as an
entity that has conventionally posed a threat to the natural state of
“Hinduness” in the subcontinent, Hindutva regards India as an inherently Hindu
nation. Such a narrative not only otherises Muslims in India but also forms the
basis for an exclusionary national narrative that focuses solely on the rights
of Hindus. the world community must recognize the presence of Islamophobic
elements within growing Hindu nationalism in India and that this is a threat
not only to the political dynamics of the region but Muslim communities around
the world. https://thediplomat.com/2019/10/the-kashmir-quagmire-rising-islamophobia-and-hindu-nationalism/
6. Muslims in India: Oct., 19, 2019: The Kashmiris
feel betrayed and cheated and even humiliated. Even the manner in which their
leaders – the Hurriyat and even the elected mainstream politicians -- have been
treated by the government of the day, has hit Kashmiri pride. Each day is a
nerve-wracking day for Muslims, whose sheer survival is getting tougher. There
is communal tension in the atmosphere, in and around mohallas,
inside classrooms, along the highways. The fear runs so deep that ghettoisation
is on the rise and so is withdrawal from public space. https://www.newsclick.in/Blatant-Omission-Muslims-New-India
7. Iqbal: Oct., 20, 2019:
On Tuesday, the headmaster of a government-run primary school in Uttar
Pradesh’s Pilibhit district was suspended because the students
in his school had sung the song Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua as part of
their morning prayers. The suspension was ordered by the District Magistrate,
acting on a complaint filed by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The head of the local
unit of the Hindutva organisation said that the complaint had been filed
because the song is a “madrasa prayer”
and the headmaster’s decision to allow it to be sung was “anti-national”.
https://scroll.in/article/941012/up-headmasters-suspension-for-iqbal-poem-reflects-absurd-patriotic-tests-faced-by-indias-muslims
8.
Ilhan Omar: Oct., 24, 2019: Alleging that Muslims have been targeted in Assam and asked to
prove their citizenship in the name of the recently published National Register
of Citizens (NRC), leading Congresswoman from Minnesota IIhan Omar raised a
debate in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday. Modi and criticised
Terming the present condition in Assam, which she said is as bad as Jammu and
Kashmir, if not worst, Omar came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre of trying to act
against the interest of the Muslims. “In Assam, more than two million people
have been asked to formally prove their citizenship. There is official
statement that no Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, or general refugees need to
worry about their status. So, this is a clear anti-Muslim programme. The Indian
government has started to build camps in Assam presumably to hold those who are
unable to prove their citizenship. This is how the Rohingya genocide started,”
Omar alleged.At one point, do we no longer share values with India or we are
waiting for the Muslims in Assam to be put in those camps, she questioned the
House Over 19 lakh people were excluded
in the NRC, published on October 31, 2019 in Assam, out of a total of 3.29 crore
people who applied for inclusion of their names in the final list. https://www.eastmojo.com/assam/2019/10/23/nrc-debate-in-us-house-congresswoman-concerned-over-muslims-fate
9.
Muslim
hacked to death: Oct., 2, 2019: An Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) worker
was hacked to death while on his way to a mosque in India’s southwestern state
of Kerala. According to Gulf News,
the incident took place in Tanur town on Thursday, October 24. Earlier this
month, Amnesty International reported that 181 incidents of hate crimes were
recorded in the first half of this year. This was a steep rise since 2015. The
count is almost double that of the same period last year, when 100 such cases
were recorded. Over two-thirds of the victims were targeted because they were
Dalits, while 40 of them suffered on account of their Muslim identity. In 37
reported incidents, the victims were killed, according to the report. In 30
cases, victims were raped or sexually assaulted, with sexual harassment in
another 19 cases. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2087617/9-muslim-man-hacked-death-india/
Monthly update
September 2019 : Muslims in India
.
1.
Mosque blast: Sep., 20, 2019: In April 2018 a court acquitted all 11 men charged by the NIA in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast case
where six people, all Muslims, were killed in the southern city of Hyderabad.
The NIA had in its probe found that members of the Abhinav Bharat,
including Samjhauta Express blast
suspect Swami Aseemanand, were responsible for the blast. But eventually, the
court deemed the strong body of evidence previously presented by the
investigating agency insufficient to declare the accused guilty. The NIA did
not attempt to appeal the decision or continue the investigation. In December
2010 - January 2011, Aseemanand made a series of confessions to the courts
admitting his role in the blasts targetting Muslims. A few months later, he
retracted these confessions, claiming that they had been extracted under
torture. In 2014, however, speaking to a journalist for the news magazine
Caravan, he denied being tortured and once again
admitted to various acts of violence targeting Muslims. In the same interview,
he also claimed that the plot to bomb Muslim targets across the country was
blessed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders Mohan Bhagwat and Indresh
Kumar. https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/samjhauta-acquittals-hindu-terror-unpunished-india-190327111755815.html
2.
Samjotha Express: Sep., 20, 2019: The acquittal of the four main suspects in the 2007 Samjhauta
Express blast case has once again brought the Indian government's commitment to
fighting Hindu terror groups into question. The attack on the train also known
as the "friendship express", which links India to Pakistan, left 68
persons dead. The majority of the victims were Pakistani citizens. An
investigation by India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) eventually
concluded that the attack was carried out by four men - Swami Aseemanand, Kamal
Chauhan, Rajinder Chaudhary and Lokesh Sharma - linked to the Hindu far-right group Abhinav Bharat. However, on March 20 this
year, a special court in the northern state of Haryana acquitted all four
suspects, citing lack of evidence.
3.
Pregnant woman stripped: Sep., 20, 2019: Indian police in Assam last week stripped and tortured a
pregnant Muslim woman and her two sisters at a police outpost in the Darrang
district of the restive state, according to
New Indian Express. The pregnant Muslim woman suffered severe injuries
as a result of the beatings, and was admitted to hospital where her pregnancy
was terminated. She blamed the police for the loss of her baby. A probe has
been ordered against officials involved in the torture. According to the New
Indian Express, the gruesome incident took place on September 8, but only
came to light on Tuesday after the victims had approached the media as the
authorities did not register a case despite a complaint lodged by the victims.
Police had rounded up the three sisters - namely Minuwara Begum, Sanuwara and
Rumela – from Guwahati in connection with a kidnapping case. The women were
taken into custody from their homes and tortured at the police the whole night.
“We were brutally beaten up with sticks. My pregnant sister had pleaded to
spare her as she was carrying a baby in her womb but Mahendra Sarma said we
were acting. She lost the baby due to the assault,” one of the sisters of the
pregnant woman told New Indian Express. Hate crimes against Muslims are on the rise in India as
the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pursues a
Hindu-supremacist foreign and domestic policy. https://www.geo.tv/latest/247992-indian-police-strip-torture-pregnant-muslim-woman-in-assam
4.
Muslim boy burned: Sep.,20,2019: A Muslim teenager has claimed he was set on fire by a gang after he refused to
chant a Hindu slogan in the Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh, India.The 15-year-old boy said he was kidnapped by four men who poured
kerosene on him and set him alight after telling him to chant “Jai Shri Ram”, Outlook India reports.The Indian magazine said the boy was left in a critical condition
with 60 per cent burns over his body. .
https://revivalnews.net/2019/07/29/muslim-teenager-set-on-fire-in-india-after-refusing-to-chant-hindu-slogan/?fbclid=IwAR1U-e7YHW9b_-ieN5gQaKfZDyvzFJi3OFuwlG2OgKiouTtlynjNM28Cao0
5.
Khan: Sep., 22, 2019: In this way, he had built a life for
himself and his family in distant lands, which he made his own. But one day,
suddenly, it all ended. The paramilitary soldiers
asked them to hide under a folding bed, and said they were powerless to prevent
the crowd from breaking into the camp. Armed with sticks, steel rods and
spears, they stormed into the camp. All the soldiers ran away. At one point,
Khan stuck his face out from the bed below which they hid, to see where the
crowds were. One of the rioters smashed his head with a steel rod. His
companions were to recall the horror later in graphic, stomach-churning detail,
of how his skull cracked open and his brain spilled out. https://www.dawn.com/news/1506487
6.
Gyanvapi
mosque: Sep., 23, 2019: the Hindu Right has laid claim to the land of
the famous Gyanvapi mosque in the Vanarsi city (also called Kansi), of the
Utter Pradish state of India, based on the allegation, that, “in 1669, the
Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had razed the original Kashi Vishwanath temple at the
centre of the city and erected a mosque atop it, named as the Gyanvapi mosque.
The current structure of the temple was built on an adjacent site about 10
metres away from the mosque. As per the Caravan, India dated 27 April 2019, the
famous Gyanvapi mosque is an old and historic worship place of the Muslims,
that shares a boundary wall with the Kansi Vishwanath temple, which is
otherwise located about 10 metres away from the mosque. The mosque and the
temple, both are located on the western bank of the river Ganga.https://dailytimes.com.pk/470835/another-babri-mosque-like-episode-in-india-is-in-the-making/
7.
Assam: Sep., 26, 2019: Nearly two million people, mostly Muslims, in the
northeastern state of Assam in India have been declared stateless in their own
country thanks to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) released by the
Indian Government. Citizenship applicants have less than four months to appeal
in a very long-drawn, ill-equipped and biased system. If they lose the appeal,
they face detention and deportation.
The NRC is yet another stick to beat Muslims with and a gimmick to catch
votes and win elections. Amit Shah, Indian Home Minister, in one of his hate
speeches during the last elections, said: “These infiltrators are eating away
at our country like termites. The NRC is our means of removing them. http://muslimnews.co.uk/newspaper/top-stories/36404-2/
8.
Nishrin Jafri Hussain: Sep., 28, 2019: I was just 5 years old when I was a REFUGEE in the ShahAlam Refugee
Camp in Ahemedabad in 1969. Ammi was just 27. In the overcrowded camps and the
heat in those tents, I am sure Ammi had no time to think of celebrating my
September birthday. I don’t remember that, but I do remember my young father
carrying me, Ammi holding my 7 year old brothers hand and running behind with
others in the dark on the train tracks while from far I could see the fire that
was burning our little house. I will never
forget the light that lit up the burning homes as we boarded the first coal
train that stopped midway to take the hundreds who were running from the mob.
The same light that burned her house again in 2002 and took the man she loved
with it. This hate, when will it stop. Some wounds
never heal. “ALMOST EXACTLY fifty years ago, in
September 1969, Gujarat experienced the worst communal riots the country had
seen since Partition. Although incidents of violence erupted in different parts
of the state, Ahmedabad, the epicentre, was the worst affected. After the riots
ended, a commission led by Supreme Court judge P Jaganmohan Reddy was tasked
with producing a report on what had caused the riots, how the administration
had responded and what might be done to prevent such incidents in the future.“ . https://caravanmagazine.in/history/the-riots-that-changed-the-course-of-gujarats-political-history?fbclid=IwAR0GDcX-DvxjuDOZNfZ1uNJbvx1-vDXE78jWXFIwTx1JDCZZNvQyLJSgWO0
9. Legal Issues: Sep. 29, 2019: Muslims are being
targeted from all the directions. With respect to all its constitutional and
legal rights in the country, it is becoming increasingly difficult to lead an
individual, family, and social life. All political secular parties in the
country are weakened by the ruling party. Their leaders are facing serious
corruption cases. No one has the courage to speak out in favor of the
minorities and talk about their legitimate demands. In this poisonous
environment, the only way left for the Muslims is to recover their legitimate
rights, justice, and fundamental human
rights is through the judiciary only. Five types of cases are commonly
encountered by the Muslims in General: (1) Terrorism Cases, —— (2) Personal
Law and Endowment Cases —— (3) Fundamental Human Rights & Civil Rights
Cases ———— (4) Criminal Cases (Mob Lunching, Cow-Rakhshak Crisis, &
Baseless allegations). (5) Bail. For almost 30 years,
innocent youth have been illegally detained in various areas and cities of the
country for 10 to 20 years, based on terrorism charges. After passing their
entire life in prison, 95% of them were released with full honor & respect
but their life is lost. They were arrested on charges of dangerous terrorism on
the basis of widespread false assumptions. Hundreds of fake encounters were
done without cause. In addition, the bloody riots in the country caused a great
loss of life, honor, and property of the Muslims on a very large scale. Bomb
blasts killed thousands of innocent civilians from the 1981 ‘Neilli’ Assam
riots to the recent ” Muzaffarnagar
riots, sectarian killers and bullying elements and their
extremist organizations have been released with impunity & honored by
RSS. Even
‘Samjhota Express’ Ajmer, Makkah Masjid, Blast accused Aseema Nand Swami
(Jitendra Nath Chatterji), who had been given the highest RSS ‘Guruji Samman’
award, has been released.
since the BJP came to power, in most cases Muslims have suffered failure
and deprivation of their constitutional fundamental rights.There is no legal
platform of Muslims in the country that can handle all the legal issues and
cases that have arisen on a large scale, to represent and do the necessary
legal follow-up in the lower courts to the Supreme Court through the legal
process under expert & experienced renowned, reputed, lawyers. In our
community some of them are handling such cases on their own level, in the form
of, social groups and welfare organizations and charities are helping to fight
the legal cases . The Muslim Personal Law Board came into existence to handle
10 defined objectives, which do not cover all the issues of our community.
Since the independence of our Country, NRC,
FT, Kashmir 370 and the adoption of the ‘UAPA’ Amendment Bill,
there has been a terrifying ‘legal
tsunami’. The Muslims of India are not in a position to handle
the millions of cruel criminal cases that need to be properly followed in the
courts. Kashmiris are now among the common Indian Muslims like us, it is our
duty to protect their legal and constitutional rights. According to valid
reports, 40,000 Kashmiris have been arrested and shifted to different jails of
the country so far, including 12,000 young children. The 12 amendments in the
recent Parliament session to ‘UAPA’ include that if an officer even under the
level of an inspector has doubt about a person that he is a terrorist or
connected to a terrorist network, or if someone’s views in the opinion of the
officer are like terrorists, the officer is fully authorized under’ UAPA’ to
not only arrest such a person, but the ‘NIA’
has been given full authority to confiscate all his immovable and immovable
properties. According to the same law, the accused cannot get bail for up to 2
years even though a writ has been filed against that person’s arrest in the
Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is yet to issue its restriction or ‘STAY’ on
it. Already, the ‘NRC’ cases in Assam have become beyond the endurance for
Muslims. Then who is there to fight for the release of Kashmiris who should
file a petition? Many serious legal issues have arisen; the judicial system in
Kashmir has been completely shut down. Even most senior lawyers in the bar
council are in police custody. The government does not want to talk to anyone,
politicians, social and religious representatives at all, nor is it willing to
take any action against the military atrocities on Kashmiris. The government
has also announced that the process of distribution of property has begun. Then
came the announcement that more than 50,000 temples would be opened. The
gardens of most of the wealthy & financial institutions of the Kashmir are
now have been transferred to the army as the owners have been arrested and the
applications against the atrocities being committed by the armies are being
rejected by the authorities. The worst military offensive in recent human
history continues. The Hindu block has deprived the entire population of 9
million on a colonial pattern. At the end of his visit to Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi
Azad said that democracy in Kashmir has completely died. ‘UNDECLARED’ martial
law is clamped on Kashmiri’s population, Kashmir will be devastated and soon
Kashmiris will be forced to flee their homeland to save their lives and seek
refuge where ever they can. All humanitarian, charitable, religious
organizations and lawmakers of India, & those with humanitarian and moral
values, have this great responsibility to launch their own efforts on a very
large scale based on Humanitarian grounds to bring immediate relief to the
Kashmiris through courts at large; otherwise, history is not going to forgive
us. ‘Mahmood Paracha’, a former
Jameeat-e-Ulema lawyer, made many sensational revelations in one of his ‘TV’
interviews. “I have evidence of an organized crime against our community,” he
said, referring to RSS and the country’s secret departments are in close
relationship with Jameeat’. The Jameeat was forced to issue a notice of
defamation but were silenced due to fear of community backlash on a large
scale. Then the world watched how shamelessly the Jameeat has announced how
they are standing by the side of the leadership of RSS and the Modi administration.
The time has come for the Muslims in India to set aside part of their incomes
to for the sake of the legal protection & fight their cases in the in a
better manner in the courts of our country they should start constituting their
‘ Legal Aid’ companies otherwise even this opportunity will be lost. https://thepolicytimes.com/muslims-face-new-legal-tsunami-in-india/