Comment

Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam

There is an Urdu couplet that can be loosely translated as: “When the gardener set my nest on fire, the leaves that I relied upon began to fan it.” Now that Muslims have been forced into a corner by communal organisations, the so-called secular parties that we relied upon are fanning that fire of communalism, instead of dousing it. Such betrayal will sadden anyone, not just Muslims.

Leaks from the one-man enquiry commission set up to look into the Muzaffarnagar killings of Muslims suggest conspiracy by Samajwadi and BJP functionaries at some level. Naturally, a commission set up by a government would not report the lapses at the highest level of authority. However, from the brief account of the report available, it is clear that the district magistrate and a police SHO have been indicted.

Soon after the killings, a survivor told independent groups making preliminary enquiries that a police inspector accompanying the rioters was forcefully abetting the marauders: “kill, kill quickly. Kill as many as you can.” At one point, the inspector got exasperated to see that the rioters were not doing their job ruthlessly. He shouted, “Bastards, what is wrong with you? Why can’t you kill more.”

Such fearsome violence, that many said, was reminiscent of Gujarat 2002, with some of the perpetrators of the original pogrom stationed nearby, ostensibly for elections, had shaken the confidence of Muslims in the SP government’s fair play even before the enquiry. These killings had come in the wake of a not-so-secret meeting between the SP supremo and Sangh leaders. By then Muslims had begun to apprehend a joint project against themselves.

Newspapers commented that through polarisation both BJP and SP would benefit, the former would harvest the Hindu vote and the latter would garner the Muslim vote. That was what actually happened.

The question why did Muslims chose to vote a party whose supremo was so close to Mahant Adityanath that he got reassured about his impurity and started a year-long campaign of kidnapping Muslim girls, forcing them to convert and marry Hindus, and starting a riot if someone offered a resistance. In a short period UP witnessed over 600 riots, mostly in eastern UP under the watch of Nath. Still Muslims voted for SP because of old time’s sake.

I don’t know whether such policy is wise on the part of Muslims. When Nath was put in jail by Mayawati for what she called goondagardi, he came out after cooling his heels behind the bars. On reliease, he was weeping like a woman, complaining that Mayawati had got him beaten up in jail. Now the same man is roaring like a tiger in the sure belief that with the SP supremo solidly behind him no harm can come to him. He is even releasing videos in which he is seen shouting insults and threats against Muslims.

Though the enquiry report, still to be tabled and made public, does not probably indict the government of UP, the fact remains that the Akhilesh government did not react quickly to douse the fire. We don’t know what kept it from intervening strongly to save lives and honour of citizens.

It was only because of the alacrity of the Centre that things were brought under control quickly with the deployment of army under Central initiative and special provisions of the Constitution. The Akhilesh government and SP leadership as a whole, instead of appreciating the Central move, were not happy about it.

Today the question is if Muslims cannot trust SP then whom could they trust? Also, is it wise to trust someone who has so openly stabbed you in the back?