Shamsuddin Ahmed
Communal riots in secular India are not new. Minority Muslims are the worst sufferers in frequent riots, mostly orchestrated by the administration. The latest riot this month in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradeh left behind scores dead and houses torched.
DNA report said Muzaffarnagar riots left 45 killed and 40 others went missing. But local people said the number was much higher. Eyewitnesses after the mass killing said attackers dumped the bodies in the canal which meets the Ganges River in adjoining Haridwar district. About a dozen bodies floating in the river were recovered.
Survivors said they were unarmed. The attackers ambushed them like the Maoists ambush paramilitary troops. They fired indiscriminately. Police allowed the attackers to flee after the massacre. The administration deliberately increased flow in the canal to sweep away the dumped bodies.
Frenzied rioters violated curfew and assembled in thousands in favour of Narendra Modi, the prospective BJP contender for Prime Minister in the elections next year. Narendra, chief minister of Gujarat, was held responsible for the infamous Gujarat riot of 2002 when official record said 2,000 Muslims were butchered.
Weekly Outlook reported that there have been 58 major communal riots in 47 places since 1967 – ten in South India, 12 in the East, 16 in the West and 20 in North India. Since 1964, Ahmedabad has seen five major riots and Hyderabad four. The 1990s saw the most riots in the last five decades: 23. The 1970s saw seven riots, the 1980s 14; the 2000s have seen 13. Total toll: 12,828 (South 597, West 3,426, East 3,581 and North 5,224). In 1964, a wave of rioting in Calcutta, Jamshedpur and Rourkela killed 2,500. Riots with a toll of less than five were excluded; deaths due to communal bomb blasts were also excluded.
It is not only Muslims who suffered most from the communal riots. Young Muslims suspected as terrorists and subjected to inhuman sufferings. Low caste dalits and adhivasis were neglected and oppressed in caste ridden Hindu society. This has given rise to Maoist movement, aimed at overthrowing the government through armed struggle. The movement has spread to 20 of the 29 states of India. The red rebels have killed hundreds of security forces posing the biggest internal security threat to the country.
Sikhs also suffered from communal riots. Their holly shrine, the Golden Temple was demolished. Anti-Sikh riots or the Sikh massacre of 1984 were followed by a series of pogroms directed against the Sikhs. More than 8,000 Sikhs, including 3,000 in Delhi were killed in the riot with support from Delhi in the aftermath of the killing of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. It is a known fact that many jails, sub-jails and lockups were opened for killing of the Sardars (Sikhs).
Imagine the fate of minority Muslims in India if Narendra Modi is elected next year as the Prime Minister of India.
Source: Weekly Holiday
