Narendra Modi's Reckless Politics Brings Mob Rule to New Delhi
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Established 1946 1 Pages 20 Price : Rupees Five Vol. 75 No. 6 Narendra Modi’s Reckless Politics Brings March 1, 2020 Mob Rule to New Delhi Akhil Gogoi is in Prison for Political Reasons Siddharth Varadarajan Sandeep Pandey, Medha Patkar When It Comes to Curbing Dissent, Don’t be confused by the big is no dispute that the violence and Karnataka Is Going the UP Way media narrative of pro- and anti- communal riots of the past three days Monobina Gupta Citizenship (Amendment) Act clearly followed the call for direct Exploring Citizenship Dunu Roy protesters or “two sides” fighting action against the protesters that was Is the Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb, So Intrinsic it out in the streets of Delhi. And made by BJP leader Kapil Mishra to Delhi, Being Made Irrelevant? for heaven’s sake don’t fall for the in full view of the Delhi Police. Ishmeet Nagpal ludicrous claim made by the minister And that the Delhi Police, which The Trump and Modi Show: Of Tangri Kebabs and Cannibal Cows of state for home affairs G. Kishan reports to Union home ministry, Madhumita Dutta, Sirisha Naidu Reddy that the continuing violence not only failed to clamp down on Why there is No Good News for is a “conspiracy to defame India”. inflammatory speech but also on the India’s Healthcare Bharat Dogra As the death toll from the Delhi violence when it erupted. Is the World About to Witness the End Riots inches past 30, we need to Egged on by Mishra’s words, of the War in Afghanistan? remind ourselves that until violence a mob of Hindutva activists and M.K. Bhadrakumar was cynically unleashed on the lumpens attacked one of the The Wars No One Notices Stephanie Savell women and children protesting the sites of the anti-CAA protest in While Media Amplifies Unrest in Venezuela, Citizenship (Amendment) Act in North-East Delhi. This was the Millions Revolting in Colombia different parts of North East Delhi— ‘Salwa Judum’ model of vigilante Alan MacLeod, Whitney Webb most of whom are Muslim—the violence imported to Delhi. An Editor : G. G. Parikh national capital had witnessed 70 independent investigation will surely days of peace. reveal the hidden hands involved Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain Throughout the 70 days of in the mobilisation of the crowd Managing Editor : Guddi peaceful protest across multiple because such mobs do not form locations, there were no mobs on spontaneously. Predictably, the Editorial Board : the rampage, no stone pelting, no protesters they viciously attacked— B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali, burning of shops and homes. Only who had been sitting peacefully all Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah, people sitting on dharna, surrounded the while—fought back. But there Amarendra Dhaneshwar, by the national flag, copies of the matters ought to have ended, if the Sandeep Pandey preamble of the constitution and Delhi police had done its job and the D-15, Ganesh Prasad, portraits of national icons like Dr Union home minister Amit Shah, Naushir Bharucha Marg, B.R. Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi had done his. Mumbai - 400 007. and Maulana Azad The big media presented what So why did violence suddenly was a violent attack on the anti-CAA Email : [email protected] engulf the city? Who willed it? Who dharna by a lumpen mob mobilised Website:www.janataweekly.org allowed it to happen? By now, there by Hindutva groups as “clashes 2 JANATA, March 1, 2020 between pro-CAA and anti-CAA burnt in Mustafabad. Worse, the and Haryana high court. protesters” but the ugly reality of meagre huts of poor working Muslim Is there a similarity between what was really happening became families were destroyed by masked what has played out in Delhi over evident that evening and the next thugs shouting Jai Shri Ram. My the past three days and earlier day. If the crowds mobilised were colleague Raghu Karnad spoke to incidents of communal violence? driven only by their support for the their Hindu neighbours who testified Yes there is. We saw all of this in the CAA, why would they chant slogans to this, and added that the arsonists capital in 1984 when the Congress- like ‘Hindustan mein rehna hoga to threatened to kill them unless they led government presided over the Jai Shri Ram bolna hoga’? It was too chanted Jai Shri Ram. massacre of thousands of Sikhs evident that the mobs which the If it was possible for anyone in following the assassination of Indira Hindutva leaders had assembled had Delhi to still delude themselves that Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi may have a different task—to intimidate and the government and police meant been a so-called “inexperienced” attack Muslims in general, spread well and that they were battling some prime minister but his home minister, fear and insecurity across Delhi incredible conspiracy to “defame Narasimha Rao, was no babe in the and polarise the city and country on India”, the Delhi High Court’s order woods and the Delhi Police had communal lines. at 1:42 am on Wednesday should tonnes of “experience”. Yet they The fact that nothing short have cleared all doubts. allowed more than 3,000 people to of a communal riot was being There were 20 odd riot be killed. imposed on Delhi became apparent victims who lay injured in a small In Gujarat in 2002, Narendra on Tuesday when mosques, Muslim hospital in Mustafabad—the Al Modi as chief minister presided shops and Muslim homes were Hind Hospital—who needed to be over a state government that allowed targeted across a number of areas in transferred to the government-run more than a thousand innocent North East Delhi. Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital in Muslims to be killed by Hindutva In scenes reminiscent of the order to receive proper treatment. thugs. In both 1984 and 2002, the demolition of the Babri Masjid, The doctors at Al-Hind had been police were mute spectators to the thugs climbed atop the Badi Masjid trying since 4 pm to get the police to violence because they knew the in Ashok Nagar, Shadara, planted a provide an escort for ambulances to mobs had the backing of the ruling saffron flag and then tried to break take the injured safely away since the party. Delhi 2020 is no different. away parts of the minaret. They then Hindutva mobs were still threatening torched the mosque. My colleagues them. Sadly, the police offered Poison in the blood Naomi Barton and Avichal Dubey them no help. In desperation, they A question many people ask is were in Ashok Nagar and filed a approached the high court through why would Narendra Modi, Amit quick story on the destruction of a lawyer and Justice S. Muralidhar Shah and the BJP allow violence the mosque. The response of BJP convened a special sitting in his to take place at a time when they supporters online was to claim the house and ordered the police to were playing host to Donald story was fake. No less a person than provide the victims safe passage. Trump. Incidentally, the Congress MoS Home Kishan Reddy demanded government had no qualms about that action be taken against news From 1984 and 2002 to 2020 showcasing genocide on the streets platforms that published what he The same judge also pulled up in November 1984 even as world said was “fake news”. the Delhi Police on Wednesday leaders gathered in Delhi for Indira This attempt to deny the ugly afternoon for failing to even take Gandhi’s funeral but it is still worth truth about what was happening cognisance of the hate speeches of asking why Modi et al. would bring to Delhi under the watch of the BJP leaders. He knew what he was rain on their own parade. The answer Modi government obviously could talking about. After all, he was the is quite simple. Remember the story not last long. After all, The Wire one who finally sent Congress leader of the scorpion and the frog? A frog had released video footage that Sajjan Kumar to jail for the 1984 is carrying a scorpion across a river its reporters had themselves been massacre of Sikhs. And perhaps that as a favour but then the scorpion witness to. It then emerged that was why the Centre immediately bites the frog. As they both drown, mosques were also attacked and notified his transfer to the Punjab the frog cries out, ‘Why did you bite JANATA, March 1, 2020 3 me? We’re both going to die now’. and planned, with each person and to this violence, just a diabolical And the scorpion shrugs his shoulder organisation assigned the role he, she political plan to divide the people on and says, ‘What can I do? It’s in my or it must play. communal lines. The riots of 2002 nature.’ The communal riots of 2020 helped make the BJP electorally The fact is that it is the BJP’s are the opening shot in the BJP’s invincible in Gujarat. The work to nature to polarise, even if its campaign to retain power in the bring this vital aspect of the Gujarat communal poison causes a PR states where it still rules, and of model to Delhi has begun in earnest. disaster for India. For Modi and course at the Centre. With the Shah, a US presidential visit economy showing no signs of (Siddharth Varadarajan is journalist, is a one-off event but politics, recovery, desperate times call for political analyst and academic. electioneering and vote-bank desperate measures, the people He is a Founding Editor of The building are a continuous, never- of Delhi be damned.