By Sushil Kutty
The image of an additional DGP (Law & Order) striding after a violent mob and waving a ‘Glock’ at them told the story of Bahraich and the communal violence that engulfed the border district. It also raised questions on the medieval art of stone-throwing, now specialized by Muslim youths rich in the science of handling firearms.
Why is stone-throwing always targeting Hindu religious processions? And what is a ‘Muslim illakha’, how did ‘Muslim illakha’ come up in India, which could have declared itself ‘Hindu Rashtra’ in 1947 and nobody could have stopped it.
That it didn’t is one reason why Bahraich happened? Bahraich is a border district, cheek-to-jowl with Nepal, and the border porous like a fishing-net. Can stone-throwing and then easy escape into Nepal through the porous border be allowed to develop in a border district? Didn’t we have enough stone-pelting and trans-border terrorism in Kashmir?
Should stone-storages be the next big start-up for young Indians with money to spare and energy to waste? ‘Secular’ India is not short of places for stone-throwing to flourish. Wherever there is a surge in Muslim population, there is stone-pelting. It is not slur or slander to say that stone-throwing is a serious business tactic of the Muslim youth.
But don’t expect any explanation. Why are stones only thrown at Hindu religious processions, on idols of Hindu gods and goddesses? Samajwadi Party Supremo Akhilesh Yadav came up with an accusation: It is the ‘DJ’, the music and the kind of songs played. Yadav made it cause and effect, action and reaction, to explain the killing of a 22-year-old Hindu flag-bearer in a village in Bahraich.
The Opposition leader was alluding to “Hindu slogans and songs which hurt Muslim sentiments.” Akhilesh’s Samajwadi Party is banking on ‘PDA’ to win the 10 UP bypolls and the ‘A’ in ‘PDA’ stands for ‘Alpsankyaks’ or ‘minorities’, i.e., the Muslim minority, India’s fastest growing second biggest majority.
Akhilesh called “Bahraich” the ‘dastak’ — the postman’s ‘knock-knock’ — of the approaching bypolls! Which isn’t wrong, what is wrong is why a young life had to be sacrificed at the altar of the “knock-knock”? Two, why are stones thrown at Hindu religious processions in a country where Hindus proliferate?
Akhilesh Yadav avoids such questions. And Samajwadi Party spokespersons deflect to “Ganga-Jamuna tehzeeb” and “Hindu-Muslim bhaichara”. Ram Gopal Mishra’s killing was covered up by platitudes. His killing was the first “lynching” in the country in a long-time. His finger and toenails were torn off with a plier and his 5’2” body was pumped full of bullets.
Does stoning Hindu processions have to do with the religion of submission, the in-bred superiority complex which comes with the feeling “we ruled India for 800 years”? In Christian-majority United States, stones are not thrown at Christian processions. Stones are not hoarded and hurled at human beings in any of the 57 Muslim countries, but Hindu-majority ‘India that is Bharat’ is fair game for stones of all sizes, why?
In Bahraich, stones were kept on the rooftops of Muslim homes ahead of the ‘Durga Visarjan’ procession ritual? Reports speak of stones brought from other villages. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter whether there was ‘DJ’ or music or songs, dancing in the streets, ugly incidents outside a mosque…, the stones would have been pelted; otherwise, why hoard them on rooftops in the first place?
Is stone-throwing a must-happen ritual, a “shubharambh”? Muslims on Hajj throw stones at the “Shaitan.” Here in India, stones are thrown on idols of Hindu gods and goddesses? Doesn’t that make Hindu gods and goddesses “Shaitans”? Is stone-throwing on Hindu religious processions a crime per se? If so, under which section?
Stones are also hurled at police. A stone is a handy weapon. It can kill as easily as a bullet, or a spear. Like revolvers and pistols, AK-47s and AK-56s, why isn’t possession of large mounds of stones not a crime? Why don’t the police in all jurisdictions carry out cordon and search operations to unearth stones piled up inside homes and on the rooftops?
India’s shabby and corrupt police are 3/4ths of India’s mounting communal problems. An additional DGP, supposed to be Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s favourite cop, waving a Glock at a violent mob cannot be the solution to stone-throwing, however brave and bold he might be.
First admit, that storing stones on rooftops and inside four walls betrays intent to kill, to premeditated murder. Stones hurled at a lone human being, or at a passing procession of human beings, should be declared a punishable crime. Also, India is not an Islamic country, so why should a top police officer justify the stone-throwing with the defence “the procession passed through a Muslim illakha”?
What did the officer mean by ‘Muslim illakha’? Are there “Hindu illakha”? Should Indian Muslims be allowed to create “Muslim illakhas” in India and bar Hindus from entering or passing through or take-up residence in them? Shouldn’t the mention of and creation of “Muslim illakha” within the boundary of India be ‘sedition’?
The Supreme Court recently pulled up a high court judge for calling a certain locality as “Pakistan”, why is it that the top court’s attention doesn’t go to “Muslim illakhas” proliferating all across India, wherever there is Muslim “domination”? Islam is a religion of submission. Questioning those who take to stone-throwing isn’t Islamophobia. Nobody has the right to throw stones at other human beings and then to expect submission.
Article 25 is the same for everyone. The problem is the Indian secular environment suits the stone-thrower. There is news of stone-throwing every few days, depending on the Hindu festivals calendar. Hindus have numerous gods and goddesses and Hindus are shamelessly irreverent, which makes them easy targets. Ram Gopal Mishra was lynched by a bunch of barbaric and blood-thirsty stone-throwers.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, ‘Bulldozer Baba’ Yogi Adityanath, isn’t even looking at a solution to stop stone-throwing. He is lost without his ‘JCB’, which the Supreme Court grounded. Did the Supreme Court-action on bulldozer-action embolden Muslims? The Supreme Court justices don’t have the remotest idea of the reality of India!
Akhilesh Yadav has alleged political conspiracy in Bahraich. For him the outbreak of communal violence along with the announcement of bypoll dates is not a coincidence. For Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the violence and stone-throwing are challenges. The stone-throwing and the communal violence ahead of the 10 by-elections couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for politics in the time of elections. Hoarding stones on rooftops should be made a crime, per se. (IPA Service)
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