Reject Consorted Efforts of Communal Hate and Riot-mongering in Delhi! Report from AISA’s Visit TODAY to Bawana and Narela
After the RSS-BJP-VHP’s attempts to stoke communal tensions across Uttar Pradesh through vicious campaigns against the so-called ‘Love Jihad’ and cow slaughter, this orchestrated campaign of communal hate mongering is now being replicated in Delhi too. Over the past few days, as Id approaches, a campaign against cow slaughter by a group calling itself the ‘Hindu Krantikari Sena’ is being used to threaten and intimidate Muslims. In the backdrop of this ongoing campaign of communal hate and riot-mongering in Narela and Bawana in Delhi, a team consisting of AISA’s Delhi state leadership, CPI(ML) leaders and AICCTU leaders from Narela visited these areas today. This team, which also included JNUSU Vice President Anant, JNUSU-SSS councilor Rama Naga, AISA Delhi Convenor Omprasad and other AISA leaders from Delhi, met with several families in Bawana and also with local activists and leaders working against the orchestrated communal hate mongering.
The facts of the current situation are as follows:
The epicenter of the current communal tensions in the Narela-Bawana area is the JJ colony in Bawana. The residents of this colony consist of families who had been displaced in 2004 from various slums in Delhi such as Yamuna Pushta. According to the residents of the colony, for years together, dating back to time when they lived in different slums in Delhi, Muslims and Hindus in the colony – consisting mostly of poor working class families – have lived together in harmony. However, there have often been concerted attempts by politically motivated forces to deliberately vilify the atmosphere in JJ colony and in other parts of Narela and Bawana through communal hate mongering. In 2012 for instance, completely unsubstantiated claims were made that Muslims were illegally ‘slaughtering cows’ during Id. This vicious campaign of lies and slander went on, without a shred of evidence, creating a huge amount of communal tension in the area.
This year too, as Id approaches, we are witnessing a dangerous communal campaign by forces calling themselves the ‘Hindu Krantikari Sena’. Several inflammatory posters have been put up in the area claiming that the ‘India-Pakistan war’ had reached Bawana, and asserting that the Hindu religion was under ‘threat’ from daily cow slaughter. On 2nd October 2014, these communal forces alleged, with no evidence whatsoever, that a truckload of cows had been brought into the JJ colony for slaughter. There are also reports that a compliant regarding cows being brought into JJ colony had been made by calling the Police helpline number ‘100’. Till date, the Police and local administration has refused to reveal the source of the call and of this ‘information’ about rampant cow slaughter by Muslims, despite repeated demands by the residents of JJ colony. Subsequent to this rumour, around 200 men – accompanied and escorted by some members of the Delhi Police – entered the colony and conducted a ‘search’ of any building they deemed ‘suspicious’. This also included one of the local mosques. No cow was found during this search. The search however obviously resulted in huge tensions and a palpable atmosphere of fear amongst Muslims in Bawana and Narela. During the ‘search’, there were also incidents of violence, intimidation and stone pelting. One young Muslim man was injured in the stone pelting. Moreover, one Hindu man in the locality who rears cows was also subjected to this campaign of intimidation – the crowd initially refused to believe that he was a Hindu, and even when they did they tried to forcibly confiscate all his cows claiming that he would sell the cows to the Muslims in the locality for slaughter. In all, the whole point of the entire exercise of ‘searching’ the colony was clearly to spread communal hatred and division and to disturb the peace and amity in the entire region.
After these incidents of 2nd October, the residents of JJ colony have been demanding proper surveillance and security by the government and the local administration. They demanded that the police closely monitor the situation, and prevent any attempt to plant ‘evidence’ of cows in the locality to implicate the Muslims and further exacerbate the situation. These demands assume all the more importance given that on late night of 3rd October, there were allegedly attempts by some Hindu men to release cows in the area as ‘evidence’. Despite repeated demands, the local police has not taken adequate steps to control this volatile situation. They accompanied, escorted and therefore encouraged the ‘search’ conducted on 2nd October. Moreover, they have not yet revealed the call details, or taken any action against the person who falsely complained that a truck load of cows had been brought into the area. Today, the local administration allowed the Hindu Krantikari Sena to conduct a huge meeting and ‘Oath Taking’ against cow slaughter on the eve of Id, where inflammatory speeches were made.
As a result of the intervention of democratic forces who have expressed their horror at the unfolding communal tensions being orchestrated in Narela and Bawana, some deployment of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) has been made in the area – as per the demand of the residents of the JJ colony. AISA, CPI(ML) and other democratic forces such as IFTU and PMS who visited Bawana today have assured the residents of their complete support in the face of this highly condemnable communal hate mongering. Trade union leaders in the Narela industrial area have established close contact with the residents of JJ colony so that immediate and coordinated resistance can be organized in case of any orchestrated communal flare-up. In the days to come, all progressive and democratic forces will have to come together to ensure that all such efforts at stoking violence and hatred are robustly resisted and defeated.
