Arrests of students and intellectuals in the frontline of anti-CAA movements and indiscriminate slapping of UAPA against them show no signs of relenting. The latest name added to this list is of Umar Khalid. Till now, 19 amongst the 20 arrested are below 39 years of age and UAPA has been slapped against 17 of them. All except one are students. The allegations of Delhi police against the students and intellectuals range from rioting to murder, attempt to murder and conspiracy. These students-intellectuals are allegedly the conspirators of February’s riots in Northeast Delhi. Imagine! They are the conspirators of this violence due to which so many people died, scores injured, countless houses, shops and entire neighborhoods were torched, looted and reduced to a wreck!
Who are actually responsible for Delhi’s riots?
This means Delhi police thinks the inflammatory speeches of BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra, Ragini Tewari spewing hatred against anti CAA demonstrators and Muslims just prior to February 23-25 riots played no role in instigating the Delhi riots. Shall we forget how frenzied mobs entered Muslim neighborhoods one by one, torched them, murdered people and carried out loot and arson during the riots?
For many a day leading to the riots, BJP leaders had continuously given hate speeches against anti CAA demonstrations, inciting communal tensions. We have seen leaders like Anurag Thakur, PraveshVerma, Kapil Mishra spewing hatred against anti CAA protests and Muslims in different regions during the run up to the Delhi elections. Extremely instigating and hate filled slogans like “desh ki gaddaro ko/goli maro saalo ko" were given publicly and widely documented in the media. In such a highly inflamed situation, pro CAA hoodlums descended upon the peaceful anti CAA demonstrations in Jamia and Shaheen Bag with guns in broad daylight and even wounded a student in Jamia.
Who started the riots? Just prior to the Northeast Delhi riots, ruling party leader Kapil Mishra along with his hooligan supporters openly threatened a police official of the region declaring if the police fail to evacuate anti CAA protesters within 3 days, they would take the matter in their own hands and have them removed forcibly. Another extremist/far right women leader of the Hindutva organisation, Ragini Tiwari ran a high-pitch communal campaignstoking violence by calling upon the Hindus to take up cudgels against the traitors just 2 hours prior to the riots.
Can all that happened in Delhi at that time be called ‘riots' at all, or was it a preplanned, targeted, organized, unilateral violence? Out of the 53 dead during the riots, 40 were Muslims, 14 masjids , dargahs and madrassas were torched and saffron flags were hoisted atop a couple of them. On the contrary, not a single temple was touched in that region. Instead, Muslims zealously guarded a temple. All these bear testimony to the fact that the minority Muslim population was the main target of the riots.
Those who have actually incited mobs for rioting, nay, have actually invaded Muslim neighborhoods and created havoc in a preplanned manner, are going scot-free and on the other hand, police are indicting those students and intellectuals vocal against CAA and connected with anti-CAA movements. What an “unbiased investigation!”
What were the Delhi police doing at that time?
What more can be expected of the Delhi police? The police remained mute spectators and silently watched as frenzied mobs indulged in mayhem, literally allowing the mob to do so. Despite the hundreds of SOS phone calls during the ongoing riots, the surprising inactivity of the Delhi police raised concern in different quarters and media. The experience of Naresh Gujral – an Akali Dal MP – reveals how even after repeated calls to the emergency number, a Muslim family could not be saved from the clutches of the rioters. The police sat tight on the phone calls!
The Delhi police was not just inactive. We cannot forget how Delhi police actively supported aggressive Hindu communalism. A minority community person was ruthlessly thrashed on the streets, forced to sing the National Anthem and driven to death by the police. Who were those miscreants who denied access to ambulances carrying the wounded from Muslim neighborhoods to hospitals? Everybody is aware of the hidden facts. In spite of this, instead of leveling charges against these crimes committed publicly, they did not even endeavor to identify the culprits. Their allegations by default are aimed at only towards those students and intellectuals who are actively opposing the BJP government's CAA-NRC conspiracies.
Due to Delhi police’s politically motivated fake allegations against students and intellectuals, their charge-sheet obviously contained multiple errors. In a former charge-sheet, Delhi police claimed that the violence was preplanned by the students with the intention of creating disturbance during Trump’s February visit in a meeting held on 8thJanuary. When this created an uproar and the news media claimed that no formal declaration of Trump’s India visit was made by the government before 13th January and no way could this information make it’s way into public domain before 13thJanuary, the police changed their statement and accused the students of planning the riots in a meeting on 16-17 January.
Following this, the police brought serious charges like murder, rioting and arson against the students on the basis of WhatsApp group chats and “alleged confessions” of arrested persons to buttress its claims of activities like road blockades, etc being part of a deep-rooted conspiracy of the students to destabilize the government. To top it all, the students are being arrested by the extremely stringent undemocratic act like UAPA. These students have discussed about movements, demonstrations and even activities like road blockades in protest against the government's indifferent attitude. Can these be construed as a basis for a charge like “conspiracy to create riots?” Delhi police wants to prove exactly so. In the past, farmers with their demands, Jats demanding reservation, different castes and communities have, as a form of protest, engaged in rail roko or sat on railway tracks for days on end so many times. Never before had anybody cast aspersions on their motives, alleging them of conspiring to incite riots! The anti CAA protests of students and minority community were against the government; never had they attacked or spewed hate against Hindus, or for that matter, any community. This particular job was being carried out by the peddlers of hate of the ruling party.
Does this signify that protests, demonstrations, agitations, movements have to be abandoned forever from now on? Will the fundamental right to form registered organizations, to protest in an organised manner, to take part in movements, all of which have been granted by the Constitution, be abolished altogether?
The lies of Delhi police are so blatant that a powerful ex police officer of this system wrote a letter to Delhi police stating that it was a very unfortunate day in the history of Indian police that the affidavits and charge-sheets submitted in the court looks extremely biased and politically motivated. It has also surfaced that in July, the investigating and supervising officers of Delhi riots had been ordered to embrace sufficient care and caution so that the resentment of Hindus did not surface. Even the court took cognizance of the role of Delhi police and called it a harmful and immoral act.
Whose conspiracies are active behind the role of Delhi police?
Delhi police is primarily controlled by the central BJP government and their extremely prejudiced communal politics. This blatant, hate filled character of the ruling party and police administration with respect to anti CAA movements became clear a few months before the riots. On 10th March, Home Minister Amit Shah declared in Lok Sabha that these riots primarily looked like a “preplanned conspiracy.” Religion should not be a judging factor in cases of rioting. Whoever has engaged in violence will not be spared. We have noted the angle of ‘conspiracy’ for investigation …. His words sounded like it was a promise for an unbiased investigation. The actual role of the government, it's police and administration has come to light now. The onus of ‘planned conspiracy’is totally being transferred upon the students and intellectuals.
Why are the students and intellectuals arch enemies of BJP and Sangh Parivar?
If we look back we shall see that these students and intellectuals were the principal driving force behind the anti-CAA sit-in demonstrations and this drew the ire of the ruling BJP and their Hindutva confederates. This is mainly because although the government had passed the CAA bill with an overwhelming majority in the Parliament, it could not be implemented due to the sudden outbursts of anti-CAA-NRC agitations, significant among them being the sit-in demonstration of women in Shaheen Bag. Students, youth, intellectuals and women played an important role in these agitations. Their continuous day and night peaceful demonstration became a nagging headache for the Central government as it raised questions about their politics of hatred against Muslims. They could not directly suppress this demonstration forcibly by the police. Instead Shaheen Bag became an inspiration for many other Shaheen Bags throughout the country. BJP and RSS failed to instigate local people against these movements. Though small in number, a section of dalits and other sections of the population also extended their support to the anti-CAA movement. Therefore, it is not surprising that these students and youth will become the bête noire of BJP and Sangh Parivar.
Though this is not the only cause of the students and youth becoming the target of the ruling party. If we go back a little more, we shall see that the relationship between the students and youth of Delhi universities and the Central government had already reached its nadir. The efforts of BJP and RSS to establish their own organizations in universities like Jamia, JNU, Delhi university by trying to ruthlessly crush the protest movements against the regressive education policy of the Central government, attacking JNU students in the darkness of the night, the investigations of which had been kept pending in the interests of the ruling party --- all these exacerbated the ongoing conflicts between them. It is the students who have actively and vociferously stood up against all their undemocratic and communal aggressions in the sphere of education. The central BJP government has failed to harness these protests so far. Hence the students, youth and intellectuals had become the arch enemies and main target of the Central government.
A big objective behind these attacks is to crush the anti-CAA movements. Anti-CAA movement is the movement against the attempt to redefine citizenship on the basis of religion. So the demand to squash CAA-NRC is a demand for democratic right against the well-planned, divisive, communal politics of BJP-RSS. The ruling party and its police have embarked upon this despicable witch hunt to crush this movement for democracy. We have to be vocal against this attempt to indiscriminate arrest and slap stringent acts on persons ready to fight for democracy. The mask of the real conspirators – the communal fascist forces – needs to be unmasked.
The principal cause behind these aggressive attacks is that the students and intellectuals are actively trying to resist Sangh Parivar's attacks on democracy. BJP and its government is hell bent on exterminating any movements for democracy and any struggles for democratic rights, the consequences of which will be deadly for all the activists of democratic rights. The vast majority of workers, peasants and toiling masses of the country are facing continuous aggression on their right to struggle and form organizations to that aim for their lives and livelihoods. It is obvious that not only the toxic politics of the undemocratic communal fascist forces, but even employing the entire administration, by dint of being in power, to serve their heinous purposes, has taken a dangerous form. In such a circumstance, only the massive force of workers and toiling people can steer this struggle for democracy towards its correct and successful conclusion. Especially, the advanced role of the working class is immensely required for the establishment of true democracy. This particular demand is being manifested in varied ways. That is why the working class needs to come forward against this effort to silence and snuff out the voices for democracy through these preplanned horrible attacks for resisting today's attacks and for establishing a true democracy in future too.
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