Grapes of wrath of polarization

Preface With the induction of Narendra Modi in office as PM the polarization has come home to roost. After the attack on the computer techie in Pune, on July 10, 2014 a bomb exploded at the parking lot of the Faraskhana police station behind Dagdushet temple injuring three persons, a police man, owner of an eatery and her attendatn. The report carried by Firstpost is insinuating as it presents a picture with a Muslim at a terror attack site with a cell phone in hand. Hid round white cap and tunic and beard would suggest that it is the work of a Muslim jihadi terrorist. Although the photo is titled as for representational purpose but the polarization continues:

Chapter 1 Reaping the grapes of wrath Mustafa Khan Gujarat pogroms of 2002, Muzaffarnagar 2013 and Assam 2014 have sown enough grapes of wrath by way of unjust or oppressive situation, action or policy that there would be bumper crop of this in the offing. It may inflame desire for revenge not necessarily by the victims. Amit Shah asked the people of western UP to avenge the insult suffered by the jats. The message is unequivocally against the Muslims who were the victims of the pogroms. More revenge would be extracted. The polarization was planted by Shah the trusted campaign manager of Narendra Modi and his associate in crimes such as the fake encounters and the murder of Haren Pandya. Despite clean chits issued by government appointed Special Investigation Teams the guilt sticks to them because the legal cases have not been dissolved thanks to the kind of subversion of judiciary that has taken place in Gujarat. Let alone the cases new insinuation for violence and dividing the people is still underway. For example just before the casting of votes in Western UP Shah remarked: “For the integrity of the community, the answer is Modi. Not the government who gives compensation to those who killed Jats.” The integrity of the community of Jats is more important than the harmony that had prevailed between Jats and Muslims. And the government of Samajwadi party which gave compensation to Muslims who suffered heavy death toll and bore injuries. Shah turns it upon its head saying that the compensation is given to Muslims who had killed jats. This is outright incitement to violence and disaffection where there was no such thing before. Retribution did not have to wait. No sooner had the new administration taken power at the centre than the MoS in the PMO Jitendra Singh remarked that the process had begun for abrogating the bête noir of the Hindu right, Article 370. Chief Minister of J&K Omar Abdulla returned the fire: “Mark my words & save this tweet — long after Modi Govt is a distant memory, either J&K won’t be part of India or Art 370 will still exist… Art 370 is the ONLY constitutional link between J&K & rest of India. Talk of revocation not just ill-informed, it’s irresponsible.”[2] This is how polarization once more was inducted in the Kashmir valley. The stake holders there naturally are inflamed. Some years back the stakeholders in Jammu were inflamed when the Amarnath Yatra land allotment was raked up. Issues of polarization are there in the backyard and the new administration is putting its acts together to play a much larger game this time. Another issue was raised by the new minister in charge of minority affairs, Najma Heptulla. She said that Muslims are too many in India and hence they ought not to think as minority and the level playing field exists for them. It is up to the prime minister to inherit the Congress party backed Sachar commission recommendations. She elaborated that the most vulnerable are the Parsis and then the Jains and not the Muslims. She clearly erred in this for when nearly two thousand Muslims were butchered in the pogroms of Gujarat; only one Parsi fell a victim because his mother thought she would be safe in Ahsan Jafri’s house and took shelter there. Her own house around the Gulberg society was untouched for she had tiles depicting Hindu deities framed at the door. But such was the power of the Parsis that she got a phone call by some big one [may be Tata] as to how many of them were in the house. Rupa Mody said she and her two children including son Azhar were there. Then she looked around and her lids flapped and she said there were many. While the attack came she fell and Azhar slipped from her hands and she lost him. But the rescue party saved her and her daughter. If Najama Heptulla thinks the Parsis are the weakest she is wrong as far as pogroms are concerned. In India neither the Parsis nor the Jains risk so much danger to their life as the Muslims. Furthermore the Parsis and Jains do not require any largess from any government. But the indigent Muslims are the most wretched off the lot. Therefore if PM Modi brings Gujarat reluctance to the central government in sanctioning the pre matriculation scholarship this would extend polarization everywhere else in the country. Najma Heptulla is trying to be politically correct where she is wrong when she says: “I am not in favour of reservation. I have come this far without reservation. What is important is positive action to provide level playing field. Once we do that politically, socially and educationally they will be able to compete with the rest.” [3]When the pogroms took place KK Mysorewalla told the hapless Muslim women and children seeking refuge at the CRPF camp that there was order from above that day not to save them. Modi’s instructions to the police to let the Hindus vent their anger and take revenge had queered the pitch against the minority for they could not have any level playing field any more. He had ordered his intelligence chief RB Sreekumar to ask Sanjiv Bhatt to pay ten lakh rupees to sabotage the Naroda patia case of Malika Sarabhai. Against these odds what level playing fields Heptulla is talking about? Hence the polarization sown is gathering momentum and fury of a whirlwind. When it comes to the right to live there should be what she denied to Muslims: ‘one-size-fits-all’ formula. Radhika Ramaseshan in the Telegraph, Calcutta, May 27 2014, observed: “the inclusion of Muzaffarnagar MP Sanjeev Baliyan is a telling reminder of the significance that a polarised polity carries for the BJP. Baliyan was accused of inciting the Muzaffarnagar violence last September. The BJP’s support for the Hindu “victims” of the riots helped it consolidate the majority community’s support across the caste and sub-caste divide.”[4]The means to harvest votes of Jat Hindus in western UP matches the end of the saffron government which is disempowering the minority Muslim. [1]http://scroll.inarticle/this-election-is-a-fight.for-honor-and-revenge-amit-shah-tells-jat-audience-in-riot-areas?id=660535 [2] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/wants-to-debate-art-370-omar-says-if-junked-jk-wont-be-part-of-india/ [3] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/muslims-too-many-to-be-called-minority-its-parsis-who-need-special-attention/99/ [4] http://www.abplive.in/india/2014/05/27/article331201.ece/Minimal-Ministry-size-and-fresh-ideas-so-far#.U4VOtHbVyt8 Minimal: Ministry size and fresh ideas (so far) Chapter 2 Polarization inducted in Maharashtra: Pune, Sholapur and Nanded Mustafa Khan After winning the parliamentary elections on May 16, 2014 Amit Shah and Narendra Modi viewed coming assembly election in Maharashtra in the light of their strategy of western UP they had experimented and succeeded. To repeat Muzaffarnagar in Maharashtra they activated Hindu Rashtra Sena as they had done in starting Narendra Modi Sena in western UP. Gopal Meneon’s video In the Killing fields of Muzaffarnagar is a vivid proof of it. This assumption is based on the fact that Amit Shah had decisively argued for hard line approach to winning election in UP in the crucial meeting of March 7, 2014. It brought desired effect of polarization as rich source of turning the voters in BJP favour. As he relied on RSS in UP so would he in Maharashtra. RSS ideology of intolerance of the minority and showing it no consideration would also be used in Maharashtra. That ideology has lost no time to take effect. Mohsin Shaikh from Nai Zindagi negihbourhood of Sholapur was working as IT engineer in Pune when Hindu Rashtra Sena activists attacked him in the city and killed him. The main reason was that he had a beard and looked a devote Muslim. And a software technician who could easily be passed off as the one posting the derogatory pictures of Shivaji, Ambedkar and Bal Thackery. Paralleling the murder is the tension and dispute over the Facebook pictures. In the meantime it is evident that the picture post on Facebook was uploaded from 4 IP addresses from France, Rumania, Netherland and Saudi Arabia. Even when Maharashtra home minister RR Patil had predicted immediate arrest of the guilty he changed his statement and remarked that the government would like foreign experts to find out the source of the post. There was protest in Sholapur originating in the Nai Zindagi area where Mohsin lived. There was intense pelting of stones which resulted in the injuries to 3. This must have been the work of the Hindu Rashtra Sena[HRS] which is responsible for the murder of Mohsin. Abu Asim Azmi of Samajwadi Party has demanded 50 lakh compensation for those who lost their property in the attacks as well as 25 lakh for the death of Mohsin to be given to his family. Thus the minority community must have suffered heavy material losses in the attacks as well as casualties. The resurgence of violence in Sholapur is ominous because it links it to Mohsin of Nai Zindagi mohalla there. This is despite the fact that Mohsin had no role to play in the poster dispute. He was a computer engineer and his apparel and appearance provoked the extremists of HRS. The events in two cities of western Maharashtra seem to be well coordinated. It is also disturbing the media ignored the murder of Mohsin but for 24 hours focused on the picture posts on the Facebook. In another development Bino Bhatnagar has written on Facebook that the Modi government’s studied silence on the issue shows a biased mind. He demanded that Modi must express regret over the incident of the murder and if it is the handiwork of HRS he must express his shame that extremist Hindus are behind it. Extremist elements were also active in Nanded. They attacked Sohail Ahmad Farooquy and Zeeshan at 8.30 pm. on June 3 when the two were walking from Shivaji nagar to Maulana Azad chowk in the Gurdwara area. When the two went to Vazirabad police station to lodge a complaint the attackers also went there and continued attacking the two. Later they were taken to hospital for treatment. [1Inquilab June 7, 2014] This single incident of terrorism, yes, qua terrorism, portends ill for the country. More than twenty youths were determined to kill Muslims and déjà vu realization of it in Mohsin in his skull cap and beard and ditto his friend, Riyaz. Without having ever met him or his friend before, the fierceness of the youth’s hunting and killing instinct was aroused. They encircled the two and attacked them, the friend escaped but Mohsin was not fortunate as the hockey sticks and rods rained on him. He had neither provoked nor had given them any cause to attack. His identity was enough for the murderous attack like the smell of the blood to the shark when it attacks any hapless caught in the water. The first 13 arrested had a distinct identity of their own; they were goons from Hinud Rashtra Sena on the move on their vehicles. Incidents such as these constitute the fault lines of civilization as Samuel Huntingon thesis goes and it is in this connection that Amit Shah evolves his strategy of planting violence to reap a bloody harvest: “Shah's acumen lies primarily in identifying fault lines and working at them tirelessly to turn them into advantages.”[2] Shah himself argued in favour of Modi’s treatment of minority vis-à-vis 2002 in the March 7 meeting: “Modi’s machoism is his USP. We can’t lose that.”[3] That machoism is now showing signs of upturn as Sharad Pawar observed that Modi’s rise to power as PM emboldened the Hindutva forces who are responsible behind violence against minority Muslims and attacks on their houses and mosques. In one such incident in Bhosri, Pune, the extremist Hindus set fire to a madrasa but the fire station next to it refused to put it out.[ Asian Age June 12, 2014]That the resurgent Hindutva is in no mood to listen is clear when Udhay Thackeray dubbed Pwar’s criticism as ranting of Saeed Hafiz. [Saamna June 11, 2014]. [1] http://www.rediff.com/news/report/ls-election-whats-in-store-for-modis-right-hand-man/20140515.htm?pos=4&src=NL20140516&isnlp=0&isnlsp=0 [2] http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/35222861.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst [3] http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?290749 Chapter 3 Polarization inducted in Maharashtra: Pune, Sholapur and Nanded Mustafa Khan After winning the parliamentary elections on May 16, 2014 Amit Shah and Narendra Modi viewed coming assembly election in Maharashtra in the light of their strategy of western UP they had experimented and succeeded. To repeat Muzaffarnagar in Maharashtra they activated Hindu Rashtra Sena as they had done in starting Narendra Modi Sena in western UP. Gopal Meneon’s video In the Killing fields of Muzaffarnagar is a vivid proof of it. This assumption is based on the fact that Amit Shah had decisively argued for hard line approach to winning election in UP in the crucial meeting of March 7, 2014. It brought desired effect of polarization as rich source of turning the voters in BJP favour. As he relied on RSS in UP so would he in Maharashtra. RSS ideology of intolerance of the minority and showing it no consideration would also be used in Maharashtra. That ideology has lost no time to take effect. Mohsin Shaikh from Nai Zindagi negihbourhood of Sholapur was working as IT engineer in Pune when Hindu Rashtra Sena activists attacked him in the city and killed him. The main reason was that he had a beard and looked a devote Muslim. And a software technician who could easily be passed off as the one posting the derogatory pictures of Shivaji, Ambedkar and Bal Thackery. Paralleling the murder is the tension and dispute over the Facebook pictures. In the meantime it is evident that the picture post on Facebook was uploaded from 4 IP addresses from France, Rumania, Netherland and Saudi Arabia. Even when Maharashtra home minister RR Patil had predicted immediate arrest of the guilty he changed his statement and remarked that the government would like foreign experts to find out the source of the post. There was protest in Sholapur originating in the Nai Zindagi area where Mohsin lived. There was intense pelting of stones which resulted in the injuries to 3. This must have been the work of the Hindu Rashtra Sena[HRS] which is responsible for the murder of Mohsin. Abu Asim Azmi of Samajwadi Party has demanded 50 lakh compensation for those who lost their property in the attacks as well as 25 lakh for the death of Mohsin to be given to his family. Thus the minority community must have suffered heavy material losses in the attacks as well as casualties. The resurgence of violence in Sholapur is ominous because it links it to Mohsin of Nai Zindagi mohalla there. This is despite the fact that Mohsin had no role to play in the poster dispute. He was a computer engineer and his apparel and appearance provoked the extremists of HRS. The events in two cities of western Maharashtra seem to be well coordinated. It is also disturbing the media ignored the murder of Mohsin but for 24 hours focused on the picture posts on the Facebook. In another development Bino Bhatnagar has written on Facebook that the Modi government’s studied silence on the issue shows a biased mind. He demanded that Modi must express regret over the incident of the murder and if it is the handiwork of HRS he must express his shame that extremist Hindus are behind it. Extremist elements were also active in Nanded. They attacked Sohail Ahmad Farooquy and Zeeshan at 8.30 pm. on June 3 when the two were walking from Shivaji nagar to Maulana Azad chowk in the Gurdwara area. When the two went to Vazirabad police station to lodge a complaint the attackers also went there and continued attacking the two. Later they were taken to hospital for treatment. [1Inquilab June 7, 2014] This single incident of terrorism, yes, qua terrorism, portends ill for the country. More than twenty youths were determined to kill Muslims and déjà vu realization of it in Mohsin in his skull cap and beard and ditto his friend, Riyaz. Without having ever met him or his friend before, the fierceness of the youth’s hunting and killing instinct was aroused. They encircled the two and attacked them, the friend escaped but Mohsin was not fortunate as the hockey sticks and rods rained on him. He had neither provoked nor had given them any cause to attack. His identity was enough for the murderous attack like the smell of the blood to the shark when it attacks any hapless caught in the water. The first 13 arrested had a distinct identity of their own; they were goons from Hinud Rashtra Sena on the move on their vehicles. Incidents such as these constitute the fault lines of civilization as Samuel Huntingon thesis goes and it is in this connection that Amit Shah evolves his strategy of planting violence to reap a bloody harvest: “Shah's acumen lies primarily in identifying fault lines and working at them tirelessly to turn them into advantages.”[2] Shah himself argued in favour of Modi’s treatment of minority vis-à-vis 2002 in the March 7 meeting: “Modi’s machoism is his USP. We can’t lose that.”[3] That machoism is now showing signs of upturn as Sharad Pawar observed that Modi’s rise to power as PM emboldened the Hindutva forces who are responsible behind violence against minority Muslims and attacks on their houses and mosques. In one such incident in Bhosri, Pune, the extremist Hindus set fire to a madrasa but the fire station next to it refused to put it out.[ Asian Age June 12, 2014]That the resurgent Hindutva is in no mood to listen is clear when Udhay Thackeray dubbed Pwar’s criticism as ranting of Saeed Hafiz. [Saamna June 11, 2014]. [1] http://www.rediff.com/news/report/ls-election-whats-in-store-for-modis-right-hand-man/20140515.htm?pos=4&src=NL20140516&isnlp=0&isnlsp=0 [2] http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/35222861.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst [3] http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?290749 Chapter 4 The waxing pracharak and return of the jackal Mustafa Khan Hardly had the new PM been sworn in than he started swearing at the minority. He put a call to Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan from Muzaffarnagar. As a past master of taking on the minority and provoking them he has been swearing at the minority all through the electioneering by using offensive and rude words to emphasize in a way of insulting the minority. That call to Baliyan was just that. As Mohammad Shafi living in a refugee camp of Muzaffarnagar remarked: “It’s terrible that a person charged with inciting violence in which so many people lost their lives has become a minister in the new government. It seems he has been rewarded for this.” Another refugee in another camp told the media persons: “Eight months have passed but the emotional scars run deep. Instead of trying to heal our wounds, the government has chosen to reward those behind the violence. What kind of message does the new government want to send?” [1] Shafi and hundreds of others could never forget Baliyan ‘s incitement to violence at the two most violent and explosive periods in August and September of 2013. His words inflamed the passion for butchery. Knowing well what could spell trouble for him he had sought anticipatory bail from the court. Baliyan hails from the epicenter of the pogroms, Qutba which saw the hell breaking lose upon the minority. Modi rang up Baliyan around 8 am of the day of his swearing in ceremony. So personal was Modi’s hectic call and so outrageously provoking. What prompted Modi as a real time avenger to urgently call Baliyan shows how planting the polarization into the western UP produced such a bumper crop of votes that all the three BJP leaders were elected to the parliament! Nothing could carry the message of Hindutva so effectively than appointing the accused as minister. All the accused were earlier welcomed and garlanded in the rallies Modi had attended in the run up to the election. The RSS once more demonstrated how perfected and well tested their tactic is of disempowering the minority through polarization. For the minorities cannot have any chance of fair play once communalism is resorted be it though Babri mosque demolition through the hype to build a Ram temple over it or the pogroms in western UP in the name of honour of the jats and the foisted need to take revenge This runs counter to the much vaunted development and the mania that led Modi to win election. Western UP was much better off than the rest of UP and India excepting Gujarat. Even the Muslims had a better standard of living to boast of. The tactic in such a prosperous region is the inverse logic that the few Hindus who suffered in the violence had brought about the pogroms the Muslims deserved. Not only as many as 90 Muslims lost their life vis-à-vis a couple of Hindus killed but almost all the houses and properties looted and burnt were of the Muslims. This was the revenge extracted. The election was crowning irony of it that Muslims had no chance of voicing their plight for no Muslim would be in the parliament to represent them except some minimal representation! So the ascendance of Modi on the strength of ideology is in contrast with the absence of pristine virtues of Congress. The ideology of RSS is steadily marching ahead despite only 30% of the votes that BJP got. As Aditya Mukherjee observes, “It is not only that the Congress is vanquished, but, the nature of victor is of extreme significance. The forces led by RSS had nothing to do with the Indian national movement. RSS had asked its cadres to stay away even from the biggest and the final surge of the Indian freedom struggle, the Quit India Movement, and asked them to preserve their energies for the ‘real’ battle that was to ensue, that against the Muslims. These forces were also responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, making the first home minister of independent India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, ban RSS and put 25, 000 of its activists in jail.” [2] The saved energy circa the independence movement and now a pracharak of RSS as PM winning election by dint of the mobilization of the saffron groups has left no place for doubt that we are in for more violence and devastation. It may be material and casualties, arson and loot, but also damage to the psyche. As a victim of pogroms fraudulently introduced in Western UP Noor Hasan of Kankara village put it: “We are very scared and there is always the apprehension of another riot breaking out. It is bound to be there if people like Baliyan enjoy such goodwill in the BJP.” [1] PM’s choice shocks riot-hit town [2] “Clear out the Congress Cabal” India Today June 2, 2014 .