Indian Muslims, sailing on even keel

Muslims around the world live in diverse milieu. It is difficult to generalize them even within a country. Individual differences would always be there. Islam also allows a measure of choice in announcing lakum dinakum wal yadin, my faith with me yours with you. This in no way justifies politicizing Islam in acts of terror when attackers segregate those who read or recite the holy book Quran and the others who do not. India has escaped from the scourge of this nightmare for reasons that go back in the history of the Indian subcontinent and the partition. The legacy of the partition includes realization that if left to themselves in prayer and living their own way there is not much they would strive to rival anyone. No doubt what happened in 1992-93 and again in 2002 shook them to their foundation and filled them with anguish, grief, pain and shock. But they have hunkered low with time and seem to be resilient, eschewing going to any point of no return. It is etched in my memory how I travelled from Mumbai to Manmad on my way back from the metropolis in the aftermath of demolition of Babri mosque and its consequences. A sadhu perched on the upper berth of the shuttle train was smoking in a compartment where most of the seats were reserved by the army men going to Deolali artillery camp near Nasik. The ashes of the burnt out cigarette in the hands of the sadhu was falling on the military officer sitting below. He objected it and the sadhu behaved insolently towards the officer. Given the fearful atmosphere prevailing in the country at that time many would suspect the officer to be Muslim. About half an hour later another man with beard and cap obviously a Muslim with a prayer mat came there and prayed early evening prayer and then quietly withdrew to his compartment where perhaps he did not have enough space to pray. As the train neared the cantonment station the army officer who turned out to be a Muslim asked the fellow civilian travelers to vacate the compartment and go to another for they would have other army men boarding the compartment. This brief description of a compartment mostly occupied by Hindus had about two to three Muslim passenger travelling in times of tension and strife shows instances of tension, strain, restraint, etc. Living together is viable until the atmosphere is charged with communal virus. Or, some agent provocateur enters the scene with indoctrinated hate against the other and ready to settle old score. That was what had happened in Gujarat 2002. Narender Modi government and more importantly the VHP had preplanned the post Godhra violence. Muslim tea vendors and Sophia Shaikh were manhandled and molested and a fracas developed. Pelting of stones followed. The collector of Godhra Jayanti Ravi described the fire incident as an accident. Modi turned it much later without proof into a terrorist attack by Lashkare Taiba and ISI. It was aimed at turning the course of communal violence or riots once for all in favour of the Hindus. A misunderstanding was created that in earlier riots Muslims had played more aggressive role and hence caused more damage and casualties on Hindus. Hence, the time to avenge so horrendously that it would change the equation for good. Rajan Priyadarshi was IG of Rajkot, director of ATS in 2007, etc. During his posting at Rajkot HM Gordhan Zadaphia called him sometime in July 2002 and told him “write down three names, and arrest all these three.” Pat came his reply “Sir, these three are sitting with me and let me tell you Sir that they are all Muslims and because of them normalcy has been restored. And these are the people who have brought the Hindus and Muslims together with their efforts and brought the riots to an end.” Later HM also said that it was the chief minister who had ordered the arrest. Rajan stood his ground, “Sir, I can’t do it even if it’s the CM’s order because these three are innocent.” Rajan gives another such incidents in one such he says that Amit Shah confided to him how in 1985 he had instigated communal riots. In another instance he asked Rajan why did he not transfer the police constable. Rajan informed him that the constable was stopping a BJP leader from causing riots. Shah had also told him that Ishrat was no terrorist but was kept in police custody before they killed her. This last shows that Ishrat was not a terrorist let alone a fidayeen. The Home Secretary of Narendra Modi was Ashok Narayan who revealed the ambiguity in torget Gandhi forever. Till we follow Gandhi’s policy of non violence, till we continue to follow the ractice of he ambiguity in the official language of Modi. The chief minister would say “Take care that riots don’t take in that area” but the real meaning is “take care that the riots take place in that area.” Another instance of euphemism is that Ravan is a word of Muslims. Prain Togadia: “Terror was unleashed at Godhra station because this country follows Gandhi. We locked Gandhi away on February 28. Reform yourselves (Muslims) or we forget Gandhi forever. Till we follow Gandhi’s policy of non violence, till we continue to follow the practice of kneeling before Muslims, terrorism cannot be eliminated. My brothers we have to abandon Gandhi. You know the Ramayana, it is relevant to the Godhra incident. At7. 45 am on Sigal Falia the burnt S6 was Hanumanji’s tale set on fire. Who burnt the tail of Hanuman? Ravana burnt it. Hanumanji had gone for a walk, we hear Hanumanji had come to Godhra(crowd laughs and cheers). Hanumanji came to Halol, Kalol, Sardarpura and he stayed put in Karnavati (Ahmadabad) and didn’t want to go back.” The Commissioner of Police of Ahmadabad PC Pande admitted that 2002 was revenge of what had happened at Godhra. But the post Godhra violence was to really avenge the riots of 1985-86 and 1992. According to him in the latter the Hindus were at the receiving hand. “Here [2002] was a chance, given it back to them [Muslims]. Why should anybody mind it?” “…there were riots in 85, 87, 89, 92 and most of the times the Hindus got a beating. And the Muslims got an upper hand. So this time in 2002 it had to happen, it was the retaliation of Hindus.” Pande says that the Muslims are creating anarchy in the country and said about the suspects: “These people should be put against the wall and shot.” “My best friend is a Muslim but that’s a different thing.” He even downplayed the killing of Kauser Bi saying that she was living in with Sohrabuddin! He is myopic and prejudiced and not fully informed. Kauser was Sohrabuddin’s second wife. From her earlier marriage she has two daughters. From the sting operation by Rana Ayyub the truth came out that there was an overwhelming desire for revenge against the Muslims only the pretext had to come. When it came about on February 27, 2002 a deluge of protestors came on the streets according to Pande like what happened in the Arab Spring in Egypt. How could you open fire on such multitudes? He conveniently does not want about the logic how in such a short time such huge crowds could materialize on the scenes of pogroms well armed and well supplied with food packs and water pouches and printouts of Muslim shops and houses to the minute details of partnership in commercial establishments. “The aggression came from [the thought] what do I do. I am in strength of 10, 000 you are in strength of 100.” Why would Pande then spare the Muslims? Pande like Togadia is for mobocracy where Muslims would be taught a lesson to know their place and shut up. Even DG Chakravarthy also admits it. He says Modi was groomed by the RSS which was involved in the pogroms and he had to yield to the crowds (consisting of RSS cadres mostly) because he was power hungry. Daya Naik had said that Haren Pandya murder was the “biggest political murder” in the history of India. As this turned out that the blame thrown on Muslims and eleven people were put behind the bars. Finally they were acquitted. They suffered years of imprisonment like the accused in Akshardham and Godhra attack. After the released Muslim went back to society there is no trace of any violent feeling on their parts to take revenge on India. Their faith in the country remained unchanged. In fact they also helped the Hindu prisoners in jail to fight for justice. Even more important is that they have sailed on the safe even keel of the ship of the nation that Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Azad brought back from the stormy sea of the partition era. It is in this larger perspective that terror events should be objectively investigated no matter how big the person is involved. But the ground reality shows how investigation and judicial process is suborned by Modi. The inspector who investigated Haren Pandya murder in the beginning YA Shaikh was used by IB. He had said that IB was working for Modi. That LK Advani brought in CBI to cover up the Pandya murder. “The CBI rescued Modi in this case.”[1] Mufti Sufiyan had links with the bootleggers through whom the Gujarat cops got Asghar Ali and kept him in detention and blamed him for the murder of Pandya . One question that Gujarat police asked Mufti Qayum was “who came from Hyderabad?” They wanted to frame Asghar Ali because he was from that city and in their custody. They could frame Mufti Qayum more comfortably in any of the three cases, including the Pandya assassination where Modi’s involvement was direct. The Pandya case was another fake encounter where the accused were already with the police like in Ishrat Jahan case. Lest the police use Indian Muslims in such deplorable manner and in future link them to Daesh or Islamic States which may disturb and beleaguer the minority, vigilance is need of the hour. Game Plan This apprehension is based on the experience of Mufti Qayum Mansruri. The session court had sentenced him and others to death in Akshardham temple attack. The game plan of the ATS chief Vanzara was to frame them in any one of the three cases of terror attack: Godhra train attack, Akshardham or Haren Pandya. This kind of Russian roulette in framing innocent Muslims is the hall mark of Modi sarkar as long as he was in Gujarat. Now he is prime minister of India in Delhi and may carry the same milieu in Delhi darbar for the wider stage of Daesh. Lest Indian police use Indian stock in detention and begin to frame them in Daesh cases and enlarge the field operation it is better to be vigilant. One can understand the kind of preaching Dr Zakir Naik is giving, it is in vogue. But Muftis like Qayum are a different breed than Mufti Sufiyan. Further the brief given to the police also matters and to sail on even keel Indian Muslims have to be more circumspect. There is no such thing that Ahle Hadish community among the believers is radical or the Tabligi Jamat or the Sufi groups are radical or not radical. Persons committing terror must be judged on their individual acts. When the police took Mufti Qayum to Vanzara he became red in face and cursed the Tabligi for Qayum hailing from that group. But in his poems and utterances on stage since his release Vanzara had been cursing the Wahabis and Ahle Hadish. For India to sail on even keel giving such brief to police is obfuscation. No sooner had the bombs exploded in 2006 in Malegaon the police were ready with the thesis that Tablighi group did not eye the Sufi and Sunni going to graveyard with favour and the deductive logic from this was that the Tablighis were suspected. Even the MLA of Congress then bought this thesis. According to premeditated plan the police arrested only people from Ahle Hadish community for their stance that visiting graveyard is forbidden. Succinctly the essence of Islam and how the faithful could go stray crystallized in what Sayyid Ibrahim Khaleel Bukhari asserted in Malappuram, Kerala through a pledge along with 300, 000 fellow Muslims on Friday July 1: “Even as we take pride in being Muslim, we respect and honour all other faiths and their followers. We will keep a continuous vigil against forces such as Islamic State that work to destroy the oneness of humanity.” [2] India is much different from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Indian Muslims en mass do not subscribe to any hatred to either fellow Indians or anyone outside India. A day after this assertion and pledge came the hostage taking and the murder and mayhem in the neighbouring Bangladesh Holey Artisan Bakery. About this subsequent event coming on the heels of Bukhari’s mammoth gathering he remarked: “These beastly actions are the biggest blow and blemish that has happened to Islam. Even though India is a secular country, we have every freedom to practice our religion and live as a Muslim without any fear. “When you have the freedom to have mosques, when you have the freedom to have madrasas and when you have the freedom to pray, why should you turn to terrorism? “We want to send this message to the entire world.” There could not be any better testimony of sailing on even keel despite all the turbulence of 1992 or 2002. Bukhar went on “Islam came to India during the times of the Prophet. There are people from different religions around us and they pray to different gods, but we always lived harmoniously. That is why there is peace of mind and happiness in our country. “It is to make youngsters understand the true message of Islam that we start religious centres. Even in our schools and colleges, we see to that children from all religions sit together and that no segregation takes place. The love that they develop as a child will never end. “If we can live happily in a secular country, why can't they? That is our message.” Game Changer All this good comes through despite what Muslims of India went through in 1992 and 2002. This is also despite the fact that with the induction of Modi as CM of Gujarat in 2002 his backers in RSS and VHP wanted him a game changer in what they had in mind of making the Gujarat laboratory experiment. Modi performed his act to the hilt and to the applause of the full gallery as witnessed in the conclave in Goa 2002. Gujarat 2002 was pitted against all the previous riots of 1980s. Even if Modi got away with all that and the fake encounters there has been no convincing proof that there was any act of terrorism as a revenge of 2002 post Godhra pogroms or the fake encounters in which even innocent girl of 19 was sacrificed at the altar of the Hindutva Moloch. ------- [1]Rana Ayyub. Gujarat Files, anatomy of a cover up. (2016) Most of the quotes here and earlier are from the same source. [2] http://www.rediff.com/news/interview/a-person-who-has-understood-islam-will-never-become-a-fundamentalist/20160705.htm