outlook magazine
October 6, 2008
BIASED INDIAN STATE
Few Blind Men Of Hindostan
Why is the Indian State quick to nail minority offences but myopic to Sangh transgressions? ......
by Saba Naqvi
"We didn’t expect UPA to be so uncaring about our plight in Karnataka and Orissa. They don’t care because Christians do not make a votebank."
-Fr Dominic Emmanuel, Spokesman, Delhi Catholic Church
"The situation today is more lethal for Muslims because an individual can become a national hero by showing bias against them."
-Shahid Siddiqui, Editor, Nayi Duniya
"This talk of mastermind is nonsense. No mastermind is involved in planting bombs. A mastermind certainly isn’t a boy on a computer."
Ajit Doval, Former IB chief
"Some would be satisfied if there is a law offering complete immunity to a person who shot another on mere suspicion of being a terrorist."
-K.G. Kannabiran, Andhra Civil Rights Activist
"Those who took part in the ’92 riots may be respectable citizens today. Terrorists are committed to undermine the state’s sovereignty."
-Swapan Dasgupta, BJP ideologue
"State performance relates to all levels of governance, not just minorities. If the cops are ham-handed, it’s to cover their own incompetence."
-Gurcharan Das, Author
***
Instruments Of Bias
POTA
* Defunct terror law used in Gujarat to target Muslims for Godhra. Hindus involved spared
* 3,000 arrests nationwide since the law’s enforcement. Most detentions in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand; also in TN against LTTE sympathisers
Armed Forces Special Powers Act
* Applies to declared ‘disturbed’ areas like J&K and Manipur; offers immunity to army officers from prosecution
* Five Rashtriya Rifles officers still not prosecuted for killing five in a March 2000 fake encounter in J&K
* Assam Rifles jawans accused of raping Manorama Devi in Manipur unpunished
Official Secrets Act
* Allows state to persecute those seen as a "national threat"
* Widely misused to fix whistleblowers, dissenters
* Administrative Reforms Commission called for its immediate repeal
Target Maoists
* Most above laws and state-specific security acts have been used to target Naxals, their ‘sympathisers’ and rights activists like Dr Binayak Sen
***
Cross Christians: Protesting the attack on this Bangalore church
In the age of terror and hate campaigns, the Indian state looks so much less than it was intended to be. Human beings are full of prejudice; the state should be seen to be above bias. In India the majority of citizens have for years seen the state as the epitome of inefficiency and corruption. But more damningly, the poor and the marginalised see it as an active instrument of injustice. And now, Muslims and Christians increasingly agree.
Consider some basic facts that have been part of the public discourse in the last few weeks. Muslim youth are picked up at random and identified as terrorists, with the police in several metros claiming they have "the mastermind". Their identities and sketches are released to the media. Christians continue to be attacked in the Indian hinterland but no serious attempt has been made to stop the hate crimes or ban the organisations engaged in assaults on the minority. A dangerous imbalance is at play. An incoherent and asymmetrical response that can only further undermine the ideals India was built on.
Today, most Christians and Muslims believe the state is biased against them.
Says Father Dominic Emmanuel, spokesperson of the Delhi Catholic Church, "We did not expect the UPA at the Centre to be so ineffective and uncaring about our plight in Orissa and Karnataka. But they are callous and don’t care because Christians do not make a votebank. They don’t want to alienate Hindus and that must be why they are not coming down hard on the Bajrang Dal and other Sangh parivar outfits. We are helpless as we continue to be attacked in a country where liberty and freedom were promised to all."
We see you: Police keep strict vigil on Muslim protesters in Delhi
What about Muslims—a votebank pursued hotly by most political parties? In an instance of black humour emerging out of the community, one sms reads: "The politicians are after our vote, the police in hot pursuit of us." Says Shahid Siddiqui, editor of Urdu weekly Nayi Duniya and BSP member: "Muslims aren’t the only people the state is biased against.
"Politicians are after our vote, police in our hot pursuit" — SMS circulating among Muslims.
Many underprivileged communities and the poor have faced prejudice from society and the state. But the situation today is more lethal for Muslims because an individual can become a national hero by showing bias against them." So, if Narendra Modi can become an iconic
political figure, why should an ordinary policeman care if innocent Muslims are arrested in the hunt for terrorists?
There is, however, a larger problem in the manner in which investigations into terror strikes are being conducted. Former IB chief Ajit Doval is considered a hawk on matters of national security but he tells Outlook: "The talk of getting a mastermind is nonsense—no mastermind is ever involved in planting bombs as the police tell us. If there is a mastermind, it is certainly not a boy with details on his computer." Does Doval therefore believe the state is biased? "In certain situations, government agencies behave in a way that leads certain communities and individuals to conclude that the response is biased." He explains the process: when security agencies are under political and media pressure to deliver results for public consumption, they do not count the collateral damage.
"A policeman will be told nothing should happen in your area and get the terrorists quickly," says Doval.
The sequence of events could go like this: the police team starts watching Muslim hubs like madrassas and urban ghettoes in their neighbourhood.
In Karnataka, Bajrang Dal convenor got bail while Christians were charged under non-bailable sections
Some young men are picked up on suspicion. If they do indeed have other "suspicious" material on their person, in their homes or on their computers, they are possibly arrested as terrorists. In the case of the Delhi accused, the police procured head-scarves associated with Palestinian guerrillas, swathed three young men in them and produced them before the media as terrorists. The Christian community too is facing prejudice in a somewhat different form.
In Karnataka, for instance, Christians protesting the violence against them have been charged under non-bailable sections of the law. But the charges against Bajrang Dal state convenor Mahendra Kumar were so weak that he secured bail in a few days. Nor did the BJP government in Karnataka express any remorse about the attacks on Christians in the state.
For right-wing ideologue and journalist Swapan Dasgupta equating the Bajrang Dal with SIMI is like comparing a water pistol to an AK-47. "Rioters," he says, "cannot be equated with terrorists. An individual who took part in the Bombay riots of 1992 may be a respectable citizen today while a terrorist is committed to undermining the sovereignty of the state." Dasgupta also counters the argument about the state being prejudiced against particular communities or social groups.
"The Indian state is not a neutral state. It has multiple levels of biases. It is also not a very efficient state and is a source of harassment for all citizens regardless of caste and creed."
A lucid argument perhaps. But facts suggest a systematic bias against specific social groups at different times because of a perceived threat by those who constitute the state. Noted Andhra Pradesh civil rights activist and PUCL president K.G. Kannabiran says that before the serial blasts across the country, the poor were targeted in the state because of Naxalism. Now it’s the turn of Muslims to feel this heat not just in AP but across India.
"You can bring in any law," says ex-CJI J.S. Verma, "but it’s as good as the people who implement it."
He also says that the political clamour for stronger laws is just eyewash. "If POTA is removed, state governments bring in other laws that are equally draconian. But there is a section in our society that would only be satisfied if a law existed that allowed complete immunity
to someone who shot someone on mere suspicion of supporting terrorism!"
Cops parade 'terrorists' in Arab keffiyah head dresses
In the absence of any real political courage or coherent policy to tackle terrorism, there is competitive sloganeering about stronger laws. Serial blasts have, after all, struck India in the global context of the war against terror and the domestic backdrop of a general election. Given the way our democracy has evolved, it is the stuff of emotive politics, not sensible policy. Former Chief Justice of India, J.S. Verma, says that all this talk of new laws is rubbish as those who understand the legal system know it is adequate to tackle the problem. "You can bring in any system or law," he says, "but it is as good as the people in the system who will implement it."
The first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, had once said that the "worth of the Constitution will depend on the worth of the men who work it". Justice Verma says the state is not biased, it is rotting from within. "The original sin is the pursuit of personal interest by public men. That is today the only ideology followed by those who serve the Indian State. After themselves, they serve their kith and kin. Then the caste and community." That, according to the former CJI, is how biases work in the state. Not because there is a great national conspiracy. Verma points to the fact that the last bastions of public accountability—the judiciary and media—are also getting corrupted or swayed in what passed for public hype. He says: "Dr C. Rajagopalachari had once said that national character is determined by the sum of individual character. There are many people of conviction in India but they don’t get a chance as the system is rotting from within. If you have a billion rotten apples you will have a stink."
Is the state biased by intent? Or callous by default? Management guru and columnist Gurcharan Das believes the Indian state is just incompetent and incapable of delivering on most fronts. Combine that with political interference and we have a recipe for disaster. "We know there is great institutional rot in the bureaucracy, judiciary and other institutions of the state. The issue of state performance is related to all levels of governance, not just minorities. If the police do a ham-handed investigation that terrifies minorities, it is to cover their own incompetence," he says. He does not believe there is a grand conspiracy against minorities or the poor.
To define a state as unwieldy as ours would be almost impossible. Social activists would argue that the state is an instrument of oppression used systematically against minorities and the poor. The right wing would say India is a soft state that simply cannot come down hard on terrorists and "anti-national forces".The truth probably lies somewhere in between. India is at many levels an incompetent state that can be manipulated to target certain communities. It is a state run by men who can be overcome by their own prejudices and never be held accountable for such lapses. It is a state that some would argue is biased against all citizens because it delivers nothing to anyone. It is a state where an attempt is made to cover incompetence with more incompetence. It is a state that criminally neglects its duties. Or acts in an overzealous manner that convinces many citizens that the state is indeed the enemy.
