PRESS STATEMENT
September 29, 2016
Delhi
MUZAFFARNAGAR RIOT VICTIMS IN KAIRANA PAINED
AT BEING LABELLED CRIMINALS BY NHRC
DEMAND APOLOGYBY NHRC AND WITHDRAWAL OF
THIS REPORT
The findings
of NHRC’s investigation into the so-called ‘exodus’ of families from Kairana
town, Shamli District (UP) because of increasing crime, was made public in a Press
Release of Sept 21, 2016. We are deeply dismayed and shocked, as this report is
based on dubious facts and makes prejudiced and communally charged assumptions,
blaming the very riot-victims it should seek to protect.
We therefore
call upon the NHRC to provide evidence for these ‘findings’ and, failing to do
so, to apologize and withdraw this prejudicial report, which amounts to labeling
and stigmatizing of an entire community.
Findings
of NHRC’s investigation as contained in its Press Release,
in
Point 12 states–
“At least 24 witnesses stated that the youths of the specific
majority community (Muslims) in Kairana town pass lewd/taunting remarks against
the females of the specific minority community in Kairana town. Due to this,
females of the specific minority community (Hindus) in Kairana town avoid going
outside frequently. However, they could not gather courage to report the matter
to the police for the legal action.
”
Point
18, states:
“In 2013, the post-rehabilitation scenario resulting in
resettlement of about 25/30 thousand members of Muslims Community in Kairana
Town from district Muzaffarnagar, UP, the demography of Kairana town has
changed in favour of the Muslim Community becoming the more dominating and
majority community. Most of the witnesses examined and victims feel that the
rehabilitation in 2013 has permanently changed the social situation in Kairana
town and has led to further deterioration of law and order situation.”
1.
Blaming desperate riot victims for criminality
without citing any credible and independent evidence is unworthy of the NHRC.
First, we demand factual evidence of NHRC’s figure of 25-30,000 Muslim victims
having settled in Kairana town. The
communal onslaught in Muzaffarnagar in 2013, had initially displaced over
75,000 Indian citizens. A 2016 report -Living
Apart: Communal Violence and Forced Displacement in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli–
based on detailed ground research, found an estimated 50,000 still scattered
all over Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, and other districts, of which nearly 30,000
victims were in IDP (internally displaced people) colonies, never able to
return home, dealing with traumas from loss of lives, homes, histories,
schools, friends, livelihoods and neighbors. Of these, 270 families
(approximately 2000 people) settled in Kairana Town. As citizens of India, they
have every right to do so, and they deserve the empathy and support of the
state, their fellow citizens and of human rights bodies like the NHRC towards
full and comprehensive rehabilitation. Displacement from the villages and towns
of their birth due to hate violence is extremely painful, and rather than
assist them, what the NHRC report has in effect done is double victimization by
labeling them ‘criminals’ or as people whose presence “has led to further
deterioration of law and order situation.” Kairana Town already had a Muslim
majority, and the addition of mere 2000 riot-victims has not made them “more
dominating.”
2.
Declining law and order or criminality in any
area may cause people to migrate, and if so, it is the state government’s job
to act. But criminality does not have a religion or a community. It is
disgraceful for the NHRC to communalize this alleged law and order problem in
Kairana town by casually pointing the finger of blame at those who are
themselves victims displaced by the Muzaffarnagar violence of 2013. It is a matter of grave concern that our
premier human rights body in a public document should speak so loosely and
irresponsibly, based only on what unnamed witnesses said they “feel”, and libel and stigmatize an
entire community of Indian citizens as criminals. What is the evidence for such
shocking statements?
3.
We also seek justification for an NHRC
investigation into a discredited issue. Why has it chosen to closely study a
list of 346 families supplied by a
political party with a clear stake in communalizing the atmosphere ahead of the
UP polls? The list was falsified after investigation by credible newspapers. The Hindu report (June 17, 2016) said,
“Out of the 346 families listed by Mr. [Hukum] Singh [BJP MP from Kairana], the
Shamli administration has probed 119 of which it found 68 had left Kairana
10-15 years ago for employment, business, education of children, health and
other services. Four persons on the list are dead, while 13 families were found
still living in Kairana.” The Indian
Express report (June 16, 2016) says, “BJP list of ‘Hindus’ forced out
includes those who died, migrated for better job.” Yet, this bogus issue was
considered worthy of investigation by a 4-member NHRC team.
4.
We are dismayed at the double standards for
citizens that the NHRC clearly applies. The large-scale displacement because of
communal violence of over 75,000 persons from the villages of their birth
because of the communal attacks, killings, rape and arson in Muzaffarnagar in
2013 has not resulted in any investigation or actions by the NHRC. Yet, among
its recommendations on the so-called “exodus” of less than 350 people is:
“A high-level committee of the Govt. of UP may be constituted to meet each of the displaced families
from Kairana Town now living in districts Dehradun, Panipat, Muzaffarnagar,
Roorki, Karnal, etc. of Uttarakhand and Haryana in order to redress their
grievances and facilitate their return to Kairana, if so desired”.
We ask what the NHRC did to monitor the rehabilitation of over
75,000 citizens after their violent
exodus from Muzaffarnagar in 2013, and if the NHRC ever proposed a similar
high-level committee “to meet each of
the displaced families “to redress their grievances and facilitate their
return?
5.
We ask why the NHRC is legitimizing the worst
kind of communal stereotyping and rumour-mongering about eve-teasing byyoung
men of one community, directly feedingfalse notions of ‘Hindu community honour’being
under threat, which has been used as the pretext for numerousprevious incidents
of communal violence, including most recently in Bijnor. If indeed the NHRC thought this a fit subject
for commentary by an apex statutory institution for human rights, the least it
needs to do is base its conclusive statements on actual crime records, steering
clear of communally charged assumptions.
We
demand from the NHRC:
1.
A withdrawal of this libelous and false‘investigative’
report.
2.
An apology to victims of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal
violence, who settled in dire circumstances where they could, including some in
Kairana Town, for this vilification from India’s apex human rights body.
3.
Monitoring of their safety and security in
kairana.
Press Statement
issued by:
Muzaffarnagar
Riot-Victims living in Kairana, with
Harsh Mander, Aman
Biradari (Delhi); Akram Chaudhury, Afkar India (Shamli);
MadhaviKuckreja and
Mamta Verma, Sadbhavana Trust (Lucknow); and
Farah Naqvi,
independent writer and activist (Delhi)
