Whither Justice for Religious Minorities
Ram Puniyani
Retired
Justice of Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju wrote (26 September
2016) to the Supreme Court judges, “You are aware that one Ikhilaq was
brutally lynched by cow vigilantes in Dadri. Instead of severely
punishing the perpetrators of this heinous outrage, the police and local
judge are proceeding against the family of Ikhlaq…Have the police gone
mad?”
Chand
Khan alias Shan Khan spent 11 years in a jail in 2002 Akshardham temple
attack case before he was acquitted without any compensation so far.
Instead he has been booked in a case of cow slaughter. (21 September
2016) There is a book by Mufti Abdul Qayum Abdul Hussain, ‘Eleven Years
behind the bars’ (I am a mufti, I am not terrorist). This book tells
the story of Mufti Sahab being arrested on charges of terrorist
violence, tortured and then was released after spending such a long time
in prison. A Muslim boy called Aamir Khan was in prison for 14 long
years before he was released. He was booked under the charges of
terrorism when he was preparing for his matriculation examination and as
he came out of the dark dungeon he had already lost his father and
found his mother seriously ill. Reading his book, ‘Framed as a
Terrorist’, makes one realize as to what brutal extent the system can go
against an innocent individual.
These
are just few of the glaring samples from vast number of cases of Muslim
youth and men who have faced the situation where their life came to a
halt, careers ruined and families destroyed. One can add a large number
to this list but couple of more examples is in order, Haji Umarji was in
prison for being the mastermind of Godhra train burning and was
released after few years of torture as no evidence of any type was found
against him. In the infamous cases of terror blasts in Makkah Masjid
(Hyderabad), Malegaon, Samjhauta Express and Ajmer blasts large number
of Muslim youth were arrested and later released for lack of any
credible evidence. Most of the investigations showed the sloppy and
motivated investigation done by authorities. It has become a sort of
pattern where the bias of police towards minorities becomes obvious.
The scholars of communal violence in India tell us that the police did
play a neutral role during British period. It was a force which
intervened in a neutral way.
The
biased attitude of police picks up after independence and right from
the first major violence in Jabalpur in 1961, the anti minority attitude
of police can be seen. Even the state machinery and political
leaderships at times have aggravated this attitude by their policies.
Most of the inquiry commission reports, films and documentaries bring
out this fact. The representation of Muslims in the state services is
miniscule, and those Muslims who are in the position of authority have
to go with the flow either by keeping quite or they are given postings
in the areas where they can’t influence the dynamics of communal
violence.
Shrikrishna
Commission report of Mumbai violence showed that many police officers
either looked the other way around or sided with those indulging in
violence. Same was the case in massive anti Sikh violence (Delhi 1984)
and Gujarat violence, to give the few examples. In one case of anti
minority violence in Mahararshtra (Dhule 2013) the police itself took up
the role of perpetrators of mayhem. In a very revealing book
Hashimpura, V.N. Rai ex Director General of police points out that the
police deliberately took away truck load of Muslims and shot them point
blank and threw their bodies in the canal. It was few of the survivors
of the tragedy who told the tale of their harrowing experience.
After
9/11 2001, WTC attack, American media manufactured a phrase ‘Islamic
Terrorism’, which cleverly hides US goal of propping up Al Qaeda for
controlling oil wealth and projects as if Islam-Muslims are the cause of
terrorism in the World. Since then the matters have worsened and not
only the broad social thinking but even the state authorities are
totally taken in by this propaganda. The global Islam phobia has been
cultivated by media and vested interests.
There
is an urgent need to protect the innocent young people and others. So
many commissions set up for police reforms have given the suggestions
for improving the system of policing. We need to sensitize the police
personnel to the issues related to minorities in our country. There are
state and national level police academies training the police personnel.
The curriculum of these academies needs to be modified to incorporate
the reality behind the biases and stereotypes which are prevalent in the
society. The police needs to be aligned to Constitution rather than
being dictated by their sentiments and emotions; they need to understand
the truth behind the prevalent social common sense.
There
are many civil society groups who are struggling to campaign on these
issues, they do take up the cases of many of these being framed by the
authorities or being incarcerated, but their capacity is limited. The
network working for innocents needs to be strengthened all over the
country. Those falsely implicated need to be compensated and the police
officers implicating them need to be punished. Many of the books written
by the falsely accused people need to be made a mandatory
reading in our administrative staff colleges, and academies training the
police and other administrators. The political parties who want to
uphold the secular values have to isolate the communal outfits and
ensure that communal parties don’t come to power. We need a society with
justice and peace. Such gross injustice against the people of
particular religion shows that our justice delivery system is weak. The
culture of any society should be judged by the index as to how justice
is delivered to weaker section of society including the religious
minorities. Let’s hope Justice Katju’s letter is taken seriously!
