Eid has arrived. Threats and warnings to Muslims by the police of Uttar Pradesh precede it. The police chief of Meerut has said that no one will be allowed to offer namaz on the road. Cases will be filed and action will be initiated to cancel the passport of those defying the order.
People are wondering about the power and authority of the police to do so. Who gave the police the right to issue this threat? The police have forgotten that it is for the court to decide the nature of a crime and about the nature and quantum of the punishment.
Cancelling a passport is beyond the powers of the police. Why is it issuing an illegal warning?
On the day of the last Friday of Ramzan, the Sambhal police issued an order that no one can offer namaz even on their terraces. Videos of heavy police mobilisation are circulating as if some untoward incident is going to take place. A man sporting a tilak is seen flying a drone and the police personnel follow its path with a serious look.
This is definitely a psychological war against Muslims. It is also an attempt to manipulate the minds of Hindus by telling them that police apprehend some mischief by Muslims when they get together, even to celebrate Eid. And the police are trying to save Hindus from Muslims by restraining them. The Uttar Pradesh government has since last year directed that Muslims not offer namaz on roads; Hindutva leaders have started demanding this in Bihar too.
Namaz should not be offered on the road: the argument behind this order is that it obstructs traffic; why, even ambulances cannot move. People can die because of namaz.
We know that all this is a lie. But most of us Hindus want to believe this lie. That explains our silence. People argue that it is not only about Eid and namaz, any kind of festivity on the roads is wrong.
But we know that what is being said about collective public namaz is never said when a Hindu festival approaches. We have never seen police issue such warnings during Durga Puja, Ram Navami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Rath Yatra or Kanwar Yatra.
In Delhi, there is a traffic jam at many places every Tuesday because people gather to visit Hanuman temples which are on the roadside. Langars are organised on the roadside every few days.
The police never say anything. Processions and gatherings of Hindus keep happening on the roads throughout the year. The administration and the police never issue any advisory.
The fact is that now the Indian state is saying that roads are not for Muslims and that public places are not for Muslims. A few years ago in Gurugram, when Hindutva gangs attacked Muslims offering namaz in open and vacant places, the police stood with the goons and Muslims were expelled from those places. The chief minister had also opposed the reading of namaz in public and a state cabinet minister said that namaz in the open was actually a conspiracy to grab land.
Is the issue really about roads and traffic? In Rampur for instance a mosque’s imam was reportedly arrested after iftar timings were announced from the mosque’s loudspeaker and there were objections from “people of [another] community”.
So has the police now started believing that azan or the announcement of iftar pollutes Hindu ears and is a crime? Do we want to say that azan or iftar announcements crowd air-waves and would therefore be policed?
Every collective or public act of Muslims is being portrayed as a conspiracy and crime. The Indian Express rightly says:
“Among the many depredations of British colonialism in India, some of whose effects are felt to this day, is the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. An example of gross discrimination, it categorised several communities as “criminal tribes” and their members often bore the brunt of police excesses – their “guilt” an assumption rather than a matter of proof. The Act was repealed soon after independence. Unfortunately, when it comes to the police apparatus and how it looks at minorities, part of that ethos seems to linger.”
Just like the British, the Indian state is branding every activity of Muslims as a criminal act. Whether they buy a house, open a shop, hawk bangles in the streets, study or pass a competitive exam, everything is a criminal conspiracy to usurp the share of Hindus. A year ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the Congress conspired to usurp the wealth of Hindus and give them to Muslims, whom he described as ‘infiltrators’.
Hindu festivals have been made an occasion to humiliate and harass Muslims. In Unnao, Mohammad Sharif was allegedly beaten to death because he was protesting against forceful application of colour. The family and the people of the community expressed their protest by keeping his body on the road for some time. The police registered an FIR against 117 Muslims. Is it so difficult to see the injustice in this act?
The most worrying thing in this entire context is that where earlier we used to see BJP people or Hindutvavadis spreading anti-Muslim hatred and committing violence, now we seeing the police and administration doing the same. The police are actively working to push Muslims into the corner.
This is the last phase of the Hindutva-isation of India in which the state machinery is finding new ways to criminalise Muslims.
A young Muslim friend of mine rightly said that the administration and police are working to create a distance between Hindus and Muslims. Now the state is separating Hindus and Muslims from each other. The police and administration are now filling the minds of Hindus with fear and hatred towards Muslims. How are Muslims expected to deal with this?
But more than that, it is a matter for Hindus to think whether they agree with this hateful governance model.
Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University.
