Who is destroying the houses and property of Muslims?
Who razed the house of Shahzad Ali in Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh to the ground? Who signed the orders? Who gave the order and who crushed Shahzad Ali’s three vehicles?
On whose orders was a procession of Muslims taken out and in it, youth forced to chant the slogan ‘Police hamara baap hai (police is our father)’?
Who took a rape accused in Assam near a pond at 3 am claiming it was the site of the crime of rape? And how was the accused allowed to die there? Did he really jump into the pond while trying to escape despite such police presence and die by drowning? Who believes this claim of the Assam police ? How was it predicted by journalists a day before?
All this is decided, implemented and done by administrative and local police officials. They cannot shirk their responsibility by saying that a chief minister asked them to do this, or that there was an order from above.
Stone pelting took place during a protest by Muslims at Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh. They were expressing their anger against the public insult of Prophet Mohammad and wanted to file an first information report. How the protest gave way to a clash with police, who was involved in it, and who instigated it can only be known after an impartial investigation. Local Congress leader Shahzad Ali was trying to convince the angry protesters to not indulge in violence, according to reports, when stone pelting started. Were there some miscreants infiltrating the protesting mass who did it? This is a legitimate question. But the police immediately, without any investigation, decided that Ali was among those who incited the violence and the very next day his house was razed to the ground and all his vehicles were crushed.
Along with this, Muslims were made to walk out in a procession that was meant to humiliate them publicly.
Under which provisions of the law was all this done? The administration first justified the demolition of the house by saying that it was on government land, then said that it was very close to a water body and then said that the land belonged to Shahzad Ali but the map of the house was not approved. In India or Madhya Pradesh is an entire house demolished if its plans are not approved by authorities – that too without proper notice?
Why does the District Magistrate not have the courage to say that he really wanted to teach Muslims a lesson and hence he hit a respected person of the community so that everyone got the message? Why is he resorting to lies and half-truths?
Earlier, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh had told the press that he had a recording of the District Magistrate of Bhind in which he is allegedly heard saying that he will demolish the houses of Muslims, not Hindus. He is also allegedly heard saying that he will demolish houses only where there is a “Hindu Muslim angle.” In a murder case, for instance, the administration reportedly demolished the houses of the accused Muslims but refused to take such action against a Hindu accused in a similar case.
Just before that, in Ujjain, in a rape case, the house of the accused Muslim was demolished but not that of the other accused, who was a Hindu.
In Madhya Pradesh itself, we saw the statement of the District Magistrate of Dindori, Ratnakar Jha, two years ago: “The shop and house of Asif Khan, the accused in the kidnapping of a student in Dindori district, have been razed to the ground. For two days, action has been taken against the shops and illegal houses of accused Asif Khan.”
Asif Khan’s crime was that he had married a Hindu woman. It was a legal marriage. But as happens in India, the girl’s family created a ruckus. The District Magistrate demolished Asif Khan’s father’s house. Under which law? And he also announced it proudly. When asked, he clarified that the villagers wanted his house to be demolished, so he demolished it.
For the last five to six years, in certain parts of the country, as soon as an allegation is made against Muslims, the administration demolishes their houses and shops at the blink of an eye.
It is as if administrative reflexes have now mutated. The moment they see or hear a Muslim name among accused, they take out their bulldozers and JCB machines. Some of them even engage a band to celebrate the demolitions. It appears that sadism has now become a feature of the administrative culture in India. They get pleasure out of the pain of Muslims. It is not even necessary that they have their own houses. In Udaipur, a Muslim teenager stabbed a Hindu child in a fight. A bizarre thing happened after that. The administration demolished the house where the child’s family lived. It turned out that it was not owned by his parents. It was a rented house in which four other families were living. This one incident is enough to tell us that houses where Muslims live are demolished to teach them a lesson.
How is it that immediately after an incident, the administration finds out that a Muslim’s house is illegal?
We must remember that this is being done by those people who are in the administration and police. They are the ones taking decisions. It is true that this is the policy of the Bharatiya Janata Party, but the chief minister does not give written orders in different cases, nor has the state issued any such general direction. The administration is doing much of this on its own.
Why is the Congress and other opposition parties not able to ask this question? Why is no one saying clearly that what the police and administration are doing to Muslims is a crime? Rahul Gandhi has said many times in the past – in other contexts – that officers who are doing unconstitutional work will have to pay the price for it. But why is this not being said about the administrative and police officers who are committing illegal violence against Muslims?
The crimes that were committed by Hindutva gangs or mobs are now being committed by the administration and the police. The Hindutvafication of the Indian state machinery is the most horrific development of the last ten years in India. But this is not machinery. It is living individuals who are tasked to ensure safety and security and rights of the people who have decided to commit crimes using their authority.
But they should remember that at some point in their own lifetime, hopefully, society will go back to the ways of justice. The victims do remember the names of all the officers who sign the orders to take out bulldozers and do the encounters. A day will come, and it is not too far, when they will have to face justice. When their present-day actions will be judged by the principles of justice and each one of them will have to answer for the crime that they are committing now individually. Each individual is responsible for their act. All the administrative and police officers, who are thought to be the brightest minds which are in their positions after cracking the UPSC examination, must not have forgotten the Nuremberg trials. All the accused were in the dock as individuals. Let us hope that these officers remember their individuality and start exerting their minds, the greatest gift that God or nature has bestowed on humans. They must not allow themselves to be turned into the cogs of this Hindutva wheel crushing Muslims or the hands turning this wheel.
