Sleep And The Innocent...

COVER STORY

Sleep And The Innocent

When night falls, a quiet fear invades the smoky relief camps in Ahmedabad. For the children of the Gujarat riots, the witching hour has begun. In the slow hours till dawn, many huddle close to their mothers, struggling to stay awake. The horrific memories that they try to hold at bay during the day stalk them in their sleep.

For the riot's children, there is a thin dividing line between memories and nightmares. There are visions of parents being dragged out of their homes and cut into pieces, of brothers and sisters thrown into flames. There are memories of women being brutally raped, foetuses ripped from pregnant bellies and of their own spine-chilling escapes from imminent death.

There are some 42,000 children among the over 1 lakh inmates in Gujarat's relief camps today. That's what the discredited state government says anyway. Those working in the field—civil rights groups, ngos—claim that there are at least 30,000 children in Ahmedabad's camps alone. Many of them are orphans. "Children have been worst affected by the carnage. Unlike adults, they may not be able to fully absorb or vocalise what they saw. But the impact is deep," says Father Victor Moses, who is coordinating Citizen's Initiative, a group of 30 ngos working with the state's riot victims.

He is right. First came the mobs—burning, pillaging, murdering and raping in front of the eyes of these hapless children. Then came displacement—after their homes were torched. Suddenly, family, friends and schools are a chimera. Dr R. Srinivasa Murthy, professor of psychiatry at the Bangalore-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (nimhans), who visited some of the camps, found the children in a state of shock. "The trauma seen in children who survived the riots in Gujarat is similar to the trauma children suffered after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the Uttarkashi earthquake and the earthquake in the state." So they end up extremely prone to anxiety disorders, acute depression and stress.

Possibly even worse. When the Ahmedabad-based ngo Centre For Development tried to involve the camp children in art classes, they ended up drawing burning houses and dead people. "There is a lot of anger among the children," says Mira Mehta of the centre. "You will see a lot of small, silent children playing around in the camps. They don't look rattled but they are badly affected inside." That's not hard to discover. A three-year-old boy playing in the camp says occasionally: "Abba ko mar diya. Goli, goli! (They killed my father. Bullet, bullet!)"

Counselling will be futile, say psychiatrists, as long as the carnage continues. "There is so much fear and anger among children and we can't even tell them that it is all over. Until it stops, how can they begin healing?" asks Sandhya Surendradas of the ngo Sanchetna's child survival project.

Right now, they are possibly lucky to be just alive. Remember, quite a few children were murdered. Here are some testimonies to a gory end of childhood and innocence:

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Javed Hussain, 14Son of a rickshaw-puller father and a tailor mother, Javed lost his family in the Naroda Patiya massacre in Ahmedabad, where 91 people were burnt alive on February 28. The fourth-standard dropout stitched handkerchiefs for a living.

Present Home: Shah Alam relief camp, Ahmedabad

"We had just finished having tea around 9.30 am when we heard a mob outside. They were throwing stones, brandishing swords, dharias and khanjars and chanting 'Jai Shri Ram'. They said they would destroy all Muslims. We tried to run but they had surrounded us. They set fire to houses and started throwing people into the flames. I was standing with my pregnant cousin Qausarbibi, who was to deliver in another two days.They dragged her away, ripped open her stomach with a knife and threw the foetus into the fire. Then they threw my family into the fire, one by one: my father, mother and my 17-year-old sister Sophiya. My aunt's family was also burnt alive.

"Someone hit me with a pipe and I fainted. When I came to, it was night. There were corpses all around me. My pants had been burnt off. I walked to my house and put on some clothes. Then, I walked 10 km in the night to the house of my employer. All along the way, I feared someone would leap out and kill me. He took me to the hospital and then they brought me to this camp.

"I feel like my mind has been destroyed. I can't talk for more than a few minutes. I can't sleep at night. Those scenes keep coming back to me. I think about my mother a lot. She used to say that I was her joy, her support. I want to ask the people who did this: What had my family ever done to you? I don't think all Hindus are bad. I had four or five Hindu friends in my colony and I can't believe that they were involved. It was outsiders who did this.

"I feel scared to leave the camp but sometimes I think I have already lost everything. What can I feel scared of now? When (Prime Minister A.B.) Vajpayeeji had come to visit Gujarat, he spoke to me and asked me about my problems. But I want to know, what has he done to stop the killing? When is it going to end?"

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Mohammad Yashim, 8
A survivor of Naroda's Jawan Nagar blaze which claimed his mother and six of his nine siblings on February 28, he escaped with 20 per cent burns by jumping into a water tank.

Present Home: Living with his sister in Surat

"My father was on the roof, watching, and he told us that a mob was approaching. We were sitting on the bed, crying and holding hands. Then, the mob came towards our home. They were screaming, 'Kill them, cut them!' The police was with them. They had swords and were carrying flaming torches.

"We decided to run towards our friends' homes in Gangotri Nagar. We felt that would be safe. They were Hindu and we used to watch TV at their homes. I played with their children. But when we got there, we saw that they were part of the mob. I saw Keshubhai, Bhavani Singh and Guddu Chharra in the crowd. My family was holding hands and running but we got separated. I saw them drag my mother and set her on fire. She was screaming. Everyone was screaming. Then they set me on fire too. I ran and jumped into a water tank. There were three other children in the tank: Babloo and his sister, and Mehboob.

"After the mob left, we hid in the nearest house. We were there for hours. We heard someone latch the door from outside and then people started setting the homes on fire. I thought we would be burnt alive now. I heard my father calling out to me from outside and I screamed. He opened the door and got us out.

"I can't sleep. If I do fall asleep, I wake up screaming. I can't eat. I remember my mother and my brothers and sisters: Hussain, Khajjo, Afreen, Shaheen. I feel scared to close my eyes. What if Keshubhai and Guddu Chharra come and get me? They know that I saw them and they want to hunt me down. When too many people gather together, I start feeling nervous.

"I want to grow up and track them down. I want to go and burn their houses like they burnt our house. I want to cut them with swords the way they cut my family. I want to become stronger and take revenge. I cannot live with Hindus now. I will not feel safe."

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Reshma Bano, 11On the night of the Gujarat bandh, her home in Piplej village near Ahmedabad was attacked by mobs. She witnessed the horrific rape of a neighbour.

Present home: Shah Alam relief camp.

"The night before the attack, the police came and picked up most of the men from our village.The 20 to 40 people left were mainly women and children. About 9 that morning, a mob of about 2,000 people in white shorts and T-shirts and orange bandanas arrived in trucks. They had swords and knives and were shouting 'Miya log ko kato (Kill the Muslims)!' They burnt the masjid near our house. I saw police but they did nothing. The village was surrounded but we jumped over a wall and escaped into a thorny field.

"I was looking over the wall when I saw 10 men grabbing my 16-year-old neighbour. She was screaming, 'Save me! Save me!' They ripped her clothes and fell on her. It went on and on. We were all sick with fright, we couldn't go out and stop them. When they finished, she was still alive but they stabbed her in the stomach and threw her in a ditch.

"In the evening, we tried to return but a man came and grabbed my sister, Firdaus. My mother and aunt managed to free her and we ran back into the field. We stayed there all night. Walking through the fields for over a day, we made our way to Rahimnagar to my uncle's house. He got us here with a police escort.

"I am scared mobs will come and attack me the way they attacked our neighbour. The violence has not stopped. I keep to myself. I even feel scared to talk to people inside the camp. What if they are killers in disguise? What if they have come inside the camp to hunt us down? All Hindus are not bad, I know. Our neighbours did not do this. It was people from outside.

"But the police did not help us. When I grow up I want to join the police, so that I can help people."

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Yasmeen Sikandar Khan, 12This seventh-class student lost her mother and elder brother in the Gulbarg Society blaze in Chamanpura, which claimed over 40 lives including that of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffrey.

Present home: Dariyakhan Ghummat relief camp, Ahmedabad.

"We used to live on the second floor of Gulbarg Society, right across Ehsan Jaffrey's house. Just after breakfast on February 28, we heard the mob. They were throwing stones at our building. My mother said we should stay inside, so my parents and six of us locked ourselves in. Then the fire started. The floor tiles got hotter and hotter. Then all of us ran to Jaffreysaab's house where we could be safer. There were at least a hundred people there. We were all crying with fear.

"Then a mob entered the house. They grabbed my brother Salim and struck him on the head with a sword. He cried 'Papa!' and fell to the floor. Then they set fire to the room. I managed to run out and onto the roof with the rest of my brothers and sisters.

"My mother got left behind. We went to my aunt's house on the roof and hid inside her bathroom. After five or six hours when it was over, we were rescued by the police. But the same police had done nothing to stop the mobs. We had to climb over heaps of corpses to get out.

"Sometimes I hear my brother's voice calling me. I was his favourite. I keep seeing the burning building. They never found my mother. She was burnt alive inside, just like the rest. Sometimes even in the middle of my sleep, tears are pouring out of my eyes.

"I can't stay with Hindus after this. Even now, they are not leaving us alone. They have attacked this camp so many times. Nearly every day, a bomb goes off outside or the police fire at the camp. They don't want Muslims to remain in Hindustan."

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Sher Khan, 13Son of a tailor, he worked in a plastic factory. He and his four-member family escaped marauding policemen helping a mob attack Akbar Nagar. His best friend was shot dead by the police and he himself narrowly escaped being hurled into the fire by the police.

Present Home: Akbar Nagar home

"The mobs, led by the police, came with guns, swords and knives.They were shouting 'Jai Siya Ram' and wore saffron bands on their heads. I saw police inspector Gadvi from the nearby station. We ran out of the house but the police began firing. I got separated from my family but was running right beside my friend Sagir Khan when the bullet hit him. He fell down. The police picked him up and threw him in the fire that the crowd had lit. Then, three policemen caught me.

"I thought that that was the end for me. I was going to die. There were three of them. One of them tried to hit me with his stick but hit the other policeman by mistake. I managed to escape and started running. They kept firing at me but I managed to duck the bullets. I got to the main road and hid behind a truck. Then, I crossed the road and scaled a wall to reach Aman Chowk, where there was no fighting.

"If the police had protected us, things would never have become so bad. If I see a policeman now, I start running away. They don't want this to end.

"The Hindus say they don't want miyabhais (Muslims) in Hindustan and that we should go away to Pakistan but we will have to live here. Where else can we go? What else do we have? I don't even want revenge. I just want to be left alone.

"I try not to think about what has happened. If I remember, I cry to myself when no one else can see me. I have to be strong for my family."

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Mohammad Asif, 14A student of ninth class, he lived in Mahadeoni chaali near the Mahakali river with his six-member family. They survived the mob but their home didn't.

Present home: Dariyakhan Ghummat relief camp

"I was reading namaaz at the Kosadia Masjid at about 2 pm when we were attacked. The armed mob first began throwing petrol bombs. They had been gathering at the Mahakali mandir in our locality. Instead of controlling them, the police started shooting in our direction. The crowd burnt the masjid and also the Quransharif. I ran towards my house but the crowds had already burnt and looted it.

"I feel that the minister Bharat Barot was behind the attack. He had been having meetings in our area every night. He had even been distributing petrol and weapons to the Hindus.

"This camp is not safe either. We are still being attacked and the police come and throw teargas shells inside. I would like to ask them, 'Are we the attackers?'. The other day, one woman in the camp died of shock after a bomb went off near the camp. I want to go back home but the situation outside is still not safe."

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Shahid Khan, 14
A sixth-class student, he lived in the Gulbarg Society and witnessed the murder of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffrey. He survived with his seven-member family.

Present Home: Dariyakhan Ghummat relief camp, Ahmedabad

"I was playing cricket with friends when the police came. They told the Hindu boys to go home. They were warning them that something was going to happen.

"Around 9 am, a mob of 15,000-20,000 people arrived and surrounded our building. They started throwing stones and petrol bombs. Everyone began running helter-skelter when the fire started. I ran up to the roof and hid there. Ehsan Jaffrey was well known and everyone thought they would be safe with him. So many people hid in his house.

"I was peeping from a window at the top when I saw him on the ground floor. He was telling the mob, 'Kill me if you want but let the people go.' Then, the mob told him to say 'Jai Siya Ram' but he didn't say anything. They got angry and put a burning tyre around his neck. They pushed a sword through his stomach. I turned my head. I couldn't watch anymore.

"I keep having nightmares about it. I can't sleep. Sometimes I think I'm sleeping but I wake up crying.

"I hate Hindus.Why did they do this to us? I saw our neighbours in the crowd. I want to kill them if I can. I want to go back there and kill them."

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Imran Khan, 11
This Class V student from Mariambibi ki chaali in Ahmedabad's Gomtipur was almost shot by men from the Rapid Action Force (raf) and the police on March 20, when their locality was attacked by Hindu mobs.

Present home: Shah Alam relief camp

"I was having lunch when we were attacked. There was a huge crowd with swords, knives and stones. I ran out of the house with my parents and went to Ishraf Pehelwan's house, where we thought it would be safer. But the blue-uniformed raf men with guns and sticks came inside. They grabbed my father and beat him up. They began hitting my mother too. I also got hit on the foot. I told them, 'Why are you beating us? We didn't do anything.' One raf man held a gun to my chest and told me to shut up. I thought that I was going to die. Then the military arrived and they stopped. By nightfall, we came to this camp.

"In my locality, I had a lot of Hindu friends. We used to play cricket and basketball together. But after these problems started, they began chasing me away and say that they didn't want to play with a mussalman. They are not my friends anymore. I don't want to go back there again."

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Jagdish Kumar, 15
He and his father sold vegetables for a living near their Raipur Mill home in Gomtipur, Ahmedabad. He and his family of eight, including five sisters, survived a mob attack.

Present home: Saraspur Municipal School relief camp, Ahmedabad
"On the afternoon of February 28, I was at home. Suddenly, 150-200 people arrived on the street outside. They had black cloths on their faces and were shouting 'Maro kato (Kill them)!' Then the mob began firing at us. They also threw bombs and started a fire. We all started fleeing. We ran and came to the main road. By night the relief camp was set up. I have been there ever since with my family.

Source: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?215524

'A majority of the police force is biased'

 The police investigations into the Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blast cases have floundered. The investigation went in one direction blaming the Harkat-ul-Jihadi for two years and now it is going in another direction where the Abhinav Bharat and the Sanathan Sanstha are being blamed. Several persons have often wondered why the police bungled this probe so badly that the courts had to release all those who were arrested initially and in some cases even ordered the state to pay compensation.

S R Darapuri, a retired Indian Police Service officer has been fighting for several innocents picked up and tortured by the police in several cases of terrorism, including the Ajmer case. "Being a part of the establishment for 25 years, I fail to understand how the police can go so horribly wrong. The problem is that a majority of the force has a communal bias towards the minorities," the former top cop says.


What are your views on the shift in investigations into both the Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts case?
From day one, there was something fishy about the manner in which the investigations were being conducted. It looked like a complete frame up from the start. Many of us wondered why Muslims would blowing up their own shrines? Something did not add up from the beginning.
Are you saying that the same outfits carried out these blasts?
The Ajmer, Mecca Masjid, Malegaon and Goa [ Images ] blasts are all interlinked. I strongly suspect the role of Abhinav Bharat and the Sanathan Sanstha in these incidents.The uncanny resemblance in all these cases will tell you the story.
Do you believe that the police is on the right track now?
It looks fine at the moment. However, the biggest victory would be when innocents stop getting implicated in such cases. We must all thank (former Mumbai [ Images ] Anti-Terrorism Squad chief) Hemant Karkare [ Images ] who blew the lid off this phenomenon. The police were under the impression that it was the Muslims who were involved in all cases of terrorism. However Karkare exposed them. As a non-Muslim, I would like to say that while Muslim terror groups may carry out blasts in market places or other spots, they would never attack a mosque.
The police are largely to blame in such cases. They pick up the wrong persons and give a completely different spin to the case. Why does this happen?
There is a communal bias in the police department. I have seen that majority of the officers have a communal bias towards the minorities. This practice has been going on for a while now and no attempt has been made to stop this. Moreover there is no action against those police personnel who book innocent people in wrong cases. What has happened in Hyderabad? So many people were let off by the court. The police who booked the cases for reasons best known to them continue to remain unpunished.
What should be done to change this mindset of the police?
First the police should stop chanting the mantra 'Every Muslim is not a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim.' This generalisation needs to stop. Even at the training level, police officers should be instilled with the correct mindset.

At the lower rung it gets worse and each one is affected by personal prejiduces which ultimately affects investigations.
Is there any kind of political pressure to act in a particular manner?
Yes, political pressure does exist. In many cases police officers have acted on political pressure and this kind of malice among them has affected all ranks of the force. There is a need to change the composition of the police force and ensure that they work more for the society. Today the police appear to be working towards nurturing their own personal prejudices.
What about the influence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the force?
The RSS has been infiltrating the force and also the administration for a long time. You speak of changing attitudes of the police with the change in government. However that makes no difference due to this infiltration. They pretty much control a large part of the system.

In this interview with rediff.com, Darapauri explains how the police force is beset with bias and what needs to be done to tackle it.

 

Source: http://www.rediff.com/news/interview/interview-darapuri-majority-of-police-force-is-biased/20100615.htm

Conviction in Gujarat Dipda Darwaza killings (Gujarat Riots)

Convictions over Gujarat Dipda Darwaza killings

The riots in 2002 were some of the worst in post-independence India

A court in India has convicted 22 people for involvement in the 2002 religious riots in Gujarat state. The court has acquitted 61 others in the case known as the Dipda Darwaza massacre.
All the convicted were found guilty of attempt to murder but cleared of the more serious charge of murder.
Eleven members of a family, including two children and a 65-year-old woman, were killed on 28 February in the Dipda Darwaza area of Mehsana district.
One of the convicted has been found guilty of "dereliction of duty".

Continue reading the main story

SIT's Key Riot Cases

• Sardarpura: 33 killed - 31 convicted, jailed for life
• Ode: 26 killed - 32 convicted, 18 jailed for life, five get 7-year terms. Nine to be sentenced
• Gulbarg Society: 69 killed - trial on
• Naroda Patiya: 95 killed - trial on
• Naroda Gram: 11 killed - trial on
• Dipda Darwaza: 14 killed - trial on
• Prantij: 2 UK nationals killed - trial on
• Pandharwada: 70 killed - trial on
• Abasana: 6 killed - trial on

More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed when riots erupted after 60 Hindu pilgrims died in a train fire in 2002.

It was one of India's worst outbreaks of religious violence in recent years.
Muslims were blamed for starting the train fire, and Hindu mobs eager for revenge went on the rampage through Muslim neighbourhoods in towns and villages across Gujarat in three days of violence following the incident.
The cause of the Godhra train fire is still a matter of fierce debate.
A commission of inquiry set up in 2008 by the Gujarat state government determined that it was the result of a conspiracy.
But a 2005 federal government inquiry concluded that the fire had been an accident - probably started by people cooking in one of the carriages - and was not the result of an attack.
Gujarat's authorities have been accused of not doing enough to stop the riots.
Narendra Modi, Gujarat's chief minister since 2001, has always denied any wrongdoing in connection with the riots but has never expressed any remorse or offered any apologies.
A 2008 state inquiry exonerated him over the riots.
A special investigation team (SIT) was set up by the Supreme Court to investigate some of the most prominent riot cases.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19044830

Hindutva Lab 2.0-Karnataka

Hindutva Lab 2.0

BJP-ruled Karnataka is on a dangerous path of radicalisation. Rana Ayyub traces the scary distortion of an entire society

Click to Zoom Long march RSS members take part in the Hindu Shakti Sangama in Hubli Photo: Karnataka News Images

IS KARNATAKA the new Gujarat, the second “laboratory of Hindutva” for the BJP and the broader Sangh Parivar? As the BJP government in the state enters the final year of its first term in power — it had earlier ruled in alliance with the JD(S) — that disturbing question comes up again and again. Behind the morality and hypocrisy, the humbug and corruption that the BJP establishment in Bengaluru has been charged with is a harder, harsher truth: the scary distortion of an entire society.

Two weeks ago, the so-called ‘porngate’ controversy rattled the country, when three BJP ministers were caught in the Assembly watching a pornographic clip — later explained as the recording of a woman being raped — while the House was in session and discussing poverty. While that controversy claimed the headlines, it also forced the RSS and its affiliates in the state to hurriedly cancel plans of the extended session of the Hindu Shakti Sangama. A Hindu show of strength, as the name implies, the Sangama was supposed to be held across the state after the opening convention in Hubli. Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda turned up in Hubli, wearing the RSS trademark khaki shorts — perhaps the first time a chief minister has been seen thus clad at a public event. If pictures tell a story, this one spoke volumes of the saffronisation of Karnataka.

The Sangama may have been interrupted by the Sangh Parivar, embarrassed and still recovering from the shame of porngate. Nevertheless, as TEHELKA travelled through Karnataka, spending a week journeying from urbane Bengaluru to northern and coastal Karnataka, what became apparent was that right-wing Hindu attacks on Muslims and Christians were now a regular feature. This reporter came back with accounts, incidents and testimonies that were so brazen, it was shocking.

Take a small example. On 22 January, there was uproar in Uppanangadi, a hamlet near Mangalore. Kalladka Prabhakar Bhatt, a senior RSS leader known for his proximity to Sadananda Gowda and his predecessor BS Yeddyurappa, was addressing a crowd and resorted to extreme and undignified imagery. “Lift the veils of Muslim women,” Bhatt told the throng, “and glimpse what they have to offer.” His listeners cheered; policemen listened too, but strolled casually, as if nothing were happening.

Soon after, the local minorities — a mix of Muslim and Catholic organisations — approached the police, which reluctantly filed an FIR against Bhatt. Yet it refused to arrest him, arguing there was no basis for taking him into custody. Rather, as if to compensate, the local police then filed an FIR against the president of the Muslim Central Committee, Mohammad Masood, under Section 153(a) of the Indian Penal Code — “Promoting communal enmity between classes” — as well as Section 505(2) — “Making statements that create or promote communal enmity”.

Two senior police officers have asked to be moved to Central government postings because they cannot take what is happening in the state

What was Masood’s fault? He had called a press conference to condemn Bhatt’s despicable one-liner. When contacted, Mangalore SP Abhishek Goyal suggested that there were “grey areas” and the police would certainly “study” the case. While the police was still studying the footage of Bhatt’s public meeting, the man himself inaugurated the new building of the Mangalore Police Commissionerate! Sitting with him in the VIP row was none other than the chief minister.

It was the sort of moment and photo-op the media just waits for. Yet the presence of Bhatt so soon after the unseemly incident found no mention in the media coverage of the inauguration of the new building. It was almost as if there was a conspiracy of silence. Only one plucky local newspaper broke the Omerta: Karavali Ale.

At one time, Karavali Ale was Karnataka’s most popular newspaper. Part of the reason it is not any longer may have to do with the stance of its editor, BV Sitaram, who has been one of the few voices in the state warning against the rising tide of religious bigotry. For two decades, he has documented each and every communal incident, big and small, in the state — and has suffered for it.

Caught in a bind RSS leader Prabhakar Bhatt (left) and Home Minister R Ashok Photo: GK Hegde

In 2009, Sitaram was arrested when a case was filed against him for defamation. Twenty-five policemen turned up and surrounded him. “It seemed like they had come to arrest a terrorist,” he exclaims. His fault was he had written about the exploits of a local Bajrang Dal leader.

Sitaram points to the newspapers stacked in his office. Picking up some of them at random, from the previous month’s pile, almost every day one finds mention of an attack on Muslims and Christians, on churches and mosques. Sitaram is distraught: “They go around shouting ‘Pehle qasaai, phir Isaai’ — First butchers (Muslims), then Christians.” According to official figures, a church has been attacked almost once every 10 days in the past three years. In some cases, the very presence of a Muslim boy with a Hindu girl has caused a riot.

The opposition to Hindu girl-Muslim boy romance is part of a peculiar phenomenon that the Sangh Parivar labels “love jihad”. This paranoia began in Kerala and alleges that Muslim men are being trained to woo and then indoctrinate Hindu girls, to win converts to Islam.

Bhatt is an exponent of theories of love jihad. In December 2011, the Hindu Nagarika Samiti held a massive protest meeting in Sullia, where Bhatt attacked the police for its supposed anti-Hindu sentiment and spoke of how love jihad, terrorism and cow slaughter were rampant in the state.

He was joined by others, notably Satyajit Suratkal, regional convener of the Hindu Jagran Vedike, who said: “Whenever the Muslims provoked us, we have given a suitable response. If they want more, then there might be a recurrence of earlier happenings. If the police join hands with traitors we will teach them a lesson too.”

‘The larger threat to the nation is posed by the RSS’ MAHENDRA KUMAR, who was state unit president of the Bajrang Dal, is famous for his role in the spate of church attacks in 2008. The Justice Somashekara Commission had passed strictures against him relating to his role in that incident. Currently, an active worker of Janata Dal (Secular), Kumar tells Imran Khan that he’s a reformed man. Time for pennace Kumar spent 42 days in jail after the 2008 church attacks Photo: S Radhakrishna EDITED EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW Why did you leave the Sangh Parivar? I was with the Bajrang Dal for 16 years and served as the state president for four years until my resignation in 2009. During the 2008 church attacks, the state government faced a lot of flak. In order to save the government, they emotionally blackmailed me by saying they would put me behind bars for two days just to show the world that action has been taken. However, I ended up spending 42 days in prison. That was the turning point of my life as prison provided me a space to contemplate and reflect on my life. Even after my release, I took another year to come out of the Parivar during which time I was not involved in any organisational activities. What is your understanding of Hindutva now? Hindutva is a political strategy and it has nothing to do with Hinduism or the welfare or benefit of Hindu society. Playing on emotions, projecting wrong history and some negative points of the minority community, hatred is sown among the Hindu youth. It has been the strategy of the RSS to target minorities to consolidate Hindu votes for the BJP. When it was in the Opposition, the BJP raked up the issue of hoisting the tricolour at Hubli’s Idgah Maidan. By arousing sentiments, it created a statewide struggle, which led to communal clashes and lives were lost. But the same BJP government is in power and it is least bothered about this issue now. All these issues were raked for gaining political mileage. There is also a caste and class angle to it. What is the caste angle? Most of the top leaders of the Sangh Parivar come from the forward caste. None of their children are into active Sangh activities. Mostly, they are software engineers and well-settled. It is the youth from the backward and lower castes who fill the rank and file. And it is they who finally pay the price. Look at Gujarat, most of the youth languishing in jail for the 2002 riots are Dalits and people from the backward castes. How much control does the RSS have on Bajrang Dal? The VHP is a wing of the RSS and it is its job to keep a check on Bajrang Dal. And the RSS keeps a check on the VHP. Can you give us some idea about how much of their politics is influenced by local/national issues? It’s mostly national. Earlier, the Ram temple issue was a turning point. It has been replaced now by issues like terrorism and conversions. These have become the rallying point to influence the youth. State issues play a factor but not that much. The major issue in Karnataka was of Datta Peetha. It was made out to be the Ayodhya of the south. Recently, there have been several cases of Sangh activists getting caught for their role in bomb blasts that were earlier ascribed to Muslims. What is your take? The tragedy is that the greater role played by the RSS hasn’t been exposed completely. It is fringe organisations like Sri Ram Sene and others who are accused or caught. Whereas in fact, the main brain behind all these is the RSS. I have been campaigning and telling people that due to the few instances and actions of fringe elements in the Muslim community, you cannot hold the entire community responsible. And my understanding says that the Muslims of this country are largely peaceful, except a few fringe elements. But, the larger threat to this nation is posed by RSS and organisations like them who want to control the Hindu society through their divisive politics. Recently the Sangh Parivar held a Hindu Samajotsava in Hubli and Dakshin Kannada, in which many ministers took part. What purpose do these events serve? The BJP has lost its face due to internal bickerings and the exposure of several ministers involved in corruption scandals. BS Yeddyurappa is also threatening to break away from the party if he is not suitably rehabilitated. There is a fear among the BJP that if this happens they might lose the vote of two strong communities. Hence they are in a process of consolidating the Hindu vote bank as they will have to face polls in 2013. The recent incident of a Pakistani flag being hoisted in Sindhagi was meant to polarise the Hindu vote bank. Is there any discontentment within the Sangh Parivar? The middle- and lower-rank members are angry with the top leadership for siding with the government on issues like corruption. Their constant shielding and defence of top BJP leaders has brought discontentment among the workers. But since there is no place for dissent and questioning in the RSS, nothing much is coming out. Imran Khan is a Senior Correspondent with Tehelka.com. imran@tehelka.com

Other speakers were equally inflammatory. Some wanted cases booked against Sub-Inspector Ravi Kumar and action to be taken against the SP and the ASP because of alleged bias against Hindus. Soon all three officers were transferred. Ravi Kumar was “shifted back” to his earlier posting in Puttur town a day after his suspension was formally sought by the BJP district unit.

WHICH DIRECTION is Karnataka taking? In many senses, it seems to be a replay of Gujarat, with a shorter time-span. Like in the western state, there is a manipulation of class and commerce for religious ends. In Gujarat it took religious riots beginning with the bloody killings of 1969 — and extending from the 1970s to the 1990s — for the Sangh Parivar experiment to mature. Karnataka saw a similar surge with the Ayodhya movement in the late 1980s, and escalation with the Suratkal riots of 1998, which killed 18 people. In the process, relatively peaceful Mangalore, Suratkal, Bhatkal and Ullal became the fulcrum of the Hindutva movement.

‘At this point, it won’t be right to call Karnataka the next Gujarat. But give it five years, it will prove to be worse than Gujarat,’ says analyst Sunder

The rise of the Sri Ram Sene, Hindu Jagran Vedike, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, Sanathan Sanstha and Bajrang Dal were part of this radicalisation project. So was exploitation of socio-economic conditions, says Suresh Bhatt of the PUCL. The current communal tensions in Dakshina Kannada and Mangalore have their roots in the region’s rapid development since the 1970s.

Land reforms created new spaces for different castes and communities to operate in and compete with each other. Dominant social groups like Konkani Brahmins, Bunts and Christians found opportunities in new ventures like banking, education, tile manufacture and cashewnut trade. Many Bunts moved to Mumbai to establish Udupi eateries.

As studies done by fact-finding missions show, traditional backward castes like Mogaveeras and Billavas, who were freed from dependent tenancy, moved into small businesses like fishing. Here they had to contend with the Bearys, a Muslim community with a sizeable (15 percent) presence in Dakshina Kannada, and a heavy concentration in districts like Mangalore, Bantwal, Belthangady and Surathkal. All these areas are today communally sensitive.

The Gulf boom of the 1970s and the new industrialisation enabled the Beary community to prosper in petty business (textiles and groceries) as well as mid-level ones such as hotels and the spice trade. All this led to disgruntlement among the newly-empowered backward castes. It created room for religious mobilisation.

Minority Report Ever since the BJP came to power, attacks on minorities have only multiplied 2008 19 AUGUST Farmer Sadananda Poojary, who is also a part-time cattle trader, is murdered by ‘Hindutva’ activists in Udupi. 7 SEPTEMBER Roopashree and Vikhar Ahmed are assaulted and paraded in public by ‘Hindutva’ activists in Vittla. A group of ‘Hindutva’ activists drag Deepa and her fiancé Abdul Wahid out of a bus in Mangalore and assault them. 15 DECEMBER A group of 24 Muslim youth from Bhatkal go on a picnic to Nethrani island. Hundreds of ‘Hindutva’ activists land there and attack them. One person is killed and two sustain serious injuries. 2009 24 JANUARY ‘Hindutva’ activists attack Hindu girls for hanging out with Muslim boys at a Mangalore pub. 16 AUGUST Right-wing activists throw pork into the compound of the Badriya Darussalam Madrassa at Madhva near Bantwal. 3 NOVEMBER Clashes break out between Hindu and Muslim students at Uppinangady First Grade Government College. 19 NOVEMBER ‘Hindutva’ activists attack two Muslim men in Mangalore alleging that they had written love letters to a Hindu girl. 2010 25 JANUARY Two churches are vandalised and a statue of Mary is damaged in Mysore and Uttara Kannada district. 2011 5 JANUARY Malpe sub-inspector Santosh Shetty is suspended for allegedly assaulting Bajrang Dal member Kishor after Hindutva outfits lay siege to the police station. 1 FEBRUARY Puttur ASP Amit Singh earns the ire of Hindutva groups for allegedly insulting Bantwal City Development Authority Chairman Govinda Prabhu, against whom there are police cases. Around 200 persons led by MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and MLA Mallika Prasad lay siege to Singh’s house. The cop is later transferred out. 16 MARCH Car mechanic Badruddin, 21, is murdered for falling in love with a Hindu girl in Bantwal. Ganesh, the girl’s father, is later arrested for the murder. 23 MARCH Ullal resident Mymoona appeals for a CBI probe into the arrest and jailing of her husband Muhammed Ali and son Javed Ali. She claims they were arrested on trumped-up charges of terrorism and that the Dakshina Kannada police, under the influence of the Sangh, is targeting Muslims. 26 FEBRUARY Bajrang Dal activists trash a Muslim boy and Hindu girl at a juice shop in Kadaba. The couple is handed over to the police, who let them off after a warning. 8 JULY Nityananda of Peral is attacked by Yuva Morcha activists, who accuse him of taking cattle to an abattoir. 18 JULY Mangalore resident Bushra, a mother of four, alleges that Bajrang Dal activists threatened her and forcibly converted her to Hinduism. 13 AUGUST Bajrang Dal activists raid a farmhouse in Ullal, alleging it was hosting a rave party and attack the youth gathered for a birthday bash. 22 AUGUST Some Hindu youth in Sullia were in the habit of teasing Muslim girls. When Mohammed Riyaz confronted them, they beat him. 30 OCTOBER Hosa Diganta, a newspaper brought out by the RSS has received undue favours from the state government. It has been given the status of a state-level paper. 26 DECEMBER Asif of Sakleshpur and a Hindu girl elope to Bengaluru and stay at a rented house. ‘Hindutva’ activists got wind of this and tried to convert Asif to Hinduism. Asif is arrested and charged with kidnap and rape, along with his two friends. 28 DECEMBER A 20-member mob attack a prayer hall of the Hebron Assembly of God in Mangalore. The attackers allege that conversions were taking place and vandalise the building.

The Sangh Parivar began by consolidating unemployed youth in the Billava and Mogaveera groups. Neither have strong community organisations, and the Bajrang Dal and Sri Ram Sene filled the gap. Billavas form a majority of Sri Ram Sene cadre and have moved from being followers of Sri Narayana Guru to champions of Hindutva. Mogaveeras have found a niche in the Bajrang Dal.

Using various frontal organisations, the Sangh network infiltrated virtually every village in these parts of Karnataka. All this preceded the actual coming to power of the BJP by a good decade and speaks for the assiduous cadre-based skills of the Sangh Parivar. In February 2006, the BJP entered the government as a junior partner of the JD(S). In May 2008, it was in power on its own, having won the mid-term polls.

IT WAS now time for the great leap. The year 2008 was a take-off point for the Hindu right in Karnataka. Once the BJP government was installed, it had a choice between broad-based development of the state and consolidation of the Sangh structure. Four years on, it’s obvious which path was chosen. In its first year itself, the government had given evidence of its agenda. Bajrang Dal activists attacked churches, with the administration scarcely taking stern action. The question of whether the government would rein in extremist elements was answered in the negative.

Then CM Yeddyurappa and his home minister VS Acharya — who passed away earlier this week — made a series of statements that sought to discount the extent and intensity of the attacks. There were repeated references to “spontaneous anger” of ordinary people allegedly due to conversions.

‘The BJP knows why it is in power here. It is because of us, the RSS and the VHP. Whatever we do, we have their support,’ says Shenava

The other action of the BJP — and this was seen even when it was in coalition with the JD(S) — was to withdraw cases filed against Sangh Parivar activists for inciting religious hatred, under Section 153(a). One beneficiary of this was Pramod Muthalik of the Sri Ram Sene. He shot to infamy shortly afterwards, following the pub attack in Mangalore.

Many believe the Sri Ram Sene went into decline after the pub attack. The BJP disowned Muthalik even though the larger Parivar backed him. The TEHELKA sting operation (Rent a Riot by Pushp Sharma and Sanjana, 22 May 2010) proved that far from an army of committed ideologues, the Sene comprised hoodlums for hire. As a senior IB official posted in Karnataka puts it, “The Sri Ram Sene, Bajrang Dal and other fringe outfits are all offshoots of the RSS. But it conveniently dissociates itself from them when it wants to.”

A glaring example was the January incident in which five Sri Ram Sene miscreants sought to hoist the Pakistani flag and implicate Muslims. The police caught them, but there was a twist to the story. Investigating officials reveal that the RSS put pressure on the state government to protect itself. The blame was put on the Sri Ram Sene, but those arrested were apparently RSS cadre. This was hushed up.

Shiv Sunder, a political analyst with Lankesh and one of the most clear-headed observers in the state, says the police in Karnataka is not communalised, unlike Gujarat, but is forced to look the other way. “But yes,” he says, “the situation is similar. The Home Department has its own set of officers, mostly from the OBC communities; the Brahmins, of course, don’t do the dirty job. At this point of time, it won’t be right to call Karnataka the next Gujarat. But give it five years, it will prove to be worse than Gujarat.”

It’s a chilling thought.

Already neutral and professional officers are feeling the heat. Two senior police officers have asked to be moved to Central government postings because they cannot take what is happening. DG (CID) Roopkumar Dutta is one of them. Sources close to him say he has had run-ins with the chief minister and home minister. At one stage, Governor HR Bhardwaj had to step in and ask the home minister how the government could let an officer of Dutta’s stature feel compelled to want to leave. Dutta’s hands are tied because he has been refused permission to act against Sangh affiliates.

Free for all Video grabs show how police chat with Sangh activists during a church attack

WHO ARE the lumpen Sangh activists being given protection? Rubina would know their type. Only 22, Rubina is a convert to Islam from Bantwal, near Mangalore. In her own city and her own state, she is a refugee, running from place to place to find a secure home. She was born into a Brahmin family but turned to Islam of her own volition, and married a Muslim man. Her idyll never lasted.

Rubina came to meet this reporter covered from head to toe, scared of being recognised. Soon after the wedding, her husband was picked up on charges of terrorism. While he was in custody, the Mangalore Police barged into her house late at night. Inspector Venkatesh Prasanna enquired about her husband, abused her for converting to Islam.

With a child to take care of, Rubina shifted to the city. She pleaded with TEHELKA that if her case comes to light, she will be in trouble with the cops. “I can’t live in peace,” she cried, “they ransacked my house, twisted my arm. I stay with a friend. I’m worried about my child.” As Rubina said this, she wept copiously — her tragedy as wrenching as it was obvious.

Rubina’s case is typical of what the state authorities call “love jihad”. While the Karnataka Police had told the high court in November 2009 that there was no case of love jihad in the state, this was not enough for the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. Despite absence of evidence, the love jihad paranoia continues to be whipped up. Recently, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister S Suresh Kumar called love jihad a grave issue, and Home Minister R Ashok promised a new investigation. No wonder, in the past three months alone, 18 Muslim men have been attacked, presumably as love jihad suspects.

It is all so blatant that Sangh Parivar functionaries take responsibility for such attacks and insist they have government backing. Just a day after Bhatt’s vulgar speech, this reporter met the Karnataka unit chief of the VHP, Jagadish Shenava, and discussed his own hate statements against Muslims and Christians. He was dismissive: “See, the BJP knows why it is in power here. It is because of us, the RSS and the VHP. Whatever we do, we have their support. Do you think we will let these jihadis run away with our daughters and sisters? We know how to deal with them.” As Shenava spoke, a gun-toting security officer kept him company. Asked about it, he laughed: “Oh, this is just to take care of the jihadis, the state has given it to me.”

‘Be it BS Yeddyurappa or Sadananda Gowda, both are first Sangh members and then state administrators,’ says Ahmed, a lawyer

People like Shenava have every reason to laugh. While we were speaking in Udupi, a church was attacked in the nearby hamlet of Hallangadi. In his complaint submitted to the police, the pastor — who provided TEHELKA with video footage of the event, showing Bajrang Dal members entering the church premises on 28 December 2011 — detailed the attack but to no avail. The footage shows men in orange headscarves invading the church premises, and abusing and hitting the pastor. “If this is the police,” rues Pastor Prasanna, “where do we get help from?” He has now written to the prime minister and the UPA chairperson for justice. Local Christians went on a protest march on 22 January.

Why blame the police? After the 2008 Mangalore church attacks, Yeddyurappa had called it a “natural reaction to forced conversions”. Sadananda Gowda, the favoured child of the Sangh Parivar, merely termed the incident “hearsay”.

“The problem is beyond damage control,” says lawyer Nooruddin Ahmed, who has appeared for Muslims accused in love jihad cases. “What do you expect of a state where the chief minister has given a free hand to miscreants. Be it Yeddyurappa or Sadananda Gowda, both are first Sangh members and then state administrators. The Congress too has no interest in our issues. M Veerappa Moily, SM Krishna, aren’t they aware of what’s happening?

State favours and funds are being directed towards Sangh affiliates. In November 2011, Yeddyurappa gave land in Bengaluru worth Rs 50 crore to six frontal bodies of the Sangh Parivar. Next, the Karnataka government released several lakhs of rupees by way of advertisements to a 2012 calendar published by Hindutva organisation Sanatan Sanstha.

Expectedly, the indoctrination project has reached the education system. Changes have been sought in the curriculum. Social sciences textbooks of Classes V to VIII are being rewritten with history retold to suit old prejudices. The state government has allocated Rs 14 crore to publish these new textbooks for the coming academic year.

Divisive Legacy By getting the Religious Bill passed, VS Acharya opened another avenue for the Hindutva cause VS Acharya JUST 10 days before he died on 14 February, state higher education and Muzrai minister VS Acharya, 72, got the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments (Second Amendment) Bill passed. It provides for the setting up of state and district-level quasi-judicial bodies called Dharmika Parishats with the power to decide whether a religious institution is a Hindu place of worship or a composite one shared with other faiths. The parishats will also have power over composite shrines. The Bill has been roundly criticised, with Janata Dal (Secular) leader MC Nanaiah saying management committees of prominent temples would be infiltrated by politicians from the BJP and used to further the Hindutva agenda. Voicing similar views, KL Ashok, secretary of the Komu Souhrida Vedike, an anticommunal organisation said, “From 2002, when BJP MP Ananth Kumar declared Baba Budan Giri or Datta Peetha as the Ayodhya of the south, the Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and other Hindu groups have tried actively to take over the shrine. They demanded that the sufi samadhi should be removed and a Hindu priest be appointed. After four years of litigation, the Supreme Court ordered that the status quo be maintained.” But Acharya proclaimed, “Baba Budan Giri is not a dargah. It is Dattatreya Peetha and comes under the Hindu religious tradition. In the case of shrines like Mulki Bappa, where there is an Islamic tradition also, and Muslim priests have been traditionally appointed, the management committee will include Muslims.” During his earlier stint as home minister, Acharya came under severe attack for his subtle support to Sri Ram Sene activists in the infamous Mangalore pub attack case. It was this and his inability to stop attacks on churches that made Governor HR Bhardwaj recommend his shifting. Acharya was also one of former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa’s most vocal supporters and was opposed to Ananth Kumar’s chief ministerial ambitions. He was also accused of favouring Gopal Hosur, the state intelligence chief who activists claim has been complicit in running the Sangh agenda. One of Acharya’s last acts etched in public memory is his defence of the practice of the annual ‘made snana’ at the Kukkre Subramanya temple near Mangalore, the practice of Dalits rolling on plantain leaves containing leftover meals of Brahmins. An unmoved Acharya defended it as a tradition that had voluntary participation. Imran Khan is a Senior Correspondent with Tehelka.com. imran@tehelka.com

What do they contain? The Class V textbook (Veda Kalada Bharata) says cow slaughter was forbidden in the early Vedic period. The historical record, however, suggests otherwise. Historians such as DN Jha have shown how the Rig veda has references to beef eating.

The textbook narrative runs parallel to the controversial Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill, 2010. The Bill, passed by the Assembly and adopted by the Legislative Council, seeks a blanket ban on the slaughter of milch animals and draught cattle. It is awaiting presidential assent.

With elections in 2013, the RSS and BJP plan to renew their agitation for a presidential approval for the Bill. It is even more draconian than the controversial Madhya Pradesh law because it extends the prevention of slaughter provision to not just cows but also bulls, bullocks and buffaloes. “What do you expect the animal owner to do?” asks political analyst Shiv Sunder, “in an ordinary situation, the farmer would sell it, make money and buy younger cattle. Here he is not allowed to sell his cattle. You are attacking his means of livelihood.”

A GREATER cause for concern for Karnataka’s liberals is the attempt to inject communal polarisation even in the cosmopolitan environs of Bengaluru, India’s IT hub. A casual visit to the Satyam and Infosys complexes makes for some disturbing observations.

Umesh Hegde (name changed to protect identity) talks about the infiltration of the Hindutva groups into the IT sector: “Initially, we were asked to come to the shakha to rejuvenate ourselves and learn yoga. Within a month, my colleagues and me were shown a map of Akhand Bharat, and told how Bharat needs to be cleansed of Muslims. And believe me they have managed to find sympathisers.” In five years, the number of RSS shakhas in Karnataka has gone up by 50 percent, helped by public funds and facilities.

Stoking the fire Attacks on churches by right-wing activists have risen since 2008 Photo: KPN

In his article, Hindu Taliban Assaulting Freedom, Militarising Society, commentator Praful Bidwai was prescient: “One can only marvel — if that’s the word — at the breathtaking speed with which the Sangh Parivar has vitiated the social climate in state after state. Within months of taking power in Karnataka, it has unleashed savage repression and turned Mangalore into a Hindu Taliban bulwark, where women are attacked if they go to a bar, where Hindus must not mix with Muslims, and where there is no media freedom and free interaction among young men and women. Karnataka has become the Gujarat of the South.”

The unfortunate part in the process of communalisation of Karnataka has been the concurrence of the media. Newspapers in Karnataka have encouraged the polarisation for pecuniary benefits. For example, the Mangalore-based daily Hosa Digantha has been accorded “state newspaper” status although its circulation does not meet the required criteria. Its editor, Chudamani Aiyyar, is an RSS activist.

While Gujarat newspapers played up the supposed threat to Narendra Modi from Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists, Karnataka too witnessed such attempts. Rashid Malbari, an underworld figure and regarded a foil to Hindutva gangsters like Ravi Pujari (also from Karnataka), was put behind bars for allegedly plotting to assassinate Modi and senior RSS men in Karnataka. Local dailies played up the story just like they did in 2005 when Udayavani reported that madrassas were hoisting Pakistan flags. It had to issue a retraction when the police gave a clean chit to the madrassa. Other newspapers like Vijaya Karnataka too sedulously promote the idea of Muslims and Christians as “members of other religions”.

Come to think of it, in Karnataka, so does the government.

Rana Ayyub is an Assistant Editor with Tehelka.

rana@tehelka.com

Source:http://tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Ne250212coverstory.asp