2020 delhi riots DELHI IS BURNING

SOURCE:
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/delhi-again-49145

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/the-slow-burn-of-anti-minority-prejudice-from-1984-to-2020-49170

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/shadow-of-fear-in-the-streets-of-northeast-delhi-49176

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          [    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmMP42VZu1A  ]

    Delhi Riots 2020 | Analysis by Dhruv Rathee

                                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETR_EIFUtAE

The slow burn of anti-minority prejudice, from 1984 to 2020

Sandeep Dikshit in New Delhi

THERE are occasions when even the most assured practitioners of statecraft fail to control the plot. US President Donald Trump was in town on a rare single-country visit and the last thing Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have wanted was to share the airwaves of his diplomatic triumph with a messy situation in another part of the national capital. As the body count rose, PM Modi would also not have wanted the sizeable international media to link the violence to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, that has the entire liberal corner in western democracies up in arms.

There has been no cataclysmic event in the past six years but the slow burn of anti-minority prejudice has reflections of the Delhi political climate in the days leading to the 1984 riots. It was not just the assassination of Indira Gandhi that provided the spark. The anti-Sikh prejudice was steadily percolating into the societal fabric; from Kanpur to Jamshedpur and from Hondh Chillar in Haryana to Delhi, the ideological fuel had been imparted well in advance.

At the national level, knives had been sharpening well before the Delhi 2020 riots as well; perhaps when Kashmir was unilaterally dragged into a military lockdown while the government bent over backwards to accommodate the tribes of the North-East. If the subtext was not immediately apparent, it became clear when the UP government followed up its gunning down of protesters in December last year with moving to enforce victors’ justice by arm-twisting suspected Muslim protesters to pay damages, with no culpability sought from the police for wanton violence and even ransacking in many cases. The courts seemed to revel in taking to task playwrights and even octogenarian social workers.

In Delhi, the colourful, restrained Shaheen Bagh dharna — decked with national flags and women to the fore — became an antithesis of all that the Muslim was being made out to be. ‘Langars’ by Sikh farmers from Punjab and a procession of celebrities at the podium recast the narrative that CAA and NRC were religion-specific concerns. As elections to the Delhi Assembly approached, Shaheen Bagh was added to the right-wing lexicon of ‘urban naxal, jihadi, anti-nationalist’ and ‘tukde-tukde gang’; all meant to cast the wearer of the mantle as a non-person, unworthy of being extended the state’s social contract of impartial justice and opportunities.

By the time the Delhi polls were over, local factors joined the mix. In the Delhi elections, the urban poor cutting across religious divide opted for the Aam Aadmi Party. This held true for Mustafabad that AAP wrested from the BJP (one of the three seats it won in 2015). But the Shaheen Bagh innuendoes and a local agitation against a mosque cost AAP the neighbouring Ghonda seat (that includes the badly affected Chand Bagh). Despite a campaign where the BJP positioned itself as an insurgent — this time to claim the legacy of Hindutva — it handily lost most neighbouring seats.

The days of 1984 were more helpful for the perpetrator and the collaborator as photographic evidence was scarce. A considerable part of the mayhem took place with the confidence of immunity if the state was an accomplice, which has been comprehensively proven in every riot. A redux of 1984 or a 2002 is ruled out because of the risk of a blowback in the form of documentary evidence.

Back then there was no pressure of economic growth either. PM Modi would not have wanted his attempts to turn around the economy go up in smoke because of an uncontrollable conflagration in the national capital’s underbelly.

When National Security Adviser Ajit Doval twice stepped into the gullies of Chand Bagh, the message for a clampdown on the violence was unmistakable. But the element of perceptible even-handed justice has again gone missing. If the intention was to provide a balm, a probe panel should have been judicial rather than being headed by a police officer removed by the Election Commission for the firing on his watch at Shaheen Bagh. Another has been unable to trace the ABVP activists accused of JNU violence.

The CAA agitation has so far claimed more than 75 lives all over the country, besides the countless broken limbs and police cases that will dog them for the rest of their lives. The Modi government cannot step back, for fear of the domino effect: what if the Kashmiris then sought a rollback of Article 370?

In the zero-sum politics practised by the BJP, there can be just one winner: the party itself. If the images of the killings are not gruesome enough (eight bodies could not be identified by their gender, leave alone ascertaining their respective religions) to persuade the BJP to ease the foot off the religion accelerator, one alternative is to ensure a crackling economy. However, the coronavirus epidemic may have put paid to hopes of a healthy economic growth rate for the next six months. The third alternative is the national security card that has already been played to stunning effect.

Delhi still sits on a powder keg. The manner in which the AAP councillor is being hounded while those on the other side have been given a one-month breather suggests partiality and selective targeting. Even Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was rattled into giving sanction for Kanhaiya Kumar’s prosecution in order to retrieve the political ground he thinks he lost due to the shrill media trial of AAP councillor Tahir Hussain. The BJP may consider itself to be on a high, as any party with decisive back-to-back wins is entitled to. But the aggressive, poisoned on-call force of lumpens, which has just muddied the Trump visit, has the potential to embarrass it considerably more.

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Anatomy of a riot

The days of 1984 were more helpful for the perpetrator and the collaborator as photographic evidence was scarce. A considerable part of the mayhem took place with the confidence of immunity if the state was an accomplice. Delhi still sits on a powder keg, but a redux of 1984 or 2002 is ruled out because of risk of blowback in form of documentary proof

Delhi, again

Bhajanpura and Chand Bagh face each other across a thoroughfare running through the northeastern part of New Delhi. Neighbourhoods that lived happily together for years are now divided by far more than a road. Faith in the ability of politicians and the police to contain the unrest wears thin, as residents try to understand how a peaceful part became a battleground virtually overnight

Aditi Tandon in New Delhi

Torched homes, stone-littered roads, broken hearts — the story of the once peaceful northeast Delhi will never be the same again. Road after road, lane after lane in this long, steady neighbourhood now stand testimony to a shocking trail of hate as people count their losses, wondering what the near and distant futures would look like.

Few nurture hope of normalcy as distrust takes the place of trust and the Delhi riot toll mounts by the day.

Little had people known that what started as a skirmish between anti and pro Citizenship (Amendment) Act demonstrators on Sunday would rage into a communal fire that would consume Hindus and Muslims, leaving in its wake only smithereens of the past.

“These areas will never look the same again. The situation may get normalised but the trust that has been lost will never be restored, never,” says 35-year-old Gulshan Chauhan, who lives yards from where the mutilated body of his friend Ankit Sharma, an Intelligence Bureau staffer, was recovered this week.

Ankit had stepped out of his home at the time of the raging riots to see if he could help. A day later, his body was extricated from a drain in Chand Bagh close to the Sharma household.

Ever since the police booked AAP councillor Tahir Hussain for Ankit’s murder, the neighbourhood has been in shock.

“We never knew we had such elements among us. We saw at least 500 people on the terrace of Hussain’s building the other day. They hurled petrol bombs and stones. It was pre-planned,” says Dalip Singh Gehlot, who is part of the committee the residents have formed to guard the streets at night.

Muslims of Chand Bagh have a different version of events as claims and counter-claims shroud the truth. They say Hussain had left the building a day prior to arson and “unknown people” captured his complex. The fact that many Muslims were killed in Chand Bagh also points to the presence of outsiders at the scenes of mayhem with part local collaboration, feel residents.

“These had to be outsiders. These cannot be our own people. We have lived here for years in harmony. Places of Muslim worship have been destroyed, something that has never happened in the past. Our young boys have been shot dead. The culprits must be booked,” says 76-year-old Haji Hussain of Chand Bagh, where stories of hope also surface amid stories of hate.

Local Muslims of the area prevented the shop of their Hindu neighbour from being torched when the mobs came for it on February 25. “We were away that day but I returned on Friday to find out that my Muslim friends had saved my shop. This is our culture. We are peace-loving people. From the scale of stone-pelting in our area, anyone can gauge that the attack was planned and bags full of stones brought in,” says Sandeep Jain, who runs Jain General Store close to where Ankit Sharma was murdered.

Unmasking the guilty

Victim after victim of the Delhi riots claims the role of unknown masked men in the killing, looting and torching of swathes of land.

Malika, the wife of 35-year-old Musharraf, a daily-wager from Bhagirathi Vihar, says attackers wore helmets and chanted incendiary slogans. “When we heard of rioting mobs coming for us, we locked the access to our house. After failing to break in, the rioters took the rear entry to our building. We could not identify anyone as they wore helmets and carried rods and sticks. They pulled my husband out of the box bed where he was hiding and killed him. They looked like outsiders but someone from our street must have told them that our house had a rear entry. An outsider would not know that,” says Malika, now left with four children, a torched house and a dark future.

At Shiv Vihar, where the first deaths were reported including of the young Rahul Solanki, the trust deficit runs deep. Preliminary reports suggest maximum damage to commercial establishments around this area.

Sunil Kumar, who has lived here for 30 years, says, “There are two schools here — one owned by a Muslim and another by a Hindu. Why has the damage only been done to the one a Hindu owned? See for yourself.”

Nothing is left of DRP School in Shiv Vihar which Kumar points to. It’s rubble. The adjacent building — Rajdhani Public School — escaped with lesser damage, provoking locals to ask if the attacks were pre-planned.

Some distance from where the schools stand, Muslims speak of “Jai Shri Ram” chanting crowds baying for their blood from Monday to Thursday until the paramilitary came.

“My friends Ashfaq and Shahban were killed by mobs that were chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’. They were returning from prayers,” says Dilshad Hussain, a local, citing severe damage to Muslim households.

With the residents of northeast Delhi reeling under mistrust spending sleepless nights guarding inner streets, the role of Delhi Police remains under scanner.

All violence-hit families complained of police apathy starting Sunday and said forces were invisible for two days while people died and properties were torched. “All calls to the control room went unanswered. Houses kept burning. Cylinders were being thrown at us, stones being pelted on roads. No help came,” says Nikki from Bhajanpura.

Gulshan Bano, who lost her father in the riots, also rued the absence of forces on the ground as the city burned.

“Tension had been building up since Sunday when BJP leader Kapil Mishra threatened the anti-CAA women protesters at Jaffarabad metro station. Everyone knows there was tension. Why did the police not pre-empt the situation?” asks Gulshan, blaming the government for failing to engage panic-stricken Muslims, who remain fearful of losing their homes on account of the CAA-National Register of Citizens combine.

Affected people say the situation in the riot zones normalised soon after the paramilitary forces took control mid-week. They remain anxious of the fact that the forces would ultimately leave.

“What will happen once the paramilitary forces leave? I have lost my son to this riot. I don’t want more people to die. The government must engage the protesters and assure them that they will not lose their residence and citizenship. People are in too much fear of the recent laws,” says Mahesh Prasad Tiwari, whose son Alok is among the dead in Delhi clashes.

Locals believe the ball is in the Centre’s court and hope help for rehabilitation and assurances for a secure future would come sooner than later. Without that, they fear, Delhi may remain a tinder box erupting every now and then.

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The siege within

Arson, vandalism, looting, destruction of properties, killings, communal clashes — rioters had a free run in parts of the national capital. Like after 1984, 2002, riots anywhere, the scars will be difficult to heal. But amidst the atmosphere of distrust, hate and vengeance are countless accounts of amity and humanity. The people of Delhi, in the end, are the only hope for Delhi

Shadow of fear in the streets of northeast Delhi

Divya Prabhakar in New Delhi

The lanes of Chand Bagh, Khajuri Khas and Bhajanpura are filled with stories of fear, uncertainty and challenges for the victims of the violence. “Violence? Madness,” a longtime resident repeats himself, “don’t forget to write that.”

It’s been days since Bhajanpura resident Asha and her family have slept at their home. “Clashes might erupt anytime. I go to my relative’s place and come here to check my house in the morning,” she says. Praveen Sharma, a school teacher, has not gone to work since the riots broke out. “I am scared for my family and kids.

The lone petrol pump in the area was set afire. Mahendra Pal, an employee, recalls how he ran for his life. “It was a mad mob. I jumped off the wall to save myself.” Pallavi, another Bhajanpura resident, says her children have not had milk for days now. “This was the only petrol pump near my house. Life has taken a turn no one expected. We all are sailing in the same boat.”

In Chand Bagh and Khajuri Khas, too, the residents are shocked and scared. “I have put up my fruit stall after five days,” says a vendor, trying to act brave, but the distress is clearly visible.

“This was the result of CAA. We never thought life will show us such days. This has always been a peaceful area,” points out Mohammad Imtiaz, a resident of Chand Bagh, as neighbours stress how the temple in the area was protected by the Muslims.

The Delhi government, meanwhile, has initiated relief and rehabilitation efforts. Peace committees are being constituted at the mohalla level and 18 SDMs have been appointed to reach out.

The Finance Department has been advised to convene a meeting of heads of insurance companies to organise special camps. The Delhi Financial Corporation has been roped in to provide subsidised loans to small businessmen who have lost their livelihood. However, residents are still waiting to meet their local representatives. “No political leader has visited us. There should be proper mechanism for rehabilitation,” says a victim.

Besides NGOs, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee has been organising relief camps, ‘langars’ and medicines — a sign of hope that though Delhi may have lost much during the past week, its composite fabric remains intact.