PADS Statement on the recent communal disturbances in Trilokpuri
STATEMENT ON THE RECENT COMMUNAL DISTURBANCES IN TRILOKPURI
BY
PEOPLE'S
ALLIANCE FOR DEMOCRACY AND SECULARISM
NOVEMBER 2, 2014
(Members of P.A.D.S. have been interacting with and visiting
residents of Trilokpuri ever since the communal disturbances started on Oct 23.
Along with many other citizens they are involved in efforts to re-establish
peace and in providing legal aid to those wrongfully arrested. This statement
is based on their experiences.)
The inhabitants of Trilokpuri, a densely populated neighbourhood
of working people in Delhi, went through a harrowing week after Diwali night on
23 October. A brawl around two places of worship turned into a full scale
communal clash. Armed mobs from outside the locality are reported to have
joined the rioting that involved brick throwing. Firearms were also used and
two boys suffered critical bullet injuries.
Inhabitants are emphatic that the police fired into the crowd. The
police first denied firing at all. Its latest claim is that it fired only in
self defense. One apparel show room owned by a Muslim resident was gutted.
Police intervened in force only two days after the clashes started. It turned
the neighbourhood into an occupied war-zone. More than fifty men and minor boys
were arrested randomly, many picked up forcibly from their houses amid verbal
abuse and physical violence. Road intersections were barricaded and entry and
exit points were closely monitored. Drones were used in surveillance and houses
systematically searched. Essential supplies were in short supply. Daily wage
earners, contract workers, and self employed who could not go out lost their
source of livelihood. Seriously wounded and ill had no access to medical aid.
While the entire neighbourhood suffered in one form or another, inhabitants of
three blocks in particular, nos 15, 27 and 28, and attached jhuggi clusters, mainly occupied by citizens
who are Muslims bore the brunt of police action.
All this happened at a distance of less than ten kilometers as the
crow flies from the center of state power in India's capital. National
elections five months ago were won by Mr Narendra Modi who projected a 'strong
man' image and promised that he would provide 'achhe din' of decisive and
effective governance. In reality, the face of the Indian state in Trilokpuri
these days is ugly. First, institutions of the state, its police, bureaucracy,
and all political parties associated
with it failed to prevent a localised scuffle
from flaring into a violent riot. And second, when the state did show
up, only its authoritarian jack boots were seen on the ground. It further
terrorised people already battered by rioting and public violence. It did not
taken any steps to initiate dialogue between affected communities, and provided
no relief or medical aid. Its social institutions like schools, anganwadis,
health centers, or the police organised peace committee, etc. simply collapsed.
Three fourths of the arrested people are Muslim citizens. Some of them are
migrant workers. Arrested people were abused and beaten up while in police lock
up. Many of them had visible injuries when presented in front of a Magistrate
in the Karkardooma court on 27th October. They were not provided any medical
aid or food for nearly two days.
The Trilokpuri neighbourhood has a traumatic past. It was
established in the mid seventies of the last century during Emergency. It is a
so-called resettlement colony, in which people forcibly displaced from inner
city were settled and given land titles. The displacement and settlement process
was often violent. Mr Jagmohan, the top administrator of Delhi and a close
confidant of Mr Sanjay Gandhi then, later Governor of Jammu and Kashmir during
insurgency there and a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, was the
chief persona in the entire process. The most gruesome massacres of Sikh
citizens in Delhi in 1984 took place in Trilokpuri and neighbouring Kalyanpuri.
Despite the fast economic growth and massive urbanization in the past two
decades in India, settlement patterns in cities continue to be segregated
by religion. Most of Trilokpuri is
inhabited by Balmikis, a scheduled
caste, classified as untouchables in the orthodox Hindu varna order.
After the Sikhs migrated out, Muslims are the other community, who are
concentrated mainly to three out of thirty blocks. Recent migrants in search of
work form a significant part of the population. They are also settling along
community lines. The twenty five square yard plots originally alloted have now risen to three-four storey pucca structures,
providing a decent rental income to original owners. There are also occasional
cars parked in narrow streets. The little prosperity that has trickled into
this neighbourhood has however not brought secure peace. Residents often
complain of brawls and other forms of every day violence. The area reportedly
also suffers from petty crime syndicates operating under police protection.
Nevertheless, for thirty years since 1984, the neighbourhood escaped communal
violence. Even the weeks following demolition of Babri mosque in 1992 passed
peacefully.
Recent events in Trilokpuri reveal the character of Indian society
and state that do not portend well at all. All experiments in Fascism, that
involved selective violence against minorities to consolidate a nation, have
relied upon mass support. The India of 2014 can not be said to be impervious to
such schemes. The political success of Mr Narendra Modi at the national level
has emboldened the Hindutva targeting of religious minorities and aggressive
mobilisation around sectarian demands.
The ex-MLA from the BJP is reported to be part of the communal
organising in Trilokpuri. Communal polarisation is proving to be a successful
electoral strategy for the BJP. It is exploiting economic, political, gender
and caste anxieties in a fast changing society which has not developed a strong
popular democratic consciousness. The tragedy of politics at the moment in
India is that none of the competitors of the BJP have a clue about how to
counter its dangerous mix of religion and politics with a leader enjoying mass
support. The Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi had succeeded in getting the support of
Muslim and Dalit voters in the last assembly elections and currently holds the
Trilokpuri seat, but it is afraid to come out publicly against communal
violence lest it disturbs its electoral calculations. Congress is in severe
decline and absent from the scene. No mainstream political party in India has
had the wisdom and ideological clarity to realise that treating society in terms
of the majority- minority framework actually validates communal agenda, and
that the counter to communalisation of politics is an unequivocal assertion of
citizenship rights of every one.
It is
also obvious that the Indian state, while seemingly democratic in some aspects,
is also undemocratic in some fundamental ways. It
does not consider the protection of democratic rights of its citizens as its
prime responsibility. It regularly attacks rights of the poor and socially
marginal, which at present also include religious minorities. Indian state
still follows the colonial authoritarian policy of treating moments of deep
social strife like riots as a 'law and order' issue, and its first action is to
enforce its brutal authority over people, rather than help the victims.
Further, over time the Indian state institutions have been communalised. None
of the victims of communal riots in India, including the most gruesome ones, of
1984 in Delhi, 1992-3 in Mumbai and 2002 in Gujarat have received justice.
Commission after commission on riots in India have found the police and
administration to be authoritarian and partisan. Yet, if nothing has changed,
there obviously are powerful social and political forces that wish to use this
character of Indian state for their own ends.
The social ideological environment of neoliberalism has encouraged
religiosity and public assertion of religious identities, while weakening mass
based mobilisations against oppression and exploitation. This is happening in
all communities. Right wing political forces claiming to represent specific
religious communities are using the opportunity to develop new kinds of
aggressive religious practices that lead to social strife and communalise the
society. This is a new challenge which democratic and secular forces have to
contend with. Barring a few exceptions, the media in the capital has played a
partisan role during recent developments in Trilokpuri. English language
newspapers and TV channels that cater essentially to consumerist aspirations of
urban propertied and professionals have spread the police version of rioting,
which blames Muslim residents of the neighbourhood. They are more interested in
sustaining a consumerist utopia unencumbered by social disturbances, rather
showing the sufferings of the marginal and the physical abuse of people
arrested by the police. Many residents of Trilokpuri work as maids, drivers,
security guards and provide other services to the upper middle class residents
of neighbouring Mayur Vihar. Yet life in the latter went on as usual.
P.A.D.S.
appeals to the citizens of Delhi to disregard aggressive sectarian demands,
provocations and rumours by communal
forces and defeat their plans to communalise society. Secularism of the state
and society is necessary for everyone, believers of different religions and
non-believers, to lead a peaceful life without discrimination and persecution.
Before succumbing to calls for their so-called 'community' interests all
citizens should ponder over what kind of society they wish to live in. The one
based on hatred and violence, or the one which respects citizenship rights of
everyone.
We appeal to the working people of the city, who constitute the
overwhelming majority of its population, to organise and fight together against
their economic exploitation, caste oppression, price rise, police extortion,
and deplorable condition of public services like hospitals, schools, and
transport, rather than against each other.
Long term policy changes are needed to ensure that events like
Trilokpuri do not occur anywhere else in the country. People's Alliance for
Democracy and Secularism demands following from Delhi state administration.
1. All administrative
and police officials who failed in their duty to prevent rioting, made random
and wrongful arrests, and physically abused citizens should be punished.
2. All residents who
suffered physical injury, mental trauma, wrongful arrest and loss of property
during riots and subsequent police occupation of the neighbourhood should be
adequately compensated.
3. All citizens
arrested should be granted immediate bail, and cases against them settled
expeditiously so that they and their families can lead a normal life as soon as
possible.
4. A judicial
commission of inquiry should be constituted immediately to find out culpability
of state administration, and of the political leadership of any party in
fanning the communal violence.
5. Immediate relief
should be provided to all residents who have lost livelihood. Medical aid
should be given to the injured.
6. The 'official' peace
committee established by the police has proved completely ineffective. It
should be revamped and representatives of the organisations working in the area
should be included in it. Its meetings should be held regularly and publicly.
7. Many areas in Delhi
are potential flash points for communal violence. There are many reports of
aggressive sectarian demands made by 'panchayats' and 'mahapanchayats'. All
those making illegal demands and spreading false propaganda about others should
be dealt with firmly, so that citizens of other parts of the city do not suffer
what Trilokpuri residents are going through.
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Selected audio recordings from the PADS national convention
Battinni Rao, Noor Zaheer, Shabnam Hashmi, Jairus Banaji, Rahul Pandita, Purushottam Agrawal, Irfan Engineer, Adhiraj Bose, Himanshu Kumar, Asad Ashraf, Bonojit Hussain, Manisha Sethi and Subhash Gatade.
Transcript of Purushottam Agrawal's speech at the National Convention
Battinni Rao, Noor Zaheer, Shabnam Hashmi, Jairus Banaji, Rahul Pandita, Purushottam Agrawal, Irfan Engineer, Adhiraj Bose, Himanshu Kumar, Asad Ashraf, Bonojit Hussain, Manisha Sethi and Subhash Gatade.
Transcript of Purushottam Agrawal's speech at the National Convention
