The India in Which Tabrez Ansari Died Continues to Live // The Establishment Has Sent a Hard Core Message to Dissenters and Critics

By Dilip -
We finally have a mantra that ensures unity in diversity: Jai Shri Ram
What is striking is the impunity in the air. As if the crowd is collecting evidence, recording it. The camera is repeatedly brought close to Tabrez’s face. The crowd puts his statement on record. It is an act of vigilantism.

My friends from Jharkhand sent me a video of a man – to be exact, a Muslim – being lynched. I avoided opening it. Then a message followed – that the man being beaten up on camera has now died. They were at the police station and were meeting senior officers later. I decided to watch the video. It is a long clip: ten minutes and 49 seconds. In it, you see a man – a young man – tied to a pole. He is half bent. You can see that he is writhing in pain. His head is unsteady and his legs twisted. There is darkness around him, but there is also some light – from the mobiles being flashed at him, to keep him in focus. There are sounds. Human sounds. Abuses. People moving. 

Jharkhand attack: Police recorded victim’s ‘confession’ on bike theft, did not mention assault
Muslim boy thrashed in Kanpur for refusing to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’

You can see eyes. Again, human eyes. A stick is swung in the air and then you see a hand catching it. The man cries out loud. You cannot see if he has been hit or has cried out anticipating a beating. The camera is brought closer to the face. The man is asked to look into the camera. The crowd is moving around, you can sense some excitement in the air. He is asked his name.
“Sonu,” he says.
The crowd is not satisfied.
“Full name?”
“Sonu Ansari,” he replies. He is swinging. There is blood on his face. Ansari? Sonu? Cannot be. “Sonu Ansari is an unlikely name,” the crowd opines. This strange combination of words raises suspicions. “Tell the full name, real name.”
“Tabrez Ansari,” he yields. “But I am called Sonu in my home, my neighbours call me Sonu.” He insists he is being truthful.
“Tell the name of your father.”
“He is dead.”
“The name of your mother?”
“She is also not alive.”
How can it be? Both parents dead. The crowd demands more from him. He tells them the name of his uncle. Another Ansari.
The beating continues. You hear cries, see the shaking of a dishevelled head and eyes wide open with fear. “Stand erect,” someone from the crowd orders. The young man struggles to his feet. He keeps stumbling back down. There are children in the crowd. And a burst of female laughter strikes at the darkness. Blows follow. So do abuses.
The video moves slow. Then someone orders him: “Say Jai Shri Ram.”
“Jai Sri Ram,” Tabrez obeys.... read more:
https://thewire.in/rights/jharkhand-muslim-lynching-tabrez-ansari

Union Minister Jayant Sinha draws flak after felicitating lynching convicts in Jharkhand (2018)

The Establishment Has Sent a Hard Core Message to Dissenters and Critics
In the last month or so – since this government was sworn in – a couple of things have happened: the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a caseagainst journalist Raghav Bahl for alleged laundering of funds; the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued an order against Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy, promoters of NDTV, restraining them from accessing the financial markets for two years and stripped them of directorships of their broadcast television channel; an FIR was filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Anand Grover, well-known lawyer, and an NGO he runs, the Lawyers Collective for violating rules of accepting foreign funds; and police officer Sanjiv Bhatt was sentenced to life imprisonment in a 30-year-old case.

Message from Shweta Bhatt

In Uttar Pradesh, the Adityanath government booked rapper Hard Kaur for sedition for social media posts against the chief minister and Mohan Bhagwat, the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Earlier, journalist Prashant Kanojia had been arrested for social media posts against the chief minister and is now out on bail. Kaur is based in the UK and thus out of reach, but had she been in India, she would be behind bars today. In the first three cases, the government is not directly involved in the actions taken by independent authorities and institutions. The ED, SEBI and most of all the judiciary are supposed to be independent of direct government control. So to imply that they were directed to take action in a particular way would be incorrect. Nor would it be tenable to suggest that they should not face charges for any irregularities or crimes they may have committed.

Equally true, however, is the fact that Bahl, the Roys and Bhatt have, in different ways, been critical of Narendra Modi and his government. In the case of Bahl, after being a supporter at one time, he began to sharply criticise the Modi government’s policies. NDTV is a fair and balanced channel, and even on occasion has leaned towards giving the right-wing some extra leeway, but is not seen as friendly enough and being part of the ‘Lutyens’ in-crowd’. As for Bhatt, he has been going for the jugular, raising questions about the culpability of Modi in the 2002 killings in Gujarat.

SEBI and ED have shown remarkable swiftness in coming down on the Roys and Bahl and in Bhatt’s case, the Gujarat law enforcement system has shown no such efficiency in 180 other cases that have taken place between 2001-2016 – not a single policeman has been convicted... read more:
https://thewire.in/rights/the-establishment-has-sent-a-hard-core-message-to-dissenters-and-critics

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