Malda and Dadri, what is the difference?

Malda, a district in the Indian state of West Bengal (WB) is tense, the reason is very trivial, some person said something about Prophet Mohammad and the Muslim community of India didn't like it. I don't know what was his intention behind saying those things, maybe he was just joking or maybe he really wanted to hurt the feelings of Muslims all over the world for me this is not really important. But this guy said something that Indian Muslims or some sections of them thought was very insulting and derogatory to their prophet, hence many of them decided to protest. I don't see anything wrong so far. The guy said whatever he wanted to say under his right of freedom of expression and people who protested used their democratic right to register their opposition to that statement. But the problem started when some people in Malda decided to attack the police station and destroy public property which resulted in a serious law and order situation. Now one can easily ask, what was the intention behind all these actions apart from spreading the terror? If it was just a protest against some statement then it should have been a peaceful protest. There was absolutely no need for any sort of violence. As expected this violent behavior created an atmosphere of fear and flared up communal tension in that region. This can not be called a protest but it is an act of communal violence with a clear intention of spreading terror, especially among minorities of that area (who are Hindus and other religious groups). Surprisingly, there is not proportional outrage about this incident like it was in the case of the Dadri incident, I wonder why? I agree that in Dadri someone died, and one innocent man was lynched by a violent mob. So far no casualty has been reported in Malda but is this the reason not to offer equally strong condemnation for this act?

Actually, such incidents are not rare, these things happened in the past and they will happen in the future too. This is an ugly truth that many people don't want to accept. Such incidents start occurring especially if some type of election is around the corner. In this case, there are state elections due in WB this year, so this may be a warm-up round to get ready for the final battle for some political parties who are looking to appease their respective vote banks. Minority or majority appeasement politics is very common in India. All political parties use whatever tactics they can to appease their core constituencies. If the beef ban can be considered as majority appeasement politics then calling riots like Malda a routine scuffle between people and police is an example of minority appeasement. Such dirty tricks are always used and respective political parties or governments justify their stands by using their resources and talented spokespersons. Riots like Malda are as deplorable as the Dadri attack, a library burning, or any other mob violence incident. Just because no one died in this particular incident can not reduce its severity or cruelty. It is quite possible that it would have resulted in full full-fledged communal riot like Godhra. Any such incident must be taken very seriously. But the truth is as long as people are going to be selective in expressing their opinions about such incidents Indian society is not going to see any change in the attitude of political parties who use such incidents as a tool to polarize voters for political gains. If people are interested in putting an end to the use of such dirty tactics to win elections then they need to condemn such incidents equally irrespective of their political or religious affiliations. This can only happen in politically and intellectually mature societies. If this starts happening in India then only political parties will get a clear message that any such act is not acceptable to people and it might hurt their prospectus of winning elections. But if the majority somehow believes in those lame justifications like 'this is a reaction to certain action' or 'religious sentiments are hurt' or 'our idol or hero was insulted' then such acts will be repeated. Unless we are ready to condemn every mob violence and communal strategy by any political party this dirty game will not stop. The choice is really in people's hands as they are very important players in this game. Please think rationally and logically before justifying any such act, beware that any justification offered today might become the reason for regret tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Firaaq - A thought provoking, disturbing and impactful movie

Recently I attended the screening of the Hindi movie 'Firaaq' directed by very talented and widely acclaimed actress Nandita Das at Yale University. I watched this movie before, but I was interested in knowing the director's views on this movie and the reasons behind making it. I was also interested in how an internationally diverse audience at Yale reacts to this very disturbing but powerful movie. The movie tries to capture events in the lives of some people one month after the 2002 Godhra riots. One should watch the movie to know the actual plot and understand the characters so I am not going to discuss that. Every character in this movie is very well-written and brilliantly portrayed by all actors.

The post is not about Nandita Das or the movie itself but the impact it had on me. I am interested in discussing three characters, Aarti, Sameer, and Mohsin who stayed with me after watching the movie. I was touched by the trauma of Aarti (a character brilliantly portrayed by Deepti Naval), maybe because I have seen many people who face such dilemmas and trauma. Many people want to fight the injustice happening around them but can not do it for various reasons. Some can't raise their voice because they don't know how to do it or they don't even know that they have a voice and it can be used. Some don't do this because they think it is not their job, or it is against their culture or it will be a disrespect to people against whom they have to stand. Such people keep silent because of so many reasons and suffer quietly from the inside. They blame themselves for their failure not to help others in need of help. I always wondered are these people guilty of not doing their duty? Can we blame them for not standing up when they saw injustice being done right in front of them? Or shall we try to understand their problems and their inability to gather the courage to oppose the age-old traditions, patriarchal or feudal culture which they are taught to respect and preserve? This conflict is very deep and Deepti Naval portrayed this character very well.

Another character is Sameer Shaikh (played by another talented actor, Sanjay Suri), his first name doesn't denote his religious identity as this name is common among both Muslims and Hindus in India. So, wherever possible he prefers to tell only his first name as he is worried that people might judge him differently if they know his religion. Because of this many people around him don't know his religion, they all assume that he is a Hindu. He is married to a Hindu girl so that makes this disguise even easy for him. People from minority groups living in very hostile social environments may easily associate with this character. It is not only about religious minority groups but also people from lower castes also can easily understand his dilemma and helplessness. They all do this because they feel people in society will look at them differently if they know about their religion or caste. Sameer's character is a slap on the biased mindset of our society where we look at people from particular religions, castes, or genders with prejudice and bias.

The last character is that little boy Mohsin who lost his both parents during the riots. He only knows about the death of his mom as he saw it but doesn't know about his dad's death, no one close to him dares to tell him this truth. He is desperately in search of his dad as he doesn't want to live in the camp shelter made for riot victims. During his search for his father, he gets exposed to the harsh realities of our society at that young age. He learns to hide his identity by changing his real name to some Hindu name (Mohan) just to escape from further scrutiny and trouble. He looks like another Sameer in making who is taught that his religion means something to hide from others, something others around him who are different from him (Hindus) don't like. He starts hating Hindus without even knowing who they are, he only knows them as his mom's killers. This all makes him lose interest in all childhood activities, when kids of his age invite him to play he doesn't want to play. His character poses some very serious and disturbing questions to us. What kind of world are you offering to me? Why I can't tell my real name without worrying about what will happen to me after I tell it? Why do some people kill others for no reason? Why do people hate each other? What was my mom's fault that she was murdered? His character in the movie is too young to ask these questions but when he stares in our eyes at the end of the movie his eyes ask these questions.

As a society or individuals, if we can solve Aarti's problems by offering her required strength to stand up whenever required, or remove Sameer's fears associated with his religious identity and at least create a friendly atmosphere for kids like Mohsin who don't grow up with hatred about certain community in their mind, I can say that we all did our job. Until then we all need to work hard so that there won't be another Sameer who is forced to hide his religious identity or another Mohsin who is wondering what kind of world he is living in. This movie doesn't entertain you, it is not supposed to entertain but it engages its audience successfully with its characters. Firaaq asks many questions through its characters, and it stirs our consciousness. We can choose to answer these questions and work hard towards solving the problems associated with these questions or we can also choose to ignore them, look the other way as if nothing has happened, and move on and wait for the next communal riot, the choice is ours.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

How Mr. Modi is going to stop rise of another Modi?

The general elections of 2014 are going on in full swing, their results will be declared very soon (May 2014). Based on several opinion polls BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is expected to emerge as the single largest party in this election. All credit for this performance is supposed to be given to the spectacular leadership of Mr. Narendra Modi, who also happens to be its prime ministerial candidate. Mr. Modi's name came into national news for the first time because of the infamous 2002 Godhra riots. These riots happened in Gujarat during his first year as chief minister and he faced a lot of criticism for the way he and his administration handled that incident which resulted in the killing of more than 1000 people in his state. He won three consecutive assembly elections in Gujarat since then, but his role in those riots is still debated and some survivors are still pursuing cases against him. These riots gave him a certain image that he hardly tried to change, he never even apologized to riot victims. He emerged as a conservative, right-wing politician, and a self-proclaimed Hindu nationalist leader. A very aggressive and well-planned media campaign, support of the organizational network of BJP, and lots and lots of money helped him to build this image. Now please don't ask about the source of all this money that these big national and regional parties use in India as political parties don't need to declare the source of all their donations. These organized efforts and extensive propaganda have a created certain image of him in people's minds. This campaign tried to maintain his image as a conservative Hindu leader but added another dimension of developmental messiah based on some recent economic developments in Gujarat. Based on the very much debated Gujarat model he is projected as a leader who can solve all the problems that India is currently facing. The dismal performance of the UPA-2 government headed by Dr. Manmohan Singh, the anti-incumbency factor along with the number of scams and corruption charges on some ministers helped Mr. Modi to become the front-runner for the next PM's post. 

No one can deny the role the 2002 Godhra riots played in helping Mr. Modi to emerge on the national scene of Indian politics, at least I heard about him for the first time after those riots. I also heard a lot of praise for him from many people for the way he handled those riots, most of the praise was from Hindu conservatives. They were happy that he gave time to Hindus to vent their anger about the killing of Godhra train burning incident victims by delaying any strict action against rioters. We all know that this cannot be proven in any court, but this was my personal experience while interacting with these people and I am writing it based on that, not based on something that I read. These riots helped him a lot to win the 2002 Gujarat assembly elections. Now the question that comes to my mind is how Mr. Modi is going to stop the emergence of another Modi, who might want to use a similar strategy to achieve political gains? And I am not talking here about something that never happened in Indian politics, there are some examples from the recent past where people from the same party (or same family) tried to use a similar formula used by their seniors to achieve their own political goals. Maybe these people thought why design any new strategy when they have something that has already been tested and proven to work. This happened with the firebrand leader of Maharashtra Mr. Bal Thackeray, he couldn't stop his nephew from becoming another firebrand leader and launching his own political party using a similar strategy that Balasaheb used to launch his own political career. Mr. Modi also used tactics similar to what his political guru and mentor Mr. L.K. Advani used in the past. Mr. Advani was a leading political figure in the Ram Mandir movement. That movement polarized India at that time and created a lot of disturbance and violence but it also helped BJP to gain power in center for the first time in 1996. The Ram Mandir movement polarized the country and so did the Godhra riots, both incidents helped a political leader to become a national figure. Recently even a young leader like Mr. Akhilesh Yadav (CM of UP) is also using similar political tricks that his father used to stay in power.

When aspiring leaders see that a particular formula worked very well for someone to achieve their political ambitions in a short time then at least some of them cannot avoid the temptation to reuse that same formula for their own political benefit and that's where lies the biggest danger. This creates a real possibility of the emergence of many such leaders who are ready to travel the same path to reach the same goals. Maybe Mr. Modi is a good administrator, maybe leaders like him or Mr. Thackeray are really good in decision making, maybe they know how to control their cadre but the question is, do we want to encourage others to use similar methods to become another Thackeray or Modi? If not, then how are we going to stop this from happening? Just hoping that nothing like this will happen in the future is not going to help. Why don't we question these leaders and make them come clean before they occupy any public office? Minority or majority appeasement both are wrong, there should not be any appeasement politics at all. We need to object whenever it happens no matter which party is playing such politics.

No one likes to remember these unfortunate incidents and argue about them again and again. This is not a very pleasant experience at least for me and memories of these incidents are also very painful for the victims, survivors, and their relatives. But if perpetrators of these types of crimes are not punished and worst if there is no hope that they will ever get punished then how come someone can forget these incidents? Because of this passive attitude of many people, these types of crimes repeatedly happen and every time people who complain or protest are targeted. They are advised to forget and move on or they are reminded that this is not the first time it happened so it's not a big deal that it happened again. Have we become so insensitive? Have we totally lost faith in humanity? Do we value human life only based on religion, race, caste, and political affiliation? Has politics become more important than human life to us? What is the reason that these types of incidents keep on happening and no big politician accused in these riots has ever been convicted? Do all these victims lie or there is a serious flaw in our investigating agencies and law system that allows the culprits to escape easily?

No one can undermine the need for economic prosperity for any nation, it is required for any country to remain competitive but it should not come at the cost of injustice to riot victims. Economic progress without humanity is no progress at all. This post is not about Mr. Modi, Mr. Thackeray, or Mr Yadav, I am using them just as examples because they are from the recent past. This is about our passive mindset which makes us keep quiet and ignore such crimes. We behave as if the death of 100s of people is not a big deal at all, it's politics and development that only matter. Maybe it is not a big deal for some people but for me, it's a big deal, and the fight for justice needs to continue until justice is done to Kashmiri Pandits, 1984 victims, 2002 victims, or any other riot victims. This is not about some individual or party or some election but about people who suffer in these incidents. If we can't protect them then at least we can fight for their justice and apologize to them so that their pain becomes bearable. No one can understand their pain but at least we can try to reduce it to as much as possible. Let the best candidate or party win this election but let's not try to trivialize serious incidents like riots which affect the lives of many people. Please remember what George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:

1. The remaking of Narendra Modi- Shiv Visvanathan
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Gujarat_violence

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_anti-Sikh_riots

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Muzaffarnagar_riots
5. BJP declares war on India

Communal riots happen all the time, what's so special about Godhra?

Communal riots happen all the time in India, so, what is so special about Godhra riots? Why does it get mentioned so many times in the media? Why does it get special treatment? Why can't people get over it, after all, it almost happened a decade ago (in 2002)? Hindus also die in these riots so what a big deal, why make such a big issue out of it? Nowadays one can hear a lot of questions and statements like this, especially because Mr. Narendra Modi is a prime ministerial candidate of the BJP for the upcoming national elections in India, and the Godhra riots are one of the major issues he is going to face during his fight for the top post. I remember hearing similar types of questions many times before, 1984 when the massacre in Delhi happened after the unfortunate assassination of Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi said these infamous lines, "When a big tree falls, earth shakes." These words seem to somehow try to justify the riots that happened after Mrs. Gandhi's assassination. Similar statements were made after the Babri demolition and the riots that followed it, after the Mumbai bomb blasts. The list is too long to mention. Almost after every riot, there is a lot of anger, emotional drama, and blame game. Justifications are offered, motives questioned, some parties get political mileage and others wait for the next riot to get their chance to score some points for their side. This is a tragic and vicious cycle going on for several years in Indian politics. Neither political parties are interested in breaking this cycle nor do people seem to be interested in understanding that they are being used like cards and are the ultimate sufferers. Literally, people are used just like cards which are used to kill each other, which can be sacrificed if necessary to save some important cards, anything can be done to these cards to win the game. The strange thing is not only players who play this game but even cards seem to be loving this cruel game. It seems the cards are not aware of their pathetic situation.

So what is wrong with all these questions? Why do I feel they are insensitive and somehow try to legitimize or justify these riots? First of all these statements seem to assume that if something is happening regularly then we should get used to it even if it's wrong, cruel, or inhuman. Just because it's a routine event, it doesn't deserve acceptance. Another assumption some people make is two wrongs can make one right. If Muslims along with some Hindus get killed in riots or vice versa then it's okay because both sides suffered the loss. Such a strange logic is offered to justify the tragic purposeful loss of a human life. Have we become so casual and insensitive about the plight of victims of mass violence? Every riot, every murder, and every death in this manure is wrong. They all are tragic and unfortunate doesn't matter which caste, race, or religion those people belong. Political parties and religious leaders both take advantage of this rift between people of different faiths. Many of them don't seem to be interested in narrowing this gap but they want to widen it more. They want to make it so wide that there should not be any scope for reconciliation. They want to do it by using either Mandir issues, Masjid issues, fatwas, or moral policing. Communal riots are part of this game. It is for investigating agencies to decide whether Mr. Modi was involved in the Godhra riots in any way or not. He should not be treated like a criminal without any strong evidence against him but at the same time, he is answerable to questions related to these riots because he was the head of that state when this thing happened. His silence on this issue or his refusal to apologize not only displays his compulsion to play for his vote bank but also displays the perception that even though whatever happened was sad, it was not completely wrong. Riots are projected as an act of revenge, but the question is how many times do we need to ignore such revengeful acts and move on. How many times more?

Whatever happened in 1984 was wrong, whatever happened with Kashmiri Pandits was wrong, and the Godhra riot was wrong. Any riot is wrong, period. It doesn't matter which religion or party the victims belong to, every incident should be investigated, and every culprit should be punished. If this doesn't happen these things will get institutionalized like corruption and will keep on happening regularly. That is why the Godhra riots are serious, so are the Muzaffarnagar riots, so are the 1984 riots, the Malegaon blasts, Mumbai blasts everything is serious. How can we even compare or say one is worse than others? Based on the number of deaths? Based on the reason why they happened? Based on which party was ruling during that time? What criteria do people use to categorize them? Why do they even try to do such categorization? Every such incident is a slap on our country and its secular constitution, a slap on our inclusive culture but no one seems to mind it.

How can people even justify punishing the entire community for some stupid acts of a few people from that community? Terrorists do this, rioters do this and surprisingly even after performing such gruesome and cowardly acts, they find sympathizers and supporters in their community. When is this madness going to stop? If I question Godhra these people ask why am I not questioning Mumbai blasts or anti-Sikh riots? If I raise a question about Kashmiri Pundits I am asked why I am not talking about the plight of Muslims killed in Kashmir? Whenever someone questions about some "X" incident he/she is asked why they are not questioning about some"Y" incident. In the end, neither the victims of the X incident get justice nor the victims of the Y incident. Riots keep on happening, leaders win or lose the election because of them, people keep on getting killed in riots, and no one knows when all this will end? I am sick and tired of all this. I don't know whom I should blame here? Politicians who make inflammatory speeches? Religion and religious leaders who spread fanaticism? People who follow these leaders blindly? Poor investigations and the inability of our legal system to punish culprits? No one? Gandhi had said once, "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." Are we going to do something to stop these riots or wait to turn the whole world blind? We have to start somewhere so what can't we start with this particular incident. If we ignore this one then there will be some other reason to ignore the next one also. If we want to put an end to all this we all must act, by we I mean everyone involved in this including our judiciary, politicians, people, everyone.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:

1. http://www.tehelka.com/when-a-big-tree-falls-the-earth-shakes/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Muzaffarnagar_riots
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Gujarat_violence
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_anti-Sikh_riots

We must try to understand real pain and agony of riot victims

I recently read a blog post "We are more than our name" by Zahir Janmohamad. It's really disturbing and painful to read any riot survivor's account, this one is more painful for me as I know about this incident as it happened when I was still living in India. These riots happened in February 2002 when I was supposed to travel by train from Varanasi (UP) to Pune (Maharashtra). I read the news about the train bogie fire at Godhra station in Gujarat which killed 58 people, and communal riots followed after this. Due to the possibility of communal tension in other parts of the country, my relatives were worried about my travel as it was during the days following this incident. More than ten years have passed since this incident happened. Many people died during riots in Gujarat. This is not the only riot that happened in Gujarat or in India, there were many communal violence incidents before and after that. For example, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, or Mumbai riots of 1992-93, or the issue of Kashmiri Pandits who were forced to leave their homes because of communal tension in Kashmir valley and live like refugees in their own country, or recent 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. Many people lost their lives and survivors are still waiting for justice to be delivered in most of these cases.

This post is not about the Godhra riot or any other riot. Depending on which community or religion they belong people are more sensitive to particular riots compared to others. Their reactions are extreme if their community is at the receiving end in any of the riots. I can understand the anger and frustration when people from their own community suffer but can not understand when the same people justify other riots where people from some other community suffer at the hands of people of their own community. Somehow they feel the pain and agony of riot victims belonging to their own religion but are totally immune to the pain of victims of other religions. Every communal riot or violent incident (including wars and terrorist attacks) leaves behind victims and their relatives who suffered during that conflict and continue to suffer even after that for a variety of reasons. Most people who are not directly affected by this incident read about it in the news, watch it on TV, feel sad for some time but move on with their lives, which is very natural. Even some people who get affected by these incidents also try to overcome that stress and trauma and move on, but there are many for whom the memory of those painful days becomes a major problem in their life. It's very difficult for them to forget these events. Their physical wounds heal with time but their psychological wounds don't. These traumatic incidents leave a very deep impact on their mind and affect them psychologically. Zahir's post is one such post that displays such an impact. It shows the pain of the person who is still suffering from the trauma he faced during those days, his life is not yet normal as those painful memories are so deeply rooted in his psyche that he cannot remove them.

In India, some political party or leader gets accused for either instigating these riots or for not taking timely action to prevent it. Some political leaders owe their political careers to some of these riots. These infamous and tragic incidents made them famous and helped them to win elections and become very powerful leaders in their party and state. Many of these political leaders from various parties do get charged for some offenses related to these riots, some inquiry panel tries to investigate these riots, but I have not yet seen any powerful political leader getting punished for their involvement in these riots. Most of them get clean chit because of lack of evidence, it doesn't matter which party they belong to. I am not in a position to say for sure whether any of those accused politicians were really involved in those incidents or not as fortunately, I have not witnessed any riot myself personally but there seems to be the presence of a reasonable amount of evidence that hints towards indirect or direct involvement of many of these leaders. Many of these leaders are very powerful and popular so it is very difficult even for investigating agencies to gather any evidence against them, they always get the benefit of the doubt but that doesn't mean they are not guilty. Some of them may get punished eventually after a couple of decades once their fame and power wane, but this is useless as justice delayed is justice denied. 

It's easy to say "move on" but in reality, it's not that easy, especially for victims who faced such a horrible incident in their life, and that too when they feel that justice is not delivered to them. It must be really difficult for them to digest the fact that people who they think are responsible for these riots are free, getting rewarded, and not even regret what they did. It is easy for people like me who are not directly affected by these riots to look at them objectively, analyze them, talk about them, and even debate about them, but how many of us really understand the real pain and agony of these victims. How many of us who justify some of these riots as acts of revenge are willing to put ourselves or our loved ones in that situation? Just try to imagine the trauma of these victims before trying to justify any of these heinous acts. Our desire for revenge dominates over our ability to feel pain and compassion for our fellow humans and if it is related to our religion or country then we passionately justify these killings. Once we decide to justify any heinous act then the question of right or wrong doesn't matter much.

Most of the world will move on or even forget about these riots, but posts like Zakir's will remind us about that ugly past, about the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of our legal system. It might make some of us uncomfortable but we can not blame people like him for digging into the unpleasant past unnecessarily because for them the pain and trauma are real. We need to allow people like him to express themselves. We should hear victim's stories if they are willing to share them, maybe this will help to relieve their pain to some extent. We all should try to understand the pain and agony felt by riot victims like him. I believe communal riots are avoidable incidents. We need to spread awareness about them and have strict laws and an efficient law and order system to catch and punish the culprits, no matter who they are. As long as we allow people responsible for these riots to walk free, and reap political benefits from these riots these things will keep on happening, the names of leaders will change but whenever possible they will keep on using communal violence as a tool to get political mileage. We need to diffuse this weapon, we need to make it totally ineffective so that they stop using it, and as long as we don't do that we will be forced to read such articles and wonder if we are living in a civilized world or some jungle.  

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:

1. We are more than our name: A Gujarati Muslim ponders life under Narendra Modi- Zahir Janmohamad
2. 2002 Gujarat violence
3. 1984 anti-Sikh riots
4. Mumbai riots of 1992-1993
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmiri_Pandit
6. 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots