Above: Junaid Khan’s mother (centre) wails the loss of her son. Photo: YouTube

The killings of Muslims on one pretext or another continue with impunity because the government has not condemned it or taken action against the perpetrators. Has mobocracy taken hold of the country?

~By Ramesh Menon

Fifteen-year-old Junaid had bought new clothes and was travelling home with his two brothers Hasib, 21, and Shakir, 23, to celebrate Eid with his family. He was probably thinking of the celebrations to follow when he was brutally stabbed to death and thrown out of the Delhi-Mathura train as it stopped at a station. His brothers were brutally assaulted and had to be rushed to hospital in blood-soaked clothes.

Hundreds of onlookers who saw the tragic drama play out in front of their eyes chose not to be witness to the crime. Had Junaid been from another religion, he would have lived to see another sunset.

How is it humanly possible that in a crowded railway station packed with passengers, railway officials and vendors, not even one person was ready to appear as a witness for the police to file an FIR and start investigations? It is fear? Or does the life of a Muslim not matter anymore? We cannot afford to live in denial. This is the new India where the murder of Muslims seems normal. And okay. It does not even get the prime minister to say that this is not permissible and the guilty will be severely punished.

It took days for a Union minister to condemn the killing. He obviously did it as hundreds of voters in various parts of India under full media glare were out on the streets protesting that the murders were not being done in their name.

They did it as this was not the India they wanted to be a part of. This was not the scenario they envisaged when they voted the BJP to power. They thought that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country would economically surge ahead, inflation would be stamped out, jobs would be created and corruption that was eating into the vitals of the Indian polity would be rooted out. They had envisaged that the new government would mould a sparkling dream for India. They wanted change after painfully seeing the collapse of governance under the Congress. But was this the change they wanted?

Many right-wingers would have us believe that the Junaid incident was just a one-off case and too much should not be read into it. But truth be told, this is just one of the many that have occurred. Many Indians also dread the fact that this will not be the last such dastardly act they will witness or hear about. Many innocents, who are all Muslims, have been murdered under the garb of killing cows when they were just transporting cattle. Many have been jailed on trumped-up charges of terrorism, only to be let off by the court for lack of a shred of evidence. No wonder there is a pall of not only grief, but fear that ominously hangs over Muslim houses.

When attacks on minorities become the norm, there is reason to worry. In various pockets of India, numerous Muslims have been attacked by mobs that choose to accept rumours and WhatsApp messages as truth and go around killing those whom they suspect have consumed beef.

Mohammad Akhlaq was resting when a mob attacked his Dadri home in Delhi’s backyard and lynched him to death as they suspected he had stored beef at home. This was in September 2015. Akhlaq was first bludgeoned with a sewing machine and then his body was dragged across the street and dumped. No beef was found in his house.

In another case, 16-year-old Zahid Rasool Bhat who was in Class X, succumbed to injuries sustained during a petrol bomb attack in Udhampur on a truck he was in. The mob suspected him of transporting beef in October the same year. Zahid was the first member of his family to have even reached high school. These are poor marginalised people who are desperately trying to carve out a better life.

Elsewhere, many others were killed in the name of cow protection in Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. Think about it. Would you ever have thought something like this would happen in a state like Assam? Or even Uttar Pradesh which has a huge Muslim population? One does not know when and where mobocracy is going to strike next. The emboldened mobs now know that they will not be punished. As seen, witnesses disappear and the investigation agencies throw up their hands. No one killed Junaid.

It is this reality that should worry all of us. Where are we heading as a society? Hinduism has survived down the ages only because of its inherent strengths of being a deep, holistic philosophy and not a radical religion. Tolerance was the fulcrum that made it strong enough to withstand numerous ravages down the centuries. But today, we have been affected by an opacity that should worry us.

We do not see the lynching of an innocent Muslim boy as something we need to fight against and stop. Or be a witness to ensure that such crimes do not occur again.

Communal polarisation helped the BJP dig deep roots in Gujarat. The party thinks it can do that all over India. It found that it works in Uttar Pradesh—the Muzaffarnagar riots happened in a place where there was no history of riots. The victims are still living in refugee camps. Dividing communities to win polls can be dangerous as it will have irreversible consequences. Polarisation again helped in Assam where the issue of Bangladeshi migrants creating demographic changes was heavily vocalised. Kerala which has always seen communal peace is now witnessing divisions as the BJP targets south India. A party that is confident and has a vision for India should instead be using good governance as a tool to win and not to isolate and attack minorities.

As there is no law in the Indian Penal Code that deals with lynching, it is easy for the oppressor to get away. There is no easy answer as to why our lawmakers have not thought of drafting one as lynching is not a new phenomenon. It has been going on for ages. Think of how women have been branded as witches and lynched. In the absence of a codified law, it becomes difficult to deliver justice and those who are among the blood-thirsty mobs targeting minorities know this.

But there is a faint ray of hope. Thousands of Indians gathered at protest meetings recently holding “Not in My Name” placards to underline that they did not approve of the mobocracy that thought it fine to kill innocents in the name of religion. See how bold the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has become. It now wants the National Commission for Minorities to be scrapped along with the Union ministry of minority affairs. It better read Article 29 and 30 of the constitution that guarantees rights to minorities. Look at what is happening today on an almost daily basis to minorities. They need the Commission and the helpline to hear grievances more than ever before.

In the recent past, Indians have watched with horror how public institutions are being systematically eroded and destroyed and how points of view are being thrust on them. Of how right-wingers are being appointed in crucial positions which have educational, social and cultural ramifications. The space for open discourse is rapidly shrinking and if one thinks differently from the powers-that-be, he is either branded anti-national, attacked physically or trolled on social media.

Indians are told how to think and what to eat. And woe betide a person who is in love with someone from another religion—his life will be in peril. And these danger signals are a reflection of what the future holds for Indians.

As the world surges ahead, what kind of India do we want? Will polarisation, narrow right-wing politics and alienation of minorities infuse confidence? Will the world be supportive when inevitable chaos breaks out?

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.