Our Honorable Union Home Minister (UHM) Rajnath Singh has informed the Nation that ISIS do not pose a threat to India. Early this month, while presenting three years report of his Ministry, he acknowledged that Islamic State (IS) have failed to set foot in India. He said, “India is the second largest country as far as Muslim population in the world is concerned (and) I can say with full responsibility that despite such a large population (of Muslims), the IS has not been able to set foot.” He also said, “Muslims have realised that terrorism is an attempt to defame Islam.”
The UHM has made similar comments in November last. After three days DGP national conference in Hyderabad he had said: "I'm sure the threat of radicalisation by ISIS won't be an issue in our nation because people who follow Islam in India, love the country," he said. He also claimed improvement on Moist terror front. It is good that IS is not an issue. But there are other serious issues like security of women and weaker sections which did not figure in the reports.
We welcome clean chit to Indian Muslims against persistent allegations of terrorism. Especially in the increasingly hostile environment, these revelations of a high ranking Minister, who is in the know of all events, are of great value and satisfaction. However as expected this message drowned in the din and demonizing and belittling Muslims for creating euphoria of Hindutva is continued unabated. Only the other day a Hindutva champion, Sadhvi Saraswati called the Modi Govt to hang meat eaters and Hindus to store arms at their homes for the protection of “Bharat Mata and Gau Mata.”
Giving credit to security agencies UHM said, “The Home Ministry has a major responsibility to provide security….more than 90 (suspected) IS sympathisers have been arrested in the three years of Modi regime.” "I have stated clearly that no innocent should be troubled and none of the offenders should be spared," he added.
Certainly Indian Muslims hate the path of terror, but credit for this does not go to the Government agencies. Arresting young boys merely on the basis of suspicion and in concocted allegations is not a creditable act. Had UHM informed the nation that the credit for this goes to the ideology of Islam, the path of piece and tolerance he would have done greater service of the humanity. Muslim religious and political leaders, intelligentsia, journalists and community organisations have played aggressive role in condemning terror and keeping their frustrated youth away from extremist activities. He should also tell the Nation, “Terrorism is an attempt to defame Islam” and gracefully withdraw his remark of 2009 identifying Muslims with terrorism.
Mr. SMN Abidi in his article, “Why the government must bat for Muslims” (Tribune: 16 June) has counted several laudable instances of Indian Muslims taking a firm stand against the terror menace. He pointed out, “Ajit Doval, the National Security Adviser and ex-IB chief, has given more marks to the minority community than to security agencies for the negligible number of IS recruits in our country. He openly said that it was “Muslim parents who approached the police and intelligence agencies and sought their help in preventing their wards from joining IS.”
On March 8, 2017, UP Police shot down a youth Saifullah in Lucknow, and alleged him to be an IS operative. His father Sartaj refused to take his body saying "if he was an IS operative and a traitor, he cannot be my son". Even Mr. Singh had said “Govt is proud of Sartaj. I am sure the house joins me”.
Last year, Engr Md. Naseer, was deported to India from Sudan for alleged IS links. His father, M. Pakeer, voluntarily flew to Delhi from Dubai to record his statement before a magistrate corroborating how his son was drawn to jihad. In another case, NIA is using Mrs. Gulshan Bhanu's letters to her son, Adnan Damudi, expressing her anger and disapproval for his activities, as key evidence against the son, an accused of being an online recruiter for IS. Muslims of Bombay had refused permission to burry 26/11 attacker as they were terrorists, etc.
Besides India is the only country where thousands of clerics from all Masaliks, signed a fatwa denouncing terrorism as “antithesis to Islam”. Huge public meetings were organized by Jamiat Ulma e Hind, all over the country to aware Muslims against the terrorism being spread in the name of Islam by anti-Islam international vested interests. Orators of Jamat e Islami Hind have also made a consorted effort to spread the massage of piece of Islam and denouncing terror tactics.
We blissfully thank UHM for his bold assertion about Muslims love to the nation and hate the terror. But want to assert that contentment of IS, or Moist is not a perfect reason of satisfaction regarding security scenario. A widely recognized reality is that security situation in the country is being willfully deteriorated by spreading intolerance against Dalits and Minorities. The weaker sections are being targeted daily. There has been a massive escalation in violent incidences since 2014. Hindu supremacist gangs are the chief perpetrators of these abuses with the backing of the people in power.
Lynching, stripping, flogging and humiliating people by the gangs of “unsocial elements” in the name cow protection, is widespread. Even the dairy farmers are not spared and targeted while transporting milch cattle. In the pretext of eating or storing beef or slaughtering cow or even transporting cattle, terrible acts of violence are being witnessed. Cases of objecting and preventing Muslims to offer Namaz in their private places have been recently reported. Even in the outskirts of the national capital, Delhi a Mosque was recently vandalized. Construction in and renovation of the Mosques has become difficult.
All the perpetrators of these terror crimes are Hindu-supremacist gangs. In most cases the authorities hushed up the cases to save the offenders and instead charged the victims. BJP ruled state governments have given tacit encouragement to the violence by making statements and announcing policies which call for harsh penalties in the name cow protection. Christians and Dalits are regularly under attack. Cases of gang rape are vitiating security environment for women. Appointing a Hindu religious figure as CM, who is alleged to have instigated his followers to exhume bodies of Muslim women from graves and rape them, emboldened the perpetrators of communal and caste violence. His pocket orgnisation ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’ have allegedly engineered a series of attacks on Muslims as reported by AIMMM. In many villages, Muslims are being terrorized to migrate. Burning and looting of Dalit homes in Saharanpur by upper cast mobs, who shouted 'the police are with us, the administration is with us', is a recent incidence.
Honorable UHM should also count these grave incidents of cast and anti-minority violence as a blot on the face of multi-cultured India and should prevail upon Hindu outfits to set record of National security right, without falling in political considerations and follow his “Rajdharma” as Mahabharata teaches: “you (King/Ruler) must act according to Dharma systematically and rule fearlessly. You shall treat all living beings equally without yielding to evil desires, anger or greed or prompted by personal ego or acting according to your own pleasure or displeasure. You should punish in accordance with law those who transgress the laws. You should take a pledge that by thought, word, and deed, you will rule the world, believing that creation is the very incarnation of the creator.You shall never allow yourself to become a despot.”( Shanti Parva : 59-106 and 107)
Contrary to his assurance, “no innocent should be troubled and none of the offenders should be spared” we see hundreds of innocent Muslims in jails without any progress in their cases and criminals nearing the seat of the power. Can Hon. U H Minister dare to displease Shri Narendra Modi and Amit Shah and even bosses in RSS, who blissfully patronized Gujarat-2002 and are used to demonise and belittling Muslims to consolidate Hindus by really providing security to all?
Writer Syyed Mansoor Agha is a Civil Rights activist, based in New Delhi, works as a Journalist. email: syyedagha@hotmail.com