New Delhi police arrest activists and students during a protest against recent Anti-Muslim violence in the north-eastern state of Tripura on October 29. (Credit: Imtiyaz Khan/Anadolu Agency)
Sajeda Haider
On October 15, a social media live telecast of the Qur’an being placed at the feet of an idol of a Hindu deity in a temple in Bangladesh went viral, triggering violence across the Muslim-majority country. Muslim fanatics went on the rampage, vandalising several Hindu temples belonging to a community that makes up no more than two per cent of the population.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina quickly brought the situation under control, ordering the police force to protect the tiny Hindu community. Seven people died during the violence – two Hindus by rampaging mobs and five Muslim criminals by police fire. Hasina deployed the Rapid Action Battalion which arrested hundreds of Muslim extremists in nationwide raids, including the two miscreants, Iqbal Hussain and Saikat Mandal, who placed the Qur’an at Goddess Durga’s feet to incite religious fury and were tracked using CCTV footage.
Haseeb Hasina condemned the persecution of Hindus, and the Awami League held massive protests in Dhaka and other cities as a demonstration of its resolve to combat extremists. Civil society too stood by the Hindus, pledging to protect them at all costs.
While the Hasina Government acted firmly and fairly to protect Bangladeshi Hindus and stop the violence from spreading, the same cannot be said for the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in neighbouring India, which did everything it could to take advantage of the anti-Hindu violence.
The BJP used the violence in Bangladesh in the campaign for by-elections, particularly in Bengal, hoping to polarise voters along religious lines. However, the electorate did not buy the fabricated propaganda and defeated the BJP across most constituencies.
Unfortunately, in the north-eastern Indian state of Tripura, the ‘retaliation’ manifested itself in violence against Muslims. The remote state shares a 532-mile border with Bangladesh and has a population of 3.7 million, of which about 400,000 (9%) are Muslim. Once a predominantly tribal state, Bengali speaking Hindus consisting of migrants and refugees who came over to the state in several waves, now make up the majority.
‘Retaliatory’ attacks on Muslim homes, shops and mosques began on October 19 and continued until October 26, covering four of the eight districts of Tripura. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council), Bajrang Dal and Hindu Jagaran Manch organised marches across the state to protest against the violence in Bangladesh and it was during or after the rallies that local Muslims were attacked.
The VHP and the other radical outfits are affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of India’s Hindu supremacist groups dedicated to converting India into a Hindu state. Most top leaders of India’s governing BJP, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, started their political careers as RSS workers and continue to be its members.
“As the mobs passed through Muslim areas, they raised abusive and derogatory chants against Muslims and Prophet Mohammed. They vandalised mosques, burned the holy Qur’an and prayer mats, and set fire to shops and homes belonging to Muslims,” said Nazrul Islam, a resident of Panisagar town, which saw some of the worst violence in Tripura.
In contrast to Sheikh Hasina, as Tripura burned, Modi maintained a studied silence, as he does whenever there is violence against Muslims. Taking his cue from him, the BJP Chief Minister of Tripura, Biplab Kumar Deb, also kept quiet, letting the mobs run riot. Finally, it was the Tripura High Court which took suo motu notice of the violence and on October 29 it directed the state government to submit a report to them.
Tripura police chief VS Yadav emulated his political masters and downplayed the violence, arguing that they were only “minor incidents” and were being investigated. While residents accused the police of being mute bystanders, Yadav claimed it was “timely intervention” by the police that thwarted many other attempts at fomenting violence.
A four-member fact-finding delegation of Muslim NGOs that visited Tripura in early November claimed that the violence was a “result of the irresponsibility of the administration, extremist organisations and the vested interests of ambitious politicians”. Ironically, police booked two of the lawyers on the team, charging them with spreading fake news about the violence online. Similarly, two women journalists who had gone from Delhi to report on the vandalism at mosques have been detained by Tripura police, for “spreading communal disharmony” with their reporting.
In the wake of the violence, the Tripura government has arrested more than 60 people, including the two lawyers under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), a controversial anti-terror law. Most of the arrested are (Hindu and Muslim) activists, lawyers, journalists and members of civil society demonstrating against the attacks on Muslims; by contrast, police claim they are unable to identify mob members.
Internationally, India has suffered bad press, with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) voicing alarm at reports of attacks on Muslims and urged the Indian Government to prevent the attacks in Tripura. An independent and bipartisan federal government commission, the USCIRF, has said it was “particularly alarmed at reports from Tripura of mobs desecrating mosques and torching properties of Muslims”.
The USCIRF has, for the last two years, downgraded India as “country of particular concern” for its lack of religious freedom. Despite all the condemnations, the Modi Government has taken no action against the perpetrators of violence, nor has he or his party made any efforts to ensure that Indian Muslims are not punished for what their co-religionists do in neighbouring countries.
