By Apoorvanand

The Muslims in India are feeling more and more insecure. They are being victimised in the Haryana violence. The annual Shravan jatra was disrupted with hardcore Bajrang Dal blaming Muslims. The police were present and admit that there was no provocation from the Muslims. The communal riots claimed several lives and even affected and brought life to stand still in major places like Gurgaon in Haryana.

The news of a police constable shooting his senior, a Hindu from the ST community and then proceeding to shoot three others, all visibly Muslims in a moving train is scarier than the news of a mob attack. We do not yet know what was the trigger for this police officer to go on a shooting spree. Is it a coincidence that all three murdered by him after he killed his senior, a Hindu, happen to be Muslims and could be identified as Muslims from their ‘clothes’? Did their appearance betray them and trigger the policeman? How do we explain his angry and cold sermon to those whom he had killed to vote for Modi and Yogi? Can we see a connection between the identity of his targets and his apparent loyalty to Modi and Yogi?
In normal times, such questions will be asked and we would expect those who have the skill and resources to investigate such crimes to find the motives behind them. In normal times and normal societies too, such murders take place. Or, we can even say that there is in fact no normal. Abnormalities abound in overtly normal situations. But we can hope to get the right answer to the questions after such horror in those societies. Can we say the same about India, our land? We know the answer.
Were such a crime to happen in a country like the USA, which is the desired destination of many Indians, or in any other country in the West, the head of the state would appear on TV and make a public statement. Especially when the murderer invokes his name as a cover for his crime. The head of state would have denounced it and distanced herself from the murderer. But here in India, neither the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh nor the Prime Minister of India have stirred. What should we conclude from their silence?
That the rulers do not feel responsible for the action of one of their people or do not feel accountable to those whom they are supposed to protect? No remorse even for that? They do not deserve even a word of condolence? Should not the railway minister apologise to those killed by his man? What should be the response from the chief of the Railway Protection Force, whose man has committed four murders? His act has now created a feeling of insecurity among all railway passengers. Would not the sight of a policeman with a firearm make travellers uneasy and fearful? Would they not lose their sleep when they see armed police personnel sitting in their coach?
After all, the seniors of the constable accepted that he was a man of unstable nature. Despite that, they entrusted him with the job of looking after the security of the passengers. How responsible have they been? Do they have no sense of repentance? Why do we see no expression of it?
Should not the state have shown that it feels accountable by announcing extraordinary compensation for the lives lost due to its carelessness, if we accept the claims of the officials that the murderer was mentally unstable? Should not the railway officials have the courtesy, at the minimum, to accompany the dead to their families?
The absence of remorse, shame, or repentance in the state apparatus should worry us. For the murdered passengers, the police officer was the State. He was not a private citizen. He had the power of violence. Which was used against unarmed, non-violent, unsuspecting citizens he was supposed to protect. The State has to take responsibility.
Respected news platforms have censured his words of allegiance to the BJP leaders. They are digging into his past to establish that a psychiatric disorder and not politics should be held responsible for the murders. Why did they edit out the uncomfortable part of the story, which exposes the political ideology behind the slaughter?
Can we say that the constable tried to cover up the murder of his senior by killing three Muslims? Because now, murdering Muslims is seen as normal in India. It is perfectly normal for Hindus to get offended by a Muslim’s very appearance. How do we explain that persons with no criminal history get provoked by visible Muslim-ness?
Just before the circulation of the video of these murders, we watched another video in which a Muslim man is surrounded by Hindus. We are informed that he was silently offering namaz. The sight of a Muslim performing namaz provoked the Hindus so much that they opened their mobiles and read aloud Hanuman Chalisa from their devices, in responding to his namaz! One can say that these two incidents are not related. But we know they are. The namaz, a Muslim act, or the beard or cap or burqa, can now trigger perfectly normal Hindus of a loving nature. It must be the fault of the Muslims who provoke non-violent, ever tolerant Hindus to resort to what they would never do normally: hate and violence.
It was again a coincidence that the news of these murders came with more news of violence from the Mewat region of Haryana. A VHP procession was stopped by a group of Muslims and pelted with stones. The procession was not religious. It was taken out after violent anti-Muslim announcements by the organisers. It was also announced that Monu Manesar, who is the main accused in the murders of two Muslim youths Nasir and Junaid a couple of months ago, would be part of the procession. It was meant to anger Muslims. A man who openly announces his desire to eliminate Muslims, who is a murder accused, who is wanted by the Rajasthan police, was to participate, which is nothing but open humiliation of Muslims.
Why was this procession allowed? Why is a person accused of the murder of two Muslims allowed to hide in the open by the Haryana government? Why has it not handed him over to the Rajasthan police? Would people committing violence against Muslims not be considered criminals anymore?
All these incidents are related.The murder of Muslims in the train would not have been possible if Monu Manesar was apprehended and brought to justice. It would not have happened if the Prime Minister had not asked Hindus to identify those who oppose the government by their clothes. It would not have happened if the killers of Mohsin Sheikh were not let off by the courts with the explanation that it was his appearance which invited the attack on him.
What does this attack do to us? Who is affected by it? Definitely Muslims who have already been feeling that public spaces are not safe for them. Now, even in crowded spaces like a moving train, they would feel more vulnerable.They have to keep guessing who among the co-passengers would get provoked by what. What caution do they have to exercise to remain safe?
I recall a note written by a Muslim woman three to four years ago. Travelling on a train, a child asked her husband if he was a Muslim. When he said, yes, the child said that he should be shot. The Muslim woman wrote that after that they almost gave up travelling by train. It was costly for them but they changed their mode of travel.
This incident has shown two things: Muslim life in India has become dangerously uncertain and Hindus have been radicalised to such an extent that now you do not need organised violence. Violence against Muslims and Christians has become part of Hindu life. People would object to the generalisation but is it not a fact now?
Hindu society will have to reverse this trend to save itself. It is the most urgent task it cannot ignore or delay.

Courtesy: The Wire