Battling ‘Love Jihad’ To ‘Protect Women’

“For the first time, Jats and Muslims are fighting each other. This is a great achievement. Jats have begun thinking like Hindus first. If more Hindu castes fight with Muslims, it will be better for us. BJP will benefit.” From the limited coverage of the communal riots in Muzaffarnagar on Indian TV channels, one can conclusively draw an uncanny resemblance with the pictures we saw during Gujarat riots of 2002 and Assam riots of 2012: Muslim men, women and children, wearing distressed and fearful looks, herded together with their baggage either in a shelter home or being driven in an overcrowded lorry or a cart.

The rioting that started in the state, led by the country’s youngest chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav, after the killing of three youths in Kawal village of the Muzaffarnagar district on August 27 reportedly over an incident of eve-teasing has so far led to at least 40 deaths, massive destruction of property and wide scale displacement of poor villagers. Things went out of hand Saturday, 7 Sept. after venomous speeches made by political leaders at a mahapanchayat – organized in defiance of prohibitory orders – urged people to take law and order in their hands. The clashes took place between the two communities after this meeting was over, and incidents of rioting, killings and arson were reported from many parts of the state, especially its rural areas. This was the unconcealed part of the situation over which blame game started between ruling and the opposition parties, but backstage communal forces had made all preparations to turn Muzaffarnagar into a powder keg – for political benefits. In the run up to national elections scheduled early next year, polarisation of voters will certainly help certain political parties: BJP and SP in particular, according to various political analysts. BJP MLA from Sardhana constituency of Meerut district, Thakur Sangeet Singh Som has gone into hiding after police booked him for circulating a fake video, which it said, fueled the communal violence. The two-year-old fake video, originally from Pakistan shows the ruthless beating and killing of two brothers in Sialkot, Punjab. But the video, doctored to show ‘the killing of two Hindu youths by Muslim mob while they were protecting the honor of their sister’, was widely circulated on social media websites like YouTube and Facebook to fuel the riots. Som shared the video on his Facebook page asking people to ‘see what is going on in Muzaffarnagar’, 500 local right wingers distributed it immediately (he has removed it now after a case was filed by the UP police), reported Twocircles.net. A Sangh activist described to The Hindu how clashes between Muslims and Jats, who have co-existed in peace for centuries, benefit the BJP. “For the first time, Jats and Muslims are fighting each other. This is a great achievement. Jats have begun thinking like Hindus first. If more Hindu castes fight with Muslims, it will be better for us. BJP will benefit,” the activist said. “Muslims needed to be taught a lesson, for they thought they ruled U.P. under Mulayam.” For his bosses, the Muslims are even a bigger threat, not just confined to vote-bank politics. A conspiracy, according to Chandra Mohan Sharma, joint general-secretary of the Meerut division of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), is being hatched to ‘expand Muslim population, using Hindu girls as machines’. In a conversation with The Hindu, the VHP leader has said that “Love Jihad’ is a new procedure used by Muslims to “trap” Hindu girls. “First, good-looking Muslim men are identified. They are given neutral names like Sonu and Raju. These boys are then given jeans, t-shirts, mobiles, and bikes and taught to behave. They stand in front of schools and colleges and woo young Hindu girls. The first few times, our girls snub them. But then, they fall for it. This jehad is about pyar se fasana – entrapment through love,” The Hindu reported. “Look at police records. Out of 100 girls who elope, 95 are Hindus who go with Muslim men. It is rare that Hindu boys get Muslim girls. This is proof of a conspiracy to ‘expand Muslim population, using Hindu girls as machines. We need to protect the honour of our daughters, bahu aur beti.” Specifically naming BJP’s Amit Shah, Union Minister for minority affairs Rahman Khan has also blamed the BJP for the communal flare-up. Amit Shah, Narendra Modi’s right-hand man has been elected as the BJP’s poll chief for Uttar Pradesh – the state with highest Muslim population in the country. Shah, an accused in the killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi and a witness Tulsiram Prajapati in staged gunbattles, was the home minister of Gujarat till he had to resign in 2010 after his arrest. Currently out on judicial bail, Shah is being projected as a ‘game-changer’ for the party in Uttar Pradesh by various politicians. His domain and strategy in the run-up to the elections can be construed from his statement to the press as soon as he assumed his new role: “If the UPA can indulge in blatant appeasement of Muslims, why should BJP workers and leaders shy from wooing the majority?”Firstpost quoted Shah as saying. With Shah at the helm in Uttar Pradesh, his juniors in the saffron party have been drawing parallels between Godhra and the violence that happened after the mahapanchayat in Nalandabodhi in Muzaffarnagar. “…And what has happened after that (mahapanchayat) is the reaction on the lines of post-Godhra in Gujarat. Hindus did not sit back,” VHP leader Sudarshan told The Hindu. Added vermillion wearing Bajrang Dal leader Balraj Singh: “Victory will be ours. The Sangh’s work is to unite Hindus, to protect our temples, women, cows, Ganga, our religion.”

Kashmir Family’s Endless Wait For Disappeared Son

Nishwan Rasool:

Life was normal for Mattoo’s till that ill-fated cold, breezy November 3 afternoon in 1993 when ‘a ghost came from dark’ and took away their seven-year-old son, Javed Mattoo. This was the time when India launched a massive anti-insurgency operation against pro-freedom and pro-Pakistan militants – who had returned from across the border after getting trained in firing AK-47’s and other automatic weapons. Almost two decades later, the family’s home in Pulwama, 30 km south of Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar, stands only to tell sordid tales of State oppression, festering wounds and aching reminiscences. Javed, according to his father Ghulam Nabi Mattoo, was having lunch with family when a column of Border Security Forces or BSF soldiers raided the house. “The patrol party was headed by Gurmeet Singh [Inspector] and his other two assistants Sukhu Singh and Tirlook Singh. They took away my Javed,” Mattoo Sr. says. The counter-insurgency forces were given unbridled powers to curb the anti-India militancy that had erupted four years back in 1989 – the immediate motivation being the massive rigging of elections in 1987. Thousands of youths were rounded up by armed forces during search operations and crackdowns. Many among them never returned home. “The BSF party had arrested over a dozen youth in the village during that raid. All of them were released; only my son (Javed) was held up in the (BSF) camp,” Mattoo Sr. says. Javed, a student of 1st standard at Government Public School in Kareem Abad, who should have been sitting in a classroom with his friends, was now lodged at a BSF camp where he could only see strange men brandishing automatic weapons and conversing in an alien language. His crime, however, was never known, and he wasn’t even taken to a juvenile home – although no such homes existed then. Under the Public Safety Act or PSA, armed forces can detain anyone for a maximum two years without any trial. They can detain a person on the basis of suspicion alone. Mattoo’s rushed to the nearest police station after hearing that Javed had been shifted there. “We tried to contact the police officials for his release but they kept on telling us that he would be released day after tomorrow. We were very worried,” he reminisces. Initially, police, according to Mattoo Sr., refused to file a case against the BSF, saying Javed had escaped from the BSF camp. Six months after he was taken away, Javed’s sister died – the family believes she died because of her brother’s mysterious disappearance. According to various human rights organizations, more than 8000 people have disappeared in the custody of armed forces in the Valley. The families of these disappeared people who have been fighting their cases under two breakaway factions of Association of Parents of Disappeared People (APDP) have at least one thing in common: they have been making rounds of various military installations and incarceration centers in the Valley in search of their loved ones. Mattoo Sr. has been no exception. He has been running from pillar to post in search of his son. “Every time we would visit the BSF camp to meet Javed they would ignore us saying that the officer is not present. This continued for months together. We always returned home disappointed and distraught,” he sighs. After managing to get an FIR registered, Mattoo’s went to the BSF camp again, but this time they had to hear a different story: they were told that Javed fled after identifying a militant hideout. Mattoo Sr. can’t believe this version of the story. He asks: “How can a seven-year-old know about a militant hideout?” After eight months of Javed’s disappearance, an old man working as a carpenter at National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Srinagar brought the family news they have been awaiting for months now. The old man informed the family that Javed was kept in a hidden room at the University campus. “The old man told us that he had met Javed in the campus and had a small chat with him. Javed had told him that he was picked up by the BSF forces and wrong information of his escape was conveyed to his family,” says Mattoo. The family contacted the Army officials at the NIT only to learn that they had received ‘wrong information’. “And in a jiffy all our hopes went down the drain,” adds Mattoo Sr. with a husky voice. Like most Kashmiris, Mattoo’s have a question: Why was their innocent son targeted. Why is the State silent? “We have harbored this pain for almost two decades now. We want to know if he (Javed) is alive or dead. We will fight till we live. None of the political or economic packages can heal our wounds,’’ says Mattoo Sr.

Boom in condom sales during Jaipur Literature Festival

It appears that the participants at the world’s largest free literature festival being held in the Indian city of Jaipur are seeking knowledge but with a dash of frolic. The annual Jaipur Literature Festival has come as a bunce for the local chemists as young people are thronging shops for condom since seventh edition of the event began on January 17 this year.

“At close of sale on Sunday, we sold more than 900 condoms in the late evening hours,” says a chemist who runs a shop near the Diggi Palace Hotel which is the main venue of the festival. In three days more than 5000 people have taken part in the festival and the numbers are swelling. “As our shop is on the backside of the road we have few customers during evening hours, but on Sunday young boys in huge numbers descended and asked for male contraceptives,” the shop owner says wishing anonymity. From Nobel laureates to local language writers, Man Booker prize winners to debut novelists, every January ‘the most remarkable, witty, sensitive and brilliant collection of authors’ come together for five days of readings, debates and discussions, the website of the festival says. But, clearly the festival isn’t attracting young Indian people only for 'readings, debates and discussions', but other things as well. “Featuring live music sessions and interactive workshops, the festival provides a space to dare, dream and imagine,” the organizers say. The festival certainly seems to provide space for wild 'dreams'. Another shop located in the vicinity of the venue is catering to similar requests. “Not only boys but a few girls also came to ask for contraceptives,” the shop owner says. He says Jaipur hosts tourists throughout the year and the sale of contraceptives is stead, but during the festival the demand for the condoms is ‘quite high’. An article published on the Mint says about the fashion being followed at the festival: “FLAUNT the latest styles. Quite a few fashion tips for the pseudo intellectuals brought to you by the literary frat. If I could line up all the boots worn at JLF, I am sure the line would stretch to the moon and back.” “It’s more of a fashion show where everyone comes to exhibit their glamorous outfits be it men or women and hang around with each other,” says 22-year-old Aarushi who has come from Indian capital New Delhi to participate in the fest. With the huge influx of participants, hotels near the pink city venue are packed. “Young couples from various parts of India come and ask for cheap rooms,” a hotel manager says. “We have a capacity of booking for more than 200 customers and I thought that would be enough for two days. But I am surprised how everything has been running out!” he adds. JLF, which began in 2006, is now regarded as a cultural catalyst within India and around the world, exposing audiences to a constant flow of ideas, its organizers say. From a mere 100 visitors in 2006 to a massive footfall of around 200,000 in 2013, the 17th century Diggi Palace shot into global fame from being just another heritage property to a literature hub as it served as the constant host of the JLF for the last six years. This eclectic marriage of literature and heritage has benefited both. So much so that the Diggi Palace is now synonymous with the JLF. From planning special, elaborate menus to setting up colourful marquees, the owners start their preparations three months in advance to ensure the five-day literature feast doesn't disappoint. This year the festival runs from Jan 17 to 21 and boasts of 200 authors from eclectic backgrounds, including heavyweights like Nobel Prize winners Amartya Sen and Harold Varmus, Man Booker Prize winners Jhumpa Lahiri, Tash Aw, Alison Macleod and Jim Crace, Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan, Olympic boxing bronze medalist Mary Kom and lyricists Javed Akhtar and Prasoon Joshi.