Is Uttar Pradesh increasingly becoming hostile towards Muslims?

Image Courtesy:latestly.com

In the recent months, Uttar Pradesh has slowly taken over as the epicenter and a breeding ground of communal hate. Right from last year, there were instances of violence against those protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), allegedly with full blessings of the Adityanath regime. With the outbreak of the coronavirus, Muslims were vilified for being the spreaders of the disease, with the Chief Minsiter himself reportedly saying, “In Uttar Pradesh and other places where the spread of the coronavirus has been seen, Tablighi Jamaat is behind it. Had they not hidden the disease and went about like its carriers, then perhaps we would have controlled the coronavirus outbreak to a large extent.”

Post this, Uttar Pradesh has appeared to have become unusually hostile towards its over 40 million Muslims residents. Here are a few instances that show how the community is being targeted, demonised and attacked across India’s most populous state.

Vilifying Muslims during the coronavirus lockdown

1.   Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Suresh Tiwari reportedly asked people in the state’s Deoria district to not buy vegetables from Muslim vendors, in a bid to bring about their economic boycott, reported The Indian Express.  

The legislator from the district’s Barhaj constituency in a video that went viral said, “Keep one thing in mind, I am telling everyone openly, no one should purchase vegetables from Muslims.”

Trying to clarify his stance he said, “After hearing complaints that people of a community were selling vegetables after contaminating them with saliva in an attempt to spread coronavirus disease, I advised them not to purchase vegetables from them… After the situation gets normal, then decide what they want.”

Read more – UP BJP MLA asks people not to buy vegetables from Muslim vendors 

2.   Another BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Charkhari constituency too allegedly threatened a Muslim vegetable vendor asking him not to make any sales in the area. In the video which has now gone viral, Rajput can be seen asking the vendor for his name. All the while the vendor kept saying his name was ‘Rajkumar’, Rajput and a neighbour who allegedly shot the video, continuously kept asking the man to reveal his real name. Sensing a threat to the vendor’s life after Rajput said, “Naam kya hai bete, tu bol, sahi bol. Tu bolega, tera baap bach jaayega” (You tell me his name, son. Tell me his correct name. Only if you do, will your father will be safe), a minor who was accompanying the him revealed the man’s name to be Azizur Rahman and told Rajput, “Chhod do, uncle. Ab nai karenge. Jaane do (Let us go, uncle. We won’t do it again. Let us go.)”
As the vendor and the minor who was with him turned to leave, Rajput was heard shouting,   “Dikh mat jaana yahan mohallay main nahin toh maar maar ke theek kar denge (Do not be seen in this locality again else we will thrash you).”

Read more – Another UP BJP MLA targets Muslim vendors

3.   A group of Muslim men, in Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh, had complained to the authorities as they weren’t being allowed to sell vegetables in the area because of their religion. They had allegedly been subjected to verbal abuse for doing so.

4.   A hospital in Meerut apologized for discriminating against patients on the basis of religion. The Valentis Cancer Hospital in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh had put out an advertisement asking Muslim patients and their caretakers to come to the hospital only if they had a medical certificate proving they had tested negative for Covid-19, has now apologized. Later it put out an apology saying, “The advertisement was an appeal to all the people to follow the government guidelines so that everyone stays safe. It has nothing to do with religion. We apologize as some word hurt people’s sentiments. The hospital never intended to hurt anyone’s sentiments.”

Read more – After warning, Meerut hospital apologizes for discriminating patients on the basis of religion  

5.   In Prayagraj’s Dusauti village, the police arrested three villagers and booked three others for putting up barricades and a poster saying that Muslims were not allowed to enter the village, The Indian Express reported.

The village falls in the Handiya police station area and villagers put up the banner there on Sunday, three days after a young man in the neighbouring village tested positive for coronavirus.

The poster has been removed by the police and the accused have been charged with promoting enmity on the grounds of religion, engaging in malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings, and disobeying orders duly promulgated by a public servant.

Harassment of anti-CAA protestors

December, 2019 saw massive protests by people agitating against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Students, journalists and political activists were brutally assaulted by the Uttar Pradesh administration.

6.   The Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union (AMUSU) came up with a report after conducting its own inquiry into the violence that took place on campus on the night of December 15, 2019. The report showed the unwarranted use of violence by the police on the students. Police made sure that the tear gas shells, sound blasts and lathicharge against students. Videos have recorded the use of stun grenades, rifles, stone pelting, abusive language and communal slurs, ruthless beating by the police and other forces.

Read more – AMU admin complicity in police brutality on campus: AMUSU

7.   The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) released a report showing the state repression of anti-CAA protestors. During the mass civil disobedience movement carried out peacefully by anti-CAA protestors, turned violent after some unidentified miscreants burnt down a bus and some media OB vans, leading to police raining lathi blows on protestors and the situation turning volatile. It was not established as to who exactly were responsible for the same. Yet, UP CM Yogi Adityanath announced that his government would ‘take revenge’ on those involved in the violence by confiscating their properties. He said all of them have been marked in the CCTV footage and the state shall seize their property and compensate the losses caused.

For the first time that there is an open declaration of state “revenge” against the perpetrators. Is it because, this is perhaps one of the rare occasions where the majority of perpetrators of violence are being identified by the police as Muslims?

Read more – Seizure of Properties in UP: Who paid for destruction of property in Gujarat Violence of 2002?

8.   Not only did the government go door-to-door to warn the protestors to not participate in anti-CAA agitations, but also put up posters and hoardings throughout the state capital of Lucknow of alleged anti-CAA protestors; around 57 of them, with their names, addresses and photographs accusing them to be a part of the violence during the protests. The government booked social activist Sadaf Jafar who was brutally beaten and assaulted in jail after being picked up by the police for recording a video of their inaction against actual rioters. Activist Deepak Kabir and former IPS officer and septuagenarian SR Darapuri were also arrested on allegations of fueling the riots. Rihai Manch’s Mohammed Shoaib too was kept in an undisclosed location by the UP police after they arrested him from his home for allegedly being a part of anti-CAA protests.

Read more – UP police go door-to-door; puts up hoardings of alleged anti-CAA protesters in town 

9.   Dr. Kafeel Khan – On January 29, a day before India’s first COVID-positive case was reported, Dr Kafeel was arrested from Bombay airport, this time on a political charge for participating in anti-CAA protests, reported The Week. The paediatrician from Gorakhpur who was suspended by the government from the BRD Medical College, was supposed to be released on parole during the Covid-19 crisis after the orders of the Centre to release prisoners for the fear of the coronavirus transmission in jails. However, his release orders were suspended at the last minute. In jail, he had made awareness videos just before his arrest—explaining what the coronavirus is and how the symptoms would show up. From jail, he wrote two letters. His first letter again warned people not to take COVID lightly and spoke of the dangers of Stage 3 transmission.

The second letter, written on March 19, was addressed to PM Narendra Modi: Dr Kafeel requested that he be released so he could lend his energies to the fight against the pandemic, citing his expertise in the area. He suggested that India move towards mass tests, ramping up the supply of testing centres, ventilators and ICU beds. There was no response. Ironically, the same evening the PM addressed the nation and asked Indians to clap and clang bells to express gratitude towards doctors.

10.   The clampdown in December 2019 against the Muslim community by the UP administration also extended to people who didn’t take part in the anti-CAA protests. Scroll.in reported that in three villages located less than 30 km from Lucknow, at least 100 Muslim men were made to furnish a bond of Rs 50,000 each under Section 107/116 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which virtually served as an assurance that they would not participate in any protest. They were asked to appear in court every fortnight or so for at least the next six months. Thirty-seven men from 20 of the 25 Muslim families in the village had been issued these notices, in some cases all the male members of a family. It also wasn’t made clear whether the charges against them would lead to criminal records being entered against their names. Doing so, would put many at an economical risk, especially for the young who are preparing for government jobs in the state. 

These ten instances are just a snapshot of the daily inhuman treatment being meted out to Muslims. The state sponsored violence during the anti-CAA protests led to the killing of 23 people. Out of these, 21 casualties were due to bullet injuries, one minor was crushed in a stampede during lathi-charge and one person reportedly died of head injury hit by a stone, reported NewsClick. It was reported that only three of these 21 families received post mortem reports. The widespread Islamophobia being spread by right-wing fascists has resulted in the mass ostracization of Muslims. Reports of them being targeted, especially under the Adityanath government, only go to show that the violence against the minorities is a carefully orchestrated scheme to drown their voices and erase their identities.

Related:

Hate Pandemic: Minorities unfairly targeted as ‘corona carriers’
How the Muslim community is being ostracised and marginalised amidst the Covid-19 pandemic