By Pramod Kumar for TwoCircles.net,
The NDTV, on 7th September 2014, in its weekly programme, We The People, held a discussion on the “Global Jihad Comes to India” and the participants included a “secular fundamentalist”, two “ultra cultural nationalists”, two Muslims, three representatives from intelligence and law enforcing agencies and an outsider who happened to be a Muslim. The trigger was the release of a video on 3rd September, 2014, by al-Qaeda announcing the formation of a new Branch of “al-Qaeda in the South Asian Continent”. The release of video revealed al-Qaeda`s own concern about having ceded space to its splinter group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).
Ayman Al-Zawahiri of al-Qaeda perhaps believes that the divisive and polarising forces in Indian polity having gained an upper hand recently, the time is ripe for baiting the Indians in Gujarat, Assam and Kashmir. ISIS on the other hand is hyper-brutal,targets even fellow Muslims and apparently resonates more amongst the Muslim Youth who get attracted by romanticism of cocking a snook at USA which had, it is alleged, propped up the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr Al-Bhagdadi to fight Jihadi outfits threatening Israel.Some fanatics, of course, get lured by the weird notion of re-establishing Caliphates. Curiously, Jihad has been interpreted in many ways and in contradictory terms by many scholars of Islam.
The speakers on the panel, with near unanimity, averred that the latest appeal, as in the past, will not cut much ice with the Muslims in India. However, Tufail Ahmed, a journalist and Director of a Think tank in USA, cautioned that the threat is real. Four Muslims boys, as reported, have already joined the ISIS and other reports suggest that about 80 Indians might be in Middle East to help the Jihadi outfits. The al-Qaeda`svideo has once again led to paranoia, fluffy rhetoric and puerile jingoism generating headlines for days and endless frenzied discussions in the studios.
The speakers agreed that al-Qaeda will not succeed this time also. It is true that India has a large marginalized Muslim population and a history of periodic communal violence. But India is the only country where Muslims have consistently experienced democratic values on almost all conceivable parameters: political and religious freedom, equal opportunities, freedom of thought and expression, individual liberty and right to form political association. One must not forget that Muslims in India chose to stay back in India after the 1947 Partition of the sub-continent.Further they are inflected by Sufism and are somewhat syncretic which is inimical to the Jihadi ideology. The celebrated Indiandiversity and plurality also works as a deterrent for the religious fundamentalists and bigots.
But Ahmed rightly pointed out that it will be a folly to gloss over the fault lines which have given birth to SIMI and Indian Mujahedeen on the one hand and the various Senas like BAJRANG DAL and DURGA VAHINIS on the other. Then there is the concept of “Action-Reaction” in the political and social discourse. The miasma of palpable distrust and bias has existed between the majority and minorities: Muslims in particular. Muslims are expected to keep demonstrating their loyalty, their patriotism, every now and then, publicly. It is also true that their share in power structure, exercise of power, judiciary, media and law-enforcing agencies is neither proportionate nor adequate. However the pervasive distrust and bias especially amongst Police and Intelligence Agencies has created problems and may make individuals susceptible to calls for Jihad.Even a retired Police Officer, Prakash Singh, former DGP of UP Police and BSF, who has been fighting for Police Reforms, has said that “Even educated Muslims prefer not to serve Government, especially police and army, because that calls for UNWAVERING PATRIOTISM AND A READINESS TO DIE FOR THE COUNTRY. They would say we are brave enough to die, but we will die for our religion” (Tehelka of 13.9.14)
The media too is not free from the distrust and bias against the Muslims. The news coverage of the terror incidents has fallen, often, woefully short of objectivity and fairness. It regularly manifests a tendency to accept the information, leak or plant emanating from the authorities as gospel, betraying the basic tenets of journalism like scepticism, questioning and verification.It was evident on the show on Sept 7, 2014, that Barkha Dutt, the anchor, was pre-disposed to spice up the discussion by raking up Batla House Encounter and criticise the “secularists” for their efforts to undermine the Police action in the name of Political Correctness/Expediency. Only, it is hard to believe that Barkha is not aware of plethora of fake encounters and other cases where convictions have been set aside by the Higher Courts.
She had come prepared, it is apparent, to provoke, the Secular Fundamentalist, Mani Shankar Ayer, into what he often does, putting his foot in the mouth. But he was on the show; restraint personified and refused to rise to the bait. He explained his misgivings about the Batla House quietly and also referred to the Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association which has taken up more than a dozen cases where the police action and arrests are under a cloud. Maulana Mehmood Madani of Ulema-E-Hind also pointed out that he has also taken up many cases in this regard. Barkha was quick to take exception and brought in the Mumbai ATS Chief Himanshu Roy.
Roy, in his florid language and through the use of platitude like the Constitutional Right of due process for all including a terrorist, asserted nonchalantly that acquittal does not mean that the accused is innocent. It only means that either enough evidence was not available or the prosecution was incompetent. The journalists like Barkha are certainly not unaware of the high-handedness of police actions. The indiscriminate arrests take place to stem the clamour of themedia for immediate action or are prompted by those in power.Personal prejudices too play a vital role. Roy`s assertion is frightening indeed for it actually means that once one has been branded a terrorist he remains a terrorist for rest of his life despite honourable acquittal. This should be an anathema in a democracy and a civilized society.
Roy`s attention should be drawn to the SC verdict delivered on May 16, 2014 which saved three innocent persons from going to gallows and the other three from life terms in prison in the Akshardham Terror case of 2002. That day, the SC set Saleem and five others free, pulling up the Gujarat Police for “framing” innocent people and also blaming the then Home Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi for “non-application of mind”. Four of the six men had already spent 10 years in jail. The SC said there was “perversity” in conductingthis case at various stages, right from the investigation level to the granting of sanction by the State Govt. This verdict has not featured at all in the high decibel discussions in the studios. Barkha must have known about it for its details appeared in the Indian Express (Mumbai/Goa edition) of May 22, 2014 and a write up on it in by Manoj Mitta in TOI (Goa) of June 2, 2014.
Roys of the law enforcement agencies are impervious to the plight of innocents on whom false charges get foisted and insensitive enough not to imagine the gravity of injustice in the Akshardham case had some NGOs not taken their fight to the highest Court. Does Barkha realize that in Batla House Encounter case too, higher courts are still available? Maulana Madani complained that arrests get disproportionate coverage in media while the acquittals do not find any space or time.
Madani also pointed out that the media does not cover the denunciation of Jihadi militants adequately even when Muslim TANZEEMS (organisations) condemn the terrorist activities. Ayer also read out Majlis-e-Mushawarat`s statement denouncing al-Qaeda`s video. Barkha was ready with her response that another cleric, from Lucknow, Maulana Salman Al-Husaini Nadwi`s has greeted Al-Bhagdadi and has referred to him as Amir ul-Momineen. Obviously, Barkha`s research team looked only for those who had extended support to ISIS. As is the usual practice, the anchors approach the discussions with a pre-determined agenda. Barkha wanted to demonstrate, in keeping with the popular view of the new dispensation, that secularism is now a “dirty” word. No wonder the ridicule is being heaped on the word fromthe foreign shores also.
Barkha questioned the political correctness of secularists but failed to find any irony in two Representatives of the BJP, the national spokesperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam and the Strategic Affairs Expert Seshadri Chari claiming, with straight faces, that they are perturbed about the video but have full faith in the Indian Muslims` loyalty and patriotism. The huge gulf between what is preached and practised by BJP and the Parivar it belongs to has never been more glaring. A girl in the audience too raised this issue but Barkha avoided seeking a response from the speakers. Parivar has created a perception of “victimhood” at the hands of Muslim Rulers in the past and has never stopped exploiting it. It finds expression every now and then in Organiser and Panchjanya, the two mouthpieces of RSS. These journals and even Mohan Bhagwat have warned the nation about “Love-Jihad”. Another stalwart, Ashok Singhal, of VHP, declared immediately after Narendra Modi `s induction in officethat “It was time for them (Muslims) to learn their lessons. Muslims will be treated as common citizens – nothing more, nothing less. And they must learn to respect Hindu sentiments. If they keep opposing Hindus, how long can they survive?”
There is another gulf developing between the journalism and the media houses` propensity to convert themselves into PR agents and Event managers for the Corporate and the Party they support. The anchors/editors display a “cultivated” gullibility about the claims and actions of the new dispensation. While there is no cause for undue alarm about the al-Qaeda`s renewed foray, it is necessary to ensure that trust and the goodwill amongst the people is not jeopardised by the unscrupulous agencies, political parties and the “committed” media. Can we not, like Australia, apologise, compensate, rehabilitate those who get foisted with false charges and find freedom only after prolonged suffering in prisons, ruining not only their future but destroying their families also. Australia, in 2010, not only apologised to but compensated also Dr.Mohammed Hanif of Bangalore, when the charges of terrorism against him were found to be false. Also what about the accountability of those who knowingly foist false charges on the innocents?
It is time for media to supplement the steps being taken by some in Muslim community asking youth to shun al-Qaeda`s calls. This must be built upon. Also what about a campaign in media for the rehabilitation, compensation and accountability in cases where it is found that false charges had been foisted?
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Pramod Kumar is a retiree living in Goa.