Dr Ravindra Agrawal from Muzaffarnagar

The seeds of this communal tension had been sown by ruling Samajwadi Party when it started releasing the Muslims arrested in connection with terror activities. The Government declared those Muslim youth ‘innocent’. The court, however, later rejected the move terming it illegal.

After the murder of DSP Zia-Ul-Haq in Pratapgarh district, the SP government took a number of steps to ward off the discontent among Muslims and to win over their confidence again. Those measures were announced even overlooking the constitutional obligations of a Government with the sole aim of Muslim appeasement. One amongst those decisions was to grant a sum of Rs 30,000 to Muslim girls who passed tenth examination. This amount was to be spent on their education but the Government allowed them to use the money for marriages too. The National Child Rights Protection Commission took a serious note this permission as it perceived that this would encourage the marriage of underage girls. No political party opposed to State Government’s such decision just because of the fear of losing Muslim votes. But these steps created mass discontent that started brewing slowly, and the tragedy was that nobody tried to understand and gauge the intensity of this public displeasure.

The anti-social elements under SP rule are so emboldened that they even dared attack the prabhatpheri (morning procession) taken out by school children on Independence Day in Sarsava town of Saharanpur. They injured the school kids with lathis but not a single secular voice was heard throughout the country against the atrocity and no one condemned this anti-national act! Is it a crime to take out prabhatpheri on Independence Day? Should it be considered as a communal act?

A few months back some anti-social elements indulged in violence at Deoband, the important place of Islamic studies adjacent to Muzaffarnagar district. They forcibly entered into the Government rest house, broke the window panes and chased the officers. Such happenings have become the order of the day in the State. These anti-social elements didn”t spare even the police and the poor cops had to run for their life.

The law and orders situation in the State has gone to dogs. According to Union Home Ministry, the state witnessed some 100 communal riots in 2012 alone. There has been spurt in crimes immediately after the SP Government came to power in the State. The cattle thieves’ gangs roam freely in villages without any fear; thefts and robberies have become the most common now in villages where they were unheard of in the past. If the cops arrest the thieves, the phones of SP leaders start ringing even before they reach police stations and they have to release them. Eve-teasing has become a common phenomenon and slightest opposition to such act invites violence from the criminals. And, the police find themselves helpless in such situations. The hands of the administration and police are tied leading the insecurity feeling among the common masses.

After Durga Shakti Nagpal episode, the police and administration find themselves in the most demoralised state and do not initiate any action on their own. Azam Khan, the most influential minister of the State, rightly says that officers should not wait for orders from Lucknow, and act according to their conscience. That is to say that the officers of the State only obey the diktats from Lucknow.

Unemployment is rising in the State but whatever the Government is doing to correct it in view of the 2014 general elections, seems to be discriminatory in the eyes of the youth of the State. The youths allege that the distribution of laptops as fulfillment of election promise was being done on a discriminatory basis leading to frustration among them. The public discontent, feeling of insecurity and doubts and frustration among the youths are also being seen behind the Muzaffarnagar violence.

Even the children know how the SP government is functioning in the State. Here five chief ministers are running the Statecraft—Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, influential Minister Azam Kahn, Akhilesh’s uncles Shivpal Yadav and Ramgopal Yadav, and above all SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav! How can any Government function under such conditions? The effect of this is seen in Muzaffarnagar riots. Though the Akhilesh government has blamed the opposition parties for this and accused them of hatching a conspiracy against his Government, each one in the State knows that all this is the result of the failure of his Government at all fronts. It is the handiwork of those elements in his own party that want him to be projected as ‘failed’ Chief Minister. But the misfortune is poor Akhilesh! knowing everything he is unable to take corrective action!!

What he has done to control the riots which claimed over 43 lives is exposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Home Minister himself. SP Government says that it had not given permission to the ‘Bahu-Beti Samman Bachao Maha-panchayat’ at Nagla Mandod village but the Union Home Minister contradicts him saying that he had talked to Akhilesh Yadav itself regarding this Mahapanchayat and the Chief Minister had assured him of adequate security for the same. But people returning from this Mahapanchayat were attacked.

Maybe the Government was worried over the political loss and gain following this violence. Even the curfew was imposed after the repeated pressure from the Centre. If the Home Ministry officials were to be believed then it were they who gave even the minor instructions to the State officers to control and douse the communal fire in the riot-torn areas. We can understand the compulsion of the State officials who have become habitual to follow the diktats from Lucknow only. Because if they did take some action on their own conscience, they, for sure, would face the music as Durga Shakti Nagpal did.

(The writer is senior journalist and visited Muzaffarnagar, Shamali, Saharanpur and Baghpat after the riots)

The series of rape cases that caused unrest

August 23, 2012: School girl gang-raped by five youths in Muzaffarnagar

December 21 2012: Muzaffarnagar Panchayat offered rape victim Rs 1.5 lakh to keep quiet

December 24, 2012: Minor girl gang-raped by three youths in Muzaffarnagar

December 29, 2012: Girl school teacher sexually assaulted

December 30, 2012: Two women injured in acid attack in Muzaffarnagar

February 18, 2013: Woman gang-raped by four men, filmed in Muzaffarnagar

April 3, 2013:  Acid attack on three teachers, students in Muzaffarnagar

June 3, 2013: Minor girl raped in Muzaffarnagar

July 8, 2013: Man shot dead for demanding arrest of gangrape accused 

July 29, 2013: Woman forcibly married and gang-raped as punishment after her brother eloped with a village girl

August 24, 2013: Class IX student raped by youth in Muzaffarnagar

August 30, 2013: Muslim cleric arrested for abducting 11-year-old girl

August 27, 2013: In Kawal village, an eveteasing incident led to clash, burning bikes and the murder of three youth

August 29, 2013: Women devotees molested near a place of worship

August 30, 2013: Huge mob assembled at a mosque in Shaheed Chowk after Friday prayers

September 5, 2013: The Khap panchayat announced to organise ‘Bahu Beti Samaan Bachaoi Mahapanchyat‘ on September 7, at Nagla Mandaur

September 7, 2013:  The Panchayat was organised by Jats at Nagla Mandaur, over 1.2 lakh people participated. People going to Panchayat were attacked.

The menace of Love Jehad

RK Ohri, IPS, retd

Some people have objected to the organisation of ‘Bahu-Beti Bachao Mahapanchayat’ in Muzaffarnagar which witnessed the gathering of one and a half lakh Jats (read Hindus). There is no point in ignoring the title of this Panchayat, which clearly spelt out the cause of provocation. Its aim was to protect the honour of the Hindu women from ‘Love Romeos’.

Unfortunately, the narrative being presented by media is only half truth. There is much more to this violence than what meets the eye. There has been a groundswell of anger among Hindus of Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Meerut, Ghaziabad and several other districts of Western Uttar Pradesh against the fast growing cult called ‘love jehad’ which is a stratagem for seducing and marrying Hindu girls. The increasing incidence of love-jehad cases in many districts can be gauged if someone was cared to count the reports of eve-teasing and stalking of Hindu girls by Muslims.

It is a global phenomenon and has been practised for nearly three decades in Egypt for enticing the Christian girls. The virus spread to the United Kingdom in 1990. Love jehad starts by stalking vulnerable girls and making overtures and phone calls to the targeted victims. It has been highlighted by a well known researcher, Steven Brown in a very perceptive article writes that love jehad has nothing to do with love, but is an aggression laced with hatred for the infidels. The modus operands involves a heartless strategy of luring vulnerable girls and young women to convert to Islam by feigning love. 

Steven Brown refers to the fact that the “Jehad Romeos” in Kerala are given bikes and fashionable clothes to accomplish their sinister mission. They are given two weeks time to find a girl of another religion and six months to convert her to Islam. If the girl shows no interest within two weeks, the Jehad Romeo has to leave her and find another. For every conversion, the Romeos receive a monetary reward. The money for the love jehad in Kerala is reported to come from ‘foreign sources’. If recruiter does marry his seduced convert, he is encouraged to have four children with her. This capability to bear offspring is the reason why young women are targeted by Jihad Romeos.