In the run-up to the 2024 elections, the ruling party has been going the extra mile to create communal tensions. The inauguration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, built on the site of a centuries-old Mughal-era mosque that was destroyed by Hindutva outfits such as the RSS, Hindu Mahasabha and Shiv Sena in 1992, was one such election stunt. Another recent incident was in Haldwani, situated in the Dehradun district in Uttarakhand. This small town is a Muslim-majority town filled with artisans and construction workers. As part of the “anti-encroachment drive”, a notice was sent on 30th January to vacate a two-decade-old mosque and a madrasa (school) within 2 days as they were claimed to be constructed on government land. This was challenged in the Uttarakhand High Court, which listed the matter for February 14. The Haldwani Municipal Corporation hurriedly sealed the buildings on 4th February and demolished them on the 8th of February for being built on government land.
This is a replication of the Bulldozer Raj of the BJP, as seen in Gujarat, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, where households of the Muslim community, and political dissenters have been known to be razed without following the due process in the name of ‘encroachments’. This also comes in the wake of the statement by the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, “Illegal encroachments in the name of land jihad will not be allowed to vitiate the atmosphere in Uttarakhand”. As per a survey conducted last year by Uttarakhand’s forest department, temples and ashrams built on illegal land heavily outnumber mosques and shrines. The “anti-encroachment drive” is evidently less about encroachment and more about religion.
More than 80 people including women and minor girls have been arrested in connection with the violence by the Police. The locals have accused the police of carrying out arbitrary arrests, torture and harassment. Issuing shoot-at-sight orders, the police have carried out innumerable vandalisations while deta-ining people from their houses. They lathi-charged and tear-gassed the pro-testing women first, after which they fired live ammunition at people and beat them with batons and rifle butts. In an attempt to subdue the truth they also and attacked a few journalists of independent media and broke their cameras. Instances of minors suffering from fractured skulls, and women and minor girls getting molested in the name of searching by male police, amount to gross violations of Human Rights. The Indian state’s forces have all the impunity in the world to violate its citizens.
Banbhoolpura had been under curfew which was imposed on 8th February and only lifted on 20th February. The people were not able to go out to buy essentials and locals were suffering without being able to get proper medical treatment. There was a total blackout and internet shutdown in the area.
A Hindu mob started attacking and looting Muslim households in their neighbourhood and set fire to them. They killed their Muslim neighbours, chanted slogans related to Hindu majoritarianism and hurled abuses at them. Residents reported that the policemen stood about 50 metres away from the Hindu mob and took no action. Yet, the District Magistrate insists that it is not a communal issue.
A Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) Report had mentioned multiple letters to the District Magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police, Nainital, warning them of possible communal tensions and violence that could erupt over a few days. The report requests due procedures to be followed before the demolition as well as the handover of the religious texts inside the buildings to a Muslim circle. However the admin-istration quite deliberately ignored this. Additionally, this news got very poor media coverage despite being a major human rights violation case. Every person who has died in the Haldwani riots is a Muslim. If the victims were Hindus, the coverage and headlines would rather have been much different. The mainstream media has completely overlooked police brutality on its citizens, proving it to be yet another tool used by the rulers to spread their propaganda. Muslims are considered second-class citizens by this Fascist Hindutva government and their homes and means of livelihood are actively destroyed to further communal hatred and divert people from the real issues. Four companies of paramilitary forces were brought in to ‘control the situation’ by carrying out atrocities against its own citizens. The judiciary is being subservient to the ruling class by turning a blind eye to the atrocities. When such is the situation, the responsibility lies with the people to protect themselves from this government by standing in solidarity with their fellow countrymen.
