Rioting Khaki

‘Untold story of Riots’

This headline in today’s Indian Express was again a stark reminder about the biased functioning of the men in Khaki. Bharatpur riot is not the first & surely not the last where bullets fired from police guns have the names of only one community written all over them. Cases of police inaction & ‘action’ litter the annals of Indian policing history & each time it is just one community which is at the receiving end. As it happens after every act of atrocity, an enquiry commission has been set up to find the ‘truth’. The truth which is as obvious as the hatred of the policeman who was pictured stomping the face of a rioter ( from the same community, obviously) in Forbesganj.

What makes the people in Khaki, the very people who have been entrusted the task of protection become perpetrators of the worst kind of violence?

The answers to this questions are two fold. The first & foremost is the underrepresentation of minorities especially Muslims in armed forces of any kind. Police in all states of India are grossly under represented by Muslims to proportion of their population.

There are well-known historical and sociological reasons that explain why Muslims are under-represented in the country's police forces, the Central Reserve Police and crucial gendarmeries like UP's Provincial Armed Constabulary. Obviously, we cannot infuse a significant number of Muslims into these forces overnight.

But it's obvious that we need to enhance the recruitment and retention of minorities in the police forces and to conduct police outreach to minority communities. Such an approach would simultaneously reduce a major source of grievance in the Muslim community, increase the trust between the police and the people they are policing.

We also need to recognize that if we want under-represented Muslims to compete effectively for police jobs, they need to feel the police is part of them, rather than an external entity. It's clear we need to: actively solicit applications from minorities for the police at all levels (including the Provincial Armed Constabulary and the Central Reserve Police); offer special catch-up courses open only to members of the minority communities that will prepare them for the entrance examinations; at the moment few feel qualified to take the exams, and fewer still pass; and require police officers to work with community organizations, mosques and madrasas to encourage minorities to apply.
In other words, instead of more "reservations", with the resentment that breeds, let us make it easier for minorities to join the police. But let's not stop with recruitment: we also need to focus on the retention and progression of minority officers. Unless young people from minorities see that the police service offers real career opportunities and a good quality of life in the workplace, they will not overcome their negative perceptions.

'HITLERESQUE' MODI

Not just the  Amabanis & the Tatas, but also Ford & General Motors have one thing in common, their love for Gujrat. This laboratory of Hindutava, headed by one the one & only Mr. Modi has found takers in industrialists of all hue & colours. They fall over each other, extolling the virtues of investing in this most ‘peaceful’ state of the country. This race to industrialize Gujrat is eerily similar to what happened in Germany during 1927- 33. Capitalists projected Hitler as their saviour, who could provide strong leadership, the very virtues that are being lauded in Mr. Modi by the Indian capitalists.

What is being touted as the reasons to overlook the genocide of 2002 & move ahead were the very basis on which the foundation of the Third Reich was laid & Hitler cemented his position.

As a journalist who has toured Gujrat extensively & has been to almost all the riot affected people in Ahemdabad & Godhra, it is frightening when people try to gloss over all that happened in the Gujrat pogrom & talk about moving ahead.

Does being a good leader absolves you of all your crime?

Does making Gujrat the most industrialized state of the country wipe your hands clean off the blood of 3000 people?

Does the politics of exclusion (the sham of ‘upvas’ now behind us) give you the legitimacy to stake claim as a national leader?

Answer these questions Mr. Modi & I assure that I’ll be campaigning for you in the next elections. As I said in my earlier blog I’ll prefer you over congress. Its always better to face an openly hostile man instead of facing someone who stabs you in the back.

Thank God... I'm not French

After the infamous Burqa ban another ban has now come into force in France. The ban on praying in the street which came into effect yesterday again highlighted France's problems assimilating its 5-million-strong Muslim community, which lacks prayer space.

People offering Namaaz on a street in Paris

Growing up in Delhi, I don’t remember the last time when I had prayed inside a mosque on Eid. It’s the same in every city on every Friday. People spilling over onto the streets, roads, by-lanes, school grounds, government land, whatever, wherever, every where.

I’ve seen Hindu shopkeepers in Chandni chowk reverentially sweeping their shop fronts to make it fit for Namaaz. Never have I heard someone grumbling about it & never anyone including the saffron brigade has labelled it as Islamization of the country.

Namaaz in Old Delhi

We in India understand (thankfully), that praying on the streets in not a show of strength but more a forced necessity. Friday prayers & other special prayers like Eid see Muslims swarming to mosques & since everyone cannot be accommodated inside people spill out on the streets. This is very common in every country where Muslims reside & every week cities like Lahore & Dhaka come to standstill due to this very phenomenon.

The continuous anti Muslims legalizations in France & other European countries have damaged the very secular fabric of the society that they purportedly protect. The banning of face veils or Namaaz on streets once again will give hardliners within the Muslim community to raise the spectre of Crusades pitting Muslims against others.

Thank God (or Allah in my case) that I was not born in France. Chandni Chowk will be any day better than Champ Elysse & more so on Fridays.

"I won't mind if Modi becomes the next PM".

"I won't mind if Modi becomes the next PM".
The whole room turned towards me with such aghast faces as if I've announced that I'm having an extra marital affair six months in my marriage( I'm sure even then the faces would have retained some color). "What?". "Why?"
As the aftershocks of this siesmic statement became milder, inquestive eyes bored at me. They all wanted an answer & they wanted it quickly( I could hear KBC's miss tictiki in the background).
Why the hell did I say that.
" Don't you rember what he did to your people in Gujrat?".
" You want him in Delhi?".
" Will you not feel unsafe, insecure?".
Not letting a person speak while constantly demanding answers is a parlimentary trait, (watch Lok Sabha TVfor further validitation) which suddenly seemed to have infected some well meaning journalists.
"Chup rahiya aap sab. Desh ka musalman ab samajh raha hai ki uski bhalai kahan par hai." The well meaning gentelman chided everybody & looked towards me with benovalent eyes full of compassion. The startched saffron kurta he was wearing, his favorite colour, made him look larger. He came towards me , patted me on my back.
"Tum jaise pade likhe musalmano ko hi pahel karni padegi."
I smiled back as my thoughts went to the nightmare of the night before.

The Day before:Modi's Wikileaks were on TV as we sat for a light dinner( Kofte, Kheer, Khamiri roti, light?) . My father was paying more attention to what was being served on his plate then on Modi.( Modi- Kofte. No brainer). Eating quitely has never been my dad's virtue so after talking about the texture & aroma of kofta, the coversation veered to the 'disha & dasha' of politics.
"Ye amrika kyu iski itni tareef kar raha hai". I remained silent( as usual ).
"Waise PM ban bhi jaye to kya hai. Theek hi rehega. Rahul se to accha hi hai"
Kheer edged out both Modi & Rahul as my Dad paid no further attention to wikileaks.

As I setteled down to sleep I could feel the gravy working its way back towards the wrong way( I am a glutton & some day I'll pay for it). Many glasses of water later , I could feel my eyelids drooping. Suddenly I was in a room filled with people.

The dream Cast:
Sonia- wearing her usual sari & deadpan expression
Mulayam- in white dhoti kurta & skull cap
Mayawati- pastel color suit & sullen expression
Laloo- One size bigger kurta pajama with more hair sticking out of his ears then on his head



The Dream:
Sonia- Bhaiyo aur behno..
Laloo- Soniya ji, bhashan mat dijiye. Aur waise bhi apke bhashan sunne se to accha hai ki mein himesh reshamiya ko sun lo.
Mayawati- Jaldi bataiye, hume kyu bulaya hai. Mujhe ek aur ambedkar park ka udghatan karne jana hai( all the while she was admiring her new sandals)
Mulayam- Haan, mujhe bhi kaam hai...( To show how busy he is, he took out the phone gifted by kalyan singh, then suddenly realized his folly & kept it back in his pocket, making a mental note of never taking ot out in front of Azam Khan)
Everyone looked at Mulayam...
Mulayam- Acha theek hai, koi kaam nahi hai. Ab bolo
Sonia- Dekhiye election aane wala hai. Hame apne vote bank ki chinta karni chahiye. 5 saal mein unko nahi pucha, ab to pucha padega.( She said this while looking at a turbaned man who was asking for some permisssion)
Mulayam- Maine to pucha tha, Saifai mein Iftaar party bhi di thi.
Laloo- Sirf, Iftaar party se kaam chalta to aaj Paswan desh ka pradhan mantri hota.
Sonia- Sahi baat, Hume unke liye kuch to karna hoga. Hamari party to pichle 60 saalo se unke liye kitna kuch kar rahi hai.
Mayawati- Jaldi bolo , kya karna hai, mujhe naye sandal khareedne jana hai.
Sonia- Maine ek aadmi ko bulaya hai. Aata hi hoga. Wo garuntee se hume jita sakta hai.
Suddenly, a man with crimson red hands , enters the room. He looks all around him & then starts glaring at Mulayam. Seeing him in so much rage, Mulayam becomes fidgedity & wipes his head, taking his skull cap off. The man's expression suddely changes & he starts smiling.
Mulayam- Puff... Pehle kyu nahi bataya ki apne ese bulaya hai. Mein topi to hata leta. Aaj to baal baal bacha hoon.
Sonia- Is election mein ye un logo ko darayge aur jab wo dar kar chillayenge to hum unko sambhal lenge. Vote pakka, sarkar hamari. Bas na school ki zaroorat aur na naukri dene ki. Arre, abki baar to unke kisi candidate ko ticket dene ki bhi zaroorat nahi padegi. Ye itna darawna hai ki wo apne aap dode chale aayenge.

General handshakes all around with Mayawati carefully avoiding Mulayam & vice versa. Suddenly, things go haywire & there is pandemonium all around.

I get up to find myself all sweaty. A sachet of Eno sent the kofta back to their place but the dream lingered on. Is modi such a bad thing after all. I had made up my mind.

Next day in the office, I dropped the bomb.

"I won't mind if Modi becomes the next PM".