By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
Telangana for past few years is in the news for all the bad reasons. The most unfortunate is the rise of the communal forces threatening the plural culture the region is known for. This development has threatened the future prospect of the region and has become a worrying factor for all the inhabitants of the part of Andhra Pradesh.
The way BJP played Hindutva card and polarized the electorate against a Muslim candidate and won Mahbubnagar assembly by-poll in an area where a few years back it had hardly any presence, shocked the secular society. In fact, before and after the by-poll, the Telangana region has witnessed sudden rise in communal incidents. The rise in Hindu religious events as flamboyance of strength, communal riots in Karimnagar town after the India Pakistan World Cup match, communal violence in Adilabad where an entire Muslim family was set afire in the Vattoli village, the Gujarat style attack on the Muslim businesses in Sangareddy town, the deadly attacks on Muslim youths after Eid-ul-Azha by Hindu Vahini activists, the communal riots of 2010 in old city or the recent communal clashes in the Hyderabad new city areas -- all these incidents are making one believe that there is are deliberate experiments going on in the region by the right wing forces.
Sangareddy riot: Muslim businesses attacked in planned way
A close observation of Sangareddy communal violence gives a vivid picture. The violence was orchestrated by Hindutva elements in which Muslim properties were singled out and targeted in a planned manner. The mob was well organized with petrol bombs and weapons and roaming free in the streets attacking Muslim owned businesses. Muslims were first instigated by posting vulgar images of holy places, when they protested members of Hindu Vahini came out, in a planned way, and started attacking Muslim businesses in the market areas.
Muslim businesses singled out and attacked in Sangareddy
TwoCircles.net spoke to some of the victims of the Sangareddy violence. Syed Jaffer was running an electrical goods shop S.A. Electricals. It was torched down completely. Jaffer said: He saw those people who were attacking the shop and was shocked to notice that the mob consisted of even those people to whom he had provided free services. "Every Hindu in the town was instigated by Hindu Vahini by giving the slogan 'Ram is being humiliated, restore his pride', even the local Congress MLA provided them with moral support," said Jaffer.
Mohd Majid's case was a fine example of the nature of those attacks. He used to run a small pan shop adjacent to Vijaylakshmi Bakery. In the riots his pan shop was totally burned down but the huge bakery owned by a Hindu did not get even a scratch.
Jaffer told TCN, "It was a planned attack to target only businesses to make us suffer economically, as Muslims in the town were gaining a good ground in the market and becoming influential, which was used by the Hindutva elements to instigate Hindu youths to participate in the riots."
Majid near his burned pan shop in Sangareddy
Sangareddy in its history has never witnessed such a communal violence. Even the locals were shocked by the sudden upsurge of prejudice against a community. In recent years BJP and its other right wing organizations have been trying hard in building up their cadre in the guise of supporting Telanagna movement. They mixed Hindutva with Telangna and Telangana with Hindutva. They showed Telangana culture as the culture of Hindutva and gave the slogans of Hindutva during Telangana agitation.
"Telangna movement at this period is being totally hijacked by the right wing fundamentalist forces from every political party. They used Telangana sentiments to gain ground in the region, and now they are trying to form a state within a state, i.e. Hindutva state within Telangana state," observed Lateef Mohd Khan, general secretary of Hyderabad based Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee.
According to him, the right wing forces are exploiting the vacuum created by sudden annihilation of leftist movement in the Telangana region. "After the state government wiped out dominant Naxalism from the Telengana region, the vacuum was filled up by Bajrang Dal and Hindu Vahini as an alternate savior of lower castes. Even the higher caste Reddys who were landlords and more lenient towards Hindutva supported them to save their dominance," he said.
Jaffar at his burned electric goods shop in Sangareddy
Rise in religious processions
Zahid Ali Khan, Editor of leading Urdu daily Siasat informed TCN about the degrading secular values in the region. "Right wing political party is trying to polarize Hindu votes in their favor, for that cause they have to orchestrate communal riots to get all Hindus in the same umbrella to gain ground in the region," said Khan. According to him one more important factor is "the rise in communal religious processions and festivals which were not part of the Telangana culture. These are being put to polarize and produce hatred and they should be banned by the police."
The rise in religious processions in the Telangana region is creating lot of mess both for the police and for the general public. Muslims are celebrating Milad-un-Nabi or any other birthday celebrations of sufi saints on such large scale that right wing forces from other community are projecting it as a call for the competition which is giving an ample opportunity to propagate hatred, and this all is resulting in the form of violent clashes.
The communal riot of 2010 in Hyderabad was a fine example of ugly result of competition in religious events. Even in the case of Sangareddy many locals alleged that non-Muslims in the town were annoyed by the large scale Mliad celebration and the fighting broke out just before Ram Navami rally.
Prof Rama Malkote, a social activist from Hyderabad said that large scale religious processions and festivals is a latest political trend and have a political patronage of communal vested interest from both the communities. The rise in communalism according to her is the result of absence of civil society in maintaining communal harmony. She said that communalism related events which are causing great damage to peace and tranquility should be banned.
A Telangana Muslim inspecting his vandalized hotel
Beef and pork being used as RDX
Nowadays whole city can easily be brought to standstill or on its nerve, neither by RDX bomb nor by deadly weapons. The latest formula found out by right wing miscreants is beef or pork. Hyderabad has always been an experimental ground for Hindutva forces for their mischievous plans. If the plan gets successful reactions then it is very well expected that it could be implemented in other districts. Like communal riots in the city, the same incident and trend was repeated in Sangareddy town. The latest invention of pork and beef game is widely expected to be seen soon in the rural towns of Telengana.
Asaduddin Owaisi, president of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and Member of Parliament from Hyderabad observed that, "Right wing fundamentalist groups are active in every major political party. If one has to observe the communalism in Telangana region then one can see the narrow representation of Muslims in the region. Out of 118 MLAs from the region Muslims are just 7 while Muslims constitute 18% of the region's population. They are leaving no stone unturned to keep the Muslims at bay in the region."
Government, Police should act: Owaisi
On the growing demand for ban on unnecessary communal religious processions, Mr. Owaisi said, "banning is not a solution, once police have given them permission they now can't backtrack, otherwise it will create unnecessary tension. The strict monitoring and vigilance of those processions is the only practical solution available at this time."
Speaking about his party's strategy on communal issues he said, "We are trying our best not to fall prey to the strategies of communal forces, they want us to react, but we have shown tolerance to an extent. But MIM will not compromise on protecting the life and interest of Muslims. We continue to pressurize the government to act against the people who are propagating hatred against Muslims."
Half body of a pig was thrown into this Noor Masjid in Hyderabad in April 2012
Why no action against traders of hatred?
Police could have played an important role in harmonizing the prevailing tension between the communities but as expected police till now have showed lot of treads to find out communalism also exists with in the police. Police instead of arresting hate mongers, they are providing security to them. There are lots of cases pending against Praveen Togadia in Hyderabad but still police have provided obedient security to Mr. Togadia or any other communal leader whenever they visited Hyderabad to give hate speeches against Muslims and Christians. Last year Mr. Togadia visited Hyderabad 7 times, as if he had made Hyderabad his second home.
Police have even showed prejudice during the communal clashes, like locals in the Sangareddy town alleged that police allowed Hndu Vahini activists to vandalize their properties but on the other hand they stopped Muslims from even protecting their properties, the excuse was fear of more communal clashes. Even in the latest desecration of religious places and the subsequent violence, police till now have rounded up 10 individuals, 9 of them are Muslims. This is despite the fact VHP had taken out that violent rally and attacked Muslims and damaged their properties.
A handicapped Muslim at his burned shop
Telangana's ganga-jamni tehzib is getting shadowed by Hindutva fascist culture; it is in serious threat of getting extinct. If the present state of affairs continues unabated, one can expect worst to happen in coming days. The present scenario points to a new Gujarat in Telangana. A new Hindutva laboratory of south India is in the making.
