Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 30, 2007
Muslims must denounce rioters
Wednesday's communal violence in Muslim-dominated
areas of Agra is indicative of the fragile peace that prevails in many places
across the country. It also shows that all it takes is an incident as far
removed from Muslim issues as a road accident for the community's goon brigade
to go on the rampage, secure in the knowledge that they shan't be punished
for their criminal behaviour. It will be recalled that after Saddam Hussain
was hanged in Baghdad, Muslim hoodlums owing allegiance to the Samajwadi Party
had gone berserk in Agra, stoning buses and setting upon tourists while pretending
outrage over a fallen dictator's execution in a foreign land. On that occasion,
too, the political leadership of the day and a pliant district administration
had silently watched goons claiming to represent the Muslim community running
amok, causing destruction if not death. This time, it is worse. A truck accidentally
hit four Muslim men riding a motorcycle in violation of all traffic rules;
they were ostensibly observing Shab-e-Barat although it defies imagination
as to how a night of prayers for departed souls can be equated with shocking
hooliganism in the streets and on highways, as was witnessed on Tuesday night
all over the country. Soon after the road accident, no doubt caused by the
recklessness of the four men who died in the incident, large gangs poured
out into the streets of Muslim-dominated mohallas of Agra, stormed the police
station where the truck had been parked, set it ablaze along with other passing
vehicles, attacked Hindu homes and terrorised their occupants in an orgy of
pre-planned violence. If the accident had not occurred, the mobs would have
manufactured some other reason.
Such was the ferocity of the mobs that the
police initially took shelter behind closed doors and the District Magistrate
had to cower in a locked room. By the time the police regrouped and tried
to restore order, the damage had been done. That the Director General of Police
and the Home Secretary of Uttar Pradesh, who had gone to assess the situation,
had to sneak out from the Circuit House which had been surrounded by a murderous
mob led by BSP MLA Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto speaks volumes about the law and order
situation. We will no doubt hear the champions of 'secularism' argue that
such appalling arson, loot and vandalism are expressions of legitimate Muslim
angst; we can also be sure that the facts will be lost in the clamorous defence
of Wednesday's hooliganism that will be put up by the Samajwadi Party, the
Congress, the Left and, not to be ignored, the BSP - after all, the villain
of the piece is a ruling party legislator.
Yet, it would be in order to suggest that
the Uttar Pradesh Government should not be seen to be succumbing to Wednesday's
crass expression of communalism, fuelled and fanned by malcontents within
the Muslim community. This is an opportunity for Chief Minister Mayawati to
demonstrate that her Government, unlike the previous regime, will not be found
wanting in using force to put down trouble-makers and ensuring peace prevails.
Neither Mr Bhutto nor his supporters should be allowed to hold Agra to hostage
and thus instigate violence elsewhere. A second point that needs to be made
unambiguously is that the men who ran riot in Agra do not represent the Muslim
community, nor are they interested in protecting the interests of Muslims.
But to underscore this point, saner Muslims must speak up and ensure their
voice is heard.
