Increase in Communal Riots: BJP’s Action and Inaction

As per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, communal riots registered an increase of 96% in 2020 over 2019. When this phenomenon was questioned by MP Gaurav Gogoi at Lok Sabha, Minister of State (MoS) in Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Nityanand Rai answered

“Public order and police are state subjects as per the seventh schedule to the constitution of India. The responsibility of maintaining law and order, registration and prosecution of crimes against all citizens, including minorities, rests with the respective state governments.”

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government minister tactically shrugged off the responsibility and blamed it on the state government. As per NCRB data, the BJP and its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) governed states contributed to the communal riots in the majority.

*NCRB: Crimes in India

It was the BJP and NDA government’s police administration that failed in maintaining law and order. Delhi, where the police are under the MHA saw unprecedented levels of communal riots in 2020. It is clear that the elected BJP government of their respective states allowed communal riots against Muslims and Scheduled Castes. At the same time, the anti-pluralist administration made sure there was never a blockade against these riots. The BJP utilizes communal riots at regular intervals to keep their vote bank intact, active and expanding. 

It is the anti-pluralistic nature of the majority of Hindus that made them vote for the BJP for the second time to form the government consecutively. The extremist reactionary section of this vote bank carries out communal riots to satisfy their ego and to show their dominance over other communities, which very much compliments the BJP’s anti-pluralistic and fascist nature.

When conscious people come together to question the government, they are arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Sedition Act. But according to NCRB data, communal riots are an unlawful activity, which was never prevented using UAPA is very much evident from the cases registered in the states where communal riots were rampant.

*NCRB: Crimes in India

The use of UAPA is very sectarian and is largely used to incarcerate the Muslim population to strike the fear of state authority in the minds of people so that they won’t question the government about their anti-pluralistic and fascist agenda. Because people see the punishment, not the crime, they will fear the punishment and stop doing the crime, which is questioning the state authority. Since the definition of crime is imposed by the state authority, even exercising certain rights such as wearing a hijab by Muslims becomes a crime. This fear of punishment for exercising rights makes people remain neutral or stop questioning the state’s authority. This lapse in exercising rights due to fear of punishment will lead to the loss of that right in the longer run.

People who remain silent due to fear of punishment for a state-imposed crime and neutral Hindu voters for the BJP are the people who passively support the extremist communal violence against Muslims. They also allow the BJP government to become an electoral autocracy to propagate their anti-pluralist and fascist agenda which the majority of the Indian population subscribes to or sympathizes with. This attitude is reflected in the victory of the BJP in recent state elections.

It is the silence of Hindu voters, who are the majority in the population and those who remain neutral, that allow the BJP to carry out atrocities on Muslims, their properties, and businesses in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh without police intervention. Now, these actions culminated in the ‘Kristallnacht’ kind of sectarian demolition of Muslim mosques and properties at Jahangirpuri, Delhi, using the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Delhi police, whereas both are under MHA. These demolitions were carried out by the government apparatus even after the Supreme Court ordered them to maintain the status quo. These autocratic actions by the BJP government show its disregard for democratic institutions and the lives of Muslims.

While fascism is spreading just like it happened in the past in front of our eyes, neutrality is not an option. It is the Hindu majority which remains silent and neutral and should speak up for the silenced and oppressed people. This fascist drive by the BJP is not new it is a fact that it has already happened in the past. This silent Hindu majority does not lack facts; they lack the courage to understand the facts, or it is in their intention for history to repeat itself. When this sectarian demolition happens on a countrywide scale, the responsibility is equally in the hands of the Hindu majority, which remained silent throughout the process, like a boiling frog, because, in the end, everyone except the opulent minority will lose the rights that they’ve claimed as every human being has. 

References

1. Government of India. 2022. Ministry of Home Affairs. Lok Sabha, Unstarred Question No. 5306. http://164.100.24.220/loksabhaquestions/annex/178/AU5306.pdf
2. Government of India. 2021. National Crime Records Bureau. Crime in India-2020, Volume 1. https://ncrb.gov.in/sites/default/files/CII%202020%20Volume%201.pdf
3. Government of India. 2021. National Crime Records Bureau. Crime in India-2020, Volume 2. https://ncrb.gov.in/sites/default/files/CII%202020%20Volume%202.pdf
4.  Government of India. 2020. National Crime Records Bureau. Crime in India-2019, Volume 1. https://ncrb.gov.in/sites/default/files/CII%202019%20Volume%201.pdf
5. Government of India. 2020. National Crime Records Bureau. Crime in India-2019, Volume 2. https://ncrb.gov.in/sites/default/files/CII%202019%20Volume%202.pdf
6. Government of India. 2019. National Crime Records Bureau. Crime in India-2018, Volume 1. https://ncrb.gov.in/sites/default/files/Crime%20in%20India%202018%20-%20Volume%201.pdf
7. The Indian Express. 2022. Express News Service. Jahangirpuri Drive: SC to take ‘serious view’ of demolitions despite its order.  https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/jahangirpuri-demolition-drive-supreme-court-violence-clashes-7879908/
8. The Wire. 2022. Kashif Kakvi. Khargone: Communal Violence leaves many displaced, state action targets Muslims. https://thewire.in/communalism/madhya-pradesh-khargone-ram-navami-muslims
9. The Indian Express. 2022. Kiran Parashar. Explained: Why Muslim Vendors are being banned from Karnataka temple fairs?. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-muslim-vendors-banned-karnataka-temple-fairs-7850357/
10. The Second Angle. 2022. T. Rajapandian. V-DEM’s Report: India’s Democracy, an electoral autocracy. https://thesecondangle.com/indias-democracy-an-electoral-autocracy/

About the Author: T. Rajapandian (Pursuing a master’s in public administration at the University of Madras)

Also, Checkout: V-DEM’s Report: India’s democracy, an electoral autocracy.