A question of faith

Since the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai's suburban trains on July 11, there have been numerous and repeated allegations of the targeting of an entire community for the dastardly act of some people who have yet to be identified.

Were one to rely solely on the news and views being published daily by some Urdu papers published from Mumbai, one would have to conclude that since 7/11 the metropolis has turned into a living hell for it’s over 20 lakh Muslims. The truth, fortunately, is otherwise.

On August 20 and 21, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and several of his cabinet colleagues will meet prominent Muslim ulema and opinion-makers at a national conference whose professed objective is to focus on the role of the ulema in "tackling the menace of terrorism".

Fed on continuing news of excesses and indiscriminate detention and arrests, it is but natural that the plight of Mumbai's Muslims would figure prominently in the exchanges.

From a human rights perspective, the unwarranted targeting of even a single citizen by the police is unacceptable and must be challenged.

And there is no denying that the conduct of the Mumbai police, especially in the first few days after 7/11, was far from exemplary. But inflating a grievance totally out of proportion and whipping up a siege mentality is not the same as addressing it.

Ask social activists in Mumbai who have their ears to the ground, who ask questions and make their own inquiries, who are interested not in sweeping generalisations but addressing the problem, and you get a different picture of the metropolis.

Immediately after 7/11, there was the shocking police conduct of rounding up scores of young people, herding them inside police stations then releasing most of them within a few hours, but not before news channels had telecast real-time images of what seemed like prisoners of war.

But this stopped promptly after complaints were lodged with senior police officers. Following complaints, the police commissioner has directed policemen not to go knocking on the doors of suspects at unearthly hours.

After the 1993 serial bomb blasts, there were innumerable complaints by detenus, men and women, of shocking communal abuses, sexual misconduct and torture.

This time, even members or former members of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), who have been frequently summoned by the police for questioning are complaining of harassment, not torture or abusive behaviour.

On August 11, I drew the attention of Mumbai's commissioner of police (Railways), Suresh Khopade, to the harassment and extortion of Rs 200 from a Unani hakim, Abdul Jabbar, at Andheri railway station.

A prompt inquiry was ordered following which three railway police constables have been suspended.

"This is the only complaint, in writing or telephonic, that I have so far received about a Muslim being harassed on account of his religion", says Khopade, the author and architect of the internationally recognised mohalla committees that ensured peace for years in communally sensitive Bhiwandi, near Mumbai.

On the morning of August 15, a distraught Abdul Rehman phoned me to say that both his sons, Obaidur Rahman and Junaidur Rahman, had been taken into custody on the evening of August 11 and that he and his family were extremely anxious about where they were and in what state.

I communicated his concern to police commissioner A N Roy. A few hours later an extremely grateful and highly relieved father called to say both the sons were back home with the family.

Post-7/11, Mumbai is like a city on the razor's edge. "Being a Muslim is itself a crime now", thundered Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh at a public meeting in the city last week.

Whether such sabre-rattling or the clean chit to SIMI by Mulayam Singh Yadav will fetch his party Muslim votes in next year's assembly elections in UP and civic polls in Mumbai remains to be seen.

But for their own good, Mumbai's Muslims better beware of dangerous demagogues. That the Mumbai police, as the police elsewhere in the country, suffers from anti-Muslim prejudice is all too well known.

But breast-beating alone will achieve little. Roy's and Khopade's repeated offer — bring me genuine grievances and I promise you redressal — is too good to refuse. It's a question of faith.

The writer is editor of Communalism Combat.

Source- TOI editorials
 

POOJA23

New member
WELL gaurav...............totally agree with u that certain innocent people are being targeted.But one must not forget that the police is simply..............doing their work........and i don't see the reason why the police...........should have any problem with ppl just from 1 community. Also while the police is investigating they merely work on certain evidence............and preform as required and not working according to their whims & fancies.We except that police should find the culprits soon.........and at the same time not doubt...........anyone.........or question....................anyone............aren't we being too demanding

what say???????????
 

gaurav200x

Gaurav Mittal
POOJA23 said:
WELL gaurav...............totally agree with u that certain innocent people are being targeted.But one must not forget that the police is simply..............doing their work........and i don't see the reason why the police...........should have any problem with ppl just from 1 community. Also while the police is investigating they merely work on certain evidence............and preform as required and not working according to their whims & fancies.We except that police should find the culprits soon.........and at the same time not doubt...........anyone.........or question....................anyone............aren't we being too demanding

what say???????????
There are 2 aspects, i must confess... the work police does callously and the one it does under pressure.

the former is the case of carelessness.... and that is what accounts for police brutalities. Agreed that their hands are tied and they need to show some results, bcoz they have pressure, but i think, rounding up muslims isnt the solution to the problem. Sometimes, they just do this to show that they are working efficiently, but all it shows the hollowness in the system.

If u see, that most of the ppl held by them were released by them in a few hrs and were all innocent. I think the functioning of the police needs radical improvement or else, it is like an inefficient tattered tow-cart ineffective for everyone.
 
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