A sensitive boy and the Kar Sewaks-III

Part 1 and Part 2

As far as I can remember the news about the Godhra incident starting flashing in the morning of February 27th. It was a period when the news channels were slowly coming up. Aaj Tak was growing great guns and so were Star News and Zee News. Doordarshan, government run channel, was pushed to the background by the private channels so that meant there were no censors in the news items. It was left to the discretion of the dudes from US/UK to decide what’s best for us. Aaj Tak got all the publicity because it was marketed as India’s own channel. So our own Aaj Tak started flashing images from the train carnage uncensored. The blame was put on Muslims as they fell to the taunts of the returning Kar Sewaks and eventually burnt the train. My first reaction to the news was my utter shock at this inhuman punishment meted out after slightest of provocations. Even though independent fact finding teams have refuted this earlier claim and label it is a part of larger conspiracy of the state government, I am not getting into conspiracy theories.

We still had the same BPL TV but had shifted to Hazaribagh. I was 19 and was busy preparing for IIT-JEE. My brother had his final exams starting in few days so we couldn’t have taken the risk for an excursion. Most surprisingly my paranoid mom was totally not concerned about the gravity of the situation; she just rubbished the news as yet another case of religious fundamentalism by the Muslims. Situation had changed by 2002 as Muslim terrorism was on rise, it had moved out of Kashmir and such incidents were on the rise. I think this could have been the reason for her not reacting as she did during Barbri Masjid demolition. No one anticipated the kind of barbarism that was to follow.

We all had our eyes fixed to the TV set as that was the only source of news. As news of mob rioting started to come in, my parents started showing signs of concern. The nearest Muslim dominated area was a couple of miles away and this was decided to be our abode if riots break out in our locality. We lived in a central government maintained colony as my father occupied a high position in the central electricity department. We were so intermingled with our neighbours that any such reaction could never  have been imagined in the wildest our dreams. We used to visit each other’s place on Holi and Eids. We had so many invitations on Holi/Diwali that my father used to have a tough time managing his commitments. Everyone from our driver to housemaid, who were all hindus, were already a part of our lives. Our old driver ‘Muni Singh’ was much more than a driver to us. He was the driver who drove my mom to the nearest hospital, which was 100 kms away!, when this ’sensitive boy’ came to this earth. Could he come now to burn us alive?

We were overwhelmed by the response we got from our neighbours (there were just 3 muslim families in the colony). We were assured of our security in case rioters take to the streets. Hooligans were already preparing for a treat but the elders calmed them down. Its usually the junk of the society who takes to rioting; people who are jobless as this offers them a perfect opportunity to vent out their anger. Ever wonder why women suffer the most? Its because those perverts get an opportunity to convert their sexual fantasies to reality. Who is going to stop them and particularly when the state police is with them.

And then the inevitable happened. An ex-MP of congress, Ehsan Jaferry, was burnt alive with his family. His wife and other members survived because they managed to hide. This came as a big shock to us and definitely a cause of worry as we were also in a similar position as they were in. I really can’t think of the reason because of which we decided to stay back. May be because of assurances and the fact that riots didn’t start in our town. Thankfully there were no major incidents of riots elsewhere in the country. This image to the left was the most highlighted at that time. He is a tailor who ran away from Ahmedabad to Calcutta. This image was shot in Calcutta but notice the fear in his eyes and expectedly so! There were men being burned live in front of women and children. Women being raped in front of their children. I cannot even imagine the kind of mental trauma it would have generated in my mind.

The riots lasted nearly a month. TV images of ground realities melted our hearts. My hatred for the Sangh Parivar grew beyond bounds. I never spoke out a word against them to my friends but still the tension during the talks was apparent. A fanatic even called once to express his pleasure at Muslims being butchered, he termed that as revenge. All these incidents left me with no hope of surviving in this country. The child within me was dead long back and I was about to kill the youth in me. If Muslims in India are destined to this then there is no point in whining to the government. Can’t we have our own army? Why are those morons at the OIC quiet? The repeated riots have shown that the Indian government can’t protect us. India was slowly becoming alien to me. All these cynicism at just being a spectator to the riots on TV, imagine how prejudiced someone actually effected would be!

The last part of this series will talk about this prejudiced mindset among Hindu and Muslim youth.