Opinion

An FIR On The Vigiles

The Rohini Salian revelations and the stain of bias on khaki

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An FIR On The Vigiles
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WE all have our fads, prejudices, biases. But if the police itself nurses a bias, things can go terribly wrong. I remember the late Kersy Katrak, poet and friend, telling me that if an official in sales tax or income tax is corrupt, it doesn’t matter much. At worst, the government loses some revenue. “But if a policeman is corrupt,” he said, “I am worried. He could be in cahoots with my enemies and cook up god knows what against me.”

Now, what about the police bias against Muslims? Let’s do away with the euphemism ‘minorities’, for it’s best to be blunt. When the Mecca Masjid blast took place in Hyderabad on May 18, 2007, killing nine and injuring 58 people in the mosque, I said to myself this couldn’t have been the work of a Muslim tanzeem. This has to be a rightist majoritarian’s reaction. Yet Muslims were arrested and the canard was spread that the motive was to create a chasm bet­w­een the two communities. This and other such incidents were not, as (former topcop) Julio Ribeiro says, due to natural prejudice. These were deliberate dis­tor­tions, meant to pull wool over the nation’s eyes. The same story was repeated in the investigation of the Samjha­uta Express blast (February 19, 2007), which killed 66 people. Muslims were targeted by investigators. Now, it’s Aseemanand, a so-called swami, who has been charged, with others. Sadhvi Pragya, however, remains to be charged.

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The Malegaon blasts (September 8, 2006) at the Hamidia Masjid, in which 37 people died and 125 were injured, mostly Muslims, saw  the local police arrest nine Muslim youth. Eventually, Hemant Karkare, that fine officer and martyr, came to their rescue. In this case, the inspector-general of the National Investigating Agency (NIA) was called by chairman Wajahat Habibullah at the National Commission for Minorities (NCM). He clearly pointed at the accused  belonging to the majority community. Now, it is very sad to hear the very brave public prosecutor in the case, Rohini Salian, saying there is pressure being put on her by the NIA to softpedal the prosecution. I am open to correction, but at one time there were three separate chargesheets by three different agencies, charging a different set of people in the same wretched case. We could be the laughing stock of the world. And let’s not forget it is nine years since the blasts. We are talking in the dark shadow of the acquittal of all 19 accused in the Hashimpura case, where the Uttar Pradesh’s Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) shot 42 Muslims and dumped them in a canal on May 22, 1987. All 19 kept getting their promotions (none was suspended). Various governments with varied ideologies came and went, but nothing happened to the murderers. The PAC brass deserves a medal.

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During my stint with the NCM, I went to riot scenes and found the police more often than not partisan. The most glaring case was in Gopalgarh, Bharatpur district, Rajasthan, on September 13-14, 2011. I accompanied NCM member Syeda Imam to the riot scene. Meo Muslims and Hindu Gujjars fought over a piece of land, which the Meos claimed had been designated for an Idgah. The strident imam of the mosque was roughed up by some Gujjars. The next day, both sides turned up with illegal weapons, firing in the air. To cut a long story short, a compromise was arranged at the police station and the Gujjars apologised for roughing up the imam. But some rightists rushed in, saying the Meos had shot dead 20 Gujjars—an absolute lie! The SSP, the DM and the additional SP got into the grotesque contraption that goes by the name Vajra and, along with other policemen, opened fire on the Meos. Over 200 rounds were fired from self-loading rifles (SLRs), even on those who took shelter in a mosque. This speaks of deep-seated bias. (And what, may I ask, were the SLRs doing in a police station?) Not a single police bullet was fired on the Gujjars! The officers and the district magistrate were suspended after we submitted our report.

The constabulary easily fall prey to rightist propaganda and something needs to be done about this problem in the ranks. If 15 per cent of the population loses all trust in the police, and hence the state, the polity will have a pretty heavy cost to pay. Admitted that since the new dispensation arrived, there has hardly been a riot. But to quote Faiz Ahmed Faiz, ‘Aaj lutf na kar itna ke kal guzar na sakay.’

(Keki N. Daruwalla is a former member of the National Commission for Minorities.)

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