In the night of the tyrants, Who calls my name from afar? I must climb
the scaffolding of the gallows to see beyond the prison parapets. Have
they waylaid the caravan of the new dawn?
"Majrooh Sultanpuri"I
had turned up in Mumbai to cover the aftermath of the 1993 bomb blasts.
On my way to meet Rusi Karanjia editor of Blitz and journalist Olga
Tellis, at the US Club in Cuff Parade, I tried to engage with my Muslim
taxi driver. "How were Muslims reacting to the blasts."
He was
abrupt to the point of being rude. He said he was a hard working man who
did not have time to concern himself "with riots and blasts". He asked
me if I was a Muslim. "Recite the Kalma", he demanded. Then,
reluctantly, he pulled the taxi by the side of the road.
"Dekho,
sab barabar ho gaya."(Look, it is even now). "Ab train mein enter karo
aur kaho 'Assalamalaikum', sub raaste dete hain." (Now, enter the train
and greet them like a Muslim and they make way for you.)
This
precisely, was the sentiment that had to be crushed, Karanjia said,
after I told him the story. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union,
Karanjia had shed all left wing pretensions. He now spoke the language
of the extreme right.
The way he juxtaposed the Mumbai riots of
January-February against the blasts of March took my breath away.
According to him, the state had sided with the rioters during the riots.
That is why there was no reprieve for the victims. The blasts were an
assault on the Indian State. This would not be tolerated. His brazen
endorsement of majoritarianism planted the first doubts in my mind that
towards the end, Rusi Karanjia did not always know what he was saying.
Since
the blasts had taken place under the watch of then new chief minister,
Sharad Pawar, Maratha pride had been challenged too.
The Babri
Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, leading to agitations across
the country which was attacked by mobs, with the police standing by or
giving the mobs a hand, by a helpful round of firing. On January 5, 1993
riots erupted in Mumbai in similar fashion. An orgy of arson, loot,
murder of Muslims by Shiv Sainiks, abetted by the police crossed the
borders of the macabre. This was not dissimilar to the Gujarat riots of
1969 where I found myself in my capacity as Press Officer to the
Frontier Gandhi, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, then on a year long visit to India.
The Congress chief minister was Hitendra Desai. Over 500 people, mostly
Muslims were murdered. The great singer Rasoolan Bai's house was
gutted.
It is a fallacy that the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 were
worse than the one sided massacre in the January-February Mumbai mayhem
supervised by Bal Thackeray and overseen by the Congress Chief Minister,
Sudhakar Naik. He, alas, was not in the good books of Pawar who, at
that crucial stage, was defence minister in Delhi, smarting under the
fact that P.V. Narasimha Rao had bypassed Pranab Mukherjee and him to
the top job.
As Mumbai burnt, Sharad Pawar and Sudhakar Naik
locked themselves into a hopeless stalemate. Pawar, as defence minister,
would not send sufficient troops. He was content that the scale of the
pogrom would expose Sudhakar Naik's incompetence. Also, the troops would
come directly into conflict with the Maratha lumpins on a rampage.
Carrying the banner of Maratha pride, he did not wish that to happen.
Naik
was sacked. Pawar took over as chief minister. Just then the blasts
happened. Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is generally believed to have been
critical of the Gujarat pogrom, did, nevertheless, describe it as a
"reaction" to the Godhara train burning. Surely, the Mumbai pogrom and
the blasts can be likewise equated.
The hanging of Yaqub Memon
has divided India. There is the largely Hindu establishment seeking
revenge in the guise of justice. In competition is the softer,
compassionate Hinduism taking the battle for justice almost to the
moment of Yaqub Memon's hanging.
This is the India that has held
the country together. Former judges, lawyers, bureaucrats, social
workers, teachers, journalists, students, other professionals who spoke
on TV channels and congregated at the Jantar Mantar, and held meeting
across the nation - this is the India that Muslims in their current
phase of alienation would naturally gravitate towards, the clergy
willing, ofcourse. But this precisely is the large swathe of India
without an identifiable platform or a party. The BJP, and the Congress
too, increasingly, are an anathema to these groups and the minorities.
In
this situation, almost by default, the man on the white charger happens
to be Asaduddin Owaisi. He pulls no punches, and is more articulate
than most political leaders and TV panellists. For his opponents he is
flawed because he holds his ground firmly with expert references to the
Constitution. How this Sole Spokesman phenomena plays itself out has to
be watched.
While there was no mercy for Memon despite the gaping
holes in the case, the open and shut case of Rajiv Gandhi's murderer,
was considered worthy of a pardon. Likewise, Devinder Singh Bhullar,
convicted for the Delhi blasts, has escaped being hanged.
There
is a straightforward political angle. Karunanidhi and Parkash Singh
Badal can pull strings with the centre for individuals from their
respective states because of their participation in national coalitions.
While
regional leaders can protect their murderers, the 180 million Muslim,
the second largest Muslim population in the world, ironically have no
comparable pull. How Owaisi harvests this incrementally ghettoised anger
has to be monitored. He can cast a spell on Muslim youth but he cannot
have this translated into votes by playing solo in a crowded field. He
will have to select coalition partners. These will not be the Congress
nor the BJP.
(Saeed Naqvi is a commentator on political and
diplomatic affairs. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached
on [email protected])
