Communalism

I retired from the police force after 37 years of service. In these years, I have seen thousands of people from north-east India coming in search of livelihood, particularly to Bangalore. There are tens of thousands of them in Bangalore even today. They come in search of a better living than they can get in their own states. They come looking for work. But most of all, they come looking for peace.

A huge number of these immigrants come to take up jobs in the IT sector but it is not limited just to that. Hard workers that they are, I have seen them working as security guards while the women slog as skilled workers in beauty parlours. Many of them work as musicians in live bands as well.

I have therefore followed the mass exodus of these people from Bangalore, which sadly has been apportioned only upon communal tensions. It is important to mention here that it would be ridiculous to minimise it as a mere Hindu-
Muslim issue.

The continuing violence has its roots as far back as 1971. The real problem is land. An issue as deep rooted as this has to be tackled by the government and calling it communalism will not only not help alleviate the present conditions, it will actually promote further violence in the future.

In Bangalore, on August 15, a rumour was spread about attacks on the people from the North East. The police
commissioner immediately looked into the matter and held a press conference in which he clarified that no such attack had taken place.

However, by next evening, thousands of people had gathered at railway stations and the exodus had begun. What is interesting is, within hours, a help-line had been set up which was assuring the people that they should not be afraid and that Assam would be protected. What does this suggest? How could people in Assam come to know of the impending exodus in Bangalore, even before the authorities and the police in the city got wind of it?

Also, there has been some talk about Muslims going from house to house threatening North Easterners. At a pannel discussion held by a TV news channel, my fellow panellist Pramod Mutalik made this point. These are baseless allegations and lies. I have attended a meeting in which officials and representatives of North East communities were present. They have reiterated that no such incidents took place.

These developments and observations lead me to only two possible conclusions. One is that there are some elements with vested interests who want to start communal riots in cities like Bangalore and Pune. The other possibility is that these are deliberate attempts, hoping that the exodus will rub further salt into the wounds that the raging fires in Assam have caused.

It is likely that keeping in mind the legislative election in Karnataka of 2013 and parliamentary elections in 2014, a political party is creating such chaos in the big metropolises.

I am not saying there are no criminals among Muslims; of course there are, just as there are criminals among Hindus or any other community. However, it will be wrong to put a religious colour to it. They are merely miscreants who have no respect for the Indian nation or the Constitution of the country. And criminals should be promptly dealt with without prejudice or favour for their professed religious inclinations.

It is sad, however, that many Muslims fall prey to anti-national propaganda and confuse between their patriotism and religious compulsions. For all Muslims I want to say, one does not become a Muslim just because one has a name like Ismail or Ibrahim. Islam never supports any act of dishonesty or betrayal to the nation they are born in. The Quran clearly states that one must respect and protect the country one takes birth  and grows up in. Therefore, any militant activity by any Muslim on the country would be a direct contradiction.

There has been some bad propaganda about Muslims that have been doing the rounds. This is not the state of things
a nation desires to have. We must be unified – Muslims, Hindus and all other communities – in the protection of
our country.

(As told to Harsha Kumar Kugwe)