Admin | On 25, Feb 2020

Muslim neighborhoods in Delhi targeted with extreme violence

Delhi, India: February 25, 2020 — As US President Donald Trump visited India to discuss a trade agreement with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi burned as mobs operating with police protection targeted Muslim neighborhoods throughout the country’s capital.

The violence began on February 23 after a leader in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party threatened to “take to the streets” if police do not clear away sit-in protests against India’s recently passed Citizenship Amendment Act. “Three days’ ultimatum for Delhi Police: clear the roads in Jaffrabad and Chand Bagh,” said BJP’s Kapil Mishra while standing beside a senior police officer. “After this, don’t make us understand. We won’t listen to you…. We will be peaceful till Trump leaves. After that, we won’t listen to even you if the roads are not cleared.”

Within hours, not days, violence erupted as pro-CAA groups took to the streets.

Mobs chanting “Jai Shri Ram” (Hail Lord Ram) attacked Muslim-majority neighborhoods of Delhi. Videos show masked, helmeted men armed with poles beating people, hurling stones and petrol bombs, all while police stand idly watching. Houses, shops, buses, and cars have been set on fire. On February 25, a mosque was set ablaze while men climbed the minaret to hoist a flag bearing the image of Hindu deity Hanuman. Residents of Delhi claim the violence is instigated by elements affiliated with the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh paramilitary.

Nearly 30 people are dead, hundreds are injured, and even journalists report facing attacks and beatings for filming the violence.

“Hindu nationalists have a history of instigating communal conflict to try and influence American policy towards India,” says Arvin Valmuci, a spokesperson for Organization for Minorities of India. “We saw it with the Chittisinghpura Massacre in 2000. The BJP was in power when, on the eve of US President Bill Clinton’s visit to India, Indian intelligence agencies killed 35 Sikhs in cold blood and blamed it on Muslim terrorists to try to sway Clinton against Pakistan. Clinton saw through it then, and we can only hope Trump will see through it now.”

Trump has only offered praise for Modi, however. “We did talk about religious freedom, and I will say that the prime minister was incredible in what he told me,” said Trump after their meeting. “He wants people to have religious freedom and very strongly.”

Reporting from Delhi on February 25, social activist Harsh Mander said the situation in the north-eastern section of the city “worsens alarmingly,” writing, “Mobs roaming with guns, shooting, and arson. Even ambulances are being blocked. The police has failed completely in protecting innocent lives. Intense fear. To prevent all of Delhi from burning, the only recourse is to call in the Army. Now.”

“We ask you to raise your voice against the state-sponsored violence against Muslims in India,” said the Coalition Against Fascism in India in an open letter to concerned groups and individuals in the U.S. “It is particularly shameful that this should be happening during the visit of President Trump, who is a close ally of Modi. Far from condemning the attempts of Modi’s government to establish a Hindu majoritarian state, Trump has lauded the Indian government for its efforts towards ‘religious freedom’—an effort that seems to include the torching of places of worship by the goons supported and encouraged by the ruling party.”

CAFI concluded: “The situation can rapidly deteriorate into even greater violence and slaughter, even as Trump feasts at Modi’s table. The time to unite against these reprehensible actions committed by world leaders is now.”

“This is a time when we see what people are truly made of,” said Balbir Singh Dhillon, president of West Sacramento Sikh Gurdwara. A businessman who was falsely jailed and tortured in India in the 1990s, he says that what is happening to the Muslims in India today happened to the Sikhs and Christians just yesterday. “Any American politician who is truly for peace and pluralism in India has an obligation to speak out now. Congressmen like Ro Khanna, a Hindu-American of Indian descent who has publicly denounced ‘Hindutva,’ should be leading the charge against this new wave of hate and violence in Delhi. Why is he silent? Where are our other representatives when we really need them?”