4/17/2014 Print :Citizens first: Muslims, Modi and brutal rapes of Muzzaffarnagar

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Citizens first: Muslims, Modi and brutal rapes ofMuzzaffarnagar

by Dec 23, 2013

#Akhilkesh Yadav #India #Muzaffarnagar rapes #Muzaffarnagar riots #Narendra Modi #Rahul Gandhi

#Uttar Pradesh

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"If there are Congress leaders who are visiting the riot affected areas I will welcome any suggestions from

them on resolving the situation there. You will see that Samajwadi Party is willing to take constructivesuggestions from all quarters and work towards implementing them," declared Akhilesh Yadav, doing his best

not to sound defensive in the wake of Rahul Gandhi's unexpected visit to the post-riot relief camps in Uttar

Pradesh.

While media pundits are entranced by the "politics" of this scion v scion spat, no one seems to have noted the

grim absurdity of a Chief Minister soliciting "suggestions" to address an ongoing human tragedy in his state.Well, one small step in the right direction would be to stop lying. As India Today notes, "SP government...

has repeatedly made claims of adequate help to the riot victims. To the extent that even after a snub from

Supreme Court on relief work, the government has insisted that it has provided suitable relief, compensation

and rehabilitation to all the riot victims."

It's not clear how the Yadav government defines "suitable" relief but it apparently does not include the

blankets and clothes required to prevent babies from freezing to death.

] A woman and her child, injured during the

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Muzaffarnagar riots. Reuters.Our politicians like to pretend basic governance is rocket science. After 60-odd years of independence,

leaders don't know how to impose law and order, limit casualties, or even arrange immediate relief and

rehabilitation -- except when it suits them. Hey, we can rescue tourists from the upper reaches of the

Himalayas, evacuate lakhs and lakhs of people before a cyclone, but god forbid, the police reaches in time to

rescue citizens being raped and butchered at the local pradhan's mansion.

This is exactly what happened in Lakh Bawdi where 80 people were lured to the residence of the local

headman who promised to keep them safe. They were greeted instead by a mob who proceeded to butcher

and rape the hapless men, women and children.

Calls to the local police on their mobiles proved futile. As Abid tells Outlook, "They arrived, but only at12.30 pm, four hours after everything was over. Around 80 people from my village had been killed by then."

One of the other survivors offers this brief glimpse of what ensued during those four hours [The must read

account is available here]:

“Within half an hour, a group of men from the village entered the compound and attacked us. Theyhacked my husband right before me.” Was she attacked? Shabana is quiet. I try again. This time, her

voice a whisper, she says, “They stripped several of us. Took our honour.”

They first beat them with batons, then stripped them and brutally sodomised them. The men werestripped and simply chopped into pieces. Shabana and several others were thrown out, naked, an hour

later.

The women were repeatedly penetrated with batons, their breasts assaulted with sharp trowels, and facesmutilated by vicious bites. The stories are no less gruesome than the December 16 Delhi gang rape, but there

is no similar outrage or demands for justice. The religious affiliation of the victims -- in this case, Muslim --makes this a "communal" issue. A word that overshadows their identities as citizens and human beings. Noone talks about a failure of governance, but instead the discussion focuses entirely on base politics. While

Congress spars with SP, and Rahul tries to show up Akhilesh, the BJP and Narendra Modi maintain astudied silence.

This could be a tremendous opportunity for Modi to tout the virtues of good governance, of a state that

protects and rehabilitates its citizens, delivers justice irrespective caste or creed. If Modi wants to put Godhrabehind him, and articulate a new secularism that moves away from vote bank politics, this is his chance. Why

not take as active an interest in relief operations in Muzaffarnagar as he did in Uttarakhand -- all are citizensof the Indian state, and equally deserving of his attention, after all. What we get instead is Modi wooing all

the usual Muslim interest groups: madrassas, clerics, and wakf boards. It's just more identity politics of theCongress kind.

And this is perhaps India's greatest failure of a democracy. For all the talk about Indian vs Westernsecularism, we have been unable to formulate any version of secularism that incorporates genuine citizenship

and its attendant rights. What we get instead is either a pandering of "communal harmony" that endorses aShah Bano-type of travesty -- i.e. relegating Muslim women to second-class citizens -- or the RSS kind

which touts a Hindu rashtra where some citizens are more equal than others, and therefore more deserving ofthe state's attention, resources and protection.

"Voting is only one part of the modern idea of citizenship. Citizenship also means that individuals have a

bundle of rights , especially with respect to health, education and public order. Such rights are entitlements,

4/17/2014 Print :Citizens first: Muslims, Modi and brutal rapes of Muzzaffarnagar

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not an expression of government kindness. Regardless of class, ethnicity or religion, a democratic polity mustdeliver these services," writes Ashutosh Varshney in the Indian Express.

One of these services must necessarily be law and order. The social contract -- which is the basis of modern

democratic nations -- requires citizens surrender their freedoms in exchange for the protection of a neutraland impartial state. What happened in Billu Pradhan's mansion in Lakh Bawdi was a complete breakdown of

that contract -- and therefore represents a total failure of Indian democracy. That we are too busy withpartisan and communal name-calling to notice represents our failure as citizens.