The latter half of 2019 saw four major long pending issues in India’s polity being resolved. Article 370, a temporary provision in the Indian Constitution was finally rendered inoperative, a bill was passed to ban instant triple talaq, the Apex Court gave a verdict on the Ram Janambhoomi issue and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act became a law, after it was passed by both houses of Parliament. The closure to these four issues was truly an unprecedented development, which many had thought was an unachievable chimera. But it agitated a certain section of people who had a vested interest in keeping issues simmering and this lobby now got to work on derailing the government. It started off as a protest against the CAA, but gradually snowballed into a much larger orchestrated campaign to wreak havoc on the Indian State, through finances from external sources, creating a web of lies and deceit on the social media, and through inflammatory speeches.
Responsible political leaders added grist to the mill by making some very provocative and inflammatory statements. Sonia Gandhi called the protests “aar-paar ki ladai,” Rahul Gandhi told the protestors not to be afraid as the Congress Party was standing behind them, Mani Shanker Iyer said that he was ready to make whatever sacrifice was needed. “Now let's see whose hands are stronger”, he said. These statements were incendiary, but many more were made in the days leading up to the visit of President Donal Trump to India. And in response, some local leaders of the ruling dispensation too retorted in like fashion, with Anuraag Thakur, a junior minister in the Union government stating that such traitors will be taught a lesson and another local politician stating that the streets will be cleared after President Trump leaves. And so the upward spiral continued.
Radical Muslim groups spewed venom, with a whole range of such groups joining hands to create mayhem. Pinjra Tod, Jamia Coordination Committee, Alumni Association of Jamia Milia Islamia, Popular Front of India (PFI), etc., and the local politicians from the Delhi State government (AAP), all did their bit to accelerate misinformation and resorted to hate speech campaigns using Anti-CAA as a basis. Hate speeches were blared from mosques, with the hate mongers also moving from door to door, instigating people. And thus the Delhi riots took place.
That the riots in Northeast Delhi were orchestrated and planned is borne out by the fact that the inciters had assembled sticks, stones and incendiary material to carry out their dastardly attacks. The financing was done through the PFI, with Rs 120 crore being deposited to finance the Shaheen Bagh protesters and others. The riots that took place were not due to popular upheaval, but was a deliberate attempt to stoke a communal divide. The whole dastardly affair was well orchestrated and synchronised, pointing to a deeper conspiracy which shook the secular fabric of the nation.
It was a sad day in the nations capital when hundreds of people lost their homes, 53 people were killed among whom were one IB official and two Delhi Police personnel, shops were looted and burnt and women were raped. But it was not a simple communal flare up. It was a planned and executed attack by certain forces, with the underlying motive of breaking India and destroying its composite culture. These forces need to be uncovered and exposed. There was, in all likelihood, a foreign hand also in the events which shook Delhi in late February 2020. This too must be uncovered. If justice is delivered swiftly, and the perpetrators are given an exemplary punishment, then perhaps there would be a higher degree of assurance that such acts would not be repeated. In any case, the guilty, regardless of their political affiliation or their caste and religious identity, must be brought to book, soonest. In that lies India’s hope that such incidents will not occur again.
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