Anti-Muslim

August 15, 2023

Continuing violence against Christian and Muslim minorities by Hindu extremists denounced

August 15, 2023 (Washington DC): As millions of Indians around the world celebrate the 77^th anniversary of India’s independence, it is tragic that Christian and Muslim minorities in Manipur and Haryana states, respectively, are facing violence, burning and looting of personal property, even rape and death in recent months and failure of law enforcement agencies to protect them from organized vigilante groups belonging to the Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other extremist groups.

According to the North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA), violence in Manipur State started in early May and has resulted in the burning of over 197 tribal villages and 369 tribal Christian churches, confirmed deaths of 121 tribal Christians and displacement of more than 41,425 tribals in the worst anti-Christian violence in India. While the crisis in Manipur erupted between the Meitei predominantly-Hindu majority community and mostly Christian Scheduled tribe, Kuki-Zomi community, many Meitei Christians have also been attacked for being insufficiently Meitei or secretly members of tribal communities.

Unfortunately, there appears to be an eerie resemblance between the outbreak of communal violence in Manipur and the recent outbreak of violence in Haryana State. It began on July 31, 2023 when a religious procession, organized by the Hindu Vishwa Parishad, purposely passed through a predominantly Muslim neighborhood in the town of Nuh and the mob started burning vehicles and throwing stones. Six people were killed and 50 persons, including policemen were injured.

The violence then spread to Gurugram (formerly known as Gurgaon), which is a suburb of India’s Capital City, New Delhi, where a mob of Hindu extremists entered the main Mosque in town, killed the Cleric and set the building on fire. In addition, Hindu extremist groups are calling for an economic boycott of Muslim businesses by not buying from and selling to them any products or service in Gurugram, which is one of the most modern cities in India, and headquarters of multinational companies.

To add further insult to injury, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led State Government authorities in Haryana went on to declare curfew in the town of Nuh and immediately deployed bulldozers to demolish hundreds of commercial buildings owned by Muslims without affording them the “due process.”

The undersigned organizations are deeply concerned about the continued hate mongering and violence against minorities in the world’s largest democracy. We urge the India Government at the Centre and Chief Minsters, especially in the BJP led States of India to deliver on the assurances Prime Minister Modi made to President Biden and U.S. Congress during his State Visit on June 22, 2023 that “all minorities in India are treated equally and religious freedom is guaranteed to all.”

Furthermore, we urge President Biden and Secretary Blinken to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) in 2023, as has been recommended by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), if the Modi Government fails to act in protecting human rights and religious freedom of Christian, Dalit, Muslim, Sikh, Adivasi/tribal minorities in India.

Co-Signed By:

1. American Muslim Institution, Washington D.C.

2. Hindus for Human Rights

3. Federation of American Indian Christian Organizations of North America

4. Asian Children’s Education Fellowship

5. Indian American Muslim Council

6. Association of Indian Muslims of America

7. Justice for All, Washington D.C.

8. American Sikh Council

9. World Sikh Parliament

10. North American Manipur Tribal Association

Countercurrent – August 15, 2023

Ethnic Cleansing of Muslims in India ﾖ Appeal to Chief Justice, Punjab and Haryana High Court

by P S Sahni

Respected Sir,

Following the mass scale demolition of Muslim settlements in Nuh, Haryana two Hon’ble judges of your court took suo motu cognizance of the matter and stayed further demolitions. Since then the case is being tossed around from one bench to the other. Too hot to handle? Political pressure at play? Leaving Haryana administration to fudge records, plant backdated legal notices for demolition? Ensuring that most Muslim victims would have migrated out of Nuh due to fear or police pressure or both.

I am sharing a first-hand experience which may help the Court while passing the final order. For most part of the period 1984 to 89 I had worked voluntarily at Jagat Mata Kusht Ashram, Tilak Nagar, New Delhi. On 05.06.1986, the Delhi Development Authority (D.D.A.) bulldozed slum tenements of these leprosy patients. Mrs Kapila Hingorani (now since deceased) raised the matter before the Supreme Court of India. During the court’s summer vacation a bench of the court headed by the then Chief Justice, P. N. Bhagwati passed a two page final order on 02.07.1986 inter alia stating:

“It is elementary that even if a person is unauthorisedly in possession of land or has constructed structure without lawful authority he cannot be forcibly evicted from such land or structure and whatever action is taken for evicting him, has to be in accordance with law. Since the learned counsel for the D.D.A. is unable to produce any order of the appropriate authority we must take the tentative view that action of the D.D.A. was not in accordance with law and if that be so, it is obvious that the person whose huts have been demolished and who have been forcibly thrown out should be provided with accommodation.” (emphasis provided)

The D.D.A. reconstructed the demolished jhuggis at state expense at the same site. Out of affection the leprosy patients named that part of the colony as ‘Justice P.N. Bhagwati Block’.

To the best of my knowledge this final order of the Supreme Court has not been set aside by a larger bench; this is the only such order passed by a court since 1947. You could Sir, use this order and pass a judgment to the effect that all the 1200 odd properties of Muslims be rebuilt at same site at state expense where these existed.

One way to nail the administration if it has fudged records or planted backdated legal notices is to call for the physical records. The movement of every one of these alleged legal notices should be on physical records at every level of bureaucracy; and then the post-office records of speed-posted letters/notices. A forensic analysis could be done of the files to ascertain if pages have been added at a later date. The local administration is bound to take the infamous plea that it had pasted notices on these 1200 odd properties of Muslims. But digital records will nail their lies as date, day, time of pasting 1200 odd notices will not be easy to fudge on videos, photos taken on mobile phones by the administration.

The nation is at crossroads. Your order could decide whether India slips into full-fledged fascism or on recovery road to secularism.

May you Sir, always pursue the path of truth!

Thanks,

Yours sincerely,

P.S. Sahni

Member, PIL Watch Group

Email: pilwatchgroup@gmail.com

https://countercurrents.org/2023/08/ethnic-cleansing-of-muslims-in-india-appeal-to-chief-justice-punjab-and-haryana-high-court/