UP back as a communal cauldron after 21 years

Even as the Uttar Pradesh government blamed the circulation of a fake video on social media for aggravating communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, inflamattory and communally inciting material continued to be spread widely on social networking sites and applications.

Newspapers reports, morphed with inflammatory headlines, were widely circulated through various groups on Twitter, Facebook and other mediums of social media on Monday. Two widely circulated posts were picture clippings from the reports of Hindi daily Dainik Jagran's Muzaffarnagar edition. A report dated September 9 was morphed with the headline, "Musalmano duara Hinduo ka katleam jaari (Muslims continue to slaughter Hindus)."

However, the original headline read: "Dangiyo ko goli marne ka aadesh (Shoot at sight orders against rioters."

Another report of the same daily, dated September 8 was also morphed with a fake headline and widely circulated on Facebook. The original headline read, "Panchayat se laute do logo ki goli mar ke hatya (Two killed on their way back from Panchayat)." Its morphed version read: "Muzaffarnagar mein Musalmano ka aatank, Hinduo mein Khauf (Muzaffarnagar terrorized by Muslims, Hindus in fear."

Several posts and pictures giving exaggerated numbers of the dead and inflammatory comments were also being circulated on social media.

This comes even as the State has blamed social media for the spread of inflammatory material and blocked a fake video of violence in Muzaffarnagar district. However, before it was blocked, the video became so popular that its snapshots even made their way into the pages of some Hindi dailies.

Police have lodged an FIR against BJP MLA from Sardhana constituency of Meerut district Thakur Sangeet Singh Som and 200 others in this regard. They have been booked under Sections 420 (forgery), 153-A (promoting enmity on religious grounds) and 120-B (conspiracy) of the IPC and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act.

The video, which was being falsely circulated as the lynching of two boys from a particular community in Muzaffarnagar, has been sourced to an incident in Pakistan. The original video is of 2010, when a mob lynched two youths to death in Pakistan's Sialkot.

UP Home Secretary Kamal Saxena admitted that fake videos about communal clashes were being circulated through social media to disturb communal harmony. "People are trying to spread rumours to disturb communal harmony through social media and using fake videos to disturb communal harmony in the state," he said.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/social-media-rife-with-inflammatory-materials-in-muzaffarnagar/article5110034.ece

Muzaffarnagar: Muzaffarnagar district is under grip of communal insanity, according to official figures till now 19 people including a journalist in the line of duty has been lynched to death. This riot is not a spontaneous reaction to some flare up, but a result of well organized campaign to fan communal tensions.

It all started with the killing of three youngsters in clashes on August 27 in Kawal village over eve teasing. Two youths belonging to Jatt community Gaurav and his cousin Sachin of Malikpura village attacked Shahnawaz of Kawal village with knives after he passed lewd remarks on their two female cousins. Shahnawaz suffered serious injuries in the attack and died in the hospital. Shahnawaz's relatives and his local villagers caught hold of Sachin and Gaurav and killed them in mob beating.

Going by the track record of Khap dominated Western UP those killings was not a unique case in the region. But tensions did flare up as predators and teasers were from different communities.

But this didn't end here; political strategist found potential of dynamite in the incident and started to prepare the ground for the explosion.

Fake videos of killing of Hindu youths by Muslim mob while they were protecting the honor of their sister' were circulated through mobile phones and internet. The horrific video showed men in beards and traditional Muslim attire killing two youths mercilessly.

That disgusting video is originally from Pakistan of infamous 2010 killing of two brothers in Sialkot Punjab province by lynching mob who misidentified them as dacoits.

Fake video was edited to incite the passion to illustrate typical bearded Muslims killing helpless innocent Hindu boys who were just trying to protect honor of their sister.

The video spread like wildfire and shared by many people, shockingly including local BJP MLA from the region. BJP MLA from Sardhana constituency of Meerut district Thakur Sangeet Singh Som shared the video on his Facebook profile asking people to see what is going on in Muzaffarnagar', 500 local right wingers distributed it immediately (he has removed it now after a case was filed by the UP police).

That Pakistani Video clip was so popularized in the district that even widely circulated Hindi news paper like Dainik Jagaran in its local edition printed the screen shot image of that Pakistani video clip and showed one of the boy lying on ground in blood surrounded by an apparent Muslim crowd, appallingly without even cross checking the authenticity of the video.
That print news item of Jagaran with screen shot image of Pakistani video came as a blessing for hate mongers who then started widely circulating the forged news item to weight their claim behind the Pakistan Sailkot killing video to present it as Muzaffarabad, Kawa killing clip of two Hindu Jat boys.

Sensing trouble police immediately tried to block the video clips from the internet and filed FIR against the BJP MLA and other 229 unidentified persons for sharing the video was registered. They have been booked under Sections 420 (forgery), 153-A (promoting enmity on religious grounds) and 120-B (conspiracy) of the IPC and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act at the Kotwali police station in Muzaffarnagar.

But damage was already done. According to ADG, law and order Arun Kumar, "A fake video related to murder of two people in a village was uploaded on the internet. We blocked that particular video but unfortunately the CDs were circulated in the village."

Such was the determinant plan for communal riots that even after blocking the video on internet, fringe groups distributed CDs of that fake video.

Local right wing leaders giving weight to the fake video gave a call for Mahapanchayat defying prohibition orders and created law and order situation. Elders of two religious groups were invited to sort out the simmering tension between the two communities. Police said a bus headed for the mahapanchayat was stoned near Basi village, resulting in injuries to six people. As news spread, people of both communities pelted stones at each other.

In that Mahapanchayat meeting literally called to discuss the issues arise through fake videos, four people were killed and five others were injured in passionate stone pelting.

From then on fake video and images has already done their job, whole district in now under fire. Dozens killed, scores has injured with army called in to control the mob fury. Five companies of PAC and five of RAF and police have been deployed in Muzaffarnagar.

But the menace doesn't stop here right wingers is circulating those fake pictures of Pakistani video with Hindi text to incite passion of Hindus. Several FB pages related to Hindutva organisations and individuals, and on other social media like Twitter the video was vigorously shared. This could have repercussions in other parts of the country as well.

It appears more than clear that Muzaffarnagar communal riot is a well orchestrated plan to polarize western UP for Mission 2014.

http://twocircles.net/2013sep08/fake_pakistani_video_used_bjp_mla_and_hindutva_forces_fan_communal_riots_muzaffarnagar.htm

Love Jehad' is the new technique, says a grave-looking Chandra Mohan Sharma. But it is a difficult art', picked only after madrasa-conducted training.'

"First, good-looking Muslim men are identified. They are given neutral names like Sonu and Raju." These boys, Mr. Sharma says, are then given jeans, t-shirts, mobiles, and bikes and taught to behave. "They stand in front of schools and colleges and woo young Hindu girls. The first few times, our girls snub them." But then, he says resignedly, they fall for it. "This jehad is about pyar se fasana - entrapment through love."

The bespectacled joint general-secretary of the Meerut division of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which covers all of western U.P.', he points out with a wee bit of pride, is wearing a grey safari-suit. We are sitting in a small office next to the Khatauli railway station, off the main highway, in Muzaffarnagar district late on Tuesday afternoon.

BEING THE PROTECTOR

"Look at police records. Out of 100 girls who elope, 95 are Hindus who go with Muslim men. It is rare that Hindu boys get Muslim girls." This, the VHP leader says conclusively, is proof of a conspiracy to expand Muslim population, using Hindu girls as machines. We need to protect the honour of our daughters, bahu aur beti'.

Ignore this as meaningless rant at your own peril, for Mr. Sharma was at the "mahapanchayat" on Saturday. The protection of our women' was the common theme in many speeches, as video recordings of the event, shown to The Hindu, reveal. There is now recognition that this event added to the agitational mood, added to the insecurity, and eventually led to clashes and violence.

"On August 27, a Muslim boy teased a Hindu girl," Mr. Sharma resumes, "and that is the root of the tensions. Tell me, which brother can accept this?" While this is now a widely accepted version of the trigger for the violence, Muslim elders in Muzaffarnagar town dispute it and insist that it was motor-cycles colliding that provoked the initial fight between young men. The fight was later given a communal colour.

Playing the victim

The patriarchal narrative, which dominates conversations with Hindu extremists across towns of western U.P, is then seamlessly linked to the narrative of victimhood.

A narrow alley off the Surajkund Road in Meerut leads up to the Bharat Mata Mandir. On the first floor lives Sudarshan, VHP's regional organisation secretary. It is early morning. A plump man, he first reads the local editions of Dainik Jagran and Amar Ujala, puts up news clippings on his Facebook page, brushes his beard with a comb after a bath, and then turns to have a conversation.

"At each instance, this government has batted for Muslims. In the first FIR, why were parents of the Hindu boys who were killed named as culprits? They were not even present. Our simple demands were unheard," he says.

Mr. Sudarshan insinuates that when Muslims first attacked' Hindus after the panchayat, the latter had sought police protection but were rebuffed. He reels off six incidents from the neighbouring Shamli district, where he alleged that a Muslim police official was partial.' "He even said he was a Muslim first and an IPS later. The government - led by Azam Khan - patronises such people."

Balraj Singh, Bajrang Dal's U.P. chief, says there is a deeper conspiracy.'

"Like in Kashmir, Muslims want to take over the State. They want to take over Hindu property, and Hindu women through love jehad," he says.

With the State government asserting that Hindu extremists had circulated a fake video to depict the August 27 incident in order to inflame Hindu passions, Mr. Singh turns it around. "Muslims had circulated it because they wanted to spread panic, fear, so that like Kashmiri Pandits, we would leave our homes."

Politics of aggression

Mr. Sudarshan says that what happened after the mahapanchayat "was a Godhra." "And what has happened after that is the reaction on the lines of post-Godhra in Gujarat. Hindus did not sit back." The Bajrang Dal leader, who has traces of a red tika on his forehead, then says, "Victory will be ours. The Sangh's work is to unite Hindus, to protect our temples, women, cows, Ganga, our religion."

Reminiscent of Atal Bihari Vajpayee's speech in Goa in 2002, soon after the Gujarat riots, where the then Prime Minister had said Muslims tend not to live in coexistence with others,' Mr. Singh said, "If out of 10 people, I have fights with eight, the problem is with me. Why is it that Muslims fight with Jats, Gujjars, Dalits, Brahmans, Thakurs, and Kuswahas? Why can't they live in peace?"

But it is here, with the reference to castes, that the politics behind the riots slowly reveals itself.

One Sangh activist, who insisted on being anonymous, told The Hindu, "For the first time, Jats and Muslims are fighting each other. This is a great achievement. Jats have begun thinking like Hindus first. If more Hindu castes fight with Muslims, it will be better for us. BJP will benefit." Muslims, this activist added, needed to be taught a lesson, for they thought they ruled U.P. under Mulayam.'

Mr. Singh offers a candid take. To save your caste, you have to save your religion first. This message has gone out. This has happened for the first time in many years."

But while the broader Sangh Parivar is keen to project itself as the protector of Hindus in general, and Jats in particular, against Muslims, they are ambivalent about taking full credit, perhaps in a bid to escape culpability.

Mr. Sharma in Khatauli says, "It is natural that we are involved since we talk about Hindu rights. But the Sangh does not have shakhas in all villages in the district; our organisation is weak. This is a spontaneous upsurge." Other political leaders, however, rubbish the suggestion that over a lakh could congregate for a meeting without organisational support.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/where-sangh-spins-narratives-of-victimhood-belligerence/article5113769.ece