Like many other dangers to the Indian State as established by its constitution, communal riots have also a political background which has not been properly comprehended and tackled...
...Scholars do not view increased tendency of offence against Hindus in riots as a segregated phenomenon but as a part of an overall plan. What is that plan?
Putting it bluntly, the plan is to convert India into an Islamic Sharia (State). The idea, and if we can say, so the ambition is not new. Its roots go deep into Islamic theology. Abdul Kalam Azad expressed it very concisely:
'A country like India which has once been under the Muslim Rule must be conquered back to Islam.'
Azad is not alone in this idea of religious obligation to convert India into Darul-Islam. The same idea has been voiced in different words from dozens of platforms and by dozens of Muslim leaders like Maududi, Madni... Ajmal Khan... Mohd. Ali and...Kichlu, etc. Every Muslim is bound by the tenets of his faith to exert his utmost in that effort.
Communal riots are an effort in that direction...
There can be no denial that in almost every case of Hindu/Muslim riot the first shots are fired by the Muslim rioters and the method of attack itself proves that they are carefully planned well in advance.
...The Government always fights shy of displeasing a particular section of Muslim leaders, remains complacent and sometimes even issues statements absolving the suspects even before enquiry.
The events that follow such riots are also always typically the same. The Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) comes in for strong criticism by the very people who had engineered the riots in the first instance.
Demand is made generally by the minority community for its withdrawal. The majority community who considers its safety entirely dependent upon the PAC, protests.
Search for illegal arms and culprits named in FIRs is resisted very often by Burqa-clad women who also testify to all sorts of PAC atrocities...
With an eye on Muslim votes, the cry is taken up by the so called secular parties to embarrass the authorities. MPs and leaders of these parties visit areas where 'innocent Muslims' were supposed to have been massacred by the PAC. They overlook all requests of the majority community to visit localities where these 'innocents' had played havoc to start with.
The Government, not to be outmanoeuvred, removes or replaces the PAC. The District Administration, first made impotent by political interference, is made the scapegoat and harassed...
Apart from the damage to the morale of PAC, and the administration, there is another more serious fall-out. The noise made by the opposition parties, the leaders of the rioters and the reaction of the Government make credible the propaganda launched by the communal Muslim organisations regarding atrocities on 'innocent Muslims', particularly in the Muslim countries and others out to malign India. As a result these organisations and the people responsible for such riots are able to win international sympathy resulting in liberal, moral and fiscal help.
The PAC have their own justified grievances. They say that they act only on magistral orders. How is it that they are accused and not the officer ordering firing? ... In case of rioting they are ordered to fire on armed mobs bent on murder and arson. Hence, casualties must be from a particular community indulging in such acts... They are called upon to deal with rioting students, labourers and so many others. In these cases they are not accused of atrocities. How is it that while dealing with communal riots they suddenly became atrocious, barbarous and fiends...? The fact is that it is the very people, who were actively engaged in rioting, become their accusers. Being a Government force, they have no way to defend themselves from such unwarranted criticism.
A remedy worse than the disease is being suggested by the Muslim leadership, to which looking at the trend, the Government is likely to succumb. It is being suggested that a special riot force be created, with 50% of it being constituted of minority and scheduled and other backward classes.
Firstly, the proposal starts from the dangerous presumption that justice to a particular class of citizens can be expected only from that class of people...
Secondly, before a general decision in the matter is reached, it should be carefully established as to who are the people needing protection in case of a planned communal flare-up... Obviously if the aggression has mostly been started by, say community x, then it is the community attacked, say, y which needs protection.
...The other factor which will be relevant will be the number of casualties and wounded in each community excluding the victims of police firing. If a larger number belongs to x, then obviously it was the x community that needs protection and vice versa.
And last but not the least important shall be the statistics of arms recovered. The community found with a larger number of illegal arms would be the one presumed to have been planned for a riot.
Compensation or aid should be given only to those killed by rioters and not to those killed by the armed forces unless it is proved that they were killed accidentally and were not involved personally in rioting.
It is wrong to keep confidential the Reports of Enquiry about riots. These should be promptly held, quickly concluded and made available to the public. There is no justification for hiding the truth. The guilty must be exposed.
Another fact that must be remembered is... M.J. Akbar's warning in his India: the Siege Within: 'If India's unity is destroyed once again, it will be for the same reason as the last because the leadership of a minority managed in the midst of deliberately provoked violence, to see the thesis that - a Hindu Majority would either subjugate them or swallow them.'
...Those interested in National integration are doing the greatest disservice to the Nation by appeasing the minorities and denying to the majority what is available to the minority.
(The Organiser, 13 January, 1991)