People's Democracy

A JOINT delegation of women’s organisations visited Kanpur on March 21, to meet the people in the affected areas and to get a first hand account of the developments. The team comprised Brinda Karat and Subhashini Ali (AIDWA), Dr Syeda Hameed and Nahid Taban (Muslim Women’s Forum), Pranati Mukherjee (NFIW), Sister Mary Scaria (Justice and Peace Commission, CBCI), and Dr Alka Srivastava (Women’s Wing, Indian Social Institute). The team visited the following areas: Parade, Yatimkhana, Talaq Mahal, Baconganj, Choubey Gola, Shivala, Shastrinagar and Vijaynagar. The team met hundreds of women and men, and heard their experiences. It also met heads of the administration, namely Shri V K Malhotra (commissioner), Shri Karamveer Singh (IG), Shri Dilip Trivedi (DIG), and Shri Arun Kumar and Shri V S Bhullar (the recently appointed SSP and DM respectively). The team handed them over a memorandum.

The following report of the team is in three parts. The first section is a summary of the main findings and recommendations. The second is the discussions with the people of both communities in the affected areas. The third is a report of the discussions with the officials. (The three parts of the report have been displayed separately in these pages – Editor.)

1. From March 16 to 19, several areas of Kanpur were engulfed in violence. According to official figures, 14 people were killed including the ADM Shri Pathak. Of them, 12 of them were from the minority community who were killed in police firing, and one was a Hindu. Scores of people, almost all from the minority community, were injured; several are still in hospital. Unofficial figures put the tally of those killed between 18 and 20. According to the administration, 273 people were arrested and are in jail. Again, almost all of them are from the minority community.
2. Contrary to the official propaganda which seeks to paint the whole minority community as aggressors, it is the minority community which has been victim of the communal violence of loot and arson perpetuated by sections of the police and the PAC.
3. Following the burning of a copy of the Quran in Delhi and the publication of the photograph on the internet, posters came up in Kanpur which were highly provocative. No organisation’s name was given; the posters appeared in the name of "Muslims of Kanpur." This itself should have alerted the administration. But it completely ignored the posters and took no action to nab the culprits. The first protest demonstration on March 16 was of a few hundred young people, which started from Haleem College. The police lathicharged the protesters when they tried to burn an effigy of the prime minister. The trouble started soon after. Even at that stage the administration could have controlled the situation if it had the will to do so.
4. The first offensive was taken by a section of the crowd which had joined the initial protest after the afternoon namaz. In the first instance, four mandirs were damaged in Choubey Gola, and some shops belonging to the Hindu community were burnt down. All this happened between 1 p m and 5 p m. Even at this stage the administration totally failed to mobilise its forces. Choubey Gola is only a few furlongs away from the Kotwali, but it took over two hours for a police force to arrive. In fact we were told that the entire administration was present in the Kotwali when all this was happening. This shows the extent of the callousness.
5. The incidents in Kanpur provide the most vivid example of how fundamentalist forces of both communities strengthen each other. Clearly, in the last few years, Muslim fundamentalist groups have organised sections of young men of the community on the same lines as the Bajrang Dal. The growth of both the varieties of fundamentalism is a matter of grave concern and clearly any strategy to counter such forces will have to be directed at both groups. This is where the communal politics of the BJP-led administration has caused immense damage.
6. Instead of an impartial administration determined to stamp out attempts to cause communal trouble regardless of the organisation involved, what happened in Kanpur was the subversion of the administration itself by a communal agenda. Following the killing of the ADM Shri Pathak, the PAC and a section of the police went on a rampage in minority areas, targeting the whole community instead of isolating and taking action against those involved. There has been mass violation of human rights in Kanpur. During the curfew period, the PAC looted and burnt down shops. In one incident confirmed by the commissioner, the articles looted were later recovered under his supervision from a PAC van. In several incidents, groups of the Bajrang Dal, accompanied by the police, attacked minority shops and burnt masjids. A whole cache of bombs and ammunition was found in the house of a BJP corporator, Janaki Gupta. Her sons are leaders of the BJP and Bajrang Dal. Only one of them, namely Manoj Gupta, was arrested.
7. The people of Kanpur should be congratulated for not falling prey to the efforts of fundamentalists in both the communities to incite communal riots. Everywhere we went we found examples of the courage of common people from both communities who gave shelter to their neighbours. There was no rioting in which common people of the two communities clashed. They refused to be provoked by all the malicious propaganda.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Removal of the PAC from Kanpur. Action against those who were involved in the arson and looting of minority shops and homes.
2. Compensation for the loss of property worth crores of rupees incurred by the victims of both communities, and immediate measures to help regain their livelihood.
3. Publicity to the people’s initiatives and examples of solidarity and help extended to each other by the common people of both communities.
4. Strong action against the fundamentalist groups of both communities.
5. Release of all the innocent people.
6. An end to all official statements which give one sided and communally biased accounts of the occurrences, as such false propaganda only deepens the divide.
7. Relief to curfew affected areas including water, sanitation and medical supplies.