‘They have blood on their hands,’ No one lost citizenship, but over 60 lost their lives thanks to anti-CAA lies, fear and hatred

Life in Northeast Delhi is slowly limping back to normal following the deadly riots earlier this week. However, anti-CAA agitations and the consequent riots have already inflicted towering damage upon the residents. The death toll has already touched 38, apart from severe damage to public and private property- including homes and shops. 

These deaths and those in other parts of India too essentially trace their origins into the fear-mongering and rumouring that took grip of the country ever since the Cabinet had approved the Citizenship Amendment Bill (later Citizenship Amendment Act). 

As soon as the Bill was passed, or tabled, rumour mills across the country started raising a false alarm. Detention camp threats and false fears of disenfranchisement were played up. The same rumour mills also fuelled xenophobic fears in the Northeast, even though the Schedule VI areas and ILP areas in the region fall outside the purview of the Amendment legislation. 

What started as a question of Constitutionality and the alleged threat to the identity of indigenous tribes in the Northeast did not take long in acquiring a communal hue, and this is exactly where the seeds of Delhi riots were sown. The 38 deaths in Delhi are essentially a result of the blatantly communal hue that was given to the Citizenship Amendment Act. 

The real loss to life and property occurred only now in February as far as the National Capital is concerned. But the real trigger and incitement dates back to the early days of December when rumour mills first came into action against the Citizenship Amendment law. 

It really started with West Bengal and Assam. In West Bengal, there were disturbing visuals of communally enraged violent mobs pelting stones at running trains carrying passengers. The vandals inflicted serious structural damage on the railway tracks, setting them on fire and vandalising critical infrastructure to cause derailments and nasty accidents. The vandals and hooligans ran riot in West Bengal torching 5 trains and 3 railway stations, apart from attacking and vandalising several other railway assets. These protesters not just torched and vandalised public property, but also targeted innocent citizens.

A clarion call was given by multiple Muslim organisations to stage protests, which turned nasty and violent. The rioters attacked police stations, buses and did not even spare an ambulance- pelting stones at it.

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In Assam, Badruddin Ajmal led AIUDF- which is the formal face of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants ironically fomented violence alongside protests by the Assamese chauvinists like All Assam Students’ Union (AASU). While the latter protested against CAA revoked because they want Assam to be rid of all ‘outsiders’, whether they are Bengali Hindu refugees or illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, Ajmal’s political outfit wanted to keep Assam on boil so that the NRC exercise in the state could be vitiated. 

Guwahati itself witnessed five deaths owing to the anti-CAA protests. And the rioting soon spread to other parts of the country, particularly Uttar Pradesh. 288 policemen were injured, sixty-one of them hit by bullets even as radical Islamism and violent protests took a grip of the state. 19 lives too were lost. 

In the context of Delhi, the anti-CAA protests were a part of the larger Delhi Assembly polls campaign from the word go. This is also the reason why focus shifted to the Jamia Milia Islamia University and Shaheen Bagh- which became new centre of misinformation dissemination and rumour mills against the CAA. 

There was a clear plan to polarise the Muslim vote in favour of AAP during the Delhi Assembly Elections, which also explains the presence of AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan among the violent anti-CAA protesters and later at Shaheen Bagh. 

While the actual damage has taken place now, the anti-CAA lobby tried to showcase its strength several times. Whether it was Seelampur or Jamia Nagar, the involvement of PFI and SIMI, coupled with the patently communal slogans. Why would someone yell supremacist, anti-Hindu slogans if not for inciting violence? 

Shaheen Bagh itself became an Islamist radicalisation centre with videos of brainwashed kids doing the rounds. In one of the videos, a girl can be heard saying, “We’ll not be allowed to wear clothes. We’ll be given food only once a day at the detention camps.” Young kids were being misled with the same ‘concentration camp’ myth which was initially propagated by the opposition parties, and foundations for the deadly Northeast Delhi riots were being laid therein. 

Throughout the Anti-CAA agitation, slogans like ‘Jinnah wali Azaadi’, ‘Hinduon se Azaadi’ and ‘Afzal tere khoon se inquilab aayega’ were raised in Delhi and beyond. What do you expect but mad frenzy and communal mobs when terrorists and death merchants like Afzal Guru and Jinnah are invoked. Every single such slogan served as the ignition point for the deadly riots that broke out in Delhi. Slogans like ‘Jinnah ki Azaadi’ and ‘Hinduon se Azaadi’ were the ones that landed 400 stabs at IB staffer Ankit Sharma’s body. 

Right from the day when the CAA- one of the most benevolent and humanitarian legislation in the history of India was tabled, fears of disenfranchisement and ‘demonetisation’ of citizenship are being played up. Not a day went by when such bizarre rumours and bizarre fears were not instilled. The Citizenship Amendment Act was passed on December 11, 2019. 79 days hence, not a single individual has lost his citizenship and in fact, no Indian will ever lose his/ her citizenship but the anti-CAA protests have taken a much bigger toll with more than 60 deaths against its name.  

Looking at the larger picture and the entire chronology, we do not need much intellect to infer the root cause behind the sheer bigotry and deadly violence that has claimed dozens of lives, including in the National Capital.