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FIRST PERSON | Ghazala Wahab
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Fatal Flaw
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Police modernisation has to move beyond tokenism
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Like many adults with illusions of intellect, I take most of the comments made
by my father rather flippantly. But when he talks of communalism, I listen to
him seriously. Since he otherwise lacks religious fervour and has contempt for
communal politics, when he talks on these issues, it means that he is really
troubled by them. Two examples to illustrate what I mean: In 1980, while
returning from Makrana in Rajasthan, my parents decided to take a detour to the
Ajmer Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Even as my mother shepherded the kids
inside the main shrine, my father was accosted by one of the care-takers who
insisted that he wear |
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a cap before entering the shrine.My father refused on the grounds that Quran does not insist on men covering their heads. A huge argument ensued and finally we left without visiting the shrine. That was his only attempt to visit the dargah.
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The second incident occurred in the spring of 2002, when the war in Afghanistan
was underway. On Eid day, all male members of my family go to the mosque inside
Taj Mahal to offer ritualistic prayers. As is wont with the Imams, after the
prayer, the guy at the pulpit started sermonising over the microphone. With
Afghanistan war raging, he started criticising the US and exhorting the Muslims
to wage Jihad against the Americans. In the early years of the war, this
behaviour among the imams (led by Imam Bukhari of Delhi’s Jama Masjid) was
spreading like contagion.
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Thankfully, not many people stay back to listen to these sermons. Even as the rest of the family members prepared to leave, my father weaved his way through the crowd to reach the pulpit. Taking the microphone from the imam, in the presence of a few thousand
worshippers (some of whom could have been really devout or radical), my father
lambasted the imam for his illiteracy and for instigating the people. Now to
come to the point. On June 3, four villagers in Forbesganj area (Araria
district) of Bihar, protesting building of a wall (that would deny the villagers
access to the main road) by a private starch-making company, were killed in
police firing. The firing took place when the villagers tried to pull down the
wall. The victims included a pregnant woman and a child. Two months later, on
September 14, following a communal strife in the Bharatpur district, Rajasthan
police swung into action which resulted in the death of 10 people, most of whom
were killed inside the mosque. The media reported the incident as communal
violence, when actually the victims were not killed by members of another
community. In an old honourable tradition, most mainline newspapers do not
mention the communities of the people involved in a communal situation on the
assumption that by not doing so they will help calm communal passions.
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© 2012 FORCE ARROWHEAD MEDIA PVT. LTD. All Rights Reserved. |
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