Uttarakhand: Muslims at Receiving End, Another Mosque Sealed Amid Protests

Dehradun: With Assembly elections fast approaching in Uttarakhand, the minority Muslim community which has been at the receiving end of wrath of the ruling BJP/RSS dispensation for the past nearly nine years, are being cornered and targeted in every possible way by the Hindutva brigade having the patronage of the State administrative machinery and police.

An old mosque at Thano village area of Dehradun, which has been existence since 1978, was sealed by the authorities of Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) for being ‘illegal’ on the persistent demand of the Hindutva groups owing allegiance to the ruling party.

This is the fifth mosque in and around Dehradun which has been shut down by the administration of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who is seen as the rising young star of Hindutva forces in the country and is leaving no stone unturned in emulating his counterpart neighbour, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in anti-Muslim rhetoric.

The mosque was sealed on the ground that the map for its construction was not sanctioned. Members of the Bajrang Dal had been agitating for some time against the mosque, questioning a mosque could come up in a rural area. The local Muslims claim that the mosque was functioning since 1978 and even a room was of the mosque had been constructed by the minorities’ welfare department of the state government.

Regarding the issue of sanctioning of map, the local Muslims claim that none of the buildings in the said village has got maps sanctioned by MDDA, which itself came into being in the 1980s. However, acting under pressure from Hindutva groups, the mosque was sealed.

Nayeem Quraishy, President of Muslim Sewa Sangathan, who along with other members staged a dharna in front of the MDDA office, charged the authorities of bias against Muslims.

“It is blatant use of arbitrary powers to seal the mosque and clear infringment of Article 25 of the Constitution. Has anyone asked for the maps and documents of Hindu religious places which are coming up at public and forest land? But Muslims are targeted,” he lamented.

The Muslim Sewa Sangathan said it plans to knock the doors of High Court to seek justice. Hafiz Shah Nazar, a spokesperson of Jamait-E-Ulema-Hind, a body of clerics said they would also be taking up the issue with appropriate authorities. They propose to approach the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Minorities Commission both at the national and state level on the issue.

Earlier, the functioning mosques at MDDA colony, opposite Raipur police station, Asharodi and Dakrani, were sealed for alleged failure to get official permission. On the other hand, it is near impossible to get sanction for a new mosque from the administration and even more difficult to get an old mosque repaired due to objections from Hindutva groups.  

 It was under Dhami’s leadership that anti-Muslim campaigns of ‘Love Jehad’, ‘Land Jehad’, ‘Thook Jehad’, ‘Nakal Jehad’ and demographic change were coined to vilify the minority community in the past nearly six years of his rule. Nothing concrete on the ground has come out of these wild allegations but has helped BJP/RSS in a poisonous narrative against Muslims on social media in a Hindu majority state.

The narrative of these ‘Jehads’ spread by the ruling party and its affiliates hinting a “large scale” planned conspiracy by the Muslims could not be proved on the ground and in the court of law. The oft-repeated allegations of demographic change by the Chief Minister and his resolve to check it with an aim to preserve and conserve the Hindu culture of ‘Devbhoomi’ (land of Gods) fell flat as none from Muslim community was found buying land in the hills, as documented by the Migration Commission employed by the BJP government.

Interestingly, the lands have been bought and sold by the members of the majority Hindu community. However, a miniscule Muslim community, which had been doing odds jobs and businesses in the small towns of hills of Uttarakhand, has been targeted and hounded out by Hindutva groups in the past nine years.

The Banphoolpura riots in Haldwani town two years ago, which resulted in the death of six Muslims in police firing and subsequent police repression following the demolition of a mosque and later alleged police brutalities in the wake of the ‘I love Mohammed’ procession at Kashipur, speaks volumes about the attitude of the police and administration toward Muslims in Uttarakhand.

Apart from being the targets of administration and police, the Hindutva groups unleashed, allegedly by the ruling dispensation, have made the life of common Muslims difficult. These groups are moving with impunity, threatening, attacking and vilifying Muslims and all those who try to stand with the minority community.

The case of ‘Mohammed’ Deepak of Kotdwar who stood up to save an old Muslim shopkeeper and has become a target of the Hindutva forces, is one such example. Even Hindus who have rented out their shops and houses to Muslims are being pressured to get their properties vacated from ‘infidels’. Only a few have dared to stand up to the Hindutva groups.

The Hindutva groups are roaming freely and even scrounging hotels, rest houses and resorts in and around Dehradun and Rishikesh to target any young Muslim staying there. In the past few months, many Muslims youngsters have been beaten up by these groups for staying in the hotels with Hindu girls or women. They were charged with indulging in ‘Love Jehad’. Interestingly, there is no such stigma if the girl happens to be a Muslim with a Hindu boy. Such cases are encouraged and eulogised as ‘home-coming’.

 A Muslim youngster named, Samir, had to die for eloping with a Hindu girl from Gandhi gram area of Dehradun in April. Son of a poor labourer, he eloped with a girl on April 20 and the police along with Bajrang Dal members mounted pressure on his family to produce him. Their house was attacked and ransacked allegedly by Bajrang Dal members as the location of the eloped duo was traced to Tyuni in Uttarakashi district. As per the police version, the girl was recovered but the boy escaped and jumped into the river. The family was informed after a week to identify a dead body found from the river. The family members were too scared after the trauma that they refused to even write a complaint letter seeking an enquiry into the circumstances leading to his death.  

Recently, a footwear showroom was raided by one such group and the word ‘jehadi’ was written with a pen on the nameplates of Muslim employees on the charge that Hindus working there were being harassed. The owners of the footwear chain are Muslims.

These groups and ‘Dals’ have become so powerful that a fortnight ago they took out a rally in Dehradun and in their anti-Muslim zeal, harassed a Hindu girl on her two-wheeler for covering her face with a ‘dupatta’ to save herself from scorching heat. She was asked not to cover herself as a Muslim. Interestingly, this phenomenon was seen in Gujarat, the Hindutva laboratory of harassing girls for covering their faces during harsh summers but it has now reached the hills.

The modus operandi of these groups and individuals has been to magnify their ‘deeds’ by using the social media platforms backed by ruling party networks. They target Muslims and record it to be uploaded on various social media platforms to garner lakhs of views and appreciation for their ‘good’ work from their supporters. They openly call for economic and social boycott of Muslims and even calling for violence against them.

On the other hand, the administration and police look the other way when and where such groups attack. The complaints are mainly ignored or booked against unknown people despite the fact that their ‘deeds’ are recorded and uploaded on social media. The most glaring example is Mohammed Deepak’s case who was threatened by a large group with known faces but the case was been lodged against “unknown” people.

In a game of one upmanship, Chief Minister Dhami on the lines of UP Chief Minister Adityanath, who had announced not to allow Eid Namaz on the roads, announced that Eid prayers would not be allowed at Flat Grounds in Nainital. Eid prayers had been taking place at this ground for the past one century with peace and harmony, but Dhami wanted to surpass Yogi. However, much to his disappointment, the Nainital High Court ruled that Eid Namaz would be held at Flat Grounds and ordered police and administration to make arrangements for peaceful conduct of the prayers.

The double standards of the ruling BJP stood exposed on Eid-Ul-Zuha (May 28) when during the maiden visit of BJP national president Nitin Nabeen to Dehradun, the road outside the BJP state headquarters on Balbir Road was blocked for hours to hold a function to honour him, causing inconvenience to commuters. This is BJP, a party with a difference but indifferent to people’s concern. 

The writer is a senior freelance journalist based in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. The views are personal.