WHILE the Sangh Parivar's hoodlum brigade was
busy creating in Bhopal, the state's capital,
a hullabaloo following the marriage of Priyanka
Wadhwani and Mohd Umar, there was also a new
element in the whole drama this time --- our
"national media" was also in the field
to make the news juicy and exciting, rather
provocative. Since the formation of a BJP government
in Madhya Pradesh, marriages are tending to
become a big occasion for creating communal
frenzy and conflict in the state. It is another
thing that Priyanka and Umar have been more
fortunate than several others --- they are at
least up till now safe from the saffronite goons.
Luck was not so favourable for a handicapped
orphaned girl in Jabalpur. The rickshaw-puller
who married him had to bear the wrath of Hindutva
champions in full measure; and they beat him
as many as four times --- --- twice in the police
station of the area and twice in the district
collector's office. Despite the mandatory provision
of solemnisation of a court marriage within
30 days of receiving an application, the collector
of Jabalpur sat tight upon their application
for three and a half months. The Bajrang Dal
and RSS goons created a ruckus against the intended
marriage of an orphan and handicapped Hindu
girl with a Christian rickshaw-puller, dubbing
it as a big threat against the Hindu religion.
Though Priyanka and Umar escaped the wrath of
the saffron brigade in large measure, even if
not fully, it was the common people of Bhopal
who had to face the heat of arson, traffic jams
and roadside goondaism for full two weeks.
Nor could the relatives of the couple escape
the torture after these two young persons thought
Bhopal was unsafe for their marriage, ran away
and got married in Mumbai. The police illegally
lifted Umar's brother, Shakil, from his house
and kept him in unlawful detention in the Koh-e-Fiza
police station for seven days. Shakil's wife
Aparajita, an IAS officer in Delhi, could not
do anything except taking food to the police
station for her husband everyday. With the help
of the Janwadi Mahila Samiti (JMS, state affiliate
of the All India Democratic Women's Association),
she kept trying to contact the state's chief
minister and home minister, but failed. Along
with JMS leaders, she did meet the state's director
general of police, Pawar, but it was a far more
frustrating and far less reassuring experience.
Not only the police chief distanced himself
from his constitutional responsibility, he even
sermonised the delegation about the necessity
of respecting the feelings of Priyanka's parents
--- and the feelings of course of the communal
organisations also. He did not pay any heed
to the JMS suggestion that, if there was any
doubt about the legitimacy of the Priyanka-Umar
marriage, the girl could be summoned and her
statement recorded by a magistrate. He also
kept mum on the issue of Shakil's illegal detention
in a police station. This DGP, like the state
government, cared more for the noise created
by the communal organisations than for the legal
and constitutional right of the 22 years old
Priyanka to have a life partner of her choice.
The bureaucracy and the police in Madhya Pradesh
have been bowing low before the Sangh Parivar's
hoodlums during the last three and a half years
even after they have created such a ruckus on
more than 3,000 occasions.
On the other hand, the RSS controlled Sindhi
panchayat virtually kidnapped Priyanka's parents
and kept them in its custody for days together.
While there was a whole lot of noise against
this marriage, no TV channel was able (or did
not care!?) to contact Priyanka's parents and
show them live. Nor did they sign any memorandum
or press statement. It was only a handful of
Bajrangis who, in presence of TV cameras, jammed
the roads in the name of the Sindhi community's
hurt feelings. To rescue them from the embarrassment
of low mobilisation and meagre support, the
police always took care to reach the spot in
full measure and (though unnecessarily) divert
the traffic, trying to give the impression of
a huge crowd ahead.
Even though the Mumabi High Court and Jabalpur
High Court have issued clear instructions to
the police and administration to provide protection
to Priyanka and Umar, a team of Madhya Pradesh
Police did reach Mumbai to interrogate (terrorise!?)
them. Several organisations of women organised
a demonstration against the moves to create
communal frenzy and the studied inaction of
the state government. Through a press conference,
they also warned the state government of an
intense agitation in case it did not curb such
fratricidal moves.
The Bhopal unit of the CPI(M) staged a demonstration
in front of the chief minister's house on April
15 and severely condemned the state government's
protection to the communal depredations. The
irony was that, only a hundred metres away from
the demonstration's venue, the chief minister
was addressing a meeting called by the Dhakad
Kshatriya Panchayat and advising his caste fellows
not to have any relations of roti (food) and
beti (marriage) outside their caste.
The CPI(M) as well as the JMS has demanded that
the state government curb the unconstitutional
activities of various caste panchayats also.
To make the whole issue provocative, it was
necessary that the propaganda remain one-sided.
The national as well as local media saw to it
that rumours remain afloat and the feelings
of a few are projected as the feelings of the
entire city. There are also grounds to say that
several women and young girls were projected
as Sindhis and their incendiary remarks were
well propagated. Yet, not one of such gatherings
had a participation of more than one and a half
dozen individuals. In contrast, the far bigger
mobilisations by women's organisations or by
the CPI(M) deserved not a single line in the
press, nor a single byte in TV channels. The
two "fastest growing newspapers of India"
had had their own mutual competition, and they
kept cooking up stories to endear themselves
to the Sangh Parivar.
But the people of Bhopal gave a most fitting
reply to all such incendiary activities that
are out to violate the law of the land. Despite
all the dirty games played by the media, there
was no tension in the city, nor any untoward
incident took place. Those knowing about the
history of Bhopal are aware of the city's tradition
of communal harmony --- even at the height of
fratricidal riots accompanying the partition
in 1947, Bhopal not only maintained its calm
but also gave shelter to the people of both
the religions. Even more interesting was the
fact that camps for the immigrant Sindhis from
Pakistan and for the Muslims uprooted from other
places were erected at one and the same site
--- at Bairagarh. Though the state government
has, under the pressure of the saffron brigade,
changed its name from Bairagarh to Hirdaram
Nagar, it has been unable to erase the tradition
of communal harmony from the people's psyche.
In the latest episode also, it was the Sindhi
girls who first and most intensely protested
against the Sindhi panchayat's edict that girls
must not use mobile phones, must not go out
with their male friends and must not wear any
head cover so that they are easily identifiable.
The number of these girls protesting such a
nonsensical and dictatorial edict was far more
than of those whom the TV cameras kept in focus.
This edict of the RSS controlled Sindhi panchayat
has in reality terrorised the same people whom
it purported to 'protect.' After the Priyanka-Umar
episode, there were two more marriages of the
kind, but these girls' parents have preferred
to go underground instead of lodging any report
with the police. Their fear was that the Sindhi
panchayat could abduct them as well, and the
saffron goons might play their dirtiest kind
of politics in their name.
Protesting against and severely lambasting such
kind of politics, the MP state unit of the Democratic
Youth Federation of India (DYFI) has asked the
fundamentalist forces to explain why the youth
are not getting any job or why a large number
are unable to complete their studies. These,
the DYFI said, are more important questions
to reply than to tell the people what they should
not wear or whom they should not marry.
The DYFI has also made it clear that remaining
informed about the real nature of communal depredations
and maintaining utmost caution and vigil is
the best way to uproot from our midst the deadly
disease called communalism.
