Hyderabad: Alleging a political conspiracy behind the attack on the houses, shops and vehicles belonging to the Muslims in Jainoor mandal headquarters of Komuram-Bheem Asifabad district on September 4, social activists said that RSS, BJP, and ‘certain communities supporting ‘them were using the Adivasis “as pawns in their game of establishing economic and political domination in that area”.
They demanded the removal of the DSP and any police officers found to have failed in controlling the situation that led to violence against Muslims in Jainoor. The activists also demanded the Telangana government to compensate the Muslim businessmen and households for the losses they incurred due to the violence and vandalism.
Terming it a pre-planned attack that used the issue of an alleged rape and murder attempt on an elderly Adivasi woman by an auto driver on August 31, the activists who went on a fact-finding mission to the area twice claimed that the attack was clearly a case of intelligence failure. They also said that the connivance of police higher officers deputed in the region led to the events that unfolded on the unfateful day.
“The accused surrendered before the police on September 2, and that development was not disclosed by the police. The very next day a social media campaign with the slogan ‘Hello Adivasi- Chalo Jainoor’ was launched, asking people to attend a protest rally on September 4. Why couldn’t the intelligence notice the imminent danger, and why didn’t they deploy police forces,” questioned social activist Khalida Parveen, addressing the media at Somajiguda Press Club on Thursday.
Revenge politics of BRS
Accusing the main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) of working hand-in-glove with the BJP to teach a lesson to the Muslims who had mostly supported Congress candidates in the assembly elections, the activists said that BRS workers were equally involved in the attack, where 11 houses, 95 shops and other business establishments, 4 Masjids and 42 vehicles belonging to the Muslims have been torched, destroyed and looted.
Caste, inter-faith marriages and BJP/RSS propaganda
“The issue that had erupted in 2017 was between the Banjaras and the Adivasis. There were no issues between the Adivasis and the Muslims there. But BJP/RSS is firing at the Muslims by resting the barrel on Adivasi shoulders to further their own political agenda,” observed social activist Sandhya. She said that the Hindutva forces created a mass hysteria about Muslims marrying Adivasi women and taking away their lands.
“The Adivasis still follow the tradition of not giving their sons and daughters for marriage to even different clans, or communities within Adivasis, let alone accepting inter-caste or inter-faith marriages. Even if such a marriage happens, in most of the cases such couples are boycotted by both the communities,” she pointed out.
Sandhya stated that Adivasis have a system to deal with crime and such issues and the tribals and Muslims have been resolving such issues in the Rai Centers of the Adivasis for decades. “All that BJP and RSS are doing is disturbing that communal harmony to further their own agenda,” she said.
Sonde Ansar, a law student part of the fact-finding team questioned the state government over the issue. “If the government is really sincere, they should implement 1/70 Act, determine who all occupied tribal lands, and evict them from those properties, whether it is Hindu, Muslim, Christian or anyone else. But turning it into a communal issue and burning the houses of one community, what message are they giving,” asked Ansar, who is a law student and an Adivasi from Bhadradri-Kothagudem.
The Vadderas and the Vanjaris
The activists claimed that the people belonging to the Vaddera, and the Vanjari communities who were close to the BJP/RSS were mostly involved in the attacks, and not the Adivasis.
“We spoke to an Adivasi who had entered one of the shops to steal during the vandalism, and took three pairs of chappal. He probably realised his mistake and went to the police station to return two pairs, and asked the police to book him for the mistake. Such is the Adivasi mentality,” an activist mentioned.
Another activist said that a Muslim had even gone to the extent of bringing all the residents of a Hindu household to safety, after the latter’s house was torched by the mob that day, even as 100-odd policemen were witnessing the mayhem by just standing there.
The activists also claimed that since the Muslim businessmen were economically powerful in that town, the Vanjari community members who had migrated from the neighbouring Maharashtra, who were mostly in the finance business, were looking to dominate the business landscape in the town.
Police bias and connivance in the act
“There were many outsiders who had come to form a mob as strong as 5000 people that day, and it was not the Adivasis who perpetrated the attack. It was mostly the Vadderas and Vanjaris. Their faces have been captured in the CCTV cameras. Why doesn’t the police arrest them,” Sandhya asked.
Also pointing out that the ACP and the CI belonged to the Vaddera and Vanjari communities, she said that there were 17 Muslim youngsters who received anticipatory bail after a clash had broken out between the Vadderas and the Muslims on May 13, 2014, who were threatened by DSP Saidaiah Panthati inside the police station, that he will drive all the Muslims out of Jainoor.
“The DSP has been transferred, but has not been suspended for letting the attacks happen. During both the incidents of mob violence, the police played a mute spectator. Should these police officers not be dismissed from service,” she asked.
