The Delhi pogrom is not a “clash” between pro- and anti-CAA protesters. It is a pogrom aimed to ethnically cleanse the city of the minority Muslim population.
CW: Pogrom, Ethnic Cleansing
The latest pogrom of the Narendra Modi administration, which has left 38 dead and more than 100 injured, is underway in Delhi, India.
This pogrom was initiated by Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Kapil Mishra, who dictated a three day period in which he expected the Delhi Police to clear city roads of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters.
Dissent against the Citizenship Amendment Act, which is set to render millions of Muslims stateless, has been consistent and nonviolent. From Shaheen Bagh to universities like Jamia Millia Islamia, protesters (predominately Muslim) continue to invoke the secularism enshrined in the Indian Constitution by the late Bhimrao Ambedkar, a Dalit in the face of Hindu supremacy.
The violence, which has since escalated in Delhi, began in the predominately Muslim neighborhood of Jaffrabad — where anti-CAA protestors (consisting mainly of women and children) had been situated.
The violence has been directed — with persistence — at the Muslim minority by Hindu mob after mob, with help from the Delhi Police. It is an accepted and known fact that the Delhi Police are an extension of Amit Shah, the Home Minister and a confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. One officer even urged a pro-CAA protester to “‘Go ahead and throw stones.’”
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Mosques and a sufi shrine were deliberately destroyed; Muslims are overrepresented in the death toll.
One man, Monu Kumar, from Brahmpuri of Northeast Delhi was attacked beside his father. His father succumbed to his injuries; Kumar “knocked on the doors of at least 10 families — all Hindus — but no one helped.” Another video (CW: brutality and death), also from Brahmpuri, shows a mob relentlessly beating what appears to be a dead body. Hatred for the Muslim minority, instigated and perpetuated by the Modi administration, continues to be virulent.
A tiny glimpse of hope came, as a Delhi High Court Justice denounced a senior Delhi Police official for inaction: “We want peace to prevail…This city has seen enough violence and anguish.” The same justice then sought to file claims of hate speech against BJP leaders like Mishra for inciting the pogrom. But, in an administration that abhors dissent, this act was not unpunished. The justice at hand has since been transferred to another high court.
In another series of events that also work in the favor of the BJP and of Modi are the six Supreme Court justices (out of nine) that have reportedly caught the H1N1 virus or swine flu. This collective absence has effectively delayed hearings “on issues relating to freedom of religion under the Constitution and faith.”
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The Delhi pogrom is not a “clash” between pro- and anti-CAA protesters. It is a pogrom aimed to ethnically cleanse the city of the minority Muslim population.
Modi supervised one pogrom in his home state of Gujarat; it was only time before he applied the same tactics in the nation’s capital.
Modi took three days to appeal for a resolution to the Delhi violence, but he was praised by Donald Trump for “his ‘democratic’ and ‘tolerant’ leadership of India” and for “working closely with the minorities.”
As Delhi burned, Modi watched.