How India’s BJP Exploits the Police Force for Ideological Ends
By Sharique Umar
On December 15, 2019, I was watching world leaders speak at the Doha Forum in Qatar and sharing their remarks along with my comments on social media. A friend from India commented on one of my posts, upbraiding me for being oblivious to the violent crackdown on college students opposing the discriminatory citizenship amendment law at my alma mater, Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. Similar attacks have occurred in the past several weeks, including at other universities. These incidents demonstrate that there is a systematic and brutal tactic adopted by the police and cherished by the right-wing government in India, targeting opponents of the new citizenship law.
Disturbing images and videos of severely wounded students from Jamia Millia Islamia University soon went viral on social media. There were videos of girls hiding under desks, holding their breath in the college library as policemen shattered windows, targeting students randomly, beating them and asking them to utter the kalma (sacred words recited by Muslims before death), mocking them with imminent death. It was heart-wrenching to watch my friends bleeding with broken limbs. The police used tear gas inside the campus and allegedly used chemical spray against student protestors. Major international news channels started to cover the story on their websites.
The blatant disregard for the dignity of the student protestors was evident from the police officials’ justification of the incidents using the rhetoric of law and order. The current government and policemen have so far exploited the notion of public security at the cost of human rights. Nevertheless, one must ask: why would police vandalize the library of a college and target students studying there? Police allege that the students torched buses and went inside the university campus. This claim, which was used as pretext to enter the university campus and attack the students, has not been proven. Regardless, no response justifies turning the college campus into a battlefield.
Born out of the freedom struggles against British colonial rule, Jamia Millia Islamia has always been at the forefront against injustice and tyranny. Of students studying in Jamia Millia, almost four out of ten are not Muslims. However, owing to its Islamic name, the right-wing Hindu government and its supporters—many of whom wear police uniforms—have played up the stereotype of Jamia as an anti-Hindu bastion.
Days after the Jamia incident, another violent attack occurred in one of India’s most prestigious universities, Jawahar Lal Nehru. On the night of January 5, 2020, hundreds of masked people, allegedly from the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), unleashed a vicious attack with rods, sticks, and acid on students and staff who had been actively protesting against the assault on students of Jamia University, as well as the new citizenship act. At the time of the incident, police were right outside the campus but decided not to intervene, citing the absence of permission to enter the university campus. This seems highly implausible considering the police response in Jamia University where police did not bother to ask for permission to enter the university campus.
The events at Jamia and Jawahar Lal Nehru are not isolated incidents; rather, they depict a coherent strategy against those opposing the citizenship laws. Most recently, on February 10, during a peaceful student march, Jamia students were again assaulted by the police, girls were reportedly hit on their private parts. The way police have reacted to students and others opposing the citizenship laws has raised concerns over the role of the police. They have openly labelled the protesters as anti-Indian and have charged the protesters with acts of sedition.
The violence displayed by police officials demonstrates the current government’s ideological investment in the police force. The tactic of using extensive force and charging protestors with sedition for raising their voices against the ruling party’s agenda of marginalizing Muslims exhibits its dual strategy of intimidating the protestors and suppressing dissent. The current right-wing government’s exploitation of the police force to implement their ideological imperatives points towards a dangerous trend, bringing into question the legitimacy of the police force.
While the Indian government is busy unleashing violence against those who oppose its far-right agenda, the European Parliament, which was supposed to pass a resolution against the discriminatory Indian citizenship law, has postponed it. Whether it is the Kashmir issue or the marginalization of Indian Muslims, it is fallacious to consider a state government’s dealing with one of its largest minorities as a purely internal affair.
Systematic marginalization and attack on Muslims in one of the world’s largest democracies is not only a threat not for Indian Muslims; it is an assault on the idea of pluralism and democracy itself. If the government exploits its monopoly over violence and targets a community based on religious affiliation, it may lead to disastrous humanitarian consequences. International organizations such as the UN and EU should pressure the Indian government to refrain from resorting to coercive tactics and from pursuing discriminatory laws which have the potential to create a new refugee crisis. As the great leader Mahatma Gandhi once said: “The future depends on what you do today.” It will be too late to subvert the humanitarian crisis once it is left to brew.
Sharique Umar is pursuing an MA in Applied Islamic Ethics at the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar. Currently, he is focusing on Migration and Islamic Ethics. He holds another Master’s degree in International and Area Studies from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
“Cropped visual of wall art at Shaheen Bagh protests 7 Feb 2020” is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal
