For Hindutva Gang, and Now UP Police, Each Hindu-Muslim Marriage Must Be Probed for ‘Love Jihad’

Sharat Pradhan

A Hindu girl marrying a Muslim in today’s forward looking world would ordinarily be taken as a simple inter-faith marriage. But that is not how the right-wing Hindutva groups think. For them, such a marriage is necessarily an act of “love jihad”. This is the phrase the Sangh parivar has coined to describe an imaginary Muslim conspiracy to convert unsuspecting Hindu women to Islam. For the past few years, right-wing groups across Uttar Pradesh have been fighting this imaginary war but have now received the backing of the state’s chief minister and its police force as well.

Apart from using the bogey to build their own profile and organisation, activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) also believe blowing ‘love jihad’ into a huge issue will serve the not-so-hidden political agenda of promoting religious polarisation.

The VHP’s campaign got a shot in the arm last month thanks to the support expressed by chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who on August 28 directed the home department to prepare an action plan “to bring an end to love jihad.”

“There are increasing cases of love jihad being reported from different parts of the state”, the Indian Express quoted Mrityunjay Kumar, media adviser to Adityanath, as saying. “Thus the chief minister instructed senior home department officials to prepare a plan to stop such incidents.”

The chief minister’s directive made it seem as if ‘love jihad’ not only exists as a conspiracy but has grown into a huge menace. However, a close study of the state’s crime records gave a completely opposite picture. In all, there were barely nine recently reported cases of marriages between a Hindu girl and Muslim boy. And these too were limited to just five of UP’s 75 districts, namely Kanpur, Meerut, Aligarh, Lakhimpur-Kheri and Ghaziabad. In five of these nine cases, the Hindu girls openly refuted the accusations of ‘love jihad’ on the basis of which complaints had been made by their respective parents.

In most of the remaining cases, say lawyers, police and parental pressure usually works to undercut the marriages, with the girls then agreeing to return home.

What emerged during the course of the police investigations was that complaints were usually made by angry parents, for whom the idea of an inter-religious marriage is outrageous and therefore thoroughly unacceptable. So they typically came up with stories, blaming the Muslim grooms for enticing their innocent daughters.

In only two cases have the girls stood by the allegations of “cheating, enticement and harassment,” made by their parents. While one case is still under investigation, in each of the five remaining cases, the girls had not only contradicted their parents but had clearly deposed before different courts that they had married their Muslim husbands out of their own will and accord and had been neither under pressure nor under any kind of undue influence of anyone to do. To top is all, all the women were majors and therefore entitled to take their own decision.

What has given the VHP campaign – the political support it has now received – are reports of isolated incidents where a Muslim man misled a Hindu woman by falsely claiming to be a Hindu. In another case of theft and murder under the garb of marriage in Ghaziabad district, where the man in question, Shamshad, happened to be Muslim and his victim a Hindu, the accused eloped with a woman, performed a nikah with her after she converted to Islam, and then murdered her and he minor daughter.

The UP police say there were two other cases in Meerut district where Muslim youths “duped” their respective Hindu wives and were brought to book. But what is strange is that even in cases where Hindu women depose before a magistrate that they want to live with the (Muslim) man of their choice with whom they had chosen to get married, the police are not ready to give them clearance.

One such case emerged in Kanpur where the zonal inspector general of police Mohit Agarwal had constituted a nine-member team under a deputy superintendent of police to investigate all cases of Hindu-Muslim marriages over the past two years. “The inquiry would find out if is there any connection between Muslim youths involved in such cases. The probe team would also look into the conspiracy part and see if youths are being funded from abroad,” Agarwal said, for which the police intends to go into their call log records.”

Agarwal, who had shot into the spotlight recently for his role in the shoddily carried out encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey, is known for his proximity to VHP activists, who are understood to be behind the undue hype being accorded to ‘love jihad’.

As if to add insult to injury, deputy SP Vikas Kumar Pandey has gone to the extent of asserting that he would even try to find out whether any middle-man was involved in fixing the Hindu-Muslim marriages in question. Even others involved in the probe seemed to be bent upon somehow finding fault with the Muslim grooms so that they can be booked and punished.

(The writer is a senior journalist and political analyst based in Lucknow. Article courtesy: The Wire.)

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UP is Primarily Using the National Security Act Against Those Accused of Cow Slaughter

The Wire Staff

Of the 139 people against whom the National Security Act (NSA) has invoked in Uttar Pradesh this year, more than half – 76 to be precise – have been booked in connection with alleged cow slaughter cases, a report by the Indian Express has shown. The most recent instance of such imposition of the draconian law was on September 6, when a man accused of involvement in cow slaughter was booked in Bahraich.

Though the NSA was legislated to provide the authorities with the power to detain a person without a charge for up to 12 months if they felt that he or she was a threat to national security or law and order, in Uttar Pradesh the controversial law has been used generously against those accused of cow slaughter.

A statement issued by additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi recently said that the UP Police has invoked the NSA against 139 people until August 19 this year. Out of these, 76 people were booked for cow slaughter. This apart, the list revealed that 13 arrests were of people who participated in anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests.

According to the Indian Express, Awasthi said: “Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has directed that the NSA be slapped in case of crimes which may affect public order so that there is a feeling of fear among criminals and a feeling of safety among the public.”

However, the data revealed that only 37 people were booked under this law for heinous crimes. Also, the police invoked the NSA against only six people in connection with crimes against women and children while 20 people were booked for other offences.

According to the report, apart from invoking the NSA against 79 people suspected of cow slaughter this year, the Uttar Pradesh police has also arrested over 4,000 people in 1,716 cases registered under the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act as of August 26. Out of these, closure reports were filed in 32 cases by the police as they failed to gather evidence against the accused.

The state police, the report said, also invoked the UP Gangsters’ Act against 2,384 people for cow slaughter, while 1,742 people were booked under the Goonda Act.

Incidentally, the Bareilly zone under which Bahraich falls, is among those to record the highest number of arrests.

Its additional director general Avinash Chandra was quoted explaining the high numbers by saying, “We conducted a drive against people involved in cow slaughter, collecting information through intelligence.”

In Bareilly zone, the police have also opened history sheets against 282 people for cow slaughter, which is again the highest in the state. Entry into the history sheet results in constant monitoring of that person, even after his or her release from prison.

In a related development, five people were booked by the Mau administration on September 5 under the NSA. Among the arrested were AIMIM president Mohamad Asif alias Asif Chandan. All of them were already under arrest in connection with the anti-CAA protest in Dakshintola on December 16, 2019.

(Article courtesy: The Wire.)

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UP’s New Special Security Force Can “Search, Arrest Without Warrant”

Alok Pandey

A special force will be set up in Uttar Pradesh, with powers similar to the CISF (Central Industrial Security Force), that can search and arrest without a warrant, the state government said on Sunday. The Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force or UPSSF will be tasked to protect courts, airports, administrative buildings, metros, banks, among other government offices.

In a series of late-night posts, the UP government Twitter handle quoted Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi as saying that “eight battalions of the UPSSF will be constituted initially at a cost of ₹ 1,747.06 crore”. The initial infrastructure for the force would come from the PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary), a special unit of the UP Police. The UPSSF “will be a dream project” for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Mr Awasthi pointed out.

“Any member of the force can, without the prior permission of any magistrate and without any warrant, arrest any person,” one of the tweets read, adding that “separate rules for this section would be framed”.

The government’s latest move has been questioned by many as critics pointed out the powers for search and arrest could be misused.

There has been no formal response from the government on the criticism, however, sources, have underlined the powers being given to the UPSSF are similar to the CISF , the central force that guards similar installations.

“Any member of the force may, without any order from a magistrate and without a warrant, arrest any person who voluntarily cause hurt to, or attempts voluntarily to cause hurt to, or wrongfully restrains or attempts wrongfully to restrain or assaults, or uses, or threatens or attempts to use criminal force to any employee,” section 11 of the CISF Act 1968 says, officials in the UP government said.

Section 12 of the CISF ACT reads: “Whenever any member of the Force not below the prescribed rank has reason to believe that any such offence as is referred to in section 11 has been or is being committed and that a search warrant cannot be obtained without affording the offender an opportunity of escaping or of concealing evidence of the offence, he may detain the offender and search his person and belongings forthwith and, if he thinks proper, arrest any person whom he has reason to believe to have committed the offence.”

(Article courtesy: ndtv.com, September 14, 2020.)

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Time to Judge the Judgement

Sandeep Pandey and Mohini Mullick

When the only cause for elation, even a smile in the morning, is news of the release of an innocent detainee with the words that his detention ‘was bad in law’, then democracy is indeed staring at its nadir.

Priyanka Gandhi called Kafeel after his release. We would have liked to call the judges who delivered this judgment. Why? For doing their duty? For upholding a fundamental principle of the law? That a man is innocent until proved guilty? But how many judges are doing their duty today? If they were, would Sharjeel Imam, Devangana Kalita (who was indeed granted bail on one of several charges) and numerous others be rotting behind bars? Here we do not even talk of the Bhima Koregaon/Elgaar Parishad case in which many intellectuals, journalists, advocates, professors and human rights defenders are in jail on charges similar to those levelled against Dr. Kafeel Khan.

Kafeel’s is no ordinary case. Accusations made against him were never really about the ‘incendiary’ speech he is supposed to have made at Aligarh Muslim University. It is well known that the deep corruption and mismanagement of a hospital in Gorakhpur where sixty children lost their lives for lack of oxygen, was brought to light when the man in charge—Kafeel Khan—disclosed the fact that earlier bills for cylinders were kept pending despite his repeated reminders resulting in total unavailability of oxygen in the hospital. He was never forgiven for this and it was only a matter of time before the predator pounced on the prey. He was arrested in 2017 for dereliction of duty and being engaged in private practice.

In 2018, Dr. Khan was released on bail as the court did not find him guilty of medical negligence. When a departmental inquiry cleared him of all charges a fresh inquiry was initiated clearly suggesting that there was more to this case than met the eye.The Uttar Pradesh government got another opportunity to nab him after his speech at AMU in December 2019 during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens movement when he was accused of promoting hatred and violence between different groups. The UP police who have proved to be a total failure in controlling the situation of law and order within the state, displayed great alacrity in arresting Dr. Kafeel Khan from Mumbai and bringing him to Aligarh from where he was shifted to the Mathura jail. He was charged with threatening the peace and tranquillity of Aligarh. Before he could be released on bail after an order of Chief Judicial Magistrate in Aligarh, the administration slapped the National Security Act on him which further continued his incarceration. The State Advisory Board extended his period of custody under the NSA. It finally took a Divison bench of two High Court judges Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh to set aside his detention as well as extension terming them unsustainable in the eye of the law, clearing the way for his release. What the police thought was a provocative speech, the Judges described as ‘a call for national integrity and unity.’ What can be a more stark example of the venality of police action. The police’s role has been damaging to the self-esteem of this professional service. Dr. Kafeel Khan has proved that he is a dedicated and conscientious paediatrician and it is unfortunate that the government instead of using his services in a time of pandemic, chose to keep him in jail.

All judges are aware of the fate of Justice B.H. Loya, who died under mysterious circumstances in 2014 when he was hearing the case of the (fake) encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in which Amit Shah was an accused, and of Justice S. Muralidhar who was transferred to High Court of Punjab and Haryana on the night of the day that he took Delhi police to task for not registering a First Information Reports against three Bharatiya Janata Party leaders who had made provocative speeches which were followed by communal riots in Delhi in February, 2020. Also the prospect of rewards for ‘services rendered’ at all times looms large and indeed comes to fruition as we have recently witnessed. It takes a Dushyant Dave to (want to) say to a retiring judge: “May I pray to Lord Mahabaleshwar to bless you with strength to introspect and stir up your conscience.” (Indian Express, September 3) As we know, though invited to the function as the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, he was not permitted to speak at Justice Arun Mishra’s farewell. This was immediately after the contempt of court case against Prashant Bhushan in which Dave was Bhushan’s advocate pleading before a bench presided over by Justice Mishra.

Thus whereas politicians and members of the public – those members that care – are quick to cry out against witch hunts and vendetta politics, we write in the belief that it is also necessary to salute those in the legal system who are willing to speak truth to power and deliver the sort of justice the citizens of this country deserve.

It will take another set of intrepid judges to not only reinstate Dr. Kafeel Khan in his job, but even more consequentially, to set aside the case under NSA against him.If this happens, it could serve as a precedent, setting in motion the release of other innocents in jails.

We commend the Allahabad High Court judges for preventing gross injustice at a time when the public perception of the independence of the judiciary is under a dark cloud of mistrust.

May their tribe increase!

(Sandeep Pandey is Vice President, Socialist Party (India) and Mohini Mullick is former Professor of Humanities at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.)