Communalism:
Fact Finding T Team
eam Repor
Report t Reveals the True face of Communal Forces
The United Against Hate
appointed a Fact Finding Team,
comprising of Nadeem Khan (Social
Activist), Prashant Tandon
(Journalist), Hasnul Banna
(Journalist) Tarique Anwar
(Journalist), Kissu (Journalist),
Mahatab Alam (Social Activist) and
Farrah Shakeb (Social Activist),
visited Bihar after the engineered
communal violence around Ram
nabami this year. We are giving
some excerpts from the report of
Fact finding Team here.
The communal violence in
Bihar that began from March 25
and continued till March 30
engulfed nine of the 38 districts –
Bhagalpur, Munger, Samastipur,
Siwan, Gaya, Aurangabad, Kaimur,
Nawada and Nalanda – one by
one. One person was killed and
around 65 suffered injuries in the
clashes, which erupted during Ram
Navami processions.
Several people have been
arrested in connection with these
riots and over a dozen of them are
BJP workers, including two senior
leaders – Mohan Patwa and Dinesh
Kumar Jha. Union minister Ashwini
Kumar Choubey’s son Arijit
Shashwat, who was jailed on April
1, instigated the violence that
erupted in Nathnagar area of
Bhagalpur, leaving several
persons, including two police
personnel, injured because of
heavy stone-pelting, arson and
exchange of fire. Shashwat was
named in one of the two FIRs
lodged in the aftermath of the
violence. He surrendered before
the police at the Hanuman temple
in the state capital Patna.
The spate of communal
violence in Bihar that first started
at Bhagalpur and then spread to 8
districts. Communal forces have
tried to trample the social fabric of
the society, which was, until now,
May - 2018
known for communal harmony.
According to the reports, one was
killed and 65 were injured in
communal clashes in all these
districts. Besides many shops were
set ablaze and vehicles gutted. It
all started with the Rama Navami
procession where an unruly mob
went on a rampage while
brandishing swords and holding
saffron flags. Almost all the districts
have suffered a rash of arson
attacks. Mostly all these districts
have elected candidates from BJP
and even Congress men are
alleged to be the part of the
communal campaign. A joint fact-
finding team fro m Patna and Delhi
visited Bihar on 3rd April, 2018
under the platform, United Against
Hate to analyse the situation and
see how far the violence has
penetrated in these regions.
Politicisation of religious
festivals, highly provocative and
Islamophobic songs and forced
entry into eventually resulted into
communal conflagrations in the
nine districts. Religious festivals
have now a day been completely
taken over by RSS-BJP activists for
communal polarisation.
The districts we visited had the
same pattern. Newly-formed
organisations approach the
districts administration, asking for
permissions for the Rama Navami
processions, which are granted in
many cases with terms and
conditions. People – especially
youth – riding on hundreds of
motor bikes take out rallies,
brandish brand new swords and
other weapons and play highly
objectionable songs. Violating the
terms and conditions, they try to
enter Muslim-majority areas which
is objected by the local Muslim
population. As a result, stone
pelting starts and then shops and
other properties belonging to a
particular community are set on
fire.
One allegation that was
common in the versions of both
sides that the mob was carrying
large number of swords. The
Principal Secretary (Home) Amir
Subhani also confirmed the same.
These sharp edge weapons were
imported through courier from
outside and distributed across the
districts for free.
The team met Amir Subhani,
Principal Secretary (Home), Govt.
of Bihar, who said they are aware
of presence of huge number of
swords in the procession. He too
said brandishing weapons was a
new phenomenon and was never
witnessed before.
CDs and pen drives containing
abusive and highly objectionable
songs were distributed well in
advance in all the affected districts.
People belonging to both
communities confirmed it apart
from administration. The team also
learnt that same lyrics were played
through loud speakers in different
affected districts, indicating that it
was done through a centralised
production.
Reports also indicated that
the preparations to engineer a
communal tension were going on
for the past six months.
Take a look at some of the
songs that were played during the
processions:
‘Pakistan mein bhejo ya
qatleaam kar dalo, aasteen ke
saanpon ko na dudh pilakar palo’
‘Jis din jaag utha hindutva to
yeh anjam bolega, topi wala bhi sar
jhuka kar Jai Shri Ram Bolega’
‘Dur hato Allah walon, kyun
janmabhoomi ko ghera hai, masjid
kahin aur banao tum, yeh Ram
Lalla ka dera hai’
Majority of these songs have
been uploaded on YouTube around
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