Memorandum submitted to
the Honourable Dy Chief Minister of Maharashtra on Tuesday,
November 18, 2003 by a delgation led by former Rajya Sabha MP,
Shabana Azmi.
The Honourable
Dy. Chief Minister
and Home
Minister
Government of
Maharashtra
Mantralaya,
Mumbai.
Dear Sri Bhujbal,
As you must be
aware, Muslims living in Wai town at the foot of Panchgani have
been subjected to a maliciously engineered, totally unprovoked
and completely one-sided attack by local VHP-Bajrang Dal-Shiv
Sena activists since day before yesterday evening. The pretext
was that they had intercepted a truck transporting cows,
allegedly for slaughter.
Advocate
Varsha Deshpande a Satara resident and an office-bearer of the
Yuvak Kranti Dal, and her colleagues have been camping in Wai
since yesterday morning in a commendable citizens’ attempt to
restore peace. Since yesterday evening, she has been in
continuous touch with some of us and the brief summary of the
facts as gathered by her and her colleagues are as follows:
1. The
disturbances in Wai are not an instance of communal rioting
involving two communities. It was without doubt a pre-meditated
and completely one-sided attack on Muslims – the targets
included two mosques, vehicles, shops and homes belonging to
Muslims. Except for a handful of local activists from Wai
belonging to Hindutva organisations, the local Hindu community
was not involved in the violence targeting Muslims. The
attackers were brought in from outside. The attack was launched
at a time when Muslim men were engaged in Ramzaan-time prayers
in the local mosques.
2. The
master-mind of the entire operation is the sitting corporator
from Pune, Milind Ekbote, who is also an office bearer of the
Pratapgarh Utsav Samiti and an activist of the VHP. In recent
months Advocate Deshpande (on behalf of her organization) and
the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission have separately
drawn the attention of the Home Department for urgent action
against Sri Ekbote. Unfortunately, no action has been taken till
date.
3. The police
inspector in charge of Wai police station, Sri Nimbalkar has
been acting in a brazenly partisan manner and the DySP Sri
Prashant Burde has proved to be completely incapable of handling
the situation.
4. The Muslim
community in Wai is totally terrorised specially after hearing
that Bajrang Dal is mobilising a mob for a fresh attack on Wai’s
Muslims tonight. Mahrashtra’s minister of state, Sri Madan Rao
Pisad, who is form the NCP, visited Wai yesterday evening, but
his visit has failed to bring the situation under control or to
reassure the terrified Muslims observing Ramzaan fasts.
In view of
these highly disturbing state of affairs, we join the activists
of the Yuvak Kranti Dal and other peace-loving citizens of
Satara (who are planning to stage a dharna outside the
Collector’s office in Satara today) to raise the following
demands:
DEMANDS:
1. Immediate arrest of
Milind Ekbote who is reported to be moving around freely in
Mahableshwar. While token arrests have been made, those in the
forefront of rioting are still roaming free. They, too, must be
immediately arrested.
2. Wai
should be immediately sealed from all sides. This is critical
for the rioteers had earlier been brought in from outside and
there is great apprehension that the same thing will be repeated
again tonight.
3.
Immediate dismissal from service of PI Sri Nimbalkar for his
brazen communal
conduct.
4.
Immediate transfer of DySP Sri Burde and his replacement with a
competent officer to urgently restore normalcy in Wai.
5. A
thorough investigation into the highly suspicious episode of the
cows being transported in a truck to determine who was behind
it.
6. In
a typical ‘balancing act’, 11 Muslims have been arrested between
yesterday and today morning on baseless charges. They must be
released immediately.
Members of the
delegation:
Shabana Azmi
Gulam Peshimam
Hasan Kamaal
Sajid Rashid
Javed Anand
Dolphy D’Souza
Wai
Update:
1.
Communal violence in
Wai, Maharashtra:
On the evening
of November 17th, Javed Anand was contacted
telephonically by advocate Varsha Deshpande, an office-bearer of
the Yuva Kranti Dal, an organisation that has been engaged in
excellent anti-communal work, specially in western Maharashtra
in recent years. She said she had just returned after a day-long
visit to Wai, a town at the foothill of Panchgani/Mahabelshwar,
where on the night of November 16, a VHP/BJP/Bajrang Dal/Shiv
Sena mob had launched an entirely unprovoked and completely
one-sided attack on local Muslims.
Varsha
informed that Wai’s Muslims were terrified because the police
had simply watched as Muslim places of worship, their property
and homes were attacked the previous night and even leaders of
parties that depend on Muslim votes like the Congress(I) and NCP
had not even felt the need to visit the Muslim victims and offer
them solace. Activists of the YKD were doing their best, but the
Muslims were feeling very isolated and badly needed solidarity
and support from outside.
Javed Anand
immediately alerted a member of the Maharashtra Minorities
Commission requesting the commission’s urgent intervention,
contacted several media persons giving them the contact phone
numbers in Satara and spoke to MSD office-bearers for our own
independent course of action.
On November 18th,
Shabana Azmi led a delegation of MSD members, comprising
of Gulam Peshimam, Hasan Kamaal, Sajid Rashid, Dolphy D’Souza
(Vice-President, Bombay Catholic Sabha and Javed Anand met DyCM
Chhagan Bhujbal and pressed before him the demands raised by the
YKD and Wai’s Muslims: immediate arrest of masterminds of
violence, penal action against the biased police officers…
Bhujbal assured the delegation that he was issuing firm
directions in this regard immediately. (Please visit our website
for copy of memorandum to Bhujbal).
On November 19th,
Hasan Kamaal, Dolphy D’Souza went on a day-long
fact-finding tour to Wai and met a large number of the affected
Muslims, police and government officials and activists of the
YKD. We were heartened to learn that thanks to our intervention,
the masterminds of the violence had been booked under serious
charges of dacoity and rioting, both of which are non-bailable
and the police/administration were taking their responsibilities
more seriously. Wai’s Muslims felt comforted that they were not
entirely on their own in this moment of trial.
After
returning from Wai, on behalf of MSD, Javed Anand kept constant
touch with the media for follow-up stories and with the state
minorities commission to make an official visit to Wai.
On coming to
know on the morning of November 24 that the commission had
cancelled its intended visit to Wai, Javed Anand phoned the
commission and said that, if need be, MSD will take a protest
morcha to the commission’s office. What is the point of a
minorities commission if it does not react even to communal
attacks? Am happy to report that by the afternoon of the same
day, an official of the commission called back to say a team
will visit Wai and Satara the next morning! And they did so on
November 25.
MSD continues
to monitor the situation in Wai and along with the Yuva Kranti
Dal, is actively pursuing the question of compensation for the
victims and punishment of the guilty.
For a report
on the Wai violence,
please click here.
