–> IMMEDIATELY ARREST CULPRITS OF ATTACKS IN MUZAFFARNAGAR
–> ENSURE THAT DISPLACED GO BACK TO THEIR HOMES
–> DECOMMUNALIZE POLICE AND ADMINISTRATION

Organizing violence against minorities and deepening communal division has been an old practice of Indian ruling classes to disrupt the unity of the people to pre-empt and disrupt their struggles against the ruling classes. It has also been an instrument used by the ruling classes in their contention for power. Thus division of the people has been an instrument of state policy of the ruling classes along with repression of people’ struggles and reforms to sow illusions among the people.

Muslims in Muzaffarnagar have become the latest victims of these nefarious designs. A conflict over an alleged anti-social act of eve-teasing has been converted into a full scale pogram, killing over 68 people (reportedly 13 belonging to Jat community, rest Muslims), injuring hundreds of them, destroying thousands of houses and displacing tens of thousands of them (50,955 admitted by UP Govt.) In its bid for power and having nothing else to offer to people, RSS-BJP have tapped into social unrest- agrarian crisis, gross unemployment of youth, conflicts in agrarian relations and also social conflicts as the rigid caste structure is shaken by youth who are moving out of the rigid rural framework, decline of agriculture relative to other sectors of economy and resultant relative prosperity of hitherto unprivileged owing to non-agrarian sources- to create a powerful mix of social toxin to create the havoc being witnessed in Muzaffarnagar. RSS-BJP have unleashed violence against Muslims and UP has emerged as their favourite hunting ground in their bid to come to power with a spate of violence against Muslims.

Add to this, gross communalization of police and administration and there is perfect recipe for mass killings of people belonging to minorities. In fact all disturbances described as communal riots are killings of minorities organized by ruling class parties with the help of police and administrative machinery. Who can forget the wanton genocide of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere in 1984? Organized by the then ruling Congress, it demonstrated the total communal action of police. Who can forget the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 organized by ruling BJP with the help of police and administration? Seelampur, Bhagalpur, Mumbai, and a number of others. And also cold blooded killing of Muslims in Malliana. About culprits being brought to book, less said the better. 1984 and 2002 victims are still fighting for illusive justice!

And RSS-BJP are not alone. Congress is a long time champion of cynical utilization of communal polarization, presiding over communal police-admn. machinery killing minority people and later pretending to be caring for them. Import of all these is to give a message to minorities, particularly Muslims, that all they should forget all rights as citizens, rather they should care for their personal safety. SP Govt. of UP is following this tested Congress policy. Since its coming to power on its own in 2012, UP has witnessed a spate of violence against Muslims. Faizabad, Pratapgarh, Kosi Kalan, Mussourie (Ghaziabad), Barielly to name a few and now Muzaffarnagar at much more massive scale while SP has gone back on its promise to release innocent Muslim youth framed in false cases. SP Govt. first allowed RSS affiliates to spread hate and fear and fan communal violence and unleashed communal police and administration with most notorious officers against Muslims and then rushed to show that it cares for Muslims. These two apparently contradictory stances are in fact complementary, SP allowing RSS-BJP campaign in an attempt to convince Muslims that they can only be saved by SP. None of these ruling class parties has any regard for the composite culture of India nor for the rights of minorities. Recent action of SP Govt. in allowing compensation to only those victims who give an affidavit that they would not go back to their villages/homes under any circumstance, that they would arrange their residence elsewhere and they would not claim any compensation for damage to their immovable property in their original villages, is self revealing. They also have to swear that they would leave the relief camps immediately after receiving compensation. SP Govt. is treating Muslims like enemies who will get compensation only if they agree to leave their area, their homes, property, everything. SP Govt. has also abdicated its responsibility to provide relief to the affected people handing over this work to religious organizations.

List of the crimes of Indian ruling classes against minorities is really long. Their attacks on the minorities are part of their attacks on the people. As the economic political crisis deepens, conditions of people worsens and they move into struggle, ruling classes intensify deepening of communal divisions, in their bid to make common people enemies of each other rather than the ruling classes who rob them of the fruits of their labour, whose policies are responsible for deepening agrarian crisis and increasing unemployment. Parties representing these classes while serving these interests also unleash communal propaganda and organize communal violence for communal polarization as they have nothing to offer to the people on the basic problems affecting their daily lives. On top of these in the name of maintaining peace, the ruling classes and their parties enact more and more draconian laws whose target remains the common people of all the communities, and not the organizers and beneficiaries of these conspiracies.

In the context of increasing drive to attract more FDI in different sectors, increasing burden of the economic crisis on workers and peasants, displacement of tribals and peasants and coming elections the attempts of ruling class parties are going to intensify. We should wage a broad and intense campaign against the communalism, taking Hindu communalism as main danger at present. We should expose RSS-BJP rein of communal violence and SP’s acquiescence in carving out communal division. Observe December 6 (On this day in 1992 RSS-BJP hordes in connivance with Congress led Central Govt. had demolished Babri Masjid) as Anti-Communalism Day with special focus on Muzaffarnagar, the latest victim of communal mayhem. There are a number of examples of people helping each other showing that people want communal harmony, they have problems which can only be solved with common struggle. We should work towards secularism of shared aspirations, common struggles and marching together in struggle for new democratic India. Our struggle for common aims and struggle against the forces out to disrupt communal harmony is interconnected and one lends strength and draws strength from the other.

Central Committee, CPI(ML)-New Democracy