While Communal Violence is on a Rise, BJP MP Wants Muslims Ousted from the Country

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Vinay Katiyar on Wednesday said that Muslims should not stay in India as the ‘community divided the country on the basis of population’.

“Muslims should not stay in India. They divided the nation on the basis of population. So, what’s the need of them staying here (in India)? They have been given lands. (They) should go to Bangladesh or Pakistan,” Katiyar said to ANI.

Katiyar’s statement came after a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Tuesday revealed that communal violence has been steadily rising in the country. It seems that the communal rhetoric being played out by the people in power and the corporate media houses is taking toll on the country.

In 2017, 111 lives had been lost and 2,384 people were left injured due to the communal incidents. The data states that the number of communal incidents increased from 703 in 2016 and 751 in 2015 to 822 last year. The increase in the number of cow vigilantism and incidents related to mob violence has contributed to this increase in the number of communal incidents. The number of cow vigilante related incidents which took place last year was 26 according to an Indiaspends report, which is the highest since 2010. The same report also states that 97% of these incidents happened since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister.

The Lok Sabha data showed that in Rajasthan, for instance, the number of communal incidents have gone up to 91 last year from 63 in 2016 and 65 in 2015. The state also saw the murders of Pehlu Khan, Zafar Khan, Umar Khan, Taleem Hussain and Mohammad Afrazul in the name of cow protection and in communal violence. And incidentally, Rajasthan is the only state in the country which has a Cow Welfare Ministry.

2017 was also the year when human rights activists claimed time and again that BJP/RSS is turning Rajasthan into a laboratory for communalism. The numbers seem to tell a similar story as the number of people killed in the communal violence was 12 in 2017, whereas it was 5 in both 2015 and 2016.

The data scripts a similar story for Uttar Pradesh too, which records the highest number of communal incidents in the country. The state has seen a constant increase from 155 incidents in 2015 and 162 in 2016 the number to 195 last year. According to junior Home Minister Hansraj Ahir, 44 people were killed in these communal riots and 542 were injured in 2017. And though the state has the highest population in the country, the constant rate at which the communal violence has increased seems very alarming. It would seem interesting to note that 2017 was the same year that the BJP came to power in the state with a thumping majority and with Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister.

Yogi Adityanath, before becoming Chief Minister, had been known for his alleged involvement in 2007 communal riots which happened in his constituency of Gorakhpur, after which he also had to spend some time in jail. He has been known for his communal image and his inflammatory speeches against the minorities in the past and also runs a right-wing organization called Hindu Yuva Vahini which has been involved in many communal riots in the state.

The recent communal riot which happened in Kasganj district of Uttar Pradesh where one person was killed, two were seriously injured and had left two masjids destroyed and many Muslim shops burnt, puts a stamp on the grim situation which the figures reveal. It should also be noted here that the Uttar Pradesh government is trying to shut down the cases against their leaders who were involved in Muzaffarnagar Riots of 2013 which took the lives of 60 people.

Human Rights activists have claimed that most these cases that have come to light were either deliberately made weak, or the victims themselves were accused of the said crime, like in the cases of Aklaq and Junaid, both of whom were killed by the so-called cow vigilantes. The government has also been accused of giving a free hand to communal groups like VHP, Banranj Dal and others associated with the Sangh Parivar.

According to the data, after Uttar Pradesh, the most number of incidents of communal violence are recorded in Karnataka. The recorded number of incidents in 2015 was 105, in 2016 were 101 and in 2017 it was 100. The total number of people killed in these incidents was 29 in three years.

Activists say that as the Assembly Elections are due this year in Karnataka, the BJP/RSS is trying to polarize the state electorate on communal lines and hence there has been a huge number of incidences in the state

Apart from all these states West Bengal and Bihar have also seen a consistent increase in the communal incidents. West Bengal had 27 communal riots in 2015, 32 in 2016 and 57 in 2017, similarly Bihar saw 71 incidents in 2015, 65 in 2016 and 85 in 2017. Apart from this, it also has to be mentioned here that these are all recorded cases of communal violence. There have been many smaller incidents that have not been recorded or covered by the national media.