I was watching a series called Blindspot. In the second episode of their latest season, they have blindly made a reference to the Bombay Riots by calling it the destruction of Muslim lives by Hindu Nationalist. Maybe @martingero should have spent some time understanding the riots before making such a huge political statement and putting the blame on a single community. This post takes a look at what happened in 1992/93.
In 1992, the then DMC GR Khairnar had started demolitions of illegal structures, many of which belonged to the underworld in the Muslim-dominated areas of South Mumbai. Around the same time, the Mumbai Police took action against criminals, some of whom were Muslims. In addition to this demolition, the demolition of Babri Masjid(which in itself wouldn’t have taken place if Mulayam Singh Yadav wouldn’t have opened fire to please his ‘voters’ on the Kar Sevaks peacefully protesting in late 1990) offered a perfect setting for the riots. The ‘victim community’ went out on the streets to protest against the demolition of illegal structures and Babri Masjid.
The protest became violent and police had to open firing. Since the mob compromised of Muslims, the majority of the casualties were Muslim. Two constables were killed by the Muslim mob. According to the official numbers, as on 7th December 1992, 7 policemen were killed and 216 injured. In the middle of all this, in the same year, 1992, Shiv Sena started a protest against the recitation of Namaaz on streets and use of loudspeakers for Azaan. Mind you, the protest was not to change people’s faith but to stop the disruption caused by them to the public.
Was Shiv Sena’s protest violent? No. Then how did they protest? They started Maha Aartis.
This triggered the ‘victim community’ as they had this undeclared ownership of public places for their faith. This added to the communal tension. As a result of which, on 5th January 1993, five Mathadi workers were stabbed to death by Feroze Konkani (who was arrested later in 2005 for the murder of BJP leader Ramdas Nayak). On 8th January, some Hindu homes at Radhabai Chawl(in a Muslim dominated locality) were set on fire resulting in the death of 6 people. Witnesses declared that the attackers stood around shouting “Allah-o-Akbar” and fled only when they heard the police sirens. It was after this incident that the actual victims, ‘The Hindu Nationalists’ gave up their patience and went out for retaliation. The final death count in the Mumbai riots was 275 Hindus and 575 Muslims. The ‘victim community’ didn’t stop here. 1993 bomb blast was a continuation of this. The 1993 Bombay blasts were a continuation of this tension.
The government was busy with their infighting with Sharad Pawar making his moves for the PMO. This further added fuel to the riots. The media did their job as usual. They simply played into the hands of the government, which used it to appease the minority community and its voters, made it into an Anti-Muslim Pogrom. Remember how the Elites of this country protested when the bomb blast accused Yakub Memon was hanged? Till date the Lutyens media of this country wants us to believe that Yakub Memon was innocent. They want us to believe that 1992/93 riots were anti-muslim. They even tried to paint the recent Delhi Riots in the same colour. Thankfully, this time around we have a government that doesn’t believe in minority appeasement at such level.
So Mr. @martingero, the next time you decide to take a political stand on something, instead of reading a page about it on Wikipedia, how about you put a little more research into it?
