The anti-Muslim violence in northeast Delhi is widely acknowledged to have been triggered by Kapil Mishra’s incendiary remarks against the Muslims protesting against the controversial the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Clarion India
NEW DELHI — A police complaint has given another dimension to the anti-Muslim pogrom that swept the northeast Delhi in February this year. It points to a caste angle to the violence and arson that left 53 people dead and property worth crores destroyed.
The complainant claimed to have heard BJP leader and alleged mastermind behind the riots Kapil Mishra, along with his supporters, using caste slurs and abuses in his slogans and speech during the violence in Kardampuri in northeast Delhi.
Mohammad Jami Rizvi, a resident of northeast Delhi’s Yamuna Vihar, claimed that on February 23, Kapil Mishra used casteist slurs against Dalits in his speech in front of a crowd responding to each of his slur with anti-Dalit slogans, says a report in online news portal Maktoob.
He recounted how Kapil Mishra blamed Muslims protesting CAA for their participation in anti-reservation protests in his speech, saying, “Yeh mulle pehle CAA aur NRC ke liye protest kar rahe the, ab ye aarakshan ke liye bhi ladenge. Ab to inhe sabak sikhana hi padega.” (These Muslims were first protesting CAA and NRC, and now they even started protesting in support of reservation. Now we should teach them a lesson).
The complaint bears the stamps of the office of Delhi’s Commissioner of Police, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and the Lieutenant Governor’s (LG) office each, as a testimony of their receipt.
The slogan Rizvi mentioned in his compliant, according to Maktoob, is “Chamaaro par tum latth bajao, hum tumhare saath hai (Beat the chamaars [Dalits], we all are with you)”. This is the slogan prominently used by the mob along with the following: “Kapil Mishra tum lathh bajao, hum tumhare saath hai” (Kapil Mishra, you beat them with sticks, we all are with you); “Lambe-lambe latth bajao, hum tumhare saath hai” (Beat them with long sticks, we all are with you); “Kheech-kheech ke latth bajao, hum tumhare saath hai” (Beat them with super-strength, we all are with you); “Mullo par tum lath bajao, hum tumhare saath hai” (Beat the Mullas [Muslims], we all are with you).
The complainant quoted Kapil Mishra telling his supporters: “Ye hamare ghar ke toilet saaf karne walon ko kya ham apne sar pe bithayenge“? (Should we now place them, who clean the toilets in our homes, on a pedestal?)
To this, Mishra’s supporters shouted, “Never, not at all!” Rizvi wrote in the compliant.
On 23 February, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, had called for ‘Bharat Bandh’ against a Supreme Court ruling which denied reservation on promotion and appointments in public employment. Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), National Population Register (NPR), and thrashing of Dalits in the recent past had also been included in the shutdown call.
The anti-CAA protest site in Kardampuri was one of several anti-CAA sit-in protests at the time. That day, the site witnessed huge participation of Dalits and Muslims. Protesters had raised slogans against CAA, NRC, NPR. They had also raised slogans like ‘Jai Bhim’ (long live Bhim) and ‘Islamophobia Murdabad’ (down with Islamophobia).
