Table of Contents
Flowchart of the broad sequence of events
Editors Note
There are some events in the history of a people that get etched in the memory like no other. The Delhi Riots and the cycle of fake news, blatant lies, misrepresentations, fear-mongering and carnage that was unleashed against Hindus is one such.
CAA was the fulfilling of a foundational promise of the Republic of India. Providing refuge to the persecuted minorities in the Islamic countries of our immediate neighbourhood was a sacred oath that was sworn by the first leaders of our Republic in the immediate years of the partition of our country. It took us decades to fulfill that promise but better late than never.
Under normal circumstances, it should have been a cause for celebration, a moment of euphoria for the nation as a whole but the times we live in, while the tears of joy in the faces of the refugees was still evident, the nation could not unite to share in their moment of bliss as Radical Islam reared its ugly head. Even so, it was truly a historic moment and the relevance of it could never be exaggerated.
Since December, the entire ecosystem that comprises of Islamists, the Left, Indias traditional cabal of intelligentsia and media not only vilified Hindus, but also shielded the ones who were unleashing violence against the unsuspecting victims.
The cycle of carnage started when the government of India decided to ease the process of getting citizenship of India for the persecuted religious minorities of naighbouring Islamic nations.
The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 15, 2016, seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to provide citizenship to illegal migrants, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who are of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian extraction.
The acceptability of the propositions furthered by the Citizenship Amendment Bill was split in the middle. As is Indias wont, the ideological divide was as stark as a bright sunny summer morning. The Left opposed the provisions tooth and nail. The idea of India that has long been touted as the existential foundation of India had been shaken, as per them, with one swift motion.
The Left has long espoused the principle that India is an all-giving, all-embracing entity, especially when it comes to Muslims. Whether this special corner of the heart that bleeds only for Muslims is a result of political compulsions, the Gandhian dystopia or the ingrained false persecution complex is unclear. Perhaps it is a culmination of all of the above.
Either way, while the Left detested the idea of law finally being honest enough to give citizenship to persecuted minorities from neighbouring Islamic nations, the non-Left rejoiced the decision as one that rights a historic wrong.
The objection that the Left raised was rather a simple (and expected) one as well why are Muslims being left out when all others are being given the chance to become Indian citizens.
What the Left refused to understand is that a law which is aimed to give citizenship to persecuted minorities of neighbouring Islamic nations could not take into consideration the majority population of those nations. Muslims, in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh belong to the majority religion and thus, CAA could not have included Muslims of Islamic nations.
Further, the Left and the Islamists aimed to tell Hindus that if Muslims were not included in CAA, it would somehow alienate the Muslims of India. Firstly, when the CAA has nothing to do with Indian Citizens, Muslims should not be peeved is persecuted minorities are being given citizenship. Secondly, it is incumbent upon the Muslim community to accept and acknowledge that wherever Muslims become a majority, minorities of those areas do face unimaginable persecution. Whether it is in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh or even the in an Indian state like Kashmir. This acknowledgement would not diminish the Muslims of India or their dignity in India, but, it would certainly go a long way in bridging the deficit of trust between communities that has been festering over decades due to the lack of acknowledgement of such basic truths.
The Left thrives of painting the Muslim community as the eternal victims and the Muslim community in turn has internalized the persecution complex even when the community is clearly the aggressor in the given situation.
While the Left vehemently opposed the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the name of secularism, in the very name of secularism have rallied behind Rohingya illegals and demanded that the Indian State accept the influx from Myanmar. The Left has demanded that on humanitarian ground, India should accept Rohingya Muslims as refugees in India. India has, in its part, repeatedly asserted that firstly, India has no legal obligation to accept international refugees and secondly, Rohingya Muslims pose a security threat to India.
When seen in congruence, this seems to point to the fact that even more than India not providing for Muslims in CAA, the Left seemed to have a problem with CAA giving refuge to persecuted Hindus specifically because in their mind, this would prove to be the foundational stone for India becoming a Hindu state. Their reasoning for thinking so was that for the very first time, India accepted her responsibility towards persecuted minorities of Islamic nations that were carved out of India on the basis of religion, especially Hindus.
The canards spread after CAA was passed was not only laden with lies, but the dangers of those lies became apparent when the violence that was unleashed culminated in the Delhi anti-Hindu Riots 2020. As in every riot, lives of Hindus and Muslims both were lost. In fact, numerically, more Muslims lives were lost in the two days of Delhi Riots than Hindus lives. Armed with this one statistic, the Left ecosystem insisted that the violence that took place in Delhi was an anti-Muslim pogrom, orchestrated by Hindus. However, to understand a riot, one must understand the genesis of the violence. Questions such as where the riot started, why it started, who started it, and most importantly, when it started is essential. Any riot ends with the side which is numerically stronger, inflicting more damage on the other side. However, the side that inflicts more damage is not necessarily the party that started the riots in the first place.
The effort to deconstruct the Delhi Riots that took place on the 24 th and 25 th of February 2020 is futile unless one understands the cycle of violence and the calls of Jihad was unleashed in December. A deliberate attempt has been made to portray the events of the fourth week of February in isolation of everything that preceded it so that the narrative of anti-Muslim pogrom could be peddled without inhibition. However, that is not the ideal way to look at the events that transpired. We posit that the Anti-Hindu Delhi Riots 2020 were a culmination of the cycle of violence that began with the passage of the CAA in December 2019.
