New Delhi: The Rajasthan government is trying to criminalise an entire community in Mewat, just like the British had branded certain tribes as criminal, and that the government is actively colluding with cow-vigilantes to communalise the atmosphere ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls, claimed a fact-finding committee called Bhumi Adhikar Andolan on Monday.
Bhumi Adhikar Andolan is a collective of various peasant organisations. It visited Bharatpur, Alwar, Rajsamund and Udaipur, which have recently seen murders in the name of cow vigilantism and rising communal tensions.
“In the British times, the government for its own vested interests used to brand certain tribes as criminal tribes. The present-day government is criminalising an entire community in Mewat,” Dr. Vijoo Krishnan, joint secretary of All India Kisan Sabha and a member of the committee, said. The committee noted that in areas which have seen no communal rife for centuries, communities were being instigated against one another.
The lynching of Pehlu Khan in Alwar and Ummar Khan in Bharatpur, Afrazul’s killing in Rajsamand and Zafar Khan’s murder for protesting against photography of women defecating in open — Rajasthan has seen a series of murders of Muslims on one pretext or the other.
The Bhumi Adhikar Andolan has accused the Rajasthan government of active collusion with the murderers in all cases to reap electoral benefits. “We are convinced that this kind of hooliganism is aided by the government,” K.K. Ragesh, CPI(M)’s Rajya Sabha MP and a member of the fact-finding mission, said.
