The Indian Muslim problem

Operation Sindoor is still underway, with none other than Defence Minister Rajnath Singh only a week ago in Delhi applauding the “high state of operational readiness” being displayed at the tri-service ‘Trishul’ exercise in the northern Arabian Sea and western front with Pakistan. Singh added that intelligence agencies will soon get to the bottom of the suicide bombing at the Red Fort, in which 14 people were killed — six people have since been arrested.

According to The Indian Express, the shadowy long arm of the Islamic State from places like Syria and Turkey may be connecting terrorists inside India with terror-training modules. It is also believed that Dr Shaheen Saeed, one of the six terror accused, heads the women’s wing in India of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group that is headquartered in Pakistan.

Think about it, dear Reader. Operation Sindoor is ongoing, which means that the enemy outside, Pakistan, continues to be on the watchful radar of India’s security agencies.

But what of the radicalisation within? Why are young men and women, many of them highly educated, so angry that they are ready to kill themselves and spread mayhem in the country, especially when the economy is growing at a comfortable clip?

Let’s look at the international context first. India’s enemy, Pakistan, is just not being feted by powerful countries in the West — Trump calls Asim Munir “my favourite Field Marshal”, all the while continuing to insist that he not only brokered the truce at Op Sindoor, but that PM Modi called him and told him that “we’re not going to war” with Pakistan — it is also reviving its relationship with Bangladesh, that had been almost non-existent since 1971.

Now we all know that Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League kept the ISI out of Bangladesh as long as she was around — no mean feat. Which is why India held its nose all these years even when the former Bangladesh PM turned her country into a security zone, misjudged the strength of the democratic students protest and totally stifled the opposition parties — but that’s another story, to be discussed at another time. The fact of the matter is that, today, the ISI is not just back in Bangladesh, it is flaunting its presence there and has access to the top leadership. Moreover, a Pakistani warship docked in the Chittagong port earlier this month, for the first time in 54 years.

This means that India has to be watchful both on its western as well as its eastern flank.

As if this wasn’t challenge enough to the Indian state from without, the question of why young Indians are being radicalised within must fill us with even more concern. A short, pop quiz may reveal some answers. What’s common, for example, between Muzammil Shakeel Ganai, Adeel Ahmed Rather, Shaheen Saeed, Irfan Ahmad Wagay, Amir Rashid Ali and Jasir Bilal Wani, all of whom are accused of conspiring to overthrow the state in the Red Fort blast?

Second, what’s common between Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider, Gulfisha Fatima, Shifa ur-Rahman, Mohammad Salim Khan, all of whom are accused of conspiring to overthrow the state via the 2020 Delhi riots?

Third, what’s common between Mohammad Akhlaq, Mazlum Ansari, Imtiaz Khan, Pehlu Khan, Alimuddin Ansari, Rakbar Khan, Qasim, Mohammad Zahiruddin, Lukman Ansari and Afan Abdul Ansari, all of whom were lynched over rumours that they were transporting beef?

The short answer is that all these people are Muslim. Think about it. Those involved in the Red Fort blast, those picked up by the police and thrown in jail under UAPA in the Delhi riots case as well as those lynched over beef-carrying rumours by cow vigilantes — the common denominator between these widely varying groups of Muslims is their faith.

Muzammil Shakeel is a doctor, Irfan Ahmad is a mufti, Umar Khalid did his M.Phil from JNU, Gulfisha Fatima studied at Delhi University and Akhlaq and the rest are transporters from UP and Jharkhand and Rajasthan. These men and women straddle the socio-economic strata in India — they are as different as chalk from cheese. The problem is that we are painting them all with the same brush.

Shakeel and Irfan and Umer un-Nabi, the Red Fort suicide bomber, must surely be given the harshest punishment — they attempted to undermine the state from within. But Umar Khalid, Sharjeel, Gulfisha and others who have been in jail for five years without bail — their case is finally being heard in the Supreme Court these days — have right from the start pleaded their innocence. As for Akhlaq & Co, they never got even a chance, death got to them first.

Now it seems that Yogi Adityanath’s government in Uttar Pradesh is withdrawing the case against all those accused of lynching Akhlaq 10 years ago in Dadri. No one knows why, under what circumstances and whether that can happen. If it does, it’s not clear what it does to the rule of law.

But back to the original question. Why are Indian Muslims plotting terror acts and blowing themselves up at Red Fort? Why did Umer un-Nabi blow himself up — like LTTE terrorists used to do in an earlier era or jihadis continue to do in parts of Afghanistan-Pakistan — and not let off his anger by protesting within the safety net of the democratic state?

What is the extraordinary problem that these Indian Muslims face that Indian Hindus or Indian Sikhs or Christians or others from other faiths don’t seem to comprehend?

The point of this column is to try and understand the grave predicament that India is passing through at this moment in its existence — an insecurity without, with the country’s foreign policy in a state of uncertainty and flux, as fast friends wither and wane, and an insecurity within.

But how does one understand it?