Real or Fake?

If one of the cases they have built up so hurriedly falls apart, the entire edifice of the Batla House case might fall apart
Amit Sengupta Delhi

The bomb blasts sent the shivers down the spine of people across Delhi and India, as multiple tragedies visited the devastated homes of people across the religious spectrum. As ordinary citizens loose all faith in the Mighty Indian State and its intelligence and police apparatus in pre-empting these killer blasts, Jamia Nagar next to Jamia Millia Islamia in south Delhi witnessed a different kind of terror after the encounter on September 19:  State Terror. This was tangible, like the white faces of Muslim youngsters the moment the Special Cell men in civvies would pick up a youth, no questions asked, no legal preliminaries, no due process involving fundamental rights, no answers given. The entire Muslim community was demonised by the police and the media and every young boy seemed condemned as a potential terrorist.

In the ghettoised inner lanes of Jamia Nagar, Shaheen Bagh and Taimur Nagar, you could touch this fear with your fingers, as women cried silent tears. Diabolical tales flourished in this cobweb. Like all urban cobwebs where Muslim Indians, including those educated, have been condemned to share space - because mainstream society has been declared out of bounds for them - by a manifest communal logic or invisible social contract. Immediately after the encounter, those who had dared to speak out or question the police version, had been effectively silenced.

No one knew who would be picked up next, with or without evidence, flaunted before the TV channels with brand new Arab scarves or black hoods, and declared as "masterminds" behind this or all the blasts, as in the case of the Batla House "terrorists". Even while the largely prejudiced media would buy the police version lock, stock and barrel, the complex identity and evidence behind every ‘case of a terrorist' remained crowded in mystery with too many black holes.

No politician visited the area, not the UPA allies, not from the BSP or Samajwadi Party, not even from the ‘Official Left'. Journalists filed one-dimensional reports except the Mail Today and some Urdu papers. Jamia Nagar was left to its fate - in what some teachers called was nothing but "a communal witch-hunt".

One day after the encounter, separate groups of academics, social activists, journalists and lawyers went to the spot and made enquiries. In separate reports they raised pertinent questions, widely circulated on the net. A delegation went to the police station to enquire about a boy who was picked up by the Special Cell (see story pg 29) On September 25, the campus looked like a police cantonment. A massive rally of thousands of students and teachers was led by the university's Vice Chancellor Mushirul Hasan, with student's holding banners: "Arrest terrorists, not innocents." The same evening, in a massive press conference held by the Jamia Teachers Solidarity Group, teachers openly castigated the UPA government and asked for constitutional and judicial procedures before picking up youngsters and students. They refused to accept the police version and offered legal aid.

By next day, the spell of fear had partly broken. Police were on the backfoot. The Mail Today had broken several stories poking holes, leaving the police speechless. Hundreds of Christians and Muslims were protesting at Jantar Mantar. Civil society groups and liberal intellectuals called for an enquiry. Stop hounding one community and stop these double standards - if you ban Simi, ban the VHP and Bajrang Dal too, they said. The JNU Students' Union did a huge public meeting in the campus in solidarity with Jamia students and teachers. Gradually, the one-dimensional media too started probing the loose ends, and they were too many.