The All India Kisan Mahasabha and CPI (ML) activists observed Rights Day (Adhikar Diwas) on 10 May with a dharna in front of the mini Secretariat in Karnal on the issue of safety and security of Muslim dairy farmers across the country, the silence of Modi, Vasundhara Raje and Manohar Lal Khattar on the lynching of Pehlu Khan, and freeing the country from the clutches of the Sangh Brigade’s ‘Gau Rakshak’ goons. Com. Mahendra Singh Chopra, Com. Kartar Singh Malik, SUCI (C), Com Prem Singh Gehlawat and other leaders addressed the dharna.
The speakers said that in the last 3 years, after the Modi government came to power, deadly attacks on Muslims by Hindutva mobs in the name of cow protection have unfortunately become a ‘normal’ occurrence. The many statements of BJP leaders and actions by BJP governments against the meat industry are a silent abetment to these attacks. In the 2014 election campaign Modi himself had inflamed communal passions with repeated references to the ‘pink revolution’. The speakers cited the examples of the lynching of Pehlu Khan as well as earlier incidents like that of the Dadri lynching of Akhlaq, the beating up of Muslim families by cow goons in a village in Alwar (2016), the killing of 60-year-old Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi in Birloka (Nagaur, Rajasthan) in 2015, the lynchings in Latehar, Jharkhand of Mohammad Majloom and 12 year old Inayatullah (2016), and the stoning to death of 5 dalits in Dulina by cow goons in 2002. While Com. Mahendra Singh was speaking, two unknown persons came to the venue and tried to disrupt the meeting but ran away when the people at the meeting opposed them. The meeting continued and the police were informed.
The speakers pointed out that the police, instead of taking action on the culprits had, on the contrary, targeted and even arrested the victims in some cases. A local ABVP leader was involved in the Alwar lynching. A member of a Gau Raksha gang in Jaipur (which floated rumours leading to the attack on a Jaipur hotel owner) Sadhvi Kamal Didi compared the Alwar killers to Bhagat Singh and other freedom fighters. Cow goons in Modi’s India who kill human beings in the name of cow protection are trying to fool the people by claiming the legacy of Bhagat Singh. Muslim and dalit dairy farmers are the chief target of these cow goons across the country.
On 9 April goons from the Sangh brigade climbed on top of the Ghantaghar Masjid in Karnal shouting “Jai Shri Ram” while the crowd below echoed the shouts. When the local Muslims went to the police station to protest, the police, instead of acting against the culprits, pressurized the Muslims to ‘compromise’. In Uttar Pradesh Sanghi goons climbed atop a police jeep and drove it while shouting and dancing. There is no report of what action has been taken against them. Modi tweets against attacks happening in far-away Sweden but he, as well as Raje and Khattar, are silent on the Pehlu Khan lynching and other such killings of Muslims and dalits across the country.
The following demands were made through the dharna: Compensation from the Rajasthan government of Rs 1 crore to Pehlu Khan’s family and Rs 10 lakh each to the others injured; the Khattar government also should pay compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to the others injured in similar incidents in Haryana, and put a stop to the terror activities of the cow goons.
