I am one of the people who was detained, intimidated and trolled for trying to file an FIR against BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay and Hindutva activist Uttam Upadhyay – who, respectively, organised and attended the recent Jantar Mantar event where inflammatory, anti-Muslim slogans were raised. I am also a resident of Jamia Nagar, and an Indian Muslim who has come of age under the Bharatiya Janata Party government. That means I have spent several of my teenage years and all my adult life hearing slogans that call for my death.
On August 10, a protest was called by progressive organisations at Jantar Mantar at 4 pm, against the slogans shouted at the same spot two days earlier. People held posters reading, “Come together for peace.”
I found this call for “peace” problematic, given that what we need to urgently press for is justice. Muslims have been threatened with serious violence, which is a crime. The answer is to demand that the police act to enforce the law. Asking a Muslim like me to “come together for peace” is like asking me to reach some kind of understanding with those who are threatening me.
This is just like Muslims were asked by their own community members after the Babri Masjid demolition judgment to let things slide for the sake of peace. It was said that too much blood had already been shed, in 2002 and earlier. Yet, two months later, dozens of Muslims were killed by mobs which had been mobilised by Hindutva groups in Northeast Delhi. Even then, Muslims were asked to come together for peace.
Frustrated, I decided not to join the protest. In any case, concrete change rarely comes out of protests at Jantar Mantar – people go, they raise slogans, bang daflis, get detained at Mandir Marg Police Station and then return home. I would still have to go to sleep at night knowing that if I step out of Jamia Nagar wearing a kurta and carrying with me my Jamia Millia Islamia ID, I could be targeted.
Instead of asking people to come together for peace, wouldn’t it make more sense to call for the de-radicalisation of those Hindus who had bought into the poisonous propaganda of the Hindutva groups? To demand justice for Muslims? When I raised the call for boycotting the protest on social media platforms, I was told that many people (from the majority community) wouldn’t turn up for the protest if organisers used terms stronger than “peace”. In the last eight years of BJP rule, countless Muslims have become victims of communal politics. Yet we are still calling for peace rather than justice.
That is why I decided that something must be done. I contacted my fellow students, Vibhu, Harpuneet, Abujar and Drishti, to come with me to file an FIR. This was an individual decision – I didn’t do this as an activist of the All India Students Association, of which I am a member. I did it as an Indian Muslim. I consulted with my lawyers and discussed the details of the step with them. The idea of filing an FIR at Jamia Nagar Police Station didn’t seem like a bad idea to anyone. My lawyer said I have a right to complain as I’ve been aggrieved as a Muslim and as a citizen of this country.
So, we went to the Jamia Nagar Police Station at 11:40 am on August 10. After going through our complaint, the reader at the PS told me, “Hate speech hi toh diya hai, maar toh nahi diya na (It is only hate speech, nobody was killed).” Later on, he took me to the station house officer. The SHO refused to file the FIR. He asked me to remove my mask so he could take a photograph of me. I refused. He still took a photo of me without my consent. He then sent me to Inspector Khalid Hussain’s office and asked him to bring out files containing complaints against me.
Rebuffed, we decided to set out for the Parliament Street Police Station to get our FIR lodged. But the Jamia Nagar police called us back and told us they would file our FIR. When we came back, they made us sit in the SHO’s office. He jotted down our details – which included information usually recorded in an FIR like our phone numbers, addresses and father’s names but also extraneous details like which courses we were taking. When we asked why he wanted these details, the SHO replied, “Ye masla bada hai, sahi se karna hoga jisse aur tumhaare jaise log na aaye (This is a big deal, we have to deal with it properly so that others like you don’t come).” They made us wait for half an hour as they made calls to different police stations.
I then started receiving calls from the Shaheen Bagh Police Station and other numbers. They inquired about my intentions and why I was planning to go to central Delhi. They tried to intimidate me further. Later, we asked the SHO why our FIR hadn’t been filed, only to find out through a constable that we had been detained. When we protested against this, they forced shut the door of the police station. Three-four police personnel were deployed to keep an eye on us.
This is when we decided to reach out to my lawyer and others on social media. A dozen activists from the Bhim Army, Okhla and students of Jamia Millia Islamia reached the police station to get us released. At around 5 pm, the Jamia Nagar SHO called a prominent lawyer and said that we had misbehaved with him. This is the same police which had claimed they hadn’t entered the Jamia library in December 2019 and thrashed students, when there was CCTV footage of the same. After six hours of intimidation and harassment inside the police station, we were let out. But our FIR wasn’t filed.
In the FIR that the Delhi Police finally filed against him, BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay has been granted bail. And as long as such impunity continues, so will more incidents of this kind. Meanwhile, those like me who wish to file an FIR will also know what’s in store for us if we exercise our right to demand justice.
This story first appeared on thewire.in