"In the four days I have spent in North East Delhi, I have seen Hindus and Muslims stand side-by-side and proclaim mutual love and trust. But if you take them into a corner and poke in the right places, the suspicion pours out."
@sighyush's ground report.
newslaundry.com/2020/03/02/ben…
@sighyush's ground report.
newslaundry.com/2020/03/02/ben…
@sighyush Aas Mohammad, 36, is now known as the 'Tahir Hussain' of his locality. He lives in the Hindu-dominated Bhagirathi Vihar in North East Delhi. On the night of February 25, a Muslim mob of 25-30 men occupied his house.
@sighyush They were on the terrace for 3 hrs, pelting stones at the neighbouring homes of the Hindus.
Aas is now desperately trying to fend off allegations of communalism from his neighbours. It hurts more because his neighbours won’t say it to his face; they imply it in their questions.
Aas is now desperately trying to fend off allegations of communalism from his neighbours. It hurts more because his neighbours won’t say it to his face; they imply it in their questions.
@sighyush “Aas bhai, I found a part of your railing on my terrace,” a Hindu neighbour told him in a crisp sentence, pregnant with accusation. “I wonder how it got there.”
@sighyush Aas, annoyed, turned to Rajeev Dixit, 55, another neighbour. “Rajeev bhai, dekho, how do I tell him now? The mob broke that railing and threw it on your house. How many times will I say this?”
@sighyush Rajeev, who has lived in Bhagirathi Vihar for nearly four decades, tries to say something but keeps quiet. He shrugs. Aas, meanwhile, invites me in, saying I must tell his story.
@sighyush In Brijpur, temples were not harmed but a mosque did get torched. However, there is denial about this simple fact.
@sighyush Manoj claimed the Arun Modern Public School in Brijpur was badly burnt. I told him that indeed it was, and so was the mosque beside it. “The mosque was burnt? No!” he said. I maintained that it was.
@sighyush “No! No mosque has been burnt,” he insisted, and Parvender nodded. I said mosques were indeed burnt and I had been to the one beside the school. I had pictures.
@sighyush The school and the mosque were a couple of hundred metres from the Singh home. But only the news of the burnt school travelled in Hindu-dominated Brijpur.
@sighyush Manoj and Parvender believed a Muslim mob had wrecked the school and shops around it, but the mosque’s fate came as an inconvenient and uncomfortable piece of information.
