A #thread on whether it's wrong to call Delhi violence a #pogrom. I request 🙏🏾 liberal friends, journalists, citizens, to please read with patience. I'm not looking to label, ridicule, but to clarify. Making this point at @YoungIndiaRises March for peace, justice, democracy also
So, it's a FACT that Muslims and Hindus have been killed in the violence. Every drop of blood shed, every life lost, is equally precious - and it is the Home Minister Amit Shah & Narendra Modi who have that every drop of blood on THEIR hands, on the hands of Delhi Police
Were you tempted to say there are "two sides"? Be honest, many feel this way. But the thing to note is that only ONE side had the Delhi Police, the State machinery on its side. Only ONE side cd hear Court say that "it's not the right time to file an FIR" +
Only ONE side cd have police break CCTV to protect them, have a judge sent packing coz he ordered arrest of its ringleaders. So even if you think there are 2 sides, you've to see the 2 sides are NOT EQUAL. ONE has the entire state machinery on its side, & enjoys full impunity.
And that's the very definition of a pogrom, of state sponsored targeted genocide - State backed killing of members of a particular ethnic, religious, or ideological group is a pogrom. To say #DelhiPogrom2020 or #DelhiGenocide2020 isn't to say the Hindu victims don't count
When we say #MuslimLivesMatter we don't mean Hindu lives matter less. Instead we are pointing out that for the Delhi Police and their bosses, Muslim lives are like "termites". The Delhi Police did not kick Hindu victims in the gut asking them to sing the anthem.
It's important not to seek a "perfect victim". Muslims are overwhelmingly the victims of STATE SPONSORED hate and violence, even if some Hindus are also victims of violence (by some Muslims)
So finally: we've to demand accountability from the PM and HM. They're the रहबर ए मुल्क - Ask them to meet our eyes and tell us, whose blood is this, of every victim, that you have on your hands.
To rephrase this: There are victims on both sides. Every victim's blood is on this Govt. But the perpetrators were not two evenly matched sides. The police, state machinery, even court, Govt all openly or tacitly abetted only the targeted anti Muslim violence.
