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A Tale of Two Encounters:
Dehradun and Batla House
10th
June 2009
Jamia
Teachers’ Solidarity Group extends its heart-felt condolences to the
family
of
Ranbir Singh, the youth who was killed in
a
police encounter in Dehradun last week. This encounter again brings to
the fore the trigger-happy ways
of
the Indian police who kill and torture for medals and promotions. We
demand exemplary punishment for the guilty policemen.
However,
the manner in which the Indian State and the mainstream political
parties have responded to the encounter in Dehradun is in striking
contrast to the reaction to the shooting down
of
two
young men in Batla House in Delhi last September. Both
encounters
were followed by mass anger and upsurge which spilled onto the streets
of
the capital cities
of
Uttarakhand and the country. While the ‘secular’ Congress has put its
weight behind the agitation in Uttrakhand, joining the peoples’ demand
for fair probe and crying foul over human rights violation, the BJP not
to be left behind in the Human Rights race sent its emissary in the form
of
BJP President’s and Ghaziabad MP’s son to the family
of
the slain youth to reassure them that the probe into the encounter would
be fair and independent, without the involvement
of
the accused Dehradun Police.
A
CB-CID enquiry has already been ordered and all policemen involved in
the shootout have been charged for murder.
Recall now
the jingoist hysteria created by Congress and BJP alike, aided by
a
section
of
pliant media, in which all calls for independent and impartial enquiry
in the Batla House encounter were branded as unpatriotic and downright
insulting
of
the bravery
of
Special Cell cops. The Congress, which today preens on the retrieval
of
its minority vote, persistently bulldozed all demands for
a
probe into the Batla House ‘encounter’. So much so, that even the
simple, procedural requirement for
a
magisterial enquiry was subverted through the Lieutenant Governor, who
refused to grant permission for an enquiry on flimsy grounds. The post
mortem reports
of
the deceased—the killed boys as well as Inspector Sharma—have been
accorded the status
of
State secret.
So, what
could be the reason for this speedy demonstration
of
justice for Ranbir Singh, and the obstinate refusal to concede to the
widespread demand for an enquiry into the killings
of
Atif Ameen and Mohammad Sajid? Except that Atif and Sajid fall in that
unfortunate category
of
‘encounterables’—those whose killings can be justified, explained, and
remain unmourned by our society and polity. It is all right to snuff out
the lives
of
young men as long as they are drawn from
a
certain demographic and reside in areas identified as ghettoes. What we
are being told here is that Atifs and Sajids cannot claim the framework
of
democratic rights—the only framework that they must exist in is that
of
national security.
JTSG
reiterates its demand for a judicial probe into
the Batla House incident, and the application of
the same standards of justice for Atif and Sajid
as those applied in the unfortunate and tragic case of
Ranbir Singh. |
