A carnage and a clean chit

The commissions that inquired into the October 15 lynching of five Dalits at a police post in Jhajjar district of Haryana fail to go deep into the factors that caused the incident.

ON October 15, five Dalits were beaten and burnt to death at Dulina village in Jhajjar district in Haryana. The official explanation was that the five men, who were skinning a cow on the Farookhnagar-Jhajjar road on Dasara day, were brought to the police post by some people accusing them of cow slaughter. Matters got worse, or were allowed to get worse, from there on as the crowd swelled into a murderous mob. Within hours, the grisly deed was accomplished, because of what is being touted officially as a case of "mistaken identity". This implied that the mob thought that the five persons were members of a specific minority community and lynched them. It is difficult to ignore the subtle meaning behind the "mistaken identity" theory as it presupposes that had the five not been Dalits, the lynching would have been a natural outcome of the general attitude towards a specific community.

Making a statement in the Lok Sabha on atrocities against Dalits, Union Minister of State for Home I. D. Swami sought to deny that the Dulina case was a deliberate atrocity against the Scheduled Castes. It took place because of the mistaken impression that a cow slaughter was being committed openly, a Member of Parliament from Haryana stated.

The murder drew all-round condemnation from both within and outside the State. There were extreme reactions as well: several Dalit families converted to Buddhism in Gurgaon. While some observers attributed the killings to caste tensions in the State, others saw a deeper angle. After all, Haryana had never seen this kind of mob violence before, that too within the premises of a police post.

The State government set up an inquiry commission under R.R. Banswal, Commissioner, Rohtak range, to look into the circumstances that led to the incident. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes conducted an independent inquiry. The reports of both inquires have been released, although the Rohtak Commissioner's 383-page report, which has been accepted in toto by the State government, has not been placed in the public domain. What has been made available is a press release that presumably outlines the main findings of the investigation.

The question that rankles one is whether the reports have been able to do justice to the five lives that were wantonly taken. First, neither of the two reports has even gone into the factors that triggered the mob frenzy. The S.C. and S.T. Commission goes a step further to state that the incident "does not appear to be a case of atrocity on (the) SC&ST community which presupposes prior knowledge that the victims belonged to (the) SC&ST community." Strange indeed, for if it is not a case of an atrocity against Dalits, and not a communal attack either as the five persons were not members of a minority community, then was it just a spontaneous reaction from a largely peace-loving crowd returning happily from the festivities of Dasara?

The role of the police, which was highly suspect, has hardly come under proper scrutiny. Both reports have mildly castigated the police but have hardly recommended any strong action against them for failing to protect the lives of the five innocent persons. But most important, while failing to look into the deeper reasons, the two reports have consciously given a clean chit to the role played by communal organisations. The omission of the role played by members of the Bajrang Dal, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Shiv Sena is not coincidental. The ruling Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) is a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre and the Bharatiya Janata Party is a coalition partner of the INLD in the State. Of the 31 persons arrested so far, at least three have been found to have direct links with the Shiv Sena, the Bajrang Dal and the VHP. Moreover, official sources have shared the fact that two of them were involved in mobilising people for the attack.

The S.C. and S.T. Commission report states that people became apprehensive about their (the deceased) act of skinning and thought that they had killed the cow and were skinning it for the purpose of using the meat. The Commission does not ask why a crowd returning from a Dasara celebration should assume that the five were cow- slaughterers unless they had been fed with this notion. The report criticises the Head Constable at Dulina for taking time to verify the fact that a dead cow had been purchased from Farooqhnagar. The Commission does not even bother to wonder why it was necessary to verify the fact when the five persons looked like skin traders and dealers. The Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) tried to control the mob and sent messages to the Jhajjar police station for reinforcements. The mob then began shouting slogans, the details of which have not been mentioned in the report. While three of the victims were dragged out and beaten to death with iron and wooden rods, the other two were thrown into a burning hut located on the premises of the police post.

The Commission also legitimises the aspect of "public sentiment" in the entire episode. The system of awarding contracts for skinning dead animals was not prevalent in Jhajjar and "perhaps the victims were not aware of this fact and they had started skinning the animal by the roadside, which was mistaken as an incident of cow slaughter for the purpose of skin and meat." This "perhaps had hurt the religious sentiment on the day of Dasara festival." The "public sentiments were aroused through rumour on the basis of a mistaken identity that all these people belonged to another religion and their very act was against the basic tenet of the religion of the dominant Hindu community," the report observes. Who were the rumour-mongers? And who mobilised the crowd? These are some uncomfortable questions the report has left unanswered. According to one of the members who authored the report, the job of the commission was not to be "investigative". It was meant to ensure that adequate relief and compensation were provided to the families of the deceased.

The Dulina ASI miscalculated the sentiments of the irate mob and the damage caused by the spread of the rumour that fuelled the religious feelings of the predominant Hindu population, the report said. The most relevant piece of information in the report is that the five persons were brought to the police post at 6-10 p.m. by about 20 persons. Had the police reacted like regular law-enforcers, they would have dispersed the agitators right away. But for some strange reason, they did not.

The commission's recommendations do not include the demand for a judicial inquiry or an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Also strange is the recommendation that "in order to avoid such incidence (sic) in future and to ensure appropriate disposal of dead animals, Govt. of Haryana should evolve appropriate mechanism (sic) as it (is) prevailing in other districts keeping in view the sentiments of the dominant community and other economic and social factors." By calling on an elected government to keep in view the sentiments of the dominant community, the recommendation runs counter to the secular principles enshrined in the Constitution. It appears that the rights and lives of the minority community are irrelevant as far as the commission is concerned.

THE Rohtak Commissioner's report has more details, but for reasons best known to the State government, the entire report has not been shared with the public. The report castigates the police but not adequately. Banswal states that the police personnel did not take adequate steps to save the five persons who were in their lawful custody. Curiously, both the reports absolve Jhajjar's Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police of direct responsibility.

The Dulina police post did not inform the district heads about the real cause of concern well in time, the Banswal report states. But this is not true as an employee in the D.C.'s office told this correspondent during an earlier visit that the D.C.'s office had received information about the incident at 6 p.m. itself. The lynching, according to Banswal's report, took place at 10-10 p.m., which means that there was sufficient time for the entire administration to take charge and defuse the crisis.

Banswal's report absolves the top brass in the district administration and states that the police did not assess the sensitivity of the situation but dealt with the matter in a casual manner.

But the police have been given a clean chit as far as their connivance is concerned. The police had sufficient time to shift the five persons, who were beaten by "public persons", to a safer place or hospital to provide medical aid, the government report states. So the question is why did the police not do so? Was there an element of connivance? The official version is that the trouble started on account of a rumour of a cow being slaughtered and a communally charged mob assembled at the police post where the five persons were lodged. The report says that the villagers returning from the Dasara celebrations presumed the five persons to be slaughterers. It was possible that the "sentiments of the people were hurt". The five were beaten badly by an "instigated" public and then handed over to the police. But who started the rumours and who were the leaders of the communally charged mob are questions the government is silent about. It can only be assumed that the report contains some more revelations than what the sketchy press release contained.

The State unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Lok Jan Shakti have called the Commissioner's report a half-baked one. Inderjit Singh, secretary of the CPI(M), finds it strange that despite holding the police and the Duty Magistrates responsible, the government report does not recommend any penal action against them. The government has decided to charge-sheet the officials concerned, who include the Duty Magistrates, the Tahsildar and the Deputy Superintendent of Police. He said that the incident should be viewed in the backdrop of the orchestrated campaign by communal organisations. The cow has been a central issue in most of the communally motivated incidents in the State. There have also been incidents wherein the police have extorted money from skinners by threatening them under the anti-cow slaughter laws. Inderjit said that in this specific case rumours that five Muslims were caught slaughtering a cow were spread.

Rumours were also afloat that the Superintendent of Police, being a Muslim, would let them off. Provocative speeches were made at around 9-30 p.m. Both the parties have demanded a CBI investigation or an inquiry by a sitting Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

It is a matter of record that in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid, there were attacks on Muslims in Mewat. On December 6, 1999, a historic mosque was demolished at Hansi. Over the last few years, there have been more than a dozen incidents of rumours of cow slaughter leading to attacks on minorities and Dalits. And, after all, Jhajjar is located close to the Muslim-majority Mewat region spanning Gurgaon district and parts of Rajasthan.

The INLDdoes not want to believe it has a problem in hand for then it would imply confronting the BJP. But it should not be surprised if it is faced with a communal leviathan in the coming years.