B.RAMAN, Camp New Delhi
The post-Assam incidents in the rest of India had overt and
covert dimensions.
2. The overt dimension related to the protests by
groups of Muslims against the anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar and Assam which
were seen in the Azad Maidan of Mumbai on August 5,2012, and in Lucknow on
August 17,2012.These protests were
triggered off by exaggerated accounts of the anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar
and Assam. These exaggerated accounts were disseminated with the help of
morphed images through web sites of Islamic fundamentalist organisations, some
of them located in Pakistan. The fact that these organisations in Pakistan such
as the Jamaat-e-Islami had them uploaded in their web sites does not
necessarily mean they had produced them.
3.Some of the visuals uploaded in many web sites of
different organisations had inter alia, morphed images of two incidents---- the
large number of dead bodies recovered after an earth quake in the Sichuan
province of China some years ago and
public protests by the opponents of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra in Bangkok in 2009.The appearance of similar or same morphed images in several web
sites across the region indicated a common source of the production of these visuals. This
common source has not so far been identified. All we have is the total number
of web sites in Pakistan that had uploaded these visuals. These visuals
definitely played a part in inflaming passions in Mumbai and Lucknow.
4.It was reported in sections of foreign media last
week that President Thein Sein of Myanmar has brought these morphed images of
unconnected incidents that had taken place outside Myanmar to the notice of the
OIC delegation that was in Myanmar. He reportedly told the OIC delegation that
a false impression of a genocide of the Rohingya Muslims of the Rakhine State
of Myanmar was sought to be created
through the circulation and uploading of such images. We must get from
Myanmar details of all the evidence that they have been able to collect in this
regard.
5.Now, after the damage has been caused in Mumbai
and Lucknow, we seem to have woken up and taken action for the blocking of the
web sites in Pakistan which had uploaded these provocative visuals. Was it not
possible to notice them before and do it? Since the Muslim-Buddhist violence
broke out in the Rakhine State in May last, I have been closely monitoring it
and had written a number of articles on it. In an article on August 9 before
the recent incidents, I had also drawn attention to the dangers of the
emergence of what I called a new epicenter of Muslim anger in the Myanmar-Bangladesh-Indian
region due to the recent incidents in
the Rakhine State and Assam and reported feelings among the Muslim
victims of these incidents that there was discrimination against them in the
matter of distribution of humanitarian relief.
In this connection, please refer to my article dated August 9,2012, titled
“Don’t Fuel The Fire” carried by Outlook Online at http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?281942
.Nobody seems to have paid attention to these developments and taken
anticipatory action. However, these were controllable developments and our
Police, after having been taken by surprise, was able to control the situation
creditably.
6. The covert dimension related to the circulation
of one or more SMS messages among residents from the North-East living in the
South that they would be the targets of violence after the Ramadan fasting
period concluded on August 20. There is so far no evidence to show that these
SMS messages were incited or inspired or orchestrated from Pakistan. These
appear to have been locally incited or inspired or orchestrated by unidentified
elements in India.
7.While details are still lacking, certain
unexplainable factors need to be highlighted:
( a ). The messages were disseminated more in the
South and Pune than in the North, thereby creating more panic in the South and
Pune than in the North.
(b).These messages appear to have been received
only by people from the North-East living in the South and Pune and not by
locals. If bulk messages had been used, this would not have been possible.
( c ). The person or persons who circulated these
messages knew the identities of some people from the North-East and their
telephone numbers.
(d). There were no references in the SMS messages
to Assam or Myanmar. The connections appear to have been made by the people who
received these messages in their mind, but these were not there in the
messages.
( e ). The fact of the threat contained in these
messages rapidly spread like prairie fire among the people from the North-East
in the South and Pune and their relatives back home in Assam. This led to
mental pressure on some of thm to go back to their homes.Some of the pressure
was self-generated and some by their relatives in Assam.
8. It would be unfair to blame the police for being
taken by surprise. They could not have known about the impending panic. What we
saw in the South and Pune was the herd reflex. Once one member fled, many fled
with him or her without applying own
mind. One cannot blame the people from the North-East either. That is the way
you and I might have behaved when overtaken by fears which one does not
know whether true or not. One was
reminded of the famous incident in Chennai during the second World War when a
rumour that a Japanese submarine had been spotted led to the exodus of large
sections of the city residents to their villages.
9. According to the media briefing given by the
Home Secretary of the Government of India on August 18, the Karnataka police
have identified seven suspects of whom three have been taken into custody for
interrogation and one more has been identified by the central agencies
independently. Better to await authentic details of their background and
interrogation. ( 19-8-12)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India )
