NEW DELHI: “I have lost everything, my lifelong investment in the shop, my peace of mind and sense of certainty,” Rais Ahmad, whose electronic rickshaw showroom was gutted by a mob in the Indian capital’s BHajjanpura area, told Arab News. “I lost around $60,000 in this carnage. It was a well-planned conspiracy ... We have lost trust in the government and police.”
Days of rioting in parts of New Delhi have claimed the lives of over 42 people, mostly Muslim, while hundreds more have been wounded.
Violence broke out on Feb. 23, when a group of Muslims began protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and were attacked by a Hindu mob in the east of the city.
The controversial legislation seeks to provide citizenship to minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, but excludes Muslims.
India’s nationalist government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, says the CAA is meant to help persecuted minorities but its critics are unconvinced.
The CAA is seen by many as being anti-Muslim and has caused concern that, when the government goes ahead with its National Register of Citizens, many from India’s Muslim minority population will be rendered stateless.
Modi called for calm last week, urging people to “maintain peace and brotherhood at all times” so that “normalcy” was restored as early as possible. Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said the army should be deployed and that a curfew be put in place.
Medical professionals are struggling to cope with the influx of patients needing help because of the riots.
Dr. M. Ahtesham Anwar has not slept for almost a week. The clinic he works in, a small nursing home in New Delhi’s Mustafabad neighborhood, has been overwhelmed by people with gunshot wounds while others sought help because they were suffering for critical injuries.
“The situation was so bad we could not keep a record of how many people came for treatment and how many we sent out,” the doctor told Arab News.
Things got worse on Tuesday, he said, when youngsters were brought in with critical injuries. Anwar said he and his team did their best to provide first aid, despite the limitations on space and staff training.
“Officials blocked the exit road of Mustafabad, and ambulances were neither allowed to enter or exit the area for almost 24 hours. This cost some lives which could have been saved,” he added.
Political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay predicted the situation would get worse, and that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would stick to its polarizing and divisive tactics.
“I don’t see any let up by the BJP in whipping up majoritarian passion across the country and such conflict might be repeated in other places where the protests against the citizenship legislation is going on,” he told Arab News. “The BJP thinks that nothing beyond polarization is going to work for them. They are clueless on how to bring the economy back on track. The only thing that is going to work for them is to divide people on the lines of religious identity and consolidate Hindu votes.
