S.K. Sinha
Muhammed Ali Jinnah announced that his party would observe August
16, 1946, as Direct Action Day. He declared, “Today we bid good-bye to
constitutional methods. Today we have forged a pistol and are in a position to
use it. We mean every word of it.” Bengal was
the only province in the country where the Muslim League was in power. Direct
Action was launched in Calcutta .
Suhrawardy, the Muslim League chief minister, released his goons, as per plan.
There was a massacre of non-Muslims on the first two days. It was
surprising that the British governor did not exercise his special powers to
dismiss the Muslim League ministry and impose Governor’s Rule. He remained a
mute spectator. From the third day, non-Muslims, primarily Sikh taxi drivers
and Bihari labourers, started retaliating in a big way and Muslims now suffered
equally. Suhrawardy asked for help from the Army to restore order. He now
turned on East Bengal , which had a hapless
Hindu minority.
Hindu women were targeted and there was complete mayhem in
Noakhali region. The Mahatma undertook a padyatra in Noakhali to restore peace.
Thousands of Hindu refugees from East Bengal poured into Bihar
seeking shelter. They narrated their tales of woe. Hindus in Bihar
got inflamed and started attacking the local Muslim minority with a vengeance.
Widespread communal violence in rural areas took place for the first time. This
was difficult to control as it was spread over a vast area, devoid of suitable
communications. Hitherto communal riots used to be an urban phenomenon.
The Bihar government promptly
asked for Army assistance and normalcy was eventually restored. Several
thousand Muslim families were massacred and their houses destroyed. The only
redeeming feature was that Armymen remained totally impartial. Muslim priests
from Peshawar , Rawalpindi
and Lahore visited Bihar ,
saw the mayhem and went back with pictures of the atrocities. Soon the whole of
North India, from Delhi to Peshawar , was in flames. The civil
administration virtually collapsed; the Army was widely deployed. Most of the
soldiers came from that region.
They saw how their kith and kin had suffered. The impartiality of
the soldiers got seriously affected. With the announcement of Partition on June
3, 1947, the extent of violence increased further. Soldiers earmarked for
different dominions now had divided loyalty. Millions perished and millions
were uprooted in that holocaust.
The current violence in Assam has had a serious impact in
several places. Pakistan
launched a cyber war by sending SMSes and MMSes to Muslims to inflame communal
passions. A mob of 50,000 Muslims collected at Azad Maidan in Mumbai to protest
against atrocities on Muslims in Assam
and Burma .
Some burnt cars, targeted media, attacked shops, molested policewomen on duty
and desecrated the Amar Jawan Smarak. Several policemen were injured. In Lucknow , mobs burnt shops,
smashed cars and desecrated Buddha’s statue.
There were similar incidents in Allahabad . Besides, thousands of SMSes were
sent threatening students and others from the Northeast in Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai,
asking them to quit. Knowing how Delhi
police had failed to provide security for students from the Northeast, they
panicked. An exodus of over 20,000 people took place. Intelligence about these
messages was available but no preventive measures were taken by the Central and
state governments. Against this background it was irresponsible for the state
government to permit the holding of the protest rally at Azad Maidan. It also
failed, miserably, to stop the mayhem.
The Opposition in Parliament has very rightly announced full
support in tackling the grave crisis and not to take any political advantage.
Yet we must identify the fault lines. The biggest problem facing the Northeast
has been demographic aggression by the unabated influx of millions of illegal
migrants from Bangla-desh. Our vote-bank politicians have been blatantly
assisting this with total disregard for national security. If a repeat of what
happened at the time of Partition is to be avoided, the government must shed
its slothful and “chalta hai” approach. Good governance, prompt preventive
action and ability to foresee situations rather than be overcome by them are
imperative. National interests and security must never be ignored.
The writer, a retired
lieutenant-general, was Vice-Chief of Army Staff and has served as governor of Assam and Jammu
and Kashmir
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