Rights group condemns lynching of Muslims in India

Hum Aazaadiyon Ke Haq Mein (HAKHM) is a Mumbai-based collective of individuals and organisations which seeks to provide a democratic platform to oppose regressive government polices and raise a cohesive and unified voice against acts against humanity and the State’s involvement and inaction in cases of human rights violations.
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Hum Aazaadiyon ke Haq Mein condemns the horrendous planned lynching of 50 year old Mohammed Akhlaq and the grievous injury to his 22-year-old son Danish in Basehara village of Dadri district of Uttar Pradesh on September 28, barely 45 Kms from India's national capital, Delhi.

Akhlaq was killed by a mob of over on the suspicion that there was beef stored in his fridge. Police have taken away samples of the meat for testing but irrespective of what the food item was, the lynching is completely unacceptable and a dangerous example of the lowest and most brutal of vigilante justice that is increasingly being seen in India. 

Instead of condemning the killings and initiating strong action against the killers, the BJP government at the centre has tried to dismiss the incident as a trivial one. The Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma, in whose constituency this village falls (Gautam Budh Nagar), claimed, in one and the same breath, that the lynching was an accident and a reaction to the cow slaughter. 

Today, there are continued and increasing attacks on all citizens for their food habits, clothes, relationships or religious beliefs, the books they read, the films they see and every other aspect of their lives. Prominent voices of dissent like rationalist Dr Narendra Dhabolkar, communist leader Govind Pansare and rationalist writer M M Kalburgi have been killed for speaking up against irrational religious beliefs. Others have been openly threatened and warned that they will face similar repercussions if they continue to speak up.

Day after day, these attacks are on the increase. Alongside, the BJP government is putting into place all kinds of policies and programs to divide citizens on caste and communal lines, initiate so-called labour reforms, change environmental regulations to bring in so-called development that will end up displacing scores of people and systematically erode the rights of citizens that are enshrined in the Indian Constitution. 

The preamble of our Constitution resolves to make this nation a democratic republic where no one religion will have primacy over any other and where all citizens will be assured liberty and equality. These Constitutional principles define the morality that should govern all its citizens and defending them and the rights of ALL citizens is the duty of every democratically elected government. In Dadri, both, the civil society and the State, failed. 

Hum Azaadiyon ke Haq Mein has called for a protest against this killing as well as against the steady erosion of all citizens rights outside Dadar Station (E) on Tuesday, October 6, 2015. Please do join in large numbers and circulate to friends and supporters.

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