Tukde Gang's Subversive Network Runs Deep, The Cabal Won't Stop Even After SC's Denial Of Bail

Yesterday, the Supreme Court too refused bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. By now, they have been refused bail, at least five times, by all the levels of our judicial system. Since March 2020, they have been in the judicial custody under UAPA, Case (FIR 59/2020).

Though the riot they, prima facie, masterminded, was controlled on the 24th itself, sporadic violence continued till February 29. In all, 53 people died and over 500 were injured. Rioters also killed Rattan Lal, a Head Constable of Delhi Police, and Ankit Sharma, of the Intelligence Bureau.

Guns, knives, Molotov cocktails, acid pouches, sticks, slings, and more were freely used. Hundreds of vehicles were torched. Houses, shops, businesses, temples, schools, minors, octogenarians, none were spared.

The passions were whipped up for over two months, leading to the riots. Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by the Parliament on December 10, 2019, was the pretext. CAA was meant to fast track the applications for Indian citizenship, by those hounded out minorities in three of our neighbouring Islamic countries- Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who were validly staying in India before the end of 2014.

Also Read: 'Anti-Modi' Slogans Raised at JNU Protests Over Bail Denial

This affirmative action for the suffering non-Muslims in undivided India was dubbed by the Congress-led opposition parties as an anti-Muslim law. On the 15th of December, in a public rally at the Ramlila Grounds in Delhi, Sonia Gandhi said “CAA was an attack on the Muslims and exhorted them to step out and fight back”. By early evening, on Mathura Road near Jamia Millia Islamia, vandals smashed several brand new public busses by pelting stones and then torched them. A few passengers, including children, were hurt. When police arrived to apprehend these mostly Muslim arsonists, they ran back to the sanctuary of Jamia campus. Yet, several of them were nabbed there, dragged out and arrested.

By late evening, their mothers and grand mothers from the neighbouring localities were mobilised to step out and plead for the release of their lads. While they sought lenience for their boys, sundry activists and politicians descended at the venue and converted this bunch of pleading women into a squatting blockade of a high-traffic corridor. Being a mid-December night, a makeshift canopy was erected overhead, carpets and quilts were gathered and food packets began to be passed around. Within a couple of days, the venue expanded, barricades were put-up, sound-system and illumination was installed, a stage was erected, and ShaheenBagh began to look like a political start-up with the potential enterprise value of an electoral unicorn. A variety of out-of-work politicians, united in their visceral hatred for Modi, dismayed by his back-to-back mandates, and unnerved by his audacious dismantling of Article370, began to smell blood.

The blockade carried on for weeks and started to replicate itself not only at various other places in Delhi but also in other major cities. All sorts of musicians, poets, performers, cine-stars and demagogues traveled long distances to perform in front of the eager TV cameras beaming the spectacle live. For the working Delhiites, daily commute turned into a painful crawl of several kilometres. 

Looming Delhi elections, and related convoluted political calculations, induced a bigger paralysis in the garb of persuasion and patience. This is when, the likes of Sharjeel Imam got cocky enough to repeatedly threaten dismemberment of India at the Chicken’s neck. And, Umar Khalid, known for the “tukde honge insha allah” venom, proposed a spectacular blockade during Trump’s visit.

This wasn’t just hollow rhetoric. They got down to planning it meticulously. WhatsApp groups were formed, messages exchanged, stockpile of improvised missiles, crude bombs, acid pouches, the works. And they delivered as they planned, on the very day Trump arrived. On the 24th of February, Delhi was set ablaze by these masterminds and their network.

Of course, there isn’t any conviction yet. But, that is because they have managed to drag the trial through repeated adjournments. Adjournment strategy serves two of their purposes. 1) Delay the ultimate conviction. 2) In the interim, give yourself an opportunity to crib about “incarceration” without conviction and thus look amply deserving while asking for bail. Meanwhile, the other five co-accused have been granted bail but only because they didn’t appear to be among the leading conspirators. Still, their bail is subjected to very stringent conditions.

The denial of a bail has hardly ever been so aggressively contested as this in this instance. A battery of leading lawyers appearing for the accused demonstrates the clout of their political and financial backers. When the Senators and Congressmen from USA also pitch in, you can imagine how deep their subversive network runs. Finally, just in time for the decision, an elaborate and insidiously choreographed orchestration is pulled off to browbeat the judiciary into submission. Thankfully, the Judges have now seen through these stunts.

But the cabal isn’t done yet. They don’t stop at anything. Trust them to keep conniving and manipulating. Eternal vigil is the price we must pay to survive.