Muslims are being given collective punishment, new laws will turn the country into a police state: Jamaat
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind held a press conference on Saturday and accused the central government of moving towards turning the country into a police state and giving collective punishment to Muslims for the election results. Jamaat-e-Islami Hind clearly said that the way mob lynching and related incidents have increased after the elections in the country, they are politically motivated, people are targeting one religion for one ideology. At the same time, the Jamaat expressed serious concern over the new laws implemented by the government and said that we will go to the Supreme Court against them.
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Vice President Engineer Mohammad Salim said that the government will have to change its old attitude. Now the government should run this country according to the constitution and law of the country. State governments should also fulfill their Rajdharma. This is not the government of any one person, it is the Government of India. He further said that most of the incidents that have happened since the elections clearly show that they are motivated by a spirit of revenge. The same elements are visible in the incidents that took place in different states who consider themselves above the law. After the new government came, they feel that they can push their agenda. And the government can take action against them in any way. All this should stop now…. At the same time, Jamaat-e-Islami expressed deep concern over the new criminal laws implemented in the country and warned that these can push the country towards a ‘police state’. JIH said that it is clear that the government’s goal is to move towards a police state, and adopt a fascist mindset to suppress the voices of dissent and their opponents.
During the press conference, Nadeem Khan presented a report prepared by APCR which alleged that minorities, especially Muslims, are being targeted after the elections. He gave examples from various states including BJP-ruled, opposition-led and Congress-ruled areas. Khan mentioned that APCR investigated eight lynching and mob attack incidents spread across states including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal within a month of the general elections. Nadeem Khan stressed that about 90 percent of these cases appear to be politically motivated. He also mentioned at least 11 lynching incidents in West Bengal during the same period.
Collective Punishment Gave Go doing,
Nadeem Khan alleged that minorities, especially Muslims, were being targeted as a collective punishment for voting against the government or the ruling party. He asserted that no state, whether ruled by the BJP, opposition parties or the Congress, was untouched by such targeted attacks. He said that in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, houses of Muslims were demolished on the basis of half-truths and preliminary FIRs. He said if justice was to be delivered through ‘bulldozers’, then courts could be closed down.
Flaws of the laws implemented from 1 July were pointed out.
Nadeem Khan, national secretary of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), compared the new laws to the British Rowlatt Act. Both laws allow detention without trial or judicial review. Khan said the new laws were passed after about 145 members of Parliament were suspended from the House in December. He said the new law gives the police full authority to handcuff any accused (not yet convicted), while the Supreme Court has allowed handcuffing only in the rarest of rare cases.
Nadeem explained that earlier the police could detain an accused for 15 days, after which the lawyer could apply for bail. However, under the new laws, police remand can extend to 90 days, which overturns the judiciary’s principle that bail is the rule and jail is the exception’. He said that earlier when the police detained or arrested a person, he had to be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours. Now, the new law makes no mention of a specific period of detention, allowing detention ranging from 24 hours to several days.
Nadeem argued that the new legal system gives the police excessive power over citizens. He criticised the shift from the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ to ‘guilty until proven innocent by the judiciary’. He emphasised that while laws are meant to ensure the safety of all citizens, the current system risks punishing innocent individuals while allowing many criminals to escape punishment.
Supreme whâfort will go,
Nadeem informed that APCR plans to file a petition in the Supreme Court against the new laws when the judiciary’s vacation ends in 3-4 days. He also informed that they are writing letters to all state governments, urging them not to implement these discriminatory laws until the necessary amendments are made. They demand that the central government send these laws to review and parliamentary standing committees for evaluation and necessary adjustments.
