On Sunday, October 5, in a horrific case of caste atrocity, a 38-year-old Dalit man named Hariom, a resident of Fatehpur district, was lynched by a mob in Raebareli district, amid a so-called panic over “drone thieves.” Hariom was mercilessly beaten to death, in full view of the camera, with belts and sticks. This comes on the heels of a Hindu neighbour brutally killing a seven-year-old Muslim child, Shahzeb, in Azamgarh district, and hanging his severely mutilated body in a gunny bag on his gate to “teach a lesson to the Mullahs.” Video footage of Hariom’s lynching shows one of the attackers declaring, “Everyone here is with Baba” — a chilling display of the emboldening of communal-casteist forces under the Yogi Adityanath regime.
This atrocity occurs alongside a coordinated campaign of state-sponsored violence against Muslims across Uttar Pradesh. For several days, the police and administration unleashed brutal repression against the ‘I Love Mohammed’ protests, where people were expressing their dissent against the arbitrary and discriminatory actions of the authorities targeting the Muslim community. Weeks of arbitrary bulldozer demolitions, carried out in direct violation of Supreme Court orders, have targeted several of Muslim households in Bareilly, Sambhal, and other areas. Families have been displaced, homes demolished, and numerous individuals arrested, tortured, and publicly humiliated.
The scenes of rampant bulldozing of homes; people from marginalized communities being harassed or lynched while police act as mere spectators; arrested Muslims being shot by police, paraded humiliatingly before the media, and seen limping out of police stations have become horrifyingly routine. The administration is playing the role of judge, jury, and executioner. Amid the communal-casteist violence, Uttar Pradesh under the Yogi regime is also ranked top in crimes against women, as revealed by the recent NCRB report further exposing the state’s grim reality.
The state, under the Yogi regime, has waged a violent, targeted, and vile campaign of terror against Muslims, Dalits, and all marginalized sections of society. CPI(ML) strongly condemns the lynching of Hariom and the ongoing bigoted violence against Muslims and bulldozer injustice in Uttar Pradesh, and calls upon the democratic-minded people of UP to unite against this demolition of the Constitution and democracy.
Recalling the Chief Justice of India’s assertion about the “rule of law,” we urge the Supreme Court to take immediate suo motu cognizance of the state-sponsored campaign of bulldozer injustice and all unlawful administrative acts that threaten the life, limb, and liberty of individuals.
Resist and Defeat the Communal-Casteist terror in Uttar Pradesh! No to BJP's Bulldozer Fascism!
