Sitting their ground

FOR ZOHRAN JILANI, a 23-year-old student of Jamia Millia Islamia, the unprecedented violence in North East Delhi spells doom for Shaheen Bagh. “Please understand that this mayhem was orchestrated to finish Shaheen Bagh because the government has run out of options on how to end it,” he says, clutching the phone close to his mouth at his house in Maujpur, the epicentre of the riots. Jilani’s father is a physician in Chand Bagh, one of the areas affected, but his clinic was spared the full fury of a bloodthirsty mob.

Jilani has been a regular at Shaheen Bagh, which is some two hours away from Maujpur on the metro, but he does not want to step out now. “You know, I do not think the protest in Shaheen Bagh can go on,” he says with a twinge of sadness.

If only Jilani’s fear-induced assessment could corroborate the situation on the ground. At Shaheen Bagh—which has redefined the concept of continuous, peaceful protests in an age where there is no Mahatma Gandhi—it is business as usual for now. Yes, the violence has left some hijab-clad women speechless, the vibrant market leading to the main protest site is half-shut on a weekday afternoon, and proclamations to maintain peace are being sounded out from the stage at regular intervals. Some are wondering why the AAP MLA who just won from the constituency has not reached out with assurances, while others warn in whispers to avoid gathering in huge numbers at a different part of the protest venue. But hardly anyone has any doubt about continuing the protests until there is a resolution of their demands—now enclosed in a sealed envelope, which is to be taken up by the Supreme Court on March 23.

Shaheen Bagh protesters have now reposed their faith in the Supreme Court and in “Allah”. And the Delhi Police is a frenemy at best. “We went to Jaffrabad on Monday and met the women who had gathered to stage a peaceful protest under the metro station on Sunday night,” recalls Kahkasha, a housewife pursuing MA in Urdu at Jamia Millia Islamia. “The police told them, ‘If you do not move, we will run our jeeps over you.’ From behind the barricades, the policemen kept threatening these women and kept inching forward. There was no fear in these women. They lay down on the street and challenged the cops to maul them with their jeeps. The police kept moving forward and the barricades fell on these women.”

Around Kahkasha, at a sit-in at Shaheen Bagh, other women pitch in with their own angry inquiries: “Cars were being torched in full police glare, what were they doing?”, “The police move around in riot gear and there is no security for citizens?”, “Do you think the traumatised children will be able to write their exams after being witnesses to this?”

“No one is scared here,” says Zaid Manzoor, a motivational speaker from the area. “And we hope the Shaheen Bagh SHO (station house officer) is not that type. The police here will support us like they have for so long. They have also made a video that says there cannot be any Hindu-Muslim tension in Shaheen Bagh.”

Scanning the scene around him, he asks, “You tell me, do you feel any terror here? It is the safest protest site. The most peaceful. Lost youth have been waylaid by the RSS-Bajrang Dal to wreak such violence. Nothing of the sort has ever happened here. And will not happen in the future.” However, he does have reservations about the Supreme Court hearing being pushed as far as March 23. “Traffic is exacerbated because of Delhi Police barricades. If you remove them, there will be no clogging of roads.”

Says Shabina, a parlour owner: “Please do not make this a Hindu-Muslim issue. There is still enough brotherhood left between the two. These are orders from the top that the Delhi Police is just following. No, we do not need to lock our homes at night. There is no terror here. They say they are with us, but we have no faith in the police anymore. If they come inside, Shaheen Bagh will burn.”