Heba Ahmed
It’s been six months since Najeeb Ahmad was forcibly disappeared from JNU campus. In these 6 months, his family has known every humiliation which the Indian state and propaganda machinery is capable of. His mother, Fatima Nafees was dragged near India Gate, as she protested for justice. His relatives were harassed by the Delhi police who they barged into their house in the wee hours of the night. His brother and mother and well-wishers faced an FIR for undertaking an Insaaf rally in Badaun, his hometown. Najeeb himself has been made the victim of malicious propaganda peddled by mainstream media which is hell-bent on linking his disappearance to ISIS. Even Najeeb Jung, the Lt. Gov. of Delhi, spread rumors that Najeeb had been sighted in Darbhanga, a place known for its terror modules.
Meanwhile, the ABVP members who are guilty of lynching him have gone Scot-free. They have even received legal counsel from a senior advocate like Siddharth Luthra. The courts have soft-pedalled the entire case and have acquiesced in the derailment of investigation.
One can safely surmise that this country is no place for minority identities; even though people belonging to the minority are constantly hounded out, the crimes committed against them are never brought to justice. India’s Muslim minorities face a long unending chain of injustice, even after suffering grievous harm.
Heba Ahmed is a reserch scholar in Jawaharlal Nehru University
