It’s an old aphorism that the biggest building that crumbles in the smallest earthquake is the one which had many small cracks that were never attended to. This is what the Nuh riots in Haryana show — the many cracks that have been ignored in the district and now have burst out as a riot that never happened in the history of the district. A public attack on police and its assets shows the anger that was rippling below the surface.
The district is sensitive not just because of being dominated by the Muslim population but also because of the influx of Rohingyas and radicalisation brought out by the Tablighi Jamaat. For the uninitiated, the Jamaat was founded in the district and has a deep connection with almost every masjid and madrassa. And this is what has changed the social structure or the rapid turn of the angst of the unemployed youth into anger towards the government and all it represents.
The rising influx of Rohingyas is not a recent phenomenon, it has been happening for the last many years. And successive district administrators have written about it to the state and Central government. Unfortunately, the Home Ministry has ignored these reports, while the state government is so poorly run that not much can be expected from it. The administration in the state government is so poorly managed that one IAS officer holds control over multiple departments, reporting to different ministries. It is assumed in the state of Haryana that a civil servant is capable of multi-tasking much better than any other state government, hence the state never fills its full quota of IAS officers. There were 117 IAS officers, 118 IPS officers and 247 odd HCS officers according to the last data available for Haryana. This gives a ratio of 1 officer for 2,17,834 citizens of Haryana, whereas geographically comparable states like Himachal Pradesh have 1 officer for 64,000 citizens. More importantly, a posting to Nuh is considered a punishment posting by everybody in the administration.
Hence, whether it is the DC, SP, or even the junior officers, nobody actually stays in the district. They generally leave on the weekend. Even when the riots happened, the SP was on a long leave and the DC was absent as he had left for home on Friday and did not come in time on Monday, July 31 when the riots or the Jal Abhishek Yatra took place. Now, smart alecks might say that even an IPS officer deserves his leave but whoever approved his leave should have considered that the most sensitive religious procession in the year is going to happen during this leave period. Therefore, the police force did not have direct leadership on the ground to take quick decisions to control the crowd. The administration head was missing and by the time he came back to the district, the worst had already happened. This is not an isolated incident of administrative failure, it is a crack that runs through the system and becomes visible only when disaster strikes. It goes to the top about how sincere the system is about solving the citizens’ problems or whether it is busy pandering to the political masters. And the politicians have still not learned how to manage the administration.
There is a perception about the district built by the administrators in Gurgaon — that it is a den of criminals. This is a symptom of a bigger problem — the huge population of unemployed youth in the district that is falling prey not just to criminal activities but also to radicalisation by Jamaat or Rohingyas.
The Nuh district is dominated by a backward population of Meos, a native tribe also referred to as Khanzade, as they were Rajputs who converted to Islam in the 17th century. The area is hardy, scarcity of water is endemic and overall development on all parameters is low. The demographic change being ushered in by the entry of Rohingyas will push the district towards an abyss. Whether this is happening because of the Tablighi Jamaat or is being facilitated by them is not known. The Tablighi Jamaat, which was founded in Nuh, has been expanding its presence globally and may be facilitating the entry and settlement of the Rohingyas in the area.
The congregation of the Rohingyas along with the Tablighi Jamaat followers does not augur well for the security of NCR. The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan looking for ideological continuance in the region will also find resonance with the Rohingyas. Their entry into the border areas with Bangladesh has already created a nuisance. Moreover, a base so near the NCR creates a security nightmare for the country. While the government is working to curtail entry or help Myanmar manage its affairs better to reduce this migration, there is an immediate need to monitor, control and isolate these migrants so that they do not infiltrate and establish roots within and around the NCR.
Since its inception, the Centre for Innovation in Public Policy has been working in Nuh to study the impact of national and state policy on the ground. This has given CIPP the benefit of witnessing not just political change but also social change. CIPP’s model of research involves building and working on policy changes beginning from the district level right up to the Union government level.
The changing demographics in a backward district so close to the NCR need the attention of both the Home Ministry and the National Investigation Agency (NIA). This is not an issue that can be tackled by the state government or even the state police. They are neither equipped to understand the challenge nor possess the resources to do much about it.
Due to the lack of any infrastructure in the district to identify or segregate Rohingya migrants, they have started building their houses on government or panchayat land, and a process of integration with villages has started. This integration will sooner or later result in marriages and even purchasing land. Some of the enterprising migrants have opened shops, abattoirs, and other commercial outlets on national highways. These outlets are recognisable as they are constructed using bamboo that is not grown in the area but has to be shipped from the country’s east.
The visible presence of Rohingyas, a poor district administration and a lack of IAS officers have all contributed to the state of affairs in Haryana. And the change can start from anywhere but it has to start immediately unless the government wants the unemployed youth in this district to become a menace in the capital or a cause for national incidents.
K Yatish Rajawat is a public policy researcher and works at the Gurgaon-based think and do tank Centre for Innovation in Public Policy (CIPP). Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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