With Mamman Khan’s arrest, BJP treads a tightrope, advantage Congress in Mewat

Since the violence in late July and early August, the BJP consistently accused Khan of of making incendiary statements that provoked the violence during a yatra organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal. Both CM Khattar and Home Minister Anil Vij have accused the Congress of “orchestrating” the violence, given Khan’s role. Khan, in an earlier petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking protection against coercive action, had accused the state government of “hijacking the investigation and taking it into a pre-conceived direction”.

This, in a nutshell, is likely to be the Congress’s line of attack going forward as per party leaders — that the BJP has made a scapegoat out of an elected representative from the minority community. Though top BJP leaders have not yet commented on either Manesar or Khan’s arrest, ruling party insiders suggest that they will go all out to blame the Congress for the violence. The party had squarely placed the blame on the Congress in the Monsoon Session of the Assembly that concluded on August 29.

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda told The Indian Express, “Right from the very first day, I had been demanding a judicial inquiry into the Nuh violence. The chief minister (Manohar Lal Khattar) said that there was a well-planned conspiracy behind the violence. I immediately reacted at the time and demanded that the government should get it inquired into through a judicial inquiry from a sitting judge of the High Court so that the entire conspiracy could be unveiled. I am not defending anybody or accusing others. All, I had been saying is that whosoever is the culprit should be brought to light and punished sternly as per the law.”

Asked about the government’s response that the state police was competent and had been conducting an impartial probe, Hooda said, “Their (government’s) functioning is evident from the fact that the home minister of the state (Anil Vij) had stated that he got to know about violence in Nuh at 3 pm that day and that too from a private person. The home minister does not have the CID (Intelligence) department and does not get to know what’s happening in the State. That is the state of affairs in Haryana and that is how this government is functioning.”

Haryana Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) arrested Mamman Khan in the early hours of Friday from Ajmer in Rajasthan. It came hours after Haryana’s Additional Advocate General Deepak Sabharwal informed the High Court that the police had “nominated” Khan as an accused in one of the FIRs registered in connection with the Nuh violence.

The FIR in which Khan has been named as an accused was registered on August 1. He is among the 52 people named. Of these people, 42 people have already been arrested. The police told the court that one of Khan’s close aides, Taufiq, was also among those arrested. Sources told The Indian Express that Taufiq, who was arrested on August 9, named Khan as one of his co-accused in the violence. The police also analysed the details of the calls between the two on July 29 and July 30. Based on these details, the police have accused the Congress MLA. Two police constables, Jai Prakash and Pradeep, have given statements claiming that on July 30 Khan was present at the spot where violence took place the following day.

The Congress MLA’s WhatsApp Status status and Facebook post on July 30 — “Nobody needs to worry as I had fought for you in the Vidhan Sabha and will fight for you in Mewat” — are also among the basis of his arrest. The police have also found another social media post by one Abdulla Khan, who is currently absconding, that read, “Engineer Mamman Khan MLA Mission complete.”