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Farewell, sweet Faizal

Nupur Basu

The youth's death in police firing in Bangalore mocks the very system we live in, one in which children are being made victims of adult xenophobia.

AFTER 48 hours of uncertainty about his identity, the innocent victim of police firing over the weekend in Bangalore, a 12-year-old boy, was finally identified and buried. His name was Faizal. He was an orphan.

For 24 hours no one came forward to identify the dead boy as his small frame was kept in the morgue in one of the city's oldest public hospitals. Iconic Bangalore with its enterprising $8 billion IT turnover and neon lights of the BPO industry had again become the playground of communal frenzy. And the police, in a bid to quell "rioting mobs," found a vulnerable target in Faizal, working for a living in a tea shop, say some and in a carpenter's shop, according to others. The fact of the matter was that he was a poor working child.

Why and how the barrel of the gun zeroed in on this innocent child shall remain unanswered. Already scarred emotionally by the loss of his mother and father at such a tender age and also having to work for a living in one of India's most expensive and busy cities, Faizal represents the powerless whose death is just a national statistic during riots. Indeed Faizal had already been forgotten even as he was given a burial under heavy police bandobast.

Yet his death raises issues that our society and the media must confront if we want to call ourselves a vibrant democracy. Faizal's death in police firing mocks the very system we live in, one in which children are being made victims of adult xenophobia. Where a police force that can neither predict nor contain anti-social and communal outbreaks aims its authority at helpless children, old people, and women. Where civil society remains unmoved merely because the victims are poor and powerless.

The killing of a young Brazilian, Jean Charles De Menezes, by the police in the aftermath of the London underground terror attack in 2005 dominated mainstream media headlines for weeks and months on end in the United Kingdom. The British media, instead of indulging in open or veiled xenophobia against the alleged involvement of "home grown Muslim terrorists," lost no time in questioning their government on how and why an innocent man had been shot down. Media, civil society, and the judiciary joined hands to put the police and the government in the dock for the loss of one innocent life.

In India, police excesses are becoming an embarrassment for governments. Such excesses often have the blessing of some sections of the political class and civil society. Take the instance of the 28-year old youth from Kashmir, Tariq Ahmed Dar, who was named a suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba operative by the Special Cell, Delhi. Tariq had been detained on October 25, 2006, in Delhi on his arrival from Dhaka where he had been on modelling assignments after winning the "Mr Bangladesh" crown. Bail was denied as the police wanted time to file the final charge sheet. He languished in Tihar Jail for 90 days and was finally released on Wednesday as the police failed to file a charge sheet.

Hopefully, Tariq will be allowed to live like a free citizen of India once again.

As for little Faizal, there is no second chance.

The finality of his death can only haunt our conscience. Farewell, sweet Faizal.

(The writer is a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker.)

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