Police sirens echo the bylanes of Batla House every evening at 11:30 pm, sharp. It is a threat, rather than an alarm to the residents of one of the largest Muslim Ghetto in the country. Following the sirens, there’s deafening shrill of shutters being closed, light being switched off and alert customers who try to escape the police gaze. In few minutes, the street is deserted and an overt curfew prevails in the dead hours of the night.
“Nobody in the area wants to mess with the police, you aren’t going to win in any case”, laments a resident who has been running a juice shop in the street for decades. He adds, “Also we are Muslims, you know what it means”. His silence answers his concern.
The silence of the shop owners and the streets in the wee hours of the night reverberates the evening of September 19, 2008 when two students of Jamia Millia Islamia living in Batla House were killed in their apartment, accused of being terrorist. The third accused Shahzad, according to Police claims escaped during the encounter. He was arrested later.
Mohan Chand Sharma, Police Inspector who led the encounter was killed in the encounter, while a constable was injured.
Many believe that the encounter was fake and the two two students of Jamia Millia Islamia were ‘falsely accused’ of terror charges. Jamia Teahers’ Solifarity Association, challenged the Police narrative. Questions were raised on why the students weren’t arrested, Why the Inspector didn’t wore a bulletproof jacket or How did Shehzad escape from the apartment when there was just a single exit.
More than a decade later, a movie “Batla House” directed by Nikkhil Advani to be released on this Independence Day in August tries to recreate the encounter. The trailer of the movie reads, “Inspired by true events labelled as untrue” casts John Abraham, a police officer on a heroic mission risks his life to eliminate the terrorists in Batla House. The trailer opening with bullet shots whizzling from both the sides shows a ‘good’ police officers and a ‘Bad Muslim’ brainwashed into terrori. The movie weaves a narrative which reiterates a conception that an encounter is the last resort in such cases.
John Abraham has made movies like D-Dday, Airlift, Madras Cafe and Force, which delves into a similar narrative where he acts as a Police officer on a duty save his country from terrorists.
The movie comes at a time when a similar hate against a minority community is being resonated in the country. The Muslim minority is believed to susceptible terrorist and indoctrinated from militant Islam, a view that is being portrayed by the right wing hindu majoritarian forces in the country. The movie serves the similar purpose showing “A terrorist Muslim”, which is anti-national, ferocious and needs to be eliminated for larger good.
Many articles, reports and books have been written for and against the encounter. Neyaz Farooqui in his memoir, writes about how the incident made every Muslim a ‘suspect’, their identity being alienated. For the thousands of Jamia students living in the locality, the encounter was seen as an incident which could be reverbated on any one.
What purpose does the movie ‘Batla House’ serve then? Since the encounter, there were demands by the University Teachers, Lawyers and Human Right Activists for an enquiry into the encounter which was never met. Since the encounter, there have been several raids, arrests and surveillance in the area. The area famous for its non-vegetarian cuisine does not have a single brand outlet, not a single private bank or a post office. Still, lakhs of Muslim prefers to stay in the infamous area for their security.
For the teenagers studying at the university, the incident remains a distant reality, but the repercussions are more subtle and covert. Every year in September a section of students takes out a short march in protest of the encounter they believe was fake. For the other larger section, the issue is discussed in hushes and whispers. When asked about whether the students should against the narrative shown in the movie, one of the former students remarked, “Controversies which I am sure people from Jamia are going to create, will give it headlines” making the movie more popular. While the other gave a blunt remark saying, “Countering people with facts doesn’t help now”.
Meanwhile, movie isn’t going to change anything for better or worse. Just that the remark from outsiders, following the question- ‘Where do you live?’ ‘Oh Batla House, jaha encounter hua tha? (Where the encounter took place?)- is to be heard more often.
The Other 