WHAT IS SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE IS NOT SAUCE FOR THE GANDER

186 people were killed, more than 1000 injured, in ethnic violence, aka communal clash in Indian parlance, Muslims were asked not to go to the mosques for Friday prayers; instead asked to pray at home, they were not allowed to mourn their dead; no public meetings were authorised to be held; and the government vows death for the killers and alleges Al Qaeda link to the protestors, besides naming “three forces” for the deadly violence (separatists, terrorists, extremists). Turkish Prime Minister described the violence as “genocide”; Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) found fault with the government of using “disproportionate force”. Iranian clerics were also quite vociferous in condemning the violence saying that the unprotected Muslims are being mercilessly suppressed. In Indonesia, Jakarta has become the focus of protests by militant Islamist groups.

You may be wondering when such is the extent of violence against Muslims attracting world wide attention and condemnation, why are the great champions of minority rights in India, i.e. the Left is maintaining discreet silence. Yes, there is a reason for it. The ghastly violence and suppression of Muslims took place not in India, but in China – mentor nation of the CPI-M. Probably, they think it is the internal matter of China, on the lines of invasion and consequent repression in Tibet which had the backing of Indian Left. Moreover, what is great about this when under Mao’s cultural revolution millions were butchered and still Mao is a great hero and humanist for our extra-territorial loyalists like Karats and Yechuris.

The ethnic unrest and consequent ghastly violence, as a result of prolonged suppression of people’s rights and discrimination, took place in the North West China – known as Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region which is a vast region bordering Russia, Central Asian Republics, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. It has abundant oil reserves. The region once belonged to East Turkey comprising of majority Muslims, an ethnic group called Uighurs. Expansionist China which had an eye on the region’s natural gas reserves invaded the country in 1949, just a year before it invaded Tibet and drove out the Tibetans who were given political asylum by India. Before invasion, Xinjiang was known as East Turkestan. The local language was Turkic.
As there has been uprising in Tibet now and then, on account of ruthless deprivation of civil rights for the local Tibetans, Xinjiang also has been a hotbed of ethnic tension between the Muslims (Uighurs) and the Han Chinese. After annexation of Xinjiang, China did not think of any provision like our Art 370 to protect the identity of Kashmiris; on the other hand, it completely changed the demography of the region by allowing migration of Han Chinese who are now in a majority in the capital of Xinjiang – Urumqi. Urumqi’s population is 2.3 million and a majority of them are Han Chinese who are ethnically, culturally and spiritually different from the Chinese. Chinese government did not allow any religious or cultural freedom to the Uighurs. Economically also, there is a wide gap between Uighurs and Han Chinese and the Uighurs are always discriminated in terms of employment.

In fact, the clashes started when Han Chinese workers protested against sexual assault on one of their workers in a toy factory killing 2 Uighur workers. That was the spark and when Uighurs staged a demonstration, Chinese armed police cracked down on them just like they did in Tiananmen Square. Perhaps, China was rattled by the uprising of Uighurs, bitten as they were by student protest in Tiananmen, and this forced the Chinese President Hu Jinto to skip G-8 and return to his country.

Like the Dalai Lama who has been in exile for nearly six decades and struggling to get freedom for Tibetans, exiled Uighurs also formed a number of groups for liberating their country from Chinese occupation. One such leading group is US-based World Uighur Congress (WUC) and led by Rebiya Khadeer. It is alleged that atleast one Uighur separatist organisation – East Turkestan Islamic Movement – has links with Al Queda. Naturally, the Chinese government branded all those demanding liberation to terrorist groups.

Linking the Uighur separatist groups to Jihadi organisations by China has given a new twist to the issue. China has always been maintaining friendly relations with Islamic nations whether it is Shiaite Iran or Sunni Saudi and notably with Pakistan just to spite India. China’s help to Pakistan to build its nuclear arsenal is an open secret. It is not that the Communist China has any love for Islam, but to take on the West, it has been nurturing Muslim countries. It has turned the other way when Jihadi terrorism has been plaguing the entire world.

Now that Al Queda has started threatening for the first time to target Chinese interests in retaliation to the killings of Muslims in Xinjiang, China wants the cooperation of foreign governments to track down the links between East Turkestan separatists and Jihadis. Interestingly, it also strongly urged the countries to stop “indulging and supporting terrorist groups”. Does this refer to Pakistan with which it has been maintaining economic and military cooperation as a strategic ploy to isolate India? China strongly believes that the Uighur separatist groups based in Pakistan had a role in the unrest in Xinjiang.

China also believes that what was witnessed in Xinjiang is not an ethnic problem nor a religious one, but the result of three evil forces and outside enemies. China,which has been insulated all these days from Jihadi violence, except for minor attacks last year, is now tasting Islamic terrorism on a massive scale if we buy the argument of China that Urumqi violence has the backing of Jihadists. Pakistan being the hub of Al Queda, it will be interesting to watch how any continued violence in the North West of China would impact China’s relations with Pakistan.
Even the West would like to watch the fun when China engages itself with Jihadis and Islamic nations and that is the reason West reaction to Xinjiang is very subdued.