AK Kareem is a lawyer and an author. He is part of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association and was an eyewitness to the communal violence in Coimbatore in 1997 and 1998.
He published Thaalidappatta kathavugal which literally translates to Bolted Door in December 2016 and the stories are accounts of people who suffered during the violence in 1997 and 1998. Outlook met him in Coimbatore to talk about the riots and his experience.
Coimbatore has since then become a gateway to the south for BJP and this election it will be very interesting to see how things playout for this constituency.
#LokSabhaElections2024 #Elections2024 #BJP #INDIABloc #TamilNadu #Coimbatore #ReportersGuarantee
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He published Thaalidappatta kathavugal which literally translates to Bolted Door in December 2016 and the stories are accounts of people who suffered during the violence in 1997 and 1998. Outlook met him in Coimbatore to talk about the riots and his experience.
Coimbatore has since then become a gateway to the south for BJP and this election it will be very interesting to see how things playout for this constituency.
#LokSabhaElections2024 #Elections2024 #BJP #INDIABloc #TamilNadu #Coimbatore #ReportersGuarantee
Follow us:
Website: https://www.outlookindia.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Outlookindia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outlookindia/
X: https://twitter.com/Outlookindia
Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaNrF3v0AgWLA6OnJH0R
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OutlookMagazine
Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/outlookindia
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:05 No, I just wanted to know about the book that you wrote and why you wrote that book.
00:10 Is it too deep?
00:12 So, basically...
00:14 Why I write the book? That's the question.
00:17 Without the memories or...
00:19 How long did it take you and why did you come up with the idea of the book?
00:23 Why did you write it?
00:24 Yes, yes. Okay, right.
00:26 In 1997, there was a big riot in Coimbatore.
00:31 I was studying +1 when that riot happened.
00:34 In that 97 riot, about 19 poor Muslims came.
00:41 The RSS team here and the police were murdered with great support.
00:48 The reason for that is...
00:50 A police officer named Selvaraj from Coimbatore was murdered.
00:55 The murder was planned to torture all Muslims in Coimbatore.
01:05 About 19 people were killed.
01:10 In February 14, 1998, there was a bomb blast.
01:17 The reason for the bomb blast is...
01:19 The big murders that happened in 1997...
01:25 They were not given justice.
01:27 All Muslims were talking about it.
01:30 If they didn't get justice, the police and the commission...
01:34 They didn't take action against the murderers.
01:37 When there was a big ruckus...
01:39 Some Islamic youths and some people...
01:42 They all joined together and did the 98 bomb blast.
01:45 After that, if you go to Coimbatore and other places...
01:51 Muslims are now a isolated group.
01:58 They are in a state of oppression.
02:01 This big ruckus...
02:05 It is not even mentioned in Tamil literature.
02:09 It is not even mentioned in Tamil literature.
02:12 Why did it not get published in Tamil literature?
02:15 This is also a big ruckus.
02:17 I went to the field and learned a few things.
02:22 I collected some things.
02:24 I brought it as a book called 'Thaalida Pattai Kadavugal'.
02:29 The next question I had was about Coimbatore.
02:36 You had mentioned earlier that the tensions started in 1980.
02:41 Nobody ever calculated that it would become this way.
02:44 Now you are seeing the impact of...
02:46 Coimbatore becomes the gateway for the other ideologies to enter.
02:50 At that time, the Dravidian ideology was running out.
02:53 What mistakes they made and now...
02:55 How PGP...
02:57 Why is Coimbatore becoming so interesting?
02:59 Left stronghold...
03:01 Then you have the Dravidian parties.
03:03 They have been doing all kinds of things.
03:05 There was a little chink in the door.
03:07 That's how they are...
03:08 Out of fire there.
03:10 Exactly.
03:12 From the 80s onwards, in Coimbatore...
03:17 There was a lot of movement in front of the temple...
03:20 In front of the mosque, they were throwing stones.
03:24 Similarly, in the form of Vinayagar Sathruthi...
03:29 They were throwing stones at the Islamic community.
03:33 There were small issues.
03:36 At that time, the Hindu Monani organization was completely...
03:40 They were spreading the word of Islam.
03:43 They were spreading the word of Islam.
03:46 They were spreading the word of Islam.
03:49 There were small problems for Muslims and the Hindu Monani team.
03:55 But the left parties here...
03:59 Let it be the Dravidian movement...
04:02 They were trying to fix it.
04:06 Sometimes they try to fix it.
04:09 But more than that...
04:11 The RSS team was very careful about not letting it get fixed.
04:16 They were careful about how to make it a big problem.
04:21 As soon as Selvaraj was murdered in 1997...
04:25 They used it as a big opener.
04:29 They created a big ruckus in Coimbatore.
04:33 The left parties and the Dravidian movement...
04:37 Even if they try to fix it...
04:40 They are not ready to fix it.
04:43 They are very careful about not letting it get fixed.
04:47 Now we have come to this juncture.
04:52 Now there are 26 assembly elections.
04:55 You have an alternative by the act of BJO.
04:58 But BJP has also become an alternative.
05:01 They are not in alliance with smaller parties.
05:04 What does that look like?
05:06 What about the Vanadhi Srinivasan?
05:08 Now we have the 2026 assembly elections.
05:11 The BJP has become a threat party.
05:16 What will the future bring?
05:19 There is a lot of rural and industry problems.
05:22 There is a lot of discontent.
05:25 They are presenting economics as an alternative.
05:28 BJP will remove corruption.
05:30 BMK has all these corruption charges.
05:33 What do you see for minorities in this volatile situation?
05:39 Where do the minorities go?
05:41 Are we saturated with the Dravidian ideology?
05:44 Are we tired of it?
05:46 Is that why BJP has become a threat party?
05:48 We will develop the industry by making corruption.
05:51 We will give labour employment.
05:53 Is that why the Dravidian ideology has been lost?
05:57 Is that why they are becoming a threat party?
06:00 The Dravidian ideology is not lost in Tamil Nadu.
06:06 The Dravidian ideology and government have brought some benefit to all houses.
06:13 Tamil Nadu has a unique character for almost 2000 years.
06:24 That character is that all communities should live together.
06:29 The Tamil people are very clear about the ideology of the party.
06:41 BJP should be called a third party.
06:46 BJP will never be a third party.
06:49 In the last assembly election, they had an alliance with ADMK.
06:53 They have taken 4 MLA seats.
06:55 If they had not had an alliance with ADMK, they would not have had even 1 MLA.
06:59 If BJP stands alone in a city like Coimbatore,
07:03 they cannot even take a single councillor seat.
07:05 That is the practical problem.
07:08 If you are in third place, you can even join the Nam Thamizlar Seeman party.
07:13 If Vijay comes, he can come in third place.
07:17 But if you are in a place where Tamil Nadu can rule,
07:21 there is no chance that other parties will come in 10-15 years.
07:29 Last question is, there are a lot of people in prison now.
07:36 Is there any compensation or justice?
07:39 No.
07:40 Another thing is that you are a lawyer and you have this justice.
07:47 Do you think justice is right?
07:50 The riots that happened after the bomb blast, the innocent people who went to jail,
07:57 if there is any compensation from the government, nothing will come.
08:02 In some places, they arrange for a cycle or an auto rickshaw to go to jail.
08:10 They arrange for an iron box to keep the ironing board.
08:14 These are the small things that the government has done.
08:20 But the compensation and compensation for the people who were affected is not done by both parties.
08:29 The demand has been there with the Islamist people until now.
08:35 But they did not take it.
08:37 Even though the two Ravidan movement parties were here,
08:44 if justice was served, it is true.
08:47 You mentioned in my conversation before also,
08:51 you were there in that Dargah,
08:54 a young boy, the first 97 more riots that happened.
09:00 If you can talk a little bit about how it affected you,
09:04 what happened and how it has impacted your entire life.
09:08 Who you became, what you became.
09:10 I told the story shortly.
09:13 In 1997, my grandmother passed away.
09:19 Her 46 days of life was spent in the Dargah of Junglepeet.
09:25 The day before that, Selvaraj's murder happened.
09:28 The RSS team was saying that a big riot was happening in Coimbatore.
09:35 When that was happening,
09:37 about 50-60 of our relatives were gathered in the Dargah of Junglepeet.
09:44 When we found out that the RSS group was rioting everywhere,
09:49 we told everyone to close the Dargah.
09:52 There were many people inside.
09:54 Behind the Dargah, there is a Muslim colony.
09:58 There is a gate there.
10:01 They were breaking the door.
10:04 When they were breaking it,
10:06 they were throwing the children on a wall.
10:09 They were saying that they have to save the children first.
10:12 They were sitting on the wall and throwing the children.
10:16 They saved the children first.
10:18 All the men escaped.
10:20 Only two of them were hiding inside.
10:23 The men were afraid that they would be killed.
10:26 So they broke the door and came inside.
10:29 The women were sitting with the men in a black hat.
10:34 They were standing there and crying that there were no men here.
10:40 They were saying that only women were here.
10:43 They were hiding and went inside.
10:45 They had kept food on the stove.
10:49 They were throwing everything on the stove.
10:53 They burnt the two wheelers inside the Dargah.
10:57 They burnt all the flower shops inside the Dargah.
11:02 Then they left.
11:04 It was a direct incident that happened in my family.
11:08 The impact of that incident,
11:11 the impact of the riot against Muslims,
11:14 the impact of the Muslims' isolation,
11:16 the mental state of the school and college students,
11:20 the mental state of the school and college students,
11:23 the mental state of the school and college students,
11:26 is what we are seeing.
11:28 [music]