What is happening to us? Where are we going as a nation? When did religion become the most ‘legitimate’ reason to slaughter people? Which God teaches us to kill people because we think it is right? In the name of the cow, in the name of love and in the name of simply anything – people from different parts of the country are lynching people, slaughtering them and they even have the guts to record videos and post them on social media.
I am a Hindu Brahmin (mentioning this to give perspective to non-secular people, who may assume that I am an ‘anti-Hindu’) and I as a matter of fact, I am aware that my God does not teach me this. Krishna preaches us to keep doing good to other people, without expecting any returns. Is this how we are practicing good?
The recent incident in Rajasthan is something beyond crime. It is cold-blooded murder and I believe that the criminal needs to be hung till death, at this very moment. I don’t understand how some people can feel that this killing was justified. I keep wondering about why we need years of investigation and wastage of so many judicial hours, on something that is so black and white. Why does Prime Minister Narendra Modi keep absolutely mum on hate crimes like this? Generally, he does have a lot to say, tweet and discuss. But, what happens when the country really needs to hear what he has to say?
Statistics suggest that more than 85% of people killed by cow vigilantes since 2010 are Muslim and over 97 % attacks have happened during Modi Sarkar. More than 120 people have been injured in cow attacks – most of which (approximately 52 %) have been based on rumors.
Another absolutely absurd phenomenon that has become more prevalent since the BJP came into power, is the xenophobic and myopic concept of ‘Love Jihad’. The criminal, Shambu Lal Regar, who coldly murdered migrant laborer Mohammed Afrazul in broad daylight, and posted the video on social media pleads that he was ‘rescuing‘ a Hindu woman from love jihad. I ask, even if she was in love with him, would it have been okay to kill someone for it?
What is sadder that we as a nation have become insensitive to all the wrong things. The debate around a movie and its history (“Padmavati”) offends us, but the news of a man being killed like this is just everyday news to us.
Why don’t we react when we have to? Why don’t we take a stand where we should? Till when are these cases going to continue happening? For two days, these stories trend on twitter and are debated on prime time TV, and then on the third day, a star kid appears at an airport wearing a cute hat and a story as important as this gets lost.
But, till when?