Dear Indians,
Or should I say ‘Dear Hindu’ or ‘Dear Muslim’ or something like that?
I am ashamed that I am forced to write this letter today. We have stooped so low that we cannot protect even an 8-year old child. Ironically, if I line up the accused, the protector is one among them!
Okay. For a moment, let’s forget everything else. The crime has been committed. No force in this universe can reverse time and bring Asifa back to us (and I don’t think she would want to come back, either). Why are there protests against the accused being arrested? I can understand the communal protests to a certain extent. But the Jammu Bar Association is defending the accused and has threatened Asifa’s lawyer Deepika Singh Rajawat? WHAT? Don’t Indian Law schools teach logic to their students? You do not let the girl the justice she deserves. In what way has an innocent child harmed you, that you murder her in such a cruel fashion? By supporting the murderers, do you even realize that you are all partaking in the crime itself – that you all have fallen so low that your conscience can’t prick you enough to care about a child?
While wars are being fought on basis of class, creed, and color, we all forget – Asifa was an 8-year-old girl. A girl CHILD was raped, allegedly because someone wanted to silence the ‘minority’ community and drive them out of a locality where the ‘majority’ stay. India prides on its progress towards ‘modernity’. But where has this modernity gone when its daughter was raped, and justice is being delayed based on her caste? Am I proud to be an Indian anymore?
Right. We talked about THE case. Now, let’s talk about why this happening – As all this happens, there isn’t one discussion about the ‘male gaze’ and prevention of rape, for we have to fear not only for ourselves but also for our children now. And oh yes, let’s not even talk about male abuse. No, don’t get me started. No one cares, right?
I can’t believe I have had to say this – I want to put this request. Yes, we are Hindu, Muslim, Kashmiri, Delhitie, Assamese, or whatever. But aren’t we Indian first? Didn’t we, INDIA, drive the British out around 70 years ago? Above all that, aren’t we HUMAN too? Doesn’t it fall on us that when one of our own kind has been wronged, we need to stand together and fight it?
This is a request – Let’s be human first. Please. Let’s work together to get at the wrongdoers like we did when we drove the British out of India.
Regards,
A concerned citizen of what he can hopefully call ‘INDIA’.