Lite shower and a dense cloud engulfed the city of Delhi. People in the Rajya Sabha already recommended changing the name of the city from Delhi to Dilli. So many things are changing around us every day.
Every day we are becoming worried and stressed out, irritated and apologetic, unapologetic and confused, traumatised and vulnerable, progressive and dull. The changes are so frightening within us that the heinous crime cases like Unnao rape incident did not see any mass uproar across the country.
Thousand of people did not come out to protest across India after the car accident of the Unnao rape survivor which led to serious injury to the survivor, her lawyer and the death of two of her kin. Questions came up about BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s involvement with this accident. Sengar who is an ex-MLA is in police custody for the alleged charges of rape of this minor back in 2017.
The survivor earlier also lost her father who was allegedly killed by the supporters of Sengar. Everything happened in front of us, some people came out in protest but where is the mass agitation? The kind of uproar we saw in the Nirbhaya case which shook the Congress-led UPA government and also affected the Delhi government led by former and late Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit. The Congress party-led Delhi government lost in the polls too.
Are we less agitated now? Is the agitation restricted to our social media cries? Have we become lazy or are we so saturated with the news of deaths, murder and rapes that these incidents do not affect us anymore?
Yes, various rights groups, activists and students took the streets but where is the mass movement? When the Anna movement happened, whether you agree or disagree with their views but masses took to the streets. In the Nirbahaya protest, from young students to people from middle-class families came out to the streets.
Is The Majoritarian Regime To Blame For The Silence?
But now there is silence. Why is this silence so loud that it is taking everyone under its grip? Somewhere down the line, I feel that this is what a majoritarian and authoritarian regime does to people. The political machinery, propaganda and the social media army of the ruling regime are so strong that we are in a denial of facts. We are in a denial of hate crimes around us, lynchings and rape of a minor girl.
The minor rape survivor wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India two weeks before the accident describing how the police and her security personnel are threatening her to withdraw the case else she would be killed. After the accident, it seems that the security personnel might have been involved in this case along with the police.
The UP Government is allegedly protective of the accused, the Center has not taken any strong action, and the BJP did not publicly announce the suspension of Sengar; however, they claimed that he is being disqualified by the party. The Supreme Court was silent, however, the SC took cognizance of the letter after it was reported in the media and the accident took place, and the people are not out in streets in large numbers. Then why is India still be called a democracy? Just because we participate in polling that cannot be the only reason to call our nation democratic. When the pillars of democracy become silent, then only and only the people of the country can save the nation.
When political morality is dead, the judiciary is confused, the legislation is suffering from the one-party rule and authorities become biased then who will save the country? May people save the republic of India, that’s the hope we should all have and deliver.