16 October 2015

Season of Secular Outrage


    28 September 2015. Dadri, a dusty quiet place otherwise unknown outside Uttar Pradesh was thrust into limelight when 52 year old Mohammed Ikhlaq (Akhlaq) Saifi was murdered by a mob, that also seriously injured his son, 22 year old Danish. The immediate provocation apparently was an announcement made on the local temple's public announcement system that the family had killed a cow and consumed its meat on Eid-ul-Adha. As alleged, the mob arrived at his house late night and accused them of eating beef and storing the rest in their fridge. Even though the family insisted it was mutton, the mob didn't accept and dragged the family outside. Both Danish and Ikhlaq were subjected to repeated beatings and kicks. Ikhlaq succumbed to his injuries while Danish was badly injured, by the time the police could make it to the spot.

   Media was quick to pounce upon the story especially with Bihar elections round the corner. Channel after channel vied with each other to broadcast gory details, as sane reporting got kicked out of the window. Sensationalism to grab eyeballs was the name of the game. Just when Modi's BJP and its allies were seen as winning comfortably against the 'secular' alliance of Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad Yadav (and the Congress), the Dadri incident came as a shot in the arm for those looking to upset the PM's apple cart. The gleam in the eyes of journalists was more than apparent as #DadriLynching trended. Channel after channel spent exclusive prime time hours and beyond, debating on how India had suddenly become unsafe for minorities, just on the basis of one death. Ikhlaq suddenly became the new symbol of those desperately seeking to protect secularism from the Hindu right wing hate mongering BJP and, of course Modi. No one was interested in dousing the flames of passion and were instead more keen on pouring ghee of hatred to infuriate more. 

   Death, by any means, is bad. Nothing ever can justify killing of a human being except in self defence. However, exploiting the same death to try and further one's agenda merely turns you into a vulture, feasting on carcasses of unfortunate for sensationalism and self fortunes. While the media played their partisan role, could 'secular' politicians be far behind. Arvind Kejriwal, whose government was battling a horrible attack of dengue which had left hundreds dead in Delhi, left his governance in limbo and instead rushed to Dadri in an attempt to prove his pro-Muslim credentials.
  


The attack on PM was nothing new for someone who resigned from Delhi and stood for elections in Varanasi merely to prove how anti-Modi he really is. The attempt to garner sympathy from Muslims was nothing new too for Kejriwal whose single point agenda in life seems to be attempting to clamber upon the PM chair instead of concentrating on ruling Delhi, where the electorate had gifted him a thumping victory.

  If Kejriwal was playing beef politics, could Owaisi be far behind. He was critical of the police decision to test the meat since if it was proved it was not beef, as supposedly alleged by the mob while murdering Ikhlaq, his entire conspiracy theory would go for a toss. He was also critical of the state BJP for apparently fomenting trouble. Azam Khan's attempt to approach United Nations on apparent lack of safety for Muslims in "Modi's India" bordered on grave humour. Akhilesh Yadav, whose government was supposed to be actually responsible for maintenance of law and order, being the state CM looked on gleefully as both media and rival politicians instead laid entire blame on the PM's door step. Akhilesh could not have hoped for a better reprisal for failure of his own government in its basic requirement - governance. His only intervention in the entire affair was announcing ex-gratia compensation and photo-op with the bereaved family. 

Beef politics was highlighted by one and all as Dadri was politicised to unacceptable levels. Tweets and op-eds from 'esteemed' journalists talking about Talibanisation of India and how nation had been converted to a 'Hindu Pakistan' was in surplus supply. It was almost as if every other riot paled in the face of Dadri. Unimaginable, but true, but that was how news reports flew around. 
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/modi-may-have-called-dadri-sad-undesirable-but-us-is-not-impressed/1/499357.html

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/next-door-to-delhi-mob-kills-50-year-old-injures-son-over-rumours-they-ate-beef/

 http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/dadri-incident-a-wellplanned-conspiracy-says-report/article7731343.ece



 There were also the award returnees who linked their protests with the supposedly growing intolerance under Modi government which they said was "epitomised" by the Dadri incident. Journalists, secular politicians, 'reputed' writers, what more could India ask for. And of course who can forget 'eminent' personalities like Javed Akhtar, Shobhaa De, Farhan Akhtar... endless secularism on display! 

   The outrage might still have become acceptable if not for the reactions observed from the same clan following the death of a Hindu Anand Poojary in Mudbidri in Karnataka on 9 Oct 15, barely 10 days after the Dadri incident. Poojary was hacked to death by Muslims after he opposed illegal cow slaughter and transportation. None of the otherwise vocal media bothered to offer more than a few conveniently vague lines stating how a pro-right Bajrang Dal leader had been hacked to death by unknown persons for reasons "unknown". That the incident happened in Karnataka, ruled by Congress might have tipped the scales in ensuring non-reporting. Beef was the issue yet for the 'wrong' reasons as far as MSM journalists and seculars were concerned. No secular politicians including Kejriwal bothered to even talk about the issue, let alone visit the bereaved family. Journalists, had by then found a convenient story in the Sahitya Akademi returns to even bother to talk about Poojary's death. The outraged eminent personalities too suddenly developed sore throats, unable to even squeak in protest. Even the state CM did not bother to speak, let alone pay a visit.

    The irony could not be more apparent that a person is forced to be less-privileged merely for being a Hindu, that too in Hindustan.  Every secular (I prefer the more apt sickular) currently crying about how minorities are being ill-treated in India would only need to look at their own self and answer with complete honesty (alien to them) if that indeed is the reality. Pandering to certain communities merely because they vote enmasse and therefore could be termed as 'vote-banks' is an issue that needs to be checked, and immediately. True secularism, as enshrined in the Constitution, is equal rights for all irrespective of their faith and religion. What is practiced as secularism today is suppressing particular communities merely because they prefer to remain quiet and tolerate rather than revolt. Perceptions may not be complete reality, but a tilt in thinking that it really is, would only precipitate a crisis which would lead to even an unmanageable situation. 

 Food for thought...
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