Asifa’s Just Killers!

justice for asifa

The cry seeking justice for Asifa is becoming stronger and deeper. From Delhi to the United Nations, from social and civil rights organizations to civil society citizens, more and more people  are out on the streets shouting slogans and demanding justice for Asifa. The social media is parading her pictures, right from happier times to the horrifying end; protesters unfurl their respective banners and flags, and suggest varying degrees of punishment.  From Kathua to Delhi,  and in many other cities in the country, protest marches and candle light vigils are being carried out for Asifa. Children are also joining and participating the protests in large numbers. A woman officer in Delhi government has gone on a hunger strike on the issue of women’s security. She says that if Modi can carry out demonetization in one day ,  why can’t he show similar promptness in ensuring women’s safety? Beside the furor on the social media which is deluged with messages for justice for Asifa, newspaper columnists and intellectuals too are writing angry letters and articles demanding justice for Asifa. The gruesome news has shocked the international media too. The anger against the rape in Unnao had not yet  subsided when this incident of kidnapping, rape and murder in Jammu and Kashmir shook every conscience. Condemning the heinous crime of Kathua, the president of India has said that we all, as a society, should introspect “what kind of society we are developing into.”

Asifa, whose innocent  life  was snuffed by this act of barbarianism, did not know that there exists a real judicial system in the country, where great law-givers and judges and lawyers dispense justice on the basis of witnesses and evidences. She did not know about  the United Nations Organization (UNO) which also works to ensure justice for the citizens of the world.  Asifa did not know that governments mete out justice equivalent to  specific  sums of money handed out  to the parents of young girls like herself who are killed with such  gruesome violence. Asifa did not even know that fascism has arrived in the country, and that concerned  people  will later rue the fact  that her  fate was  the result of that fascism, and that true justice for her  consists in defeating those fascist forces. She perhaps wouldn’t have even dreamt that she was being ministered ‘Hindu justice’ in that temple. Asifa might have been ignorant about the tricolor that was hoisted by those nationalists who, in support of accused, marched from the courts to the streets,  brandishing their love for their country.

God knows how well Asifa register the simple fact that she was a Muslim. But she certainly did discover  in her eight- year old  life that hell is not placed in another world, it is right here , on this  earth – on a territory touted internationally as a paradise on earth. Before leaving the world she also learnt that Satan is not just the adversary of God, he also mauls tender limbed children.  What more justice will she hope for God to give her on the day of judgment?

If there is such a thing as soul or spirit, Asifa must surely be wondering  now, in absolute  amazement,  as to why only after her tortured end, have  so  many people and so many organizations suddenly become active and  jumped to her defense. Talib Hussain, the lone lawyer from her native village who protested against the horrific act  when her kidnapping and death first came to light, may not appear  so alone to her now. As a part of the infinite soul,  Asifa would marvel at how huge this country and the entire world is, and how full of debates and arguments, beset with beliefs and questions, riddled with attacks and counterattacks.

She would completely understand why  this world will not give her justice. Whatever justice is there in this system – social justice, economic justice, civil justice, human justice and child/juvenile justice – she has been kept away from  them all. Which is why it was so easy for her entire being to be thus trampled and crushed. She would understand that this passionate furor over justice for her would soon get cold. Another furor will swell and ebb with the next incident. She would understand, like other souls, that this swelling and ebbing is an everlasting process.

Asifa must be wondering why do these people pretend so much? What compels them to do so? But perhaps, it may be that they are genuinely disturbed. They are truly concerned. They want to usurp the entire share of Asifas and appear ‘just’ themselves. They want to tell themselves and the world that they are  not party to this savage mind set. They want to demonstrate that none of this is happening in their names. Souls perhaps have no hatred for anyone. So Asifa would smile and say “Just killers”!

Just  three  suggestions, if you deem them fit, towards  the fight for justice for Asifa. Firstly,  the national flag should not be used to support just any purpose. It should be used only for national programs. The 2014 decision of the Supreme Court, which allowed anyone, at any time for any reason, well within his rights to hoist the national flag,  should be revoked. Two, we learn to quiet down, and have more introspective, inner conversations with ourselves. Perhaps then we might understand that we all are  complicit and responsible in various ways for this situation. Three, the  RSS should understand that the Pandora’s box of ‘Hindutva’ that they’ve opened has no use for society, nation, civilization or human race – none at all. The nation’s politics, economy, education, culture – all  have  been almost taken over by corporate . Any organization feeding off the corporate powers can rise to power. But as long as human civilization survives, social and human ostracization, such as the kind that the RSS advocates,  will continue to find stiff opposition.

Asifa’s soul might find solace in this hope, and her parents and siblings might find the strength to bear the trauma. And  for the rest of the country’s citizens, the government and juridical system will do something, to calm down the agitation. They have to justify their existence. Two resignations of BJP ministers have been tendered in the Jammu and Kashmir government. Some court procedure or the other, too will happen in time .

Dr. Prem Singh, Dept. of Hindi, University of Delhi

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