Two years back a little girl, Asifa Bano, was abducted, raped and murderd in india, where the people are so keen on emphasizing their culture and moral values in everything from salt to camphor. The cold blooded murder of the young Muslim girl is and always will be a shame! The realities and the aftermath of this case will haunt a peace-loving patriotic Indian for ever.
In a democratic country, where every Indian has the right to travel and live whereever she wants, the killing of an 8 year old girl was a group’s plan of action to drive away the nomadic Bakarwals from the Hiranagar tehsil. How can somebody be so brutal, giving no compassion to a little girl just to protect their interests? The horrifying fact was that out of 7 culprits 5 were local Police officers and one was the head priest of the temple where the rape happened, In a place which is sacred and divine, a budding life was molested and murdered.
Now, let us turn the clock to our present time. Yes, in the year 2020 just before corona created a havoc on an international scale, something similar to Kathua happened, in the most educated state of Kerala.
In Palathayi, a 4th standard student was molested many times by her own teacher and was manipulated to stay silent. Due to severe pressure from the local communities, human rights activists and other groups, the culprit was arrested after a while.
Now, let us dig deep and there is some serious coincidence between the two cases that happened almost two years apart. When the case files travelled from Kashmir to Kerala, certain things remained identical. In both cases, the victims were Muslim girls. The first one happend in a temple and the other in a school. In both cases, the police and political parties were aggressive towards the one who suffered.
In Kathua, 5 police officers were arrested and 2 Bharatiya Janata Party ministers took part in protest against arresting the culprits.
In Palathayi, the culprit is a Bharatiya Janata Party local leader, who has been hiding with the support of other party members and police. The local investigating body was keen on turning the table in favour of the culprit and at some point, the police also wanted the girl to accuse her Madrasa Muslim teacher on the molestation charges.
If we analyse both the cases we could see the saffron colour of Muslim hatred and the silenciing of the media.
When the little girl was murdered in Kathua, it was never a matter of concern for the Modi media and Arnab never wanted the nation to know.
In Palthai, almost all the mainstream media were keeping the case on a low profile, except for Asianet News.
What remains is that India is called as the largest democracy in the world, something which which we are all proud of. However, for last few years the so called democratic government is hunting and organizing group attacks on minorities, especially Muslims and Dalits.
From For the People, By the People, Of the People,’ the slogan has now changed to:For the Government, By the Government and Against the People’.
I still remain as an optimistic person and I really hope and wish that our country will soon travel to a saner direction where the smiles of love and unity will be back forever…!
Aysha Abdhul Jaleel, is a student activist.
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