Looks India is high on the weed of Hateriotism, every day there is one incident of Hate crime getting reported on social media but unfortunately, it gets comfortably ignored by the media in the mainstream.
Saw one of the most horrific & depressing videos from #Assam. Where a Muslim poor man who wanted to save his land and home protested against the police force by just having a stick in his hand for his self-protection and ran behind them. When he must be knowing, he cannot do anything against the heavy forces deployed to take away the lands of the poor people.
But in response Police had used excessive force to put him down, by firing at him from point-blank range. Which is a deplorable act by police by all standards. It is against Human rights too. He could have been controlled by other means too.
The incident did not get over here but it was outrageous to see a photojournalist called Bijoi Bonia, who was accompanying the police force had jumped on the dead body of a poor man to express his hatred towards him. He was seen stomping over the dead body.
He’s just not one man who was found doing this dreadful act but he symbolises every person who is full of hatred for minorities & in disguise are bloodthirsty lynchers who give open support to Right-wing ideology political groups.
If allowed to harm Muslims, they can go to any extent.No low becomes too low for them to touch.
I believe we need to be mindful of every hatred group supporter, from now on.
And as if a Right-wing mobilised terror group was not enough in the form of lynchers that we now have #MediaLynchers on the ground. Many already have been lynched by the mad crowd in the name of a holy cow.
Earlier the Muslims were targeted from newsrooms by procreating fake news, they were painted grey every day in their debates and news reports.
As far as I think I’m right the hatred agenda was launched for Indian Muslims some 7 years back by asking them to prove their nationalism and to openly express dislike for Pakistan.
Then Mughals and Muslim rulers were painted murky. They turned on to rewrite history to suit their agenda.
After that, all Muslim centric issues right from what they eat, drink, celebrate, what they wear, how they marry, give divorce( Talaq), study or practise Islam was started being discussed in the newsrooms.
Spreading Islamophobia became their purpose of existence. The media instead of becoming a strong pillar of democracy, became a vulture that started surviving on the blood of Muslims.
The majority of Muslim states like Jammu and Kashmir were denied their human rights. Article 370 was abrogated which gave them special status in Independent India. Their rights to express themselves was hijacked by bigoted leaders. The state was turned into open jail by the govt. The internet was snapped for about a year to not let the stories of trauma and agonies reach the world.
And sold out media instead of bringing up stressful stories of people facing the hardships of a complete clampdown imposed by the govt was engaged in patting the back of PM and Home minister for taking a historic decision. A decision that was suffocating the lives of millions.
If that was not enough new laws like NRC/CAA were being documented to make the Indian Muslims stateless.
To turn them into second class citizens. To take away their land, their wealth, their position, power, nationality and respect in case they couldn’t prove through their official papers that they & their forefathers were citizens of this nation.
The Muslim universities & Madarsa were targeted. Not even the small children of Madarsa were spared. We live in a country where religious places like mosques were vandalised & the Supreme court was seen giving judgement on the Babri Mosque demolition to satisfy the emotions of the majority knowing that the Demolition of the mosque was an illegal act. The culprits faced no punishment by the law on the pretext of appeasing the majority.
Add to the misery when Religious groups of people like Tabliqi Jamat were depicted as villains by these sold out media journalists during covid times and were labelled as “covid spreaders” by them to bring bad names to the Muslim community. And the same media went silent when Covid second wave became lethal and took millions of lives due to ignorance of govt, due to election rallies taken out in West Bengal. When Maha Kumbh Mela was sponsored by the UP govt due to which the covid wave reached its peak.
Also not to forget Delhi riots which were organized by state-sponsored machinery, where police were playing a hand in glove with the terrorist-like groups to gun down Muslims. To set ablaze their homes. To lynch and repress them.
With that when the voices of sane Muslim scholars, students, activists started exposing their plan, they were persecuted severely through law enforcing agencies.
Each time it was made sure by them, the Muslims were afflicted with pain and suffering harshly.
It’s arduous to fight a govt whose ideology is to spread hatred agenda.
It’s impossible to fight a govt that legalises illegality.
It’s troublesome to stand against the morally corrupt system.
It’s painful to see them oppressing the minorities, for electoral gains.
#Mediatrials from the newsroom poisoned every mind. Rwanda like news channels left no stone unturned to make the social fabric of the nation weak.
Media trials now look outdated, presently #MediaLynchers are the fresh ones in #NewIndia under PM Modi as we saw in #AssamEpisode today.
We need to #Name_And_Shame such people wearing the mask of journalists, police forces or security personnel or political leaders who believe in endorsing the hatred agenda rather than doing their job honestly.
No doubt we the Indian society have come too far on the path of animosity that we have stopped seeing things from the prism of humanity, justice and morality.
Those virtues have been paralysed in many of us, we have become impassive to sensitive emotions. Till the time one is in their comfort zone, never thinks of raising the voice of justice for the weaker section. Besides, that media itself had instilled seeds of negativity and despise against the minorities in such a way that every person from the majority feels that “Hindu and Hinduism is in danger because of Muslims”.The way they loathe minorities is now a reason for the international disgrace which have been earned by our country.
No wonder we are called a morally dead society currently.
It’s said_”Behind every successful man, there’s a woman behind”
Similarly “Behind every #Islamophobic and hatred spewing agenda person in India there’s a saffron, Savarkar ideology admirer”, I believe.
#Hateriotism is the new drug, given by today’s govt to keep the people intoxicated, so that they have no time to question the govt on real issues like Poor Economy, GDP fall,unemployment rise, poor handling of covid, scams like #Pegasus, #Rafale, #PMCaresFund, Demonetisation, Selling of PSU’s, China intrusion, Drug deal,Pulwama terror attack reality etc. etc.
They have one modus operandi to deal with all their ghosts and that is to give air to the “Religious disparities”.
We seriously need to pause, reflect & reanalyze our path as a nation which at the time of independence believed in the Equality of all human beings irrespective of any religious, regional or physical boundaries.
The nation, which had earned its glory, respect and remarkable identity on the world map because of its unity in diversity ideology is losing its charm, its beauty and unique individuality due to the rising intolerance, bias, prejudice & bigotry. Which is new normal.
Silence is not the answer to this intolerance, as it’s the sign of silent approval to such incidents of hate or it’s the sign of denial mode. Denial to acknowledge the illegality done through legal procedures. Neither saying “I believe in staying apolitical ” is justified here.
Because when the politics of the land becomes ruthless & political leaders become oppressors and intrude upon the personal vicinity of the person, it becomes the duty of every citizen to show them the door for their exit. The Nazi rule should be repudiated by all standards.
Therefore, the solution could be found out in the rejection of hatred agenda by all of us together, by raising voices of dissent in our capability by any means possible.
Remember, the cost of hatred is high to pay for everyone. And they will not just come after one community or religion but whosoever will come in the way of their criminal, selfish, ambitious motives will have to pay the price by getting oppressed by them. As we had already seen how activists of the majority group, leaders of the opposition, students, Farmers or any common man who stood against their policy was legally mishandled.
Rise and awake, make a call for justice before it’s too late.
Remember what Rahat Indori an Urdu poet said in one of his couples_”लगेगी आग तो आएंगे घर कई जद में, यहां पे सिर्फ हमारा मकान थोड़ी है’
“Lagegi aag to, aayengey Ghar Kai zad mey, yaha pe Sirf humara makaan thori hai”
Meaning: If there will be a fire, then all the houses in the line will get affected by it, there’s not alone my home there.
Arshi Alvi @Arshi7Khan: Independent writer/blogger, Poet, Associated with Bazm_e_Urdu_Dubai
Twitter handle : https://twitter.com/Arshi7Khan?s=08
