Sad! Better to be a cow than a Dalit or Muslim today
In these times of unrest, it is better to be a cow or a pigeon than to be a Muslim or a Dalit, or anyone for that matter who eats meat. What is more, in times like these, the police, who have become the rag-doll puppet of the powers that be, are not busy chasing criminals, like rapists or the aides of dons, but are caught up with more meaty matters!
The latest in their rising roster of "immediate justice", that often does not even require the registration of an FIR, or any concrete evidence, is the storming of Kerala Bhavan in the tony area of the capital.
When I first caught the news, I thought perhaps it was because there was a bomb and lives were in peril, but these days its not bombs that gets quick action but what is being served on the menu.
Kerala Bhavan is known for its delicious buffalo meat, but these days there is another kind of "confusion" that appears to be prevalent.
A certain segment of society are mixing up all their animals and everything on four legs appears to be a cow to them… and they are crying bloody murder against anyone who is, well on two legs… perhaps it's time to revise the famous adage from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, "Four legs good but two legs better," to "Four legs fantastic two legs…not so good." (With due apologies, Orwell.)
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| A certain segment of society are mixing up all their animals and everything on four legs appears to be a cow to them. |
Jokes aside this rising paranoia over what people are eating and the rather shocking co-opting of the police by a lumpen lot of hooligans and politicians with their turbans in a twist is a serious issue that needs a stringent critique.
It is actually quite a relief to see the Delhi chief minister speaking up and calling a spade a spade, or in this instance, a buffalo a buffalo and not a cow!
On another level, the ludicrous prices of basic pulses has naturally out-priced these desirably pious food items for Indian’s poor, and when India’s poorer minorities attempt to find a cheaper and nutritious options they are brutally burnt, lynched, and essentially done away with, by "zealots" who are roaming the streets and rampaging with impunity.
The sentiment that appears to be currently prevailing in the country, especially in the Northern regions, of Harayana, Faridabad, Nahan, now the capital and rather predictably extending all the way to Kashmir appears hell-bent on bringing India to its communal knees.
It is rather inevitable to view the recent killing of Dalit children in this light. One was a hungry boy from Sonipat's Gohana town, all of 15 years old, who apparently died mysteriously at his home over the theft of a pigeon.
The family of the deceased, that found asphyxiation marks around his neck, was convinced that he died in police custody after they arrested the boy on the basis of reports made by the members of an aggrieved iron- smith’s community who "owned" the pigeon. It was only after an outraged rail roko (blocking trains with a human chain) by the family and concerned citizens, that two police officers have been arrested over this matter.
This follows shortly after the brutal and inhumane burning of two Dalit children in Sunped village in Faridabad. Once again in this incident the police proved to be unsympathetic and un-helpful to the aggrieved family.
Currently the issue is being investigated by a Special Investigating Team (SIT), which has been set up to probe the incident, according to Mohammad Akil, Haryana ADGP Law and Order. Both the parents of the deceased children are in a state of shock.
In fact the mother, was reportedly seen walking around in a daze with the two burnt bodies of her little ones while the father is trying to fathom how the group set fire to their home without being spotted by the police who were so slow in reacting that the perpetrators got away.
The lynching and death of a 20-year-old boy from Saharanpur transporting livestock is yet another incident where the police reached too late and a young boy had to lose his life. The villagers who lynched the four men driving the truck did so under the suspicion that the cattle were being transported to Uttar Pradesh to be slaughtered — similar to the rumour that led to the slaughter of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri.
While the near-sighted might click their tongues and call these stray incidents of already existing enmities, the truth is we are currently sitting on a communal time bomb. All these incidents have serious echoes of the genocide that followed in Gujarat after Godhra, where the complicity of the police and inaction of the government was most notable.
Naturally it raises one’s antennae to only expect more incidents like this to occur, unless a serious message is delivered by our PM. This is not the time for platitudes and talk of "progress" it might very well be the seeds of another spate of communal clashes.