Wednesday, October 7, 2015

BJP and the 'holy' cow

The Indian media is in celebration mode as they have got the much needed 'communal-violence' to report.It was an attack on one family and one man was brutally killed. So many people gets killed daily.Incidents of communal violence has been happening throughout the nation for a long time. Still the recent Dadri incident is something special.With Bihar elections fast approaching, pre-poll surveys showing positive sign for BJP and more importantly as the victim is a Muslim, this incident is more important to media. Usually I don't give much importance to such incidents, but this time even I am forced to write a second blog post on this incident.

The news channels has long back lost its credibility. Anyone, who is active in social media(especially twitter or facebook),would have understood about the news channels and their intentions. The behavior of some channels makes me think whether they are funded by some 'external forces' to create unrest in India.Media is known for its biased stand.If the victim happens to be a Muslim/Christian, media will work overtime and will send a message to the entire world that 'Muslims/Christians are not safe in India. Hindus are extremists. RSS/BJP is behind every communal incident.' 2 years ago, a woman was gang raped in Karaikkal. Allegedly, the rapists involved were Muslims and people close to VCK(Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi - a party which claims to be working for the upliftment of Dalits). That was a horrible incident. The incident was not given importance. Because the victim was a Hindu,she didn't have a strong background and more importantly the people involved in the crime were allegedly Muslims. This is Indian media for you.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/Ramadoss-Gives-Caste-Twist-to-Karaikkal-Rape/2013/12/31/article1974414.ece

Anyway this blog post is not about the biased media, it is about the irresponsible behavior of BJP. I am not associated with any political party. I am just a common man, while am able to understand how the media will twist an incident and give communal spin to it, being a ruling party(at centre) shouldn't the BJP be knowing this? When an incident like this is reported, it is the duty of the police to take action and it is the duty of the state govt to direct the police to take action. The UP state govt and the police has not done enough. Infact, it was the inaction and callous attitude UP state govt, has resulted in such a brutal murder.Instead of asking questions to state govt, the local BJP leaders and some MPs are issuing irresponsible statements.

They are trying to exploit the situation for electoral gains.The Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma has been making controversial statements repeatedly for the past few months. It seems this fellow has violated the prohibitory orders of police and entered the Bishada village days after the murder took place. Another BJP MLA Sangeeth Som accompanied him it seems ( source  http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/6803943 ). Another BJP party man says, if police takes any action against innocent people, the consequences will be different. Issuing such veiled threats in a charged atmosphere can potentially aggravate the situation. 

As usual,the BJP MPs known for their controversial statements - Yogi Adityanath and Sakshi Maharaj, has joined the party now. These are their statements :

 "We won't remain silent if somebody tries to kill our mother. We are ready to kill and get killed." - Sakshi Maharaj (source - http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/BJPs-Sakshi-Maharaj-Ready-to-Die-to-Save-Cows/2015/10/06/article3065946.ece ). While he makes sense in asking the UP govt why the CM raised the compensation from 10 lakhs to 45 lakhs and why Hindu victims were not given any compensation, the aggressive statements projects him in bad light.

Though Yogi Adityanath has not issued the statement directly,a member of his outfit Hindu 'Yuva Vahini' has said "We will go and meet Hindus who are being harassed by authorities concerned. We will provide them all possible help, be it tan-man-dhan-gun, if they are harassed," Tyagi said.

Such statements are uncalled for. Yesterday,Bihar's ex deputy CM Sushil Modi has said that if the BJP comes to power, there will be complete ban on cow slaughter in the state.Cow slaughter was banned in many states. Ban on cow slaughter is not something new rather it was not done by BJP first. Today Digvijaya Singh has confessed that it was the Congress which was first in banning cow slaughter.

"Congress was the first in banning cow slaughter, will consider backing central law on ban: Digvijay Singh"

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/49231773.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

In some states, BJP banned the cow slaughter too.Go through this link, you can understand, cow slaughter is banned in so many states and the law varies from state to state.

 http://www.ibtimes.co.in/beef-ban-states-where-cow-slaughter-legal-illegal-649249

The problem is not in making the cow-slaughter-ban a poll promise, it is the timing of the statement that matters. Well it may be argued that the Dadri incident is not an organized communal clash and it is being blown out of proportion.Anyway,the world is watching all this. There is a charged atmosphere in Uttar Pradesh and twitter/facebook. Will such statements not worsen the situation? 

The Union Home minister,Rajnath Singh says not to communalize the incident.The finance minister Arun Jaitley says such an incident brings bad name to India. The Prime Minister has time and again stressed on inclusive growth and assured of the safety of every Indian(which obviously includes minority). When the party's top leaders are being responsible, why does the local leaders behave like this? As usual,the pseudo-secular camp started demanding an explanation from the Prime Minister. I have mentioned about a gang rape at the beginning of this post. None demanded the then PM to issue a statement on it.Rather all these Azam Khan, liberals, Owaisi, Sharad Yadav, Lalu  etc expressed concern over the incident. They were not even aware of it,so demanding an explanation from Prime Minister is publicity stunt and politics too. This Azam Khan has written to UN that Muslims are unsafe in India. Dear Azam Khan,do you even know that people living in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir wants to live under India's control?

Rahul Gandhi visited the victim's family.Aravind Kejriwal too visited the family.Kejriwal is Delhi CM and he is not a national leader too.So many people died in dengue in Delhi.The Delhi CM has not visited a single family of the deceased.But he has time to visit Akhlaq's family.This is also communal politics.

If BJP too wants to going to cash-in on the situation, then there is no difference between BJP and others.Prime Minister office sought report on the incident from Minister of Home Affairs.Hope the BJP top leadership acts against people issuing such statements. These statements cannot be brushed aside as statements of some low level party workers. Some of them are MPs, their irresponsible statements cannot be tolerated and hope the PM and BJP president takes proper action against these people.

5 comments:

Rameez Raja said...

Law should come nd punish those ppl who are Making communal clashes...
Atha vittutu amaithiya iruntha kandukaatheenga na no one will listen...

Rameez Raja said...

In Modi's speech also, he should hv mentioned and instructed all the CM to keep their state law nd order perfectly... He has simply said, just ignore the Politicians who are making communal clashes for their votes....

Rameez Raja said...

Thandanai kadumai aaka veandum appathaan thappukkal kuraiyum... Than suya laambathirkaaha appavi makkalai saavadippathu kuttram.... Even that central minister Sharma has supported this murder but still no action the party....

Harish.M said...

dai Sharma never justified the murder,his statement was stupid though. there is difference between saying stupid things and justifying a crime. moreoever this is not a communal clash at all. Modi said the incident is unfortunate and undesirable,said it is the duty of state govt to take action. He asked people not to get carried away by rumors, the murder happened because of rumor only. there was a personal problem between a UP policeman and this man who died.That policeman,knowing that this Akhlaq,had meat,using his power threatened the priest to announce that he ate beef..the rumor got spread.. there were instances cattle thefts in that place..police didn't take action for this..this policeman, to take revenge on Akhlaq, spread rumors that he ate beef and brought some people with him..as the rumor spread, people thought this man stole their cattle.. this is a mistake with people and the policeman.. they should have thought for a minute atleast that Akhlaq's son is an Air force officer and he has no necessity to steal cattle.. to avoid such incidents only Modi said, don't believe in rumors.. what is wrong with that man?

Harish.M said...

Modi and Amit Shah,both are asking who has to take action for this? how can a central govt intervene in this? for their part, Home Minister Rajnath Singh asked report on Dadri incident and Prime Minister Office asked report from Home Ministry.. Read Amit Shah's interview, he condemned Sangeet Som.. Mahesh Sharma is a MP from that place.. he only said, this is not a communal incident, just an accident(my previous comment says how the mob misunderstood the issue).. this is a stupid statement from him, but this doesn't mean Akhlaq's murder is right.. at one point of time, when an issue becomes political,everyone will do politics.. and you can see all the parties doing it, including BJP.. blaming Modi for every stray incident will help to be in headlines,wont do anything else.. read this interview, atleast BJP says, their MLA shouldn't have gone there.. other parties are justifying their visit and projecting as if they are protectors of Muslims.. I can give you many examples where these parties has punished innocent Muslims..

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/politics/dadri-lynching-wrong-sangeet-som-should-not-have-visited-bishada-says-amit-shah-1151572.html