What we have become?

• Amongst us (Hindus) today who does not have at least one relative or acquaintance who hates Muslims?
• In the independent India where the exploitative British regime was over, it was a country peopled with liberal myths and socialist dreams. It was agreed that the state and the judiciary would follow the western institutions on which they were modeled.
• On January 19, 2018, in Rasana village near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, an 8-year-old girl, Asifa Bano, disappeared for a week before her dead body was discovered by the villagers a kilometer away from the village. The post-mortem revealed that the girl had been drugged with a sedative before she was raped and murdered. Forensic evidence suggested that she had been held for several days by rapists. Strands of hair recovered from the temple matched those taken from the girl. The forensic examination stated that Bano had been raped multiple times by different men, and that she had been strangled to death, as well as hit in the head with a heavy stone.
• One of the protests, in support of the accused, was attended by two ministers from the BJP. The rape and murder, as well as the support the accused received, sparked widespread national outrage. In the face of widespread public criticism of his silence in the rapes in which either policemen or politicians from the ruling BJP are implicated – PM Narendra Modi on April 13, 2018 condemned the incidents and said justice would be done. He said the incidents had shamed the country and that the guilty would not be spared. Curiously, he refrained from referring to Kathua or Unnao by name, adding that such incidents are an attack on human values regardless of the state or area they have occurred.
• Kashmir's lawmakers marched to save the policemen from being charged with rape and destruction of evidence. Women too marched to defend the rapists: because they are Hindu and the child who was gang-raped and killed was the daughter of a Muslim goatherd. It is impossible, when this level of mental sickness and brutality coalesce, to do anything more than fall into the silence of absolute despair. Until then an overwhelming rage sweeps away the despair.
• There is no horror in these things as they happen to someone else. If you are affluent enough to fly, if you are not a minority, you are forever in a bulletproof, air-conditioned cocoon. But what is it like not to have the cocoon?
• Muslims are silent somewhere. They are feeling cornered, besieged by the sense of hunting dogs coming after them. This is not the country we grew up in together, the necessity of secularism drummed into us. It was still a country in which parents were more likely to teach you about morality and manners, not sheer human survival.
• What can you do as an ordinary citizen trying to survive in a country run by criminals? What can you do when you see your protectors turn into killers? Everyone is not a soldier or a lawyer or an activist. Everyone's usefulness lay in doing their own work.
• 49 former civil servants wrote to the Prime Minister: In Kathua in Jammu, it is the culture of majoritarian belligerence and aggression promoted by the Sangh Parivar, which emboldened rabid communal elements to pursue their perverse agenda. They knew that their behaviour would be endorsed by the politically powerful and those who have made their careers by polarizing Hindus and Muslims across a sectarian divide. Even more reprehensible than such abuse of power, is the response of the state government in hounding the victim of rape and her family instead of the alleged perpetrator that shows how perverted governance practices have become. Prime Minister, these two incidents are not just ordinary crimes where, with the passage of time, the wounds inflicted on our social fabric, on our body politic and the moral fibre of our society will heal and it will soon be business as usual. This is a moment of existential crisis, a turning point -- the way the government responds now will determine whether we as a nation and as a republic have the capacity to overcome the crisis of constitutional values, of governance and the ethical order within which we function.
• Paakhi Jain (15), a student of Delhi's School wrote: During the Navaratras, you worship us, girls. At other times, you rape us. We don't want such worship. Improvising on civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr's speech, she added ... I have a dream that no girl, no woman will be tortured or molested or raped in the future. I have a dream that humanity will be the supreme religion of this nation one day.
• Vrinda Grover, lawyer and human rights and women's rights activist, said: Don't expect much from the politicians. The rape cases today can't just be called sexual crimes. These are hate crimes -- disgusting, despicable crimes of pure hatred. And this hatred that has been planted in us, which is used to incite us every day -- it is done by the ones we handed over the reins of the country to, the ones responsible for the smooth running of the State. These politicians in power want us to hate each other, turn us against each other. The women and children face no danger from the border; they are in danger from within the country. We demand you revisit the Budget. We don't care how many fighter jets you buy, our daughters' safety does not depend on it. If we keep silent when a few powerful men rape us, then these men will keep raping us more. They should know, we can get angry too. We can take to the streets too. We must change this rape culture.
• Deepika Singh Rajawat, lawyer for the eight-year-old girl from Kathua, said: I am the mother of a five-year-old girl. Today when my daughter gets into her school van, I have my heart in my mouth because I want to see my daughter return home to me afterwards. This is the state of affairs in our country, and the man responsible is a custodian of our society. Mr. Prime Minister ... Your MLAs provoke the masses, and say 'destroy compassion, destroy peace'. These politicians tell the accused 'we are with you, the ones arrested will be freed, and we will ensure that no one else is arrested'. Wow, what leadership! What a country! Today, our civil society faces a grave threat from within. We say we are proud citizens of our country, we chant 'Jai Hindustan, jai humanity', Mr. Prime Minister says he will save our daughters. It is your people who are responsible for Kathua and Unnao. Why is our society silent? Why is there only a Deepika who is ready to get her head cut off?

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PM Modi condemning the incident after weeks of stoic silence only after public outrage and President Kovind after few more days speaks very poorly about their real intentions. Their delayed condemnation is as good as approving rape of Muslims by Hindu fundamentalists. Modi facing NRI protests in London etc in his recent foreign trip is testimony of his falling graphs. These RSS elements in the seats of power have no respect for individual rights especially of Muslims & Christians. These minority fears were rightly expressed by Hamid Ansari few days before he laid down the office of VP and PM Modi and VP elect Venkaiah Naidu violently reacting and pouncing on him in Rajya Sabha. Where are we heading as a nation?