Saturday 27 October 2007

What Mother India would think of Babu Bajrangi?



What would Bharat Mata think of Babu Bajrangi, who says that 'We are not khichdi, curry people' and can kill at will, just like 'ripping off a pregnant woman's stomach' and announcing it with a 'pride'.

The suffix in his name, 'Bajrangi', the party of which he is a leader 'Shiv' Sena and the organisation he worked in the past, Vishwa 'Hindu' Parishad (VHP) makes me shudder with the thought about the Hindustan where we live in. They hijacked the terms 'Hindu', 'Bajrang' and 'Shiv', and have demonised everything that was beautiful about Sanatan Dharma and this Nation.

Don't give me the crap about whether the sting will help Congress or BJP or any other political party. People of Gujarat may vote for Modi but that doesn't mean that Modi is right. Just that Gujarat is a developed state doesn't mean, that worst crimes against humanity can be forgotten. Even Hitler was immensely popular in Germany when he was slaughtering Jews. It's a shame to talk about elections. They don't have any interest in the idea of justice and human values.

Where are the citizens especially the women, who would stand up and say this is not the sort of Hindustan we dream of living in. Put these people behind bars immediately. I wish women would have petitioned the Woman President Pratibha Patil to take instant action against Bajrangi and the men who on camera confessed the ghastly crimes for which they had no remorse.

Novelist and an author of six books MG Vassanji, twice winner of Giller prize, said that 'There are satanic forces at work in Gujarat', sometime ago. He said in an interview that the level of barbarity there had no parallel, not even Congo or Bosnia. "It has been like fascism, probably worse. I mean it is one thing to lock people up in a gas chamber and turn the other way and quite another to rape women, film the horror and then distribute CDs, make songs about it".

'I travel by bus and other public transport, I meet people freely, talk to them, I feel at home. But Gujarat is different. In Gujarat I feel a sense of fear. And the only hope is that Gujarat is part of India and it will be contained by the larger things that India is about.'

What has happened in Gujarat is unimaginable especially the systematic violence against women. Why would ordinary men and women do such violence. If you tell somebody there, they say why are you bothered. In fact, Gandhi means nothing at all as an ethic in Gujarat.

He was surely not exaggerating. I feel that incalculable harm has been done by Bajrangi and those of their ilk to this country, with the supported of society's silence.

I have a kid daughter and I am very uneasy about whatever weird ideas these so-called 'Hindutva-wadis' have about 'dharma' and Bharat. May be Narendra Modi who doesn't have any kid, doesn't understand the human feelings of love and affection, when he gave the free run to rioters but how can so many BJP MLAs, VHP, Bajrang Dal activists and many ordinary people Gujarat, be so inhuman.

Unless we take action, history will record our era as an age when we lost all sense of human values and future generations will look at us with contempt. BJP leaders are angry over Operation Kalank because they their real demonic faces have been revealed. Congress did the same in anti-Sikh riots.

The way lawyers, prosecutors, police, rioters and state colluded, it is a dangerous signal for all of us. They did it with a community. They can do it with anybody. If there was ever a need for the use of Article 356 then it is in Gujarat. The entire system needs to be cleansed.

Tehelka expose has given us a chance. A chance for Indian society, our polity and our judiciary to redeem ourselves. We must not let this opportunity go.

Popular Posts