Dr Ahmed Mohiuddin Siddiqui for BeyondHeadlines
It is said old habits die hard. The Monkey Baat actor maintained his Maun Vrat as the capital New Delhi continued to burn for three days at a stretch and watched gleefully as the saviours of Hindutva carried on their triumphant march to kill, loot and burn members of a particular community. The police was allegedly either complicit or mute spectators as witnessed on different television channels. The Bhagwa Mauni Baba allowed Delhi to burn and chose to enjoy the Salmanon Tikka and Rabri with the world’s prime weapon seller Don, who disclosed his intention to walk away with $ 3 billion wealth of our country. Do we need those weapons or jobs with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) plummeting like the blood pressure of a dying man?
Known for ‘revenge’ politics and after getting ‘current’ from Shaheen Bagh in the Delhi Legislative Assembly elections, the ‘kali and safed Daadhi walas’ were seething with anger. Before and after the polls, the atmosphere was poisoned to scuttle the peaceful protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). As luck would have it, they could not get the required numbers even after the incitement of ‘desh ke ghaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko’ and ‘betion, bahuon ko uthha kar le jayenge aur balaatkaar karenge’ poisonous rhetoric. The inciter, who threatened to ‘disturb peace after Trump leaves’ if Jafferabad was not cleared of CAA protestors was in the joyful company of a deputy commissioner of police (DCP). His mission was accomplished as the police bowed down to his wishes and cleared Jafferabad off the protestors. The inciter’s stock will rise in the party! You will find him contesting the next Lok Sabha elections and may even win them.
The armed extremists and rioters shouting Jai Sri Ram slogans did not want the killing, looting and burning incidents to be reported by the ‘Hindu’ journalists. The journalists were beaten, threatened and their video footage was deleted. It is said that a pen is mightier than a sword but not anymore!
Leave aside the cameras and the pens, the blood-thirsty extremists wanted to ‘check the p*nises of the journalists by stripping them on the road. The free ‘Kumkum service’ was arranged to put Tilaks on the journalists’ foreheads to identify them from the ‘others.’ The Godi Media which go the extra mile in promoting hate and divisiveness on prime time got a taste of what they have been sowing in the saffron fields!
Some journalists, who are known for their unbiased and objective reporting like Arvind Gunasekhar, Saurabh Shukla and Mariyam Alawi stood their ground despite the threat to their lives and severe beatings. Arvind Gunasekhar lost three teeth but not his journalistic integrity and resolve to bring out the truth. The last two pillars and pride of journalism — Sreenivasan Jain and Ravish Kumar should take care!
Why were the drones not deployed to capture the images of the rioters and bring the situation under control much earlier? Why do extremists have a fixation with a terrorist country – Pakistan? Surely, this was not an ‘India – Pakistan match!’ As India slips into majoritarian anarchy, we hang our heads in shame. Bapu’s distressed soul may say it yet again – Hey Ram!
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