Dear Editor,
This is with reference to your editorial, “Attempts to polarize voters” (December 7, 2018). Every marginalised person in our country like a safai karmachari (scavenger) who dies every third day in gutter on average is in danger. They do not belong to any particular religion. Indeed, the false narrative that Hindus are in danger is actually making the law of the land in danger.
And when the law of the land is in danger then we all are in danger. The Bulandshahr incident is another testimony to it. The SHO Subodh Kumar Singh who had been investigating the horrifying Akhlaq murder case has reportedly been hunted down by the cow vigilantes in Uttar Pradesh. The cow vigilantes attacked a police station at Siyana village in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh and shot dead the station house officer. The gang also burnt police vehicles after the discovery of cow carcasses in Mahav village.
The lynching of an ASI Dev Chand Nagle in MP’s Chhindwara district by an alleged criminal a couple of months ago and the gory incident in Bulandshahr indicate that criminals are trying to run a parallel government on the street. Lynching monsters always want to be a law unto themselves. Their design is to paralyse the administration and judiciary.
In this hour of crisis, we need to listen to the words of Abhishek Singh, the son of Subodh Kumar Singh. In an interview with NDTV after the brutal murder of his father, he said, “Today my father has died. Tomorrow a mob could kill a top police officer. Then someday it will be a minister. Should mob-killing culture be allowed to go on like this? Absolutely not.”
On cow slaughter, he said, “A human murder is more important than finding out who killed cows. If the Special Investigation Team is filling its report, then it should be clarified where the carcasses came from, whether they were planted to create trouble.”
On being asked what message he would like to convey to the Chief Minister on Hindu – Muslim politics, the teen said, “Not just the Chief Minister, I would appeal to the entire country, please stop Hindu – Muslim violence. People get violent at the slightest provocation. People should understand and think, that they are bound by the law.”
About his father, he said, “My father always used to say whatever else you become, you need to be a good citizen first. This country is yours. You people are not comprehending, I request you to understand – this mob culture will give us nothing.”
The words of Abhishek convey a hint of a better tomorrow. There is every reason to be optimistic.
Sincerely,
Sujit De,
Kolkata