{"id":68260,"date":"2019-05-31T00:15:58","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T18:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=68260"},"modified":"2019-05-31T00:15:58","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T18:45:58","slug":"for-the-sake-of-sentiments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2019\/05\/31\/for-the-sake-of-sentiments\/","title":{"rendered":"For the sake of \u2018sentiments\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Editor,<\/strong>
\nAs soon as the second innings of \u2018good governance\u2019 has been guaranteed, what a deluge of \u2018great news\u2019 coming from the Hindi belt \u2013 that, too, even before the oath-taking ceremony of the central regime!
\nSeoni district, Madhya Pradesh. On the accusation of transporting beef, three persons of the minority community were severely thrashed. As if that was not enough, their \u2018patriotism\u2019 was also subjected to a \u2018litmus test\u2019 through the medium of \u201cJai Sri Ram.\u201d
\nGurgaon, Haryana. A minority youth, Mohamad B Alam, from Bihar, was thrashed for daring to sport a skullcap. He would have to chant “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and “Jai Sri Ram.”
\nBegusarai district, Bihar. Mohammad Qasim was not only directed to leave for Pakistan, he was also shot at.
\nJust for his \u2018sin\u2019 of posting the dietary rights of the tribals revolving around beef on social media, Jamshedpur teacher-cum-tribal theatre activist, Jeetrai Hansda, was arrested, two years after the post had been put on social media. What a cold-blooded vendetta!
\nNew Delhi. Pune-based doctor, Arun Gadre, was gheraoed on his morning walk and compelled to chant \u201cJai Sri Ram\u201d loudly. What an earnest duty to Hinduism! No prizes for guessing what his fate would have been had he refused their diktat, or had he been a Muslim.
\nNarendra Modi, Amit Shah and the Who’s Who of the BJP came to Bengal several times during the poll campaign and attacked the state in the most vulgar of terms, describing it as a “land of criminals with democracy throttled.”
\nMay I now humbly ask the Modi-Shah brigade whether Seoni, Gurgaon, Begusarai, Jamshedpur or New Delhi is “part of Bengal?”
\nIf the answer is no, may I ask, how can these crimes happen in the \u2018heaven\u2019 of the BJP-led\/influenced states? How can such bizarre throttling of freedom of speech get registered there? Who should think what about beef consumption, whether one should chant “Bharat Mata ki Jai” or “Jai Sri Ram” or not – all would be dictated by the saffron bhakts.
\nSo, will we now have to conclude that when the bhakts cause physical harm to the minorities by taking all norms of the law in their hands, it cannot be branded as a crime? And do the arrest or harassment of individuals for opining against the saffron mainstream, not obeying the diktat of “Bharat Mata ki Jai” or “Jai Sri Ram,” or daring to sport a skullcap not amount to an attack on the democratic ethos in \u2018new India\u2019?
\nSince the regime of the \u2018good days\u2019 has been overwhelmingly endorsed at the hustings, despite a series of Mohammad Akhlaques to Junaids to Pehlu Khans (to name a few) and the barbaric infringement on the freedom of expression since 2014, will this assault on minorities, the diktat of what one should\/shouldn’t wear\/eat\/chant, and throttling of opposing viewpoints in the name of \u2018hurt sentiments\u2019 get a fresh lease of life?
\nSincerely,<\/strong>
\nKajal Chatterjee,<\/strong>
\nKolkata<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Editor, As soon as the second innings of \u2018good governance\u2019 has been guaranteed, what a deluge of \u2018great news\u2019 coming from the Hindi belt \u2013 that, too, even before the oath-taking ceremony of the central regime! Seoni district, Madhya Pradesh. On the accusation of transporting beef, three persons of the minority community were severely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-68260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-readers-forum"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}