Not Only UP, The Entire Nation Is In Turmoil Over The Hathras Gang-Rape
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-10-05 19:33:35
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
Such is the mindset of the administration in UP now that it will see a conspiracy even if a dozen street dogs were to assemble at a crossing. There can be no other explanation for the act of filing 19 FIRs across the state on the plea that it was a conspiracy to throw the state into turmoil.
The state (nay, the entire nation) was thrown into turmoil when the girl was brutalized. The state was thrown into turmoil when she was grievously injured and was fighting for her life in a Delhi hospital. The state was thrown in turmoil when the police did nothing for 15 days. The state was thrown into turmoil when after she died, her body was 'hijacked' by the state police and cremated secretly. The state was thrown in turmoil when political leaders, including women, were pushed and shoved and thrown to the ground. The state was thrown into turmoil when Chanda village was turned into a fortress, when the mobile phones of the victim's family were confiscated and when the media was not allowed to meet them for two days.
The state was not thrown into turmoil when people protested against the incident and the subsequent police excesses. The protests were peaceful exercise of the democratic rights of the people. If the state makes a mistake, doesn't own up and compounds it by making further mistakes, the people will not sit quietly. If conspiracy theories were to be ascribed to all movements then there will be no movement left. For, when the opposition parties and civil society, with the help of the ordinary citizens, start any movement against any incident or policy, it is with the avowed aim of either making the government act or withdraw the policy. With the wide meaning now being given to sedition, the government can claim, as it is not trying to do in the Hathras case, that the protests were part of a movement to throw the state into turmoil bring it down.
The UP government must stop its highhandedness. Enough is enough. The SIT is conducting its investigations. Several policemen have been suspended which proves their inefficiency (one uses a mild term) in handling the situation. The Allahabad High Court has already summoned the top officials of the state. Instead of trying to silence the opposition and the civil society, the government should be ready with the answers to the tough questions that the court is going ask. It is sad that the judiciary is increasingly having to do what actually is part of rajdharma and should be done by the executive.
