Sorry Mohsin, my city failed to protect you

My last post was related to increasing incidents of Hooliganism where people or groups are targeted just because of something they expressed. I have expressed my concern about the low tolerance level and violent reactions in India so many times on my blog and elsewhere. Any country that aspires to become a developed nation and attract world-class talent needs to value freedom of expression. Such a society needs to have an atmosphere where different opinions are encouraged and disagreements are welcomed. Only in such conditions attract real talent. The brutal murders of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar and Mr. Mohsin Shaikh don't indicate that India is moving in that direction. These two incidents that too in one of the most progressive cities of India (Pune) indicate that the country is moving in a reverse direction. There is an atmosphere in the country where people are scared to speak their opinions because they feel threatened. This is such a sad state for a country that claims to be tolerant, inclusive, and open to all cultures and beliefs. These claims are now questionable on so many levels.

What was Mohsin's fault that he deserved to get killed like this? Followed Islam was his fault? Is it his fault that he dressed or looked different than many others in that neighborhood? Are these things enough to kill a person? What was Dr. Dabholkar's fault? He was not a Muslim or dressed anything differently. Why was he attacked and murdered? Both incidents are somewhat related as both these people were targeted because they expressed something. In Dr. Dabholkar's case, he was targeted for opposing religious superstitions and other religious malpractices. There are some inhuman practices that some people want to protect in the name of tradition and culture, he was killed for fighting against such inhuman practices. In the case of Mohsin, he was targeted without even any mistake from his side. Someone distributed some objectionable content on Facebook and WhatsApp related to Shivaji Maharaj. This created a lot of controversy and communal tension, and he was killed due to suspicion. Even if we assume that Mohsin was in any way related to generating those images that created so much controversy, is this the way to deal with such issues? Can anyone with a rational mind justify such type of behavior? Taking the law into own hands to disrupt society, destroying public property in the name of protest, or attacking certain groups is a sign of uncivilized behavior. These acts only deserve condemnation in the strongest possible words and very strict action should be taken against all culprits involved in any such incidents. But all this sounds meaningless when Members of parliaments like Mr. Anil Shirole justify some of these acts by calling them the natural reaction of people whose feelings get hurt. The same excuse was offered by Mr. Modi after the Godhra violence and we all know how many people lost their lives because of that so-called natural reaction which was nothing but cold-blooded genocide. None of these reactions are natural, they are purposeful, planned crimes, nothing else.

It is not important how many people died or who died to judge the seriousness of such types of crimes.  The numbers and names don't matter much, if this mentality prevails then these things will happen regularly only the names of people and places will change. If more and more people go unpunished for these types of crimes, if they find any sympathizers among our politicians then they will get more aggressive and brutal in their attacks. That is why any statement that even remotely tries to justify such brutal attacks on innocent people or the destruction of public property should be interrogated and punished. There should not be any compromise on freedom of expression and any violent anti-social activity should not be encouraged. Politicians have greater responsibility in all this as any sympathetic statement from their side acts as an encouragement for these goons. We cannot afford to have another Godhra in India, enough is enough, already many people have lost their lives because of this fanaticism. We need to fight these anti-social goons no matter which party or organization they belong to, absolutely nothing can justify such violence and destruction. 

The death of Mohsin is really shocking for anyone belonging to a city like Pune. I belong to that city and we Punekars take pride in calling our city one of the most progressive cities in India. I am also surprised that there was no candle march or any protest against Mohsin's murder like it was in the case of Nirbhaya who was gang raped and killed in Delhi. Mohsin's death is not any less shocking to me than Nirbhaya's death, both crimes are equally brutal and heinous. That is why I wonder why people's reactions are so different to both. Mohsin, please forgive my hometown for its inability to protect you. Punekar like me is deeply shocked as well as ashamed because of this incident, I have no words to express my feelings. I never imagined that within so short time after Dr. Dabholkar's death, we would witness another such heinous crime in Pune. I hope that now our politicians and administration take a lesson from it and take all measures to avoid any such instances in the future. I know this is too much to ask for but I just hope that at least people step up and try to stop this madness. If this doesn't happen then I don't know how many more Mohsins or Nirbhayas will have to die before our society wakes up and takes any action. The culture of hooliganism must go before it destroys the social fabric of our society.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:
1. In Pune, ‘Hindu zealots’ kill man over ‘offensive’ Facebook post
2. Pune techie murder: BJP MP says some repercussions to derogatory FB post 'natural'

Culture of hooliganism

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the news that the situation in my hometown Pune is critical because some objectionable material about Shivaji Maharaj was circulated in social media. I was not surprised by the circulation of such material but was surprised by the extreme reaction to this in Pune. It is shocking to see that a city like Pune which remained calm even during the Babri mosque demolition and many other sensitive incidents is behaving like this. I guess the spread of social media hatred finally caught up with Pune. People use social media for so many reasons, some people use it to spread good messages, and discuss valid and relevant issues; at the same time, some people use it to circulate junk like morphed photos of people. Their only intention in circulating anything like this is to create social disturbance and such violent reactions fulfill their expectations. Actually, these people who think that they are protecting someone's honor are playing in the hands of those antisocial elements. These two sides help each other to serve their purposes. First, some anti-social elements release something which is derogatory in nature and then some people act exactly according to the script to make a big deal out of it and create havoc. Instead of condemning the actions or opposing them in a nonviolent way they destroy public property and disrupt public life. What do they achieve by doing all this? Nothing. They just waste public money and time. But these people fail to understand this simple thing and keep on making the same mistakes again and again. This has become so regular pattern for some political parties, so regular that it has become their habit, they don't miss any single opportunity to exploit any such incident. 

This culture of hooliganism is not good for any society. Especially for a country that is aspiring to become a superpower. Freedom of expression is a very important right in any developed society. I agree that freedom of expression also comes with some responsibility but it also comes with the right to offend. In any developed society, there should be ample scope for expressing offensive things without any threat of violence. Actually feeling offended or angry about something is not that bad but that feeling should be used to propagate any violence. Silencing the messenger is not the proper way to fight the message, we have to tackle only the message even if we don't like it not the messenger.

I don't understand how disturbing public life by violent acts or destroying public property serves any purpose. How does destruction help in nursing hurt feelings? How more hatred can be the answer to hatred? Won't such violent reactions serve the purpose of people who intend to create social disturbance by spreading rumors or objectionable material?  Why to help them? I think now it is time for everyone to think about how to tackle these types of situations peacefully. For every objectionable material release 100s of messages that portray positive things about that person, rather than getting offended try spreading your own message. This will automatically negate the efforts of people who are trying to spread negative messages. If those antisocial elements see that their tactics to create social disturbance are not working they will automatically stop. By reacting to such incidents in a violent way people are making these posts or materials more popular. These incidents help to publicize such acts and encourage these antisocial elements. We need to realize that no one can insult or hurt our feelings until we allow them to do so. No post, photo, or anything can insult a person like Shivaji Maharaj, people like him are an inspiration for many by trying to insult such people some people show their own level of understanding, and it doesn't reflect anything about these towering personalities. Everyone has the right to study, analyze, and even criticize anything and anyone, criticism is not an insult and should not hurt or offend anyone. We should be mature enough to handle criticism in a peaceful way. Once we learn these simple things then we will stop getting offended by the stupid acts of some people and such violent reactions will stop. It is a must to get rid of this culture of hooliganism, after all, we come from a country where Gandhi used nonviolent methods to fight the mighty British Empire.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]