Jun 30, 2005 03:27 PM
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(Updated Jun 30, 2005 03:27 PM)
June 2005 In a remote non descript village near Muzzafarnagar in the Western part of Uttar Pradesh, a young Muslim girl in a very poor family of laborers, is raped by her father in law. The Darul Uloom Deoband an Islamic seminary instead of punishing the rapist, passes a bizarre judgment that the rape victim will have to leave her husband and live with her father in law. No sensible, decent law abiding person, irrespective of their religion or caste or creed, could ever even support such an obnoxious verdict. Forget about others, many Muslim bodies like All India Shia Personal Law Board, All India Women Muslim Personal Law Board have come out against the venerable old foggies of the Darul Uloom Deoband, who I really don’t know live in which century. I haven’t heard of such a verdict even during the Middle Ages, and in strictly Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt the culprit would have been stoned to death in public by now. The only other organization supporting is the equally backward looking All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
June 29, 2005 The venerable CM of Uttar Pradesh, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, comes out with a statement supporting this obnoxious verdict. His equally bizarre logic is as below, as per the excerpt which I got from the Indian Express.
“The decision of the Muslim religious leaders in the Imrana case must have been taken after a lot of thought, ” Yadav said.
“The religious leaders are all very learned and they understand the Muslim community and its sentiments, ” he said.
And this person is supposed to be the Chief Minister? No wonder Uttar Pradesh is at the bottom rung in every sphere.
Now one is not surprised at the action of the Darul Uloom Deoband or All India Muslim Personal Law Board, they are renowned for their absolutely prehistoric way of thinking and one really cant expect much better from them. Neither was I surprised by “Maulana” Singh Yadav, he is very much concerned with his Muslim vote bank nor would I be surprised by the statements of other Muslim vote bank champions like Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan. And neither would I be appalled by their conduct, as to expect some thing better from such people is asking a bit too much.
But yes as an Indian I am really really DISGUSTED and that is putting it very politely with the so called DEFENDERS OF SECULARISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS in the media and with the GREAT INDIAN MEDIA which prides itself on being a protector of secularism and human rights and liberalism and what not. The words in capital letters and the bold print is deliberate, I want to make my disgust clear. Why are all these defenders of secularism so silent, when every time its an issue involving the BJP or some Hindu body, they take to the streets, and even request the Western countries not to issue visas?
WHY, WHY?
Yes I am asking this question, I have had enough with the double standards and hypocrisy of the great Indian media and I request every member of Mouthshut, not to spare these jokers.
The Indian media went on and on about Gujarat, to the extent that they even celebrated when an elected Chief Minister of that state was refused a Visa by Uncle Sam. But now the Chief Minister of another state, says that its proper for a woman to live with the man who raped her? Why are there no protests in the media? Why are all the Arundhati Roys, Praful Bidwais, Seema Mustafas, Pankaj Mishras and the entire tribe of professional moaners, conspicuously silent? I don’t know whats the take of “The Hindu” which prides itself on being a liberal mouthpiece on this issue, but so far in Delhi I have neither seen the Hindustan Times nor the Times of India, taking a stand on this issue. I am 100% sure that if a CM from the BJP were to comment the same, by now we would have had self indignant editorials, articles, protests and the CPM’s professional sound byte specialists in full flow on the media. And yes what about Bollywood’s self professed liberal intellectual Mr Mahesh Bhatt, whom the TV channels and newspapers, turn to whenever he opens his loud mouth( and more often than not puts his foot into it), and who revels in giving his opinions on everything, why hasn’t he opened his mouth so far? I would seriously like to know whats the Hindu’s stand on this issue, as that newspaper prides itself on being a fountainhead of liberalism. Where are all those women’s groups, women’s commissions, NGO’s for women’s rights who stage noisy protests for women’s rights? At least I don’t see them in action when such a horrible crime is being committed. Where are all the Sahmats, Communalism Combats, the Javed Anands. the Teesta Setalvad’s who go into a fit of apoplexy in the media about how minorities are ill treated in India? I have gone through many news websites and papers, and not one, I repeat not one columnist who otherwise keep cribbing about everything, has expressed their views so far on this issue. Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das made such a hue and cry, when protestors stalled their movies “Fire” and “Water”, why the hell are they silent now? Is it because it involves a Muslim girl? The only thing I heard are very very feeble comments about “not politicizing the issue”. Oh yes and that great conscience keeper of the Indian public, the great Indian left, whose leaders run to the mike everytime the Govt pushes through economic reforms, haven’t been in really full flow so far on this issue.
If all these parties are keeping their mouth shut(pun unintended) since it involves the Muslim community, then they are doing the great disservice to the Muslim community itself. Many sane Muslims in India themselves are against this obnoxious verdict and to think otherwise is to insult their intelligence. I am not anti Muslim( if I were I wouldn’t be writing on Mouthshut itself), nor do I belong to the RSS, VHP or Bajrang Dal. Hell this is not the time to play politics, this issue has nothing to do with religion or community. I don’t know much about Shariat or Muslim law, but in any Muslim ruled country, the punishment for rape is death by stoning. And even assuming such laws are there, do we seriously need to follow such inhuman laws.? The media had ended up with egg on it’s face after the Dhananjay Chaterjee episode but this issue is something more serious, and if the media doesn’t take a stand on these, the repercussions would be grave. Long time ago, the intellegentsia kept quiet on the Shah Bano affair and the Congress party played cynical vote bank politics with it. The cost of that is still apparent and only now the country is recovering from those wounds. I appeal to all the media for heaven’s sake, take a stand, and come out strongly in the support of that unfortunate girl. If you fail to do so, you would be the main culprits for the consequences that follow.
