May all be happy, sans the neighbour!

The magnanimity of the Indian ethos, “May all be happy”, expressed by Foreign Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, in an impressive speech, delivered at the 72nd UNGA, received the accolades it deserved. This magnanimity came with a disclaimer though, understandably so. It excluded the neighbouring country which produces terrorists while India produces software engineers, doctors and MBAs. The word ‘terrorist’ was not preceded with ‘only’, even though, the intent was so. This, of course, was in tune with the nationalist mood, more so since the neighbour is harbouring terror groups.

The terroristan proved to be naive enough to show a victim’s photograph that belonged to Palestine, not Kashmir. Ms Swaraj did not commit such blunder, she crafted her words well, “Our contemporary world is trapped in a deluge of troubles of which, surely, the most dangerous is the relentless rise of violence”. She was referring to “Terrorism, and the ideas that engineer this evil…”

Violence and terrorists are a product of Pakistan.

In a strange stream of co-incidences, her words reverberated, here, in India, in a different context. A few female students, frustrated of the repeated victim shaming by Banaras Hindu University’s administration against their complaints of sexual harassment, decided to express their cumulative, collective anger. The resolute, daring girls who sat on dharma at Lanka gate of the university, forced the visiting PM to change his route. This embarrassed the PMO and the famed university’s administration while the agitating girls failed to decipher how genuine anger could be termed as violence, to be repressed with more violence to justify complete silence of a VC for 36 hours. The male police force rained lathis at defenceless, harmless students, including girls.

While the FM’s speech was streamed live, on all TV channels, with LIVE blogs to go with, the violence so condemned by the FM in her speech perpetrated by the neighbours found a mute alibi in most channels when it was transported by some magic trick of the “anti-national elements” in a university, that’s not JNU, against its very own students. The noisiest channel maintained complete silence on this issue.

In the most holy city of the Hindus, during the festival of Navratri, when shraddhalus worship the woman power, under a Hindu Rashtravadi sarkar, girls were given a different taste of their empowerment, eulogised by the FM from the august dais. The girls received lathis as prasad instead of halwa puri and a tag of being anti-national for raising voice demanding gender equality inside the campus.

Yes, we produce doctors, engineers and ‘anti nationals’ while they produce terrorists. We are a democracy where women enjoy equal opportunities and powers, isn't it evident that our Defence Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister are both women. The BHU girls, influenced by anti-nationals, complained- why a boy should push his hands inside a girl student’s shirt and why boys should be allowed to masturbate before their hostels. Their complaints are “politically motivated.”

NDTV 24x7 showed live video recording of the police personnel beating the girls with lathis. So did News18. But it was the jaw dropping statements of BHU’s VC, GC Tripathi on Prime Time with Ravish Kumar, that would be stamped in memory for long. Mr Tripathi claimed ye ghatna karwai gayi , PM ke daure ke dauran (the incident of (sexual harassment) was orchestrated to co-inside with the PM’s visit), and there was no lathi charge. On Times Now, the Commissioner of Police, Nitin Ramesh Gokam stated, the VC is lying, there was a lathi charge on students and the sexual harassment incident did take place on Sept 21, but the authorities did not respond to the complaint, that angered the students.

On Ravish show, the VC claimed that petrol bombs and terrorists, yes, you heard it right, terrorists entered the campus to destroy the image of the university.

Didn't we hear terrorists were created only in our neighbour country! Now, who is lying?