When the whole western Uttar Pradesh and most of the social media is going crazy with raw vigour to support their religion and communalism tends to be on its peak, when the fourth pillar of democracy, the main stream media has adopted a publicity path instead of acting as a responsible agent to abate any communal tension prevailing in the region, some incidents have come to the front which shows that humanity is still alive and secularism still has many takers.
In an incident near Lucknow, a cow fell in a well and it was a 20 year old Muslim youth who was her saviour this time. He went inside the well with the help of a crane hook, roped the cow with the help of a belt rope and came out safely with the cow.
At a time when the country is accusing some Muslims of cow slaughter, this man’s act is welcome news for the society. It has tried to somewhat heal the wounds of the Hindus.
In another incident, in Yamunanagar, a Muslim couple had a fight. The man had a heated argument with his wife over the phone and in a fit of rage, he poured kerosene over his children and in his home, set it ablaze and fled.
On hearing the loud heart wrenching cries of the children, two Hindu neighbours, Rajbir and Gulshan, rushed to save the children. Not worrying for their own lives, both of them saved the three children, two daughters who received 40-45 percent burns and the boy receiving 5 percent burns. Both the men too received burns but are out of danger.
People like these, act as real heroes who try to maintain the secularity of our country.
What my take on both the incidents is that, people from both the communities live in harmony with each other. They respect each other’s feelings and beliefs. It is because of some of the miscreants on both the sides that such incidents like Dadri or Badarpur occur, one where Hindu mob killed a Muslim and other where a group of Muslims killed a cop for stopping them from smuggling cows.
It is for the police to nab the culprits and help in fair trial irrespective of caste, creed, region or religion to which a culprit belongs. If a person has committed a crime, he should be punished. This is what our constitution says and it is for this that so many institutions are made in our country.
These incidents are a golden opportunity for the politicians who eye at dirty politics to score some brownie points. The politicians such as Owaisi, who went to Dadri and further escalated communal tension in the region with his hate speech should be rejected by the people in the elections and so that their agenda of dividing the people on the lines of religions takes a backseat in the diversified society of India.
The state government’s role in the incident is also questionable. It allowed everyone to make profit from the incident and compromised with law and order of the area. The state government simply blamed a community for violence undermining the fact that the family and unconscious son of the deceased, Ikhlaq, were rescued by the Hindus from the neighbourhood and not the police.
I agree that the mob comprised of one community whose sentiments were hurt when some miscreants informed them that Ikhlaq’s family had slaughtered a cow, to avenge their own enmity. But it was another group of same community who saved the family from lynching, is equally a fact.
The most questionable role in this incident is of the main stream media. It simply sensationalised the whole incident to increase their ratings. The media is the fourth pillar of the democracy. The more responsible this pillar is in discharging its duties, stronger is the democracy.
But Indian main stream media has forgotten this very fact and has really stooped lower in the rat race of TRPs. It could have reported the incident with more responsibility and credibility instead of sensationalising the issue.
It paid no attention to the fact that their way of reporting could further worsen the situation of the place. The people of the village acted more sensibly in this case when they banned the media and outsiders to enter the village as a measure to prevent further escalations of the speculations that the media makes, from the information they receive from their so called “SOURCES”.
The grieving family was upset with the politicians, who went there to sympathise the family as it took the form of photo sessions every time one such person came. The family had to ask the state government to ensure that they are left alone.
“Saare jahan se accha hindustan hamara, if we all understand the meaning of this song there will be peace everywhere,” Sartaj, Ikhlaq’s son serving in the IAF, said.
It is his responsible comment that should be worth praising that, at a moment when his family is grieving such a horrendous incident, he is acting with full responsibility towards his family as well as the society.
The politicians and media have left no stones unturned to damage the secular fabric of the society but Sartaj’s views would surely compel both to think about their actions in this incident whether they could have acted more sensibly or not.
It is also for us to note that it is the time when people from both communities should come forward to support each other. Instead of fighting against each other, we should join hands and fight against the evils of the society and pay no heed to the miscreants who want to tamper this “Ganga-Jamuni tejzeeb”.
Sources: India Today, The Times Of India, Zee News
