The fringe has gone mainstream,
claims Rana Ayyub in her latest post on DailyO (a site run by India Today).
In another article
on Firstpost, G Pramod Kumar warns that the attacks on Christians are merely a
warning shot for Muslims. Meanwhile former officer of the Indian Police
Service, Julio Ribeiro wrote a
letter to the Indian Express saying, “As
a Christian, suddenly I am a stranger in my own country”. Ribeiro later told a
TV channel that he exaggerated some of the claims to attract attention.
In the past few months, there
have been thefts in Churches in some parts of Delhi, one church was gutted.
These incidents were painted as an attack on Christians by some Hindu groups. The
commissioner of Delhi Police later issued a statement giving information on cases of theft in places of worship. It turned out that
more temples were burgled than any other place of worship. The highest number
of temple theft being reported in 2014, the year Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
lead National Democratic Alliance came to power.
The spate of concerned opinions
like the claims of Rana Ayyub, the warning from G Pramod Kumar and the emotional
outburst of Ribeiro came just after the brutal sexual assault on a nun in Ranaghat,
West Bengal. Are these concerns
justified? Is there evidence suggesting Christians are being targeted? Your
guess is as good as mine. The one thing that is common in all such concerned opinions
is that the blame squarely lies at the Prime Minister’s door step. Almost the
entire Indian media is blaming the Prime Minister for the law and order
situation that is essentially the responsibility of the state governments
according to the constitution.
There are two important things to
be taken note of. One, an atmosphere of panic is being created by the media,
where minorities, especially Christians are shown under siege. The three
articles sighted above are full of text sans any statistics to back the opinion
up with. Such writings would classify as provocative, if someone were to
carefully scrutinize them, at best and hatemongering at worst. A law and order
problem is being given a communal colour, deliberately. Second, the blame is
selectively put on the union government, where it actually lies with the state
government (surprisingly no one has questioned the respective state
governments, unless it happens to be a BJP government).
So should one trash the concerns
raised by the press and a decorated IPS officer? The answer in a word is, no.
But having said that the cases should be examined on what they really are. A
law and order problem. Safety is not just a concern of the Christians, but of
every citizen of India. The individual state governments should ensure that the
rule of law is imposed without any discrimination or favour. Mamata Banerjee’s
West Bengal has become one of the most dangerous places for women. She in the
past has dismissed the rape and assault of Suzette Jordon as a “sajano Ghatana”
(concocted incident) to malign her government. After the rape of the nun, when
she went to show her sympathy, she was welcomed with a blockade of her convoy,
rightly reflecting the anger of people against the miserable failure of her
government to maintain law and order. Her colleague, Firhad Hakim shifted the
blame from his government to Gharwapsi. Surprisingly there is no hue and cry on
such indifference and apathy by an
elected chief minister.
What the press should be concerned
about is the absence of strict implementation of laws to ensure safety of
everyone, not just the Christians or women or minorities. We all deserve a safe
environment to live in.
