Wednesday was a big day.
Asaram Bapu, the self-styled Godman was finally sentenced to life for raping a minor.
I saw a live Facebook video by Quint, interviewing the journalists behind this whole operation. Not one of my Indian friends had shared anything about it yet, despite that it was already mid-day in India and it was wee hours in the morning here in the UK.
As the day progressed, the newsfeeds filled with something viral but it wasn’t about the life imprisonment of Asaram.
It was about Kanhaiya Kumar, the JNU student!
There were several memes shared, this is the one, that I repeatedly came across.
It was shared by a guy I went to school with.
Let me decipher the accusations in this meme for you so we know what we’re dealing with:
ACCUSATION # 1 If KK graduated high school in 2002, him being a student in 2018 is a crime.
ACCUSATION # 2 Doing a PhD in any subject/topic other than something inherently Indian is a crime.
ACCUSATION # 3 His subsidies cost the taxpayers ₹42 lakh.
ACCUSATION # 4 He is anti-national due to above reasons.
ACCUSATION # 5 This wastage of money is pointless and it should’ve been spent on 10 other candidates who could become vocational traders rather than being a doctoral scholar.
This was an old meme that went viral today after KK’s failing for the 11th time in PhD exam news was spread like wildfire.
Prominent people like Suhel Seth joined the bandwagon in an instant.
Of course, there were others just waiting to pounce on the opportunity to discredit KK.
While I was still in shock, KK himself took the trolls head on.
I could not keep this to myself and to the schoolmate who posted the first meme about KK, I decided to reply in three simple words.
His response shocked me more than I could imagine.
Not only did he refuse to check his sources after he made five serious accusations against KK, he also proudly threw around the words ‘anti-national’ with no hesitation. And then he also declared that India is the most ‘tolerant’ nation on the planet.
Yeah, right!
A country where students are now being judged nationally for choosing a PhD topic sure sounds like a tolerant nation.
Asaram Bapu was convicted of the rape of one minor but there were many more accusations against him. The journalists in that Quint LIVE interview said that the evidence was so profound and piled up that the judiciary could not get away with anything other than this decision, even if they tried to save him because of his political inclinations.
Despite all this, there was barely any discussion about this. Not in the timelines and newsfeeds and not in the Indian Facebook groups. On the other hand, though, people were busy trashing a PhD student by creating fake news.
Doesn’t this show where the true hatred of Indians lies?
KK being called anti-national, an ISI agent, desh drohi, a parasite for pursuing a PhD while a rapist is not for once named names!
Last week, when the headlines were flooding about Kathua gang rape case and so many people, were quiet just because they were mad that Muslims were standing up and protesting about this being a communal crime…
It got me thinking that the survivors of Asaram’s depravity were not even Muslims. They were his Hindu devotees who worshipped him. Nothing communal clashing over there. Then where is the collective outrage against Asaram?
Gradually I realised that people are apathetic to victims of rape by default. When the rapist is a powerful, political or religious leader, or a celebrity, the victim’s status is reduced to just being one thing – powerless.
And the masses are apathetic to them except a few random ones who’d maybe share something on social media or go to a protest and of course the rare ones who bother to create social change either as journalists or social workers.
Last week I was planning to go to one protest organised outside the High Commission of India in London but was unsure due to my health.
I discussed it with someone and do you know what response I got?
“Kya milega jaake?” (what will you get by going to the protest?) – they wanted to figure out if I was being paid to participate.
While I was still gathering my senses, boom came the second missile –
“Chalo acha hai, isi bahane London ghoom ana.” (good excuse to take a London city tour).
It is this apathetic attitude towards personal responsibility as citizens that has led India to this stage.
India has now become the nation where hard working and outspoken students like Kanhaiya get profiled and attacked every other day on social media by fake news. And high profile rapists like Asaram and Ram Rahim still have worshippers in millions who dare not speak or even hear a word against them despite them being convicted and charged for their rape crimes.
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