Dhulagarh is burning and the nation chooses to remain quiet. 60 houses torched, 5 hours of violence leaving many badly injured and yet not a word was leaked. The West Benga Government is surprisingly quiet and cctv images leaked later show how the police chose to look the other way. What’s absolutely shocking is the fact that this is happening on the soil of a secular democratic republic with an elected representative ruling the people.
The otherwise vocal Mamata Banerjee seemed to be absolutely mum about the entire incident. Reports and source based information reveals that the Police waited for hours to get orders from the top and apparently the reason they did not act was because the perpetrators of the heinous crime comprised of the key members of Trinamool Government vote bank.
Dhulagarh is less than 50 kms from Kolkata, the state capital and many of the victims have not returned home since. But this is not the first time. If you track the developments in West Bengal since 2008, there are innumerable instances of violence against Hindus from defiling temples and to stopping of religious function to even attack on devouts in one of the holiest pilgrimages in India, Ganga Sagar. I am beginning to worry if it is indeed a unraveling of Jihad like situation across West Bengal.
What’s even more disturbing is the self established set of ethics followed by the Indian media when members of the Muslim community are the perpetrators of attack on Hindus. Where are all the Shenanigans crying foul during the Dadri Lynching incident? While my sympathies are ri victim, I wonder why the same sympathy is not deserved by the Dhulagarh victims. While Twitter is bursting to the seams with information that is trickling in, the common media channels seem to be completely oblivious about the development. Am I to believe that this is a case of informed omission? Is it because the community that was attacked upon was Hindu? Is it because the attackers were Muslims and chose to do this on a day after Prophet Muhammad’s birthday? Is it because in our so called pseudo secular nation, it is a crime to call for equality and rights of those belonging to the religion of the majority, Hinduism.
I think I have reiterated this point many a times on this platform but the fact remains that secularism has never been about giving more prominence to one religion over another. On the contrary the idea is to respect every religion and make no exception in our behavior against them. The state wing of BJP have called for NHRC probe but my question is why is the center still not acting? If the state law enforcement machinery has failed to protect the rights of the victims in Dhulagarh, why is the Centre quiet about it? It is time that Government took cognizance of the fact that silence is no longer the best policy. Urgent and appropriate action to alleviate any kind of communal violence is necessary now.
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