In India, the cries for justice, are becoming louder and longer! They come from different segments of society and particularly from those who continue to be exploited and excluded! These cries are heart-rending: anyone with an iota of conscience will hear them! The sad and tragic reality is that these cries will remain unheard; those who need to hear these cries and to respond to them, have deadened their ears and hardened their hearts!
Junaid and Nasir cry for justice! These two Muslim men were allegedly kidnapped, lynched, and set ablaze by a Hindutva mob in Haryana’s Bhiwani district on 16 February. They were residents of Gopalgarh village in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur.The incident happened 100 kilometers away from their village, and the Hindutva group had accused the deceased Muslim men of cow smuggling. Junaid and Nasir were apparently abducted from the forests of Piruka and taken them to Barwas village in Bhiwani, where they were burned alive. Family members also said that they were killed by members of the Hindutva outfit Bajrang Dal, and that the Bajrang Dal leader Monu Manesar was behind the gruesome killing. Though Manesar and some others have been arrested, there are others on the street demanding they be released immediately and providing legitimacy to their heinous crime.
The recent elections in Gujarat were a sham on Democracy; mafia of the ruling regime took away the voting ids (EPIC) from several voters prior to the elections and the votes were exercised on their behalf. Some were given money to do so or to vote for a particular candidate/party. Beef and liquor and other ‘gifts’ were freely distributed. Selected EVMs were manipulated before and also after the elections!
Human Rights defenders cry for justice! Thanks to those who have had the courage to stick their necks out for the poor, exploited and other vulnerable sections of society – that reality is still on the canvass! Many human rights defenders are still paying the price for their courageous and selfless deeds. The likes of Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira and others are still languishing in jail, in the Bhima- Koregaon conspiracy case. The struggle to prove the innocence of Fr Stan Swamy, who was institutionally murdered on 5 July 2021, still continues. Teesta Setalvad, R.B. Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt are hounded and harassed, with fabricated cases foisted on them. It is not easy for them and for their families, the wheels of justice indeed move extremely and painfully slowly. They however are resolute, determined to fight for the cause of justice – till the very end!
Freedom of the press, of speech and expression cherishers, cry for justice! In a country which is dominated by ‘godified’ media – it is not easy to speak truth to power! On 2 February journalist Siddique Kappan was released on bail after spending 846 days (28 months) in jail on being released on from a Lucknow prison on Kappan told the media that he had no idea why he was implicated wrongly in a case and jailed. The fact however was that he was on his way to Hathras in UP where a young Dalit girl was gang-raped by the powerful belonging to the ruling regime. Any media house (be it print or electronic) if it takes on the Government – are denied Government advertisements (revenue) and have the ED, the CBI, Income-tax, NIA and other statutory bodies (who have become pliable instruments in the hands of a vindictive regime) breathing on them, raiding them and creating untold suffering on them. The raids on the BBC offices in Mumbai and Delhi recently are a classic example of this. A free press is sine qua non in a democracy – and world leaders and Governments have taken on India on this score. Besides the banning of the BBC film on Modi – which is accurate, authentic, objective after faultless research is clearly an example of how the Government wants to throttle freedom of speech and expression. A churlish attitude of a fascist regime that is too frightened to face the truth!
Today India cries for justice! Junaid and Nassir, Darshan and Ashaben, the victim survivors of the Gujarat Carnage of 2002: Bilkis Bano, Rupa Mody and Zakhia Jafri; the migrants and labourers, the minorities: Muslims, Christians and others; human rights defenders: Vernon, Arun, Teesta, Sreekumar, Sanjiv and many others; voters and those who believe in the freedom of speech and expression. There are many more crying: the fisherfolk of Kerala, those who have been displaced by megaprojects and the mining mafia; those who are concerned about the ecology and cry for environmental justice; the LGTBQIA community; the small farmers and land-holders; the small investors who have fallen prey to a corrupt regime which has been hijacked by crony capitalists like Adani. There are many more; the list is endless! Martin Luther King Jr. once famously said, that, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Injustice today abounds in India! Until such time, that the cause of justice is served and made real to every segment of society, the cries for justice will continue to grow shriller!
But is anybody listening?
Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ