Ever imagined you are three feet something eight-year-old kiddo who has horses and would take them grazing in the morning. Known of cattle and herds of sheep and also taking your dog for a walk, but horses to the ranches, is out and out fascinating. But as fascinating as it may sound, the lurking Satan can be around. Asifa, the beautiful child with charismatic smile (as we see her in her photo) went grazing her horses, the horses came home but never did she. Later her muddied, murdered body was found lifeless, soulless.
There have been various perspectives to this sad event, we break them down one after the other.
The chargesheet:
Asifa went missing on 10th Jan 2018 an FIR was lodged at Hiranagar Police station, same day. The girl was searched all around but only on 17 Jan 2018 her dead body was found. The police chargesheet mentions that the victim was drugged, sedated, starved, raped, murdered. The gory details of the crime have been elaborately mentioned in the chargesheet. The chargesheet says the girl was from a Bakarwal Muslim community and one Dogra Hindu community member Sanjhi Ram along with his aides, including one from police hatched the plot. According to the plot, the girl would be abducted, confined, raped and murdered and all this because, he wanted to scare away and dislodge the Muslim members. Reportedly, the heinous list of crimes was committed in a holy temple of the Hindus – The Devisthan.
If one has closely followed the news, there are two main pointers that have been highlighted by India’s free press.
First pointer, the rape and murder was conducted on a Muslim girl. Never before has rape had a religion before. India is a high rape-reported country. And by the protocol established by the supreme court, the face, identity or any details of the victim that reveals her identity must be protected at any cost by the media. But, here the innocent and vibrant face of the child was conveniently used by several media outlets to share their story. This is an outright misuse of the girl’s identity to sensationalize the story and score brownie points. The repeated use of the girl’s community’s name raises eye brows over the media’s intent at instigating one community against the other. It also unmasks the agenda based journalism at the core of reporting and presenting the report. Here its important to be reminded, in the recent past how many girls have been raped/murdered/tortured where the girls were Hindus. On April 11, 2018, 7-year-old Suman was raped by Naseeruddin Laeek and Shahbaz in Bijnor, UP. On 10th Apr 2018 6-year-old Hindu girl in Kaharganj, Bihar was lured with a chocolate and raped so badly that she is now on death bed. Her rapist was Aalam- a Muslim man. On Apr 11 2018, 4 year old Payal from Bhiwandi was attacked by Aabed Sheikh when she was playing near her house. Her hands were chopped off, her toes amputated and killed brutally. In March 2018, 9-year-old Pihu was gang raped and burnt alive in Assam. On 6th March 2018, 3-year-old Neha in Kolkata was raped inside a bus by Sheikh Munna. In none of these very recent cases have the religious identity of the girls have been used by the media to attract internet traffic, print readership or television viewership. Can we clearly see some rapes are more rape than other rapes?
Second pointer, the rape was conducted by Hindus with an intent of criminal intimidation to scare away the Bakarwal community. It may surprise if you notice how the intent of the media houses has changed from highlighting the rapist to the community of the rapist, the religion of the rapist. It made such a snowball impact that for the first time of all rapes that ever made to the national media scene, the religion of the rapists was denigrated, targeted and made a mockery of.
Huge number of people gave in to this show of Hindu bashing, like a fashionable pose. One self-styled model from southern India, wrote on facebook addressing to UBER, should remove cars which have the graphics of Rudra Hanuman, as it’s a symbol of violence.
Bollywood actresses went on to write, Hindustan rhyming well with Devisthan in their protest placards. The internet flooded with Hindu hate and mockery memes. Actress Swara Bhaskar, who in her own words was reduced to a vagina after watching the film – Padmaavat. As, in the film the queen chooses self-immolation over being raped and living a life of a sex slave to a savage Muslim king. The same Ms. Bhaskar comes out in protest of rape and in her placard cunningly targeting one religion.
Here, its pertinent to remember in India every time there is a bomb blast by some Islamic terror group, we say it loud – Terror has no religion, terrorist has no religion. But apparently, interestingly and ironically – Rape and Rapist suddenly have a religion.
The other side-
Right after the crime was out in the media trial houses, there was a huge resentment by the Hindu Ekta Manch and the Bar association of Jammu. There stand is, may the child be given justice but the case be transferred from crime branch of J&K to CBI. Interestingly, this is a first instance of a case where the accused lot is demanding a CBI inquiry and a narco test. But the victim side is happy with the report made by crime branch. Not all seems to be as clear as it looks, the proximity of the accused sanjhi Ram’s house to where the child’s body was found, the child’s body found with shoes still on even after eight days of rape and murder, the temple being a busy worship place and a sum total of one small room where people come to offer prayers every day, raises many questions that still need to be answered. All of us remember the case of the 7-year-old child of Ryan International School, Gurgaon who was mercilessly murdered. The chargesheet of the police said the school bus driver had slit the throat of the child as he resisted his sexual advances. Later when the case was handed over to the CBI, the case completely turned around. The driver had been falsely framed by the police and a senior student from the same school was arrested.
The narrative
Rape doesn’t have a place in a civilized society, not even marital rape. And the rape and murder of an eight-year-old only sends shivers down the spine. But, where does the agenda of a hate campaign against a particular religion fit in? Is a rape yet another vehicle to deliver our hate for any religion? Is a child’s dead body our new political tool to play some dirty hate politics? Is division along religious lines a new trend after a rape has been done? No, it’s a no to each of these but as long as selective players exist, mudslinging campaigns thrive and biased media weaves its own political narrative, we are left with no choice but only to sigh, cringe, cry or scream.
A last-minute turn around ( Updated on 23rd of April)
Dated 20 April 2018 the Jammu edition of the famous Hindi Daily – Dainik Jagran, came up with a mind-boggling story on the front page covering various aspects of the case. The story claimed – No Rape Happened. Focus was on the post mortem report which mentioned no sexual assault, but only other physical injuries. This raised brows and questions on the report furnished by crime branch. Incidentally, the first report mentioned there was no damage to the skull and body carried multiple injuries. Whereas, the second report stated there were marks of nail-scratches on her thighs and the hymen was torn, clearly trying to portray rape. In the initial report the cause of death was heart attack caused by external force causing breathing to stop. The wound on the genital of the victim doesn’t clearly indicate a sexual assault. The hair strands claimed by the crime branch report to be of the victim’s found in the temple are also doubted, because clearly the temple doesn’t go without
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