While frustrations, anger and disgust surge, who’s there to hear us out? Most of us are just accepting whatever is being dished out by Humra Quraishi
By the time you’d be getting to read this column, it will be the start of the New Year; leaving behind a year full of violence, killings and tragedies. For the past several years I haven’t really had the grit to ‘celebrate’ the ushering in of any of the new years. And this year, the pain has only compounded. In Palestine, in the last eleven weeks (from October 7, 2023 till date), more than 21,000 human beings have been massacred and many more have been left homeless and without food and water and the very basics to survival. Genocide is on; ethnic cleansing is ongoing; and brutalities are peaking. The very basic terms – ceasefire, truce talks, discussions and agreements and negotiations, stand redundant as Israeli forces continue targeted air strikes and onslaughts.
Here, in our country, democracy is getting destroyed, slowly and steadily. The latest assault is the suspension of the MPs. And in this scenario – with 146 MPs suspended from the Parliament – the Lok Sabha passed three amended criminal bills: The Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill, 2023.
Quite obviously the Opposition is furious at these latest developments. The Members of Parliament were suspended because they queried about the security breach and the relevant details to the investigation. Strange or bizarre it may seem but the particular BJP MP, on whose name the intruders could come right inside the Parliament, hasn’t been suspended! After all, the visitor pass was issued in the name of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Mysuru, Pratap Simha. What if he wasn’t from the BJP; would he have been spared from rounds of interrogations and slurs and much more? What if he was from any of the disadvantaged communities? What if he was from any of the Opposition political parties?
Even as frustrations, anger and disgust are going overboard but who’s there to hear us out! Most amongst us are just accepting whatever is getting heaped or thrust or forced on us.
After those official and unofficial orders in the now BJP-ruled states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, on the sale and consumption of non-vegetarian food items from roadside vendors, came the communal twist to halaal meat. Also, came in disturbing news from Uttar Pradesh’s capital city Lucknow. News reports which focus on Kashmiri dry fruit sellers assaulted with their ware thrown about and destroyed in targeted attacks on them. All out in the open! Their fault? Travelling miles, from the Kashmir valley to Lucknow, to sell dry fruits!
