They say “Truth sets you free.” So, I have delved into the Hathras victim case. I am not the victim, nor the alleged perpetrator, nor police, nor CBI nor part of Yogi government—nor am I journalist who first writes a story and then “twists” facts to suit my masters’ vile designs.
So far a bystander—these pages don’t cater a lot to crime stories—I was sucked into it by a report which leaked an audio of a India Today journalist tutoring the victim’s brother to mouth what she wanted for her channel.
As the audio rolled on, I appeared sinking at multiple levels: Does the reporter know what she is doing? The implication? That a whole village could burn, lives lost on communal lines, political landscape altered, indeed the whole nation at the mercy of domestic and foreign vultures? Sure, she wouldn’t do so without her bosses approval. Is it worth a promotion or a few bonuses if blood flows on the dusty roads or barnyards of the village? And have the bosses issued any clarification in the last 24 hours on the embarrassing leak? Don’t the reporter and their bosses want “Truth to set them free.”
So I sought “truth” which are indisputable facts. In this fire and smoke of noise and distraction and manipulation and rumours, facts are the surest pills. You too, readers, don’t be indulgent or indifferent. This concerns us all.
On September 14, the victim, a 19-year-old girl is in her farms. She is dragged by a dupatta around her neck. It injures her spinal cord. Her mother discovers her lying down in the firm. She is taken to relevant police station. Her statement is recorded on September 22. She was first admitted to a hospital in Aligarh. She was later shifted to Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi. She died on September 29, a full fortnight after she was attacked. Four of her alleged assaulters have been arrested. There appears to be a family rivalry ongoing for 20 years. The victim was later cremated under the police watch.
All along we have heard that the unfortunate girl was gang-raped. Police has come out with its statement, based on medical reports, that she wasn’t. Our corrupt media and politicians tell us it’s a lie. But how do we explain this video where the girl is being interviewed on camera and doesn’t mention once that she had been raped? How do we explain this video of her own mother, still alive, where she doesn’t once say her girl had been raped?
(Yet, the corrupt media, like a canine, isn’t letting the bone go. Don’t tell me they haven’t seen these videos. I recommend you to look at ndtv.com of last few days. Or say Indian Express. Even today, Express has a front-page story where the mandatory “alleged rape” finds place in the text. It has an OpEd today with a 72-font headline: “The Gangrape” in the print edition. The writer, a Supreme Court advocate, is questioning why the police has not registered the rape case—well, it hasn’t because probably there was no rape).
Our next burden of conscience is that it was a typical caste atrocity. Higher-caste giving vent to its oppression on lower-castes. The typical Brahmin-Dalit narrative. (Even if the perpetrators were Thakurs and not Brahmins). The corrupt media just won’t let the enmity of generations spoil their good story.
So how far has the “Truth set us free”? The twin-narrative of gang-rape and a Brahmin-Dalit caste incident look decidedly to have been built on very shaky grounds. They appear to have been erected on an agenda. Let’s sequence the agenda too for everyone’s benefit.
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have hit the road. They are denied entry into the district. Rahul Gandhi stages a “fall” on the ground. Derek O’ Brien of the TMC does likewise. At the other entrance of the district, Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party is doing the same. A video surfaces where the cameraman is schooling family to say they are under virtual house arrest. That they are not happy with the investigations. That they demand CBI inquiry. Now of course we also have this audio of India Today reporter.
Could we blame the administration in sealing the district when definite attempts are afoot to create caste-spun mayhem? Don’t a crowd without mask triggers action under Epidemic Act? What do we make of reporters who are asking family to suggest them the best “route” they could enter the district without the scrutiny of administration? What do we make of our politicians who lie from both sides of mouth and a media which is whipping up society unmindful of consequences? Or perhaps that’s the entire idea in the first place.
So think. And revisit your position on the tragedy. We all are with the victim’s family and grieve the horror she suffered. The guilty must be punished. But whether we should subscribe or promote the “gangrape” and “Brahmin-Dalit” narrative, deserves a second look. If anything, mark the politicians and the media who are making the biggest noise. They are mine and yours’, and our nation’s, worst enemy. They don’t want a safe India for our children.
Have your facts. For the “Truth would set you free” as well.
