SHAME: Right-wing Hindutva extremists raped girl, tortured, murdered her to scare Muslims

The horrific rape of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu has shaken the country.

The rapists including an ex-bureaucrat and a special police officer tortured the child--who was given sedatives and raped repeatedly after being kept confined in a the temple in Kathua.

It was a pre-planned crime that was aimed to scare the nomadic Muslims living in the region, says police charge-sheet. The DNA reports have corroborated the involvement of Sanji Ram, Special Police Officer Deepak Khajuria and others.

If that is not enough, they called a person to rape her once more, before she was to be killed. When the accused were arrested, the BJP (and some Congress too) leaders came out in support of rape accused.

They took out a 'tiranga yatra' in Jammu. Lawyers in Jammu supported the accused and resisted the charge-sheet in the court. The lawyer fight the child's case was threatened. BJP leaders including ministers kept speaking in favour of the rapists.

But the question that haunts us is that how could these people turn so evil that they planned to plan the horrible crime of kidnapping a child--the age of their granddaughter, and rape her in a temple!

Still, the BJP leaders came out demanding release of the monsters involved in the crime. There were rallies. The media was not interested. It took nearly three months, a charge-sheet, outrage on social media, that finally this case has got the attention.

The photographs of the accused, the story of the victim--nothing was carried in mass circulated English and Hindi newspapers for months. It was absolute silence. After candle light vigils and protests on April 12, finally media picked it up.

Still, BJP leaders on TV, were involved in hate speak and weird counter arguments. The incident shows how there is now a breed in India that has lost all sense of morality and can go to any extent to further their power, influence, authority and ideology. Right-wing Hindu extremism has reached Nazi level in India in 2018.

Time to wake, before it's too late. 

Real story of Kashmir: Why 'national media' doesn't show reality of Kashmir

Kashmir [Jammu-Kashmir] is our 'Atoot Ang'--that's what we grew up, listening.

But from childhood, we have heard lies and fed with propaganda on Kashmir. We are not told the truth about Kashmir.

Probably, that's one of the reasons that the lies have given way to such hate, that when Kashmiris die, many people seem to revel and talk about 'score', as if 30 deaths is an achievement of the India or Army.

Kashmir is ours but Kashmiri is not. Kids grew up listening to propaganda that Kashmiris are anti-India, that they are never satisfied, that they enjoy special status, that they live off on Indian tax-payers' money and so on.

When generations imbibe this as truth, what happens? The result is that the pain of the Kashmiri doesn't affect you at all. When kids are dying in Kashmir, you don't feel anything.

On Facebook, in WhatsApp groups, on Twitter, in Drawing room conversations, you feel that the Kashmiri deserves the bullets and pellets and every second person seems to be baying for the blood of Kashmiris.

You want Kashmir, the territory, but you hate the Kashmiri. Strange.

PROPAGANDA, FALSEHOODS & ROLE OF TV CHANNELS, MEDIA

The decade of eighties saw militancy peak in Jammu & Kashmir. It was the same period when Kashmiri Pandits had to leave the Valley--a sad chapter in the history of J&K.

It was also the era when BJP leaders, riding high on Ram Mandir movement, used Kashmir in their speeches to create the Hindu wave. DD was still the sole TV channel.

Poison was being spread in the society but Congress, which had mishandled Ram Temple-Babri Masjid dispute, remained mute spectator while hate and propaganda about Kashmir was being spread across North India.

TV channels came nearly a decade later. But by then, there was a generation that had grown up on the diet that made them see Kashmiris as enemy. What else was the reason that TV channels never showed the reality of Kashmir.

Unfortunately, Indian media has this dubious distinction of misinforming own people and teaching them how to hate your own country-men. This is a result of institutional misinformation and hate over decades.

ARTICLE 370, BJP PROPAGANDA AND IT's IMPACT

For the BJP, Article 370 was just an electoral issue to polarise people. Its leaders talked of Ram Temple, Article 370 and Common Civil Code, as if they were the three magic words that would transform the country.

Today, BJP is again at the helm in the country, and also shares the power in J&K. But what about article 370? It's still there. In the name of Article 370, BJP leaders injected so much hate among an entire generation, that talking about Kashmir issue and the sufferings of ordinary Kashmiris, has become nearly impossible even among friends.

When BJP leaders were taking out 'yatras' and issuing war cries over Article 370, Congress leaders remained silent and seemed to have no clue how to deal with it. Jawaharlal Nehru was blamed for Kashmir crisis but unfortunately Congress seemed to have no idea how to counter-attack or clarify its position.

Political class, media kept mum over 'permit needed to enter North Eastern States

Neither politicians, nor media, bothered to report from the ground and tell Indians that how Kashmir had been mishandled, how Kashmiris were living, what they suffered, what they expected and the reality of the special status on the ground.

While outsiders can't buy land in Kashmir, it is not something unique to J&K. Outsiders can't buy land in parts of North East, in many hill stations, regions inhabited by indigenous people.

Further, while anyone can go to Kashmir, most Indians can't even enter several North Eastern states. A permit [inner line permit] is needed to enter these states. Why BJP never raised these issues or talked about integration?

So no voice was ever raised about Article 371, as it pertains to Nagalnad, which is too far. And, because there wasn't enough scope to polarise and gain voters in heartland by raking up the issue. 

Nothing works more than a Hindu-Muslim angle. Our intelligentsia, entire political class also failed. BJP managed to convince majority of people in North India, at least, the urban Hindu, that Kashmiris were pampered....

Rise in women political power in India: Women politicians Mahbooba Mufti, Mamata Banerjee, Jaya, Anandiben chief ministers in four corners of country

As Mahbooba Mufti took oath as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, she made history.

She is the first woman chief minister of the State. Now India has women chief ministers in important states located in all directions of the country.

Just when I was about to write this post, a friend [journalist, blogger] tweeted the same line which I was about to write.

That, 'Women leaders now rule four corners of the country'. That's quite interesting and the first such occasion when we see woman CMs in these states.

In the North, it is Mahbooba Mufti, in the South J Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu, Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal (in the Eastern part of India) and Anandi Ben Patel in the West [Gujarat].

Mamata Banerjee and J Jayalalitha have to face state elections soon. But for the time being, it is women power in states in the North, the South, the West and the East. Clearly, an important moment in history. The FIFTH is Vasundhara Raje, who rules another big state, Rajasthan.

Three are supremely powerful: Their decision is final in their parties

Another important factor is that three of these four women leaders have complete control over their parties. While Mahbooba leads PDP, a party that is in alliance with BJP, despite having a slight pro-separatist tilt, Jayalalitha heads AIADMK.

Mamata Banerjee is credited for fighting against the Left in WB for long, and for making TMC emerge as a major party and for snatching power from Communists. Anandiben Patel is BJP leader who was given charge of Gujarat after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister.

Tough challenge for Mahbooba Mufti

Anandiben Patel has faced Patel agitation and there is resentment against her within the BJP too. Jaya and Mamata are going to face elections, very soon. But for Mahbooba, it is going to be a challenge as to how she runs the government.

It is a tightrope walk for her party, as there is nothing common between BJP and PDP when it comes to their political ideology. The PDP supremo has become CM after a long period of deadlock between her party and the BJP, after her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's death.

But, for now, let's celebrate the women politicians' rise, their growing power, in India.