The horrific rape and murder of a 19-year-old girl at Hathras has not just shocked the nation but it has also jolted some sense into our television channels that were peddling the Sushant Singh Rajput death case into a major Bollywood drug scandal. But even their all consuming desire for TRPs could not ignore the outrage that was sparked off by this incident.
Since this took place in Uttar Pradesh the focus of both the media and the Opposition naturally shifted to the state’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, especially after the state police hurriedly cremated the body of the victim late at night, without the presence of any family member. According to police sources, the cremation was done in the stealth of the night so as not to provoke the situation, and with the consent (forced or otherwise) of the family. However, the family denies giving any consent and instead has been lamenting that they were not allowed to be present or to bring their daughter home.
Defenders of the UP CM claim that the media is obsessed with Yogi simply because most media houses in the national capital are based out of Noida and hence the story has geographical ease. Why do you not talk about Kerala where worse incidents take place on a much more frequent basis, they argue. And add, is it because Yogi makes an easy target because he is a BJP leader.
There is so much that is wrong about this whataboutery, for a crime in Kerala, however heinous, does not justify a crime in UP. Second, even if the national media is more obsessed about UP than Kerala, this is not a new phenomenon that came up soon after Yogi took office. The rising rapes and abysmal law and order in Uttar Pradesh were as much under scrutiny during Akhilesh Yadav’s tenure as it is now. Who can forget the Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s shocker in 2014 when he defended a rape accused on the grounds that “boys will be boys”. Hence the scrutiny and the criticism are not limited to the BJP Chief Minister alone, whatever the conspiracy theorists may say. Forget Mulayam, even the late Sheila Dikshit came in for censure about her reaction to a Delhi-based journalist who was murdered on her way back home from office late at night. As the then CM she had commented that the journalist was being “adventurous” driving home so late at night. At the time it was the BJP that led the attack on her for being insensitive. Now it is Yogi’s turn to face the fire.
The Congress has taken up this issue in full force with both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra leading the charge against the UP CM for the breakdown in law and order. Specially since post Hathras other rape and murder cases have also come to light. For the BJP to complain this is merely political is wrong. It is political of course but it’s an issue that is hitting home with the public. The safety of the girl child is something that cuts across both caste and state boundaries. To see the Hathras case as an injustice done to a Dalit girl is wrong and limiting. It is a crime against humanity and the UP CM needs to ensure that his state police react accordingly.