Intro : Instead of denouncing the terrorist and distancing themselves from his crimes, some Muslims of Mumbai backed by secular intelligentsia came out openly mourning and argued for mercy petition of Yakub Memon turning him into a celebrity.
‘They hanged Yakub’, declared one of the English dailies, while ‘We’ are victimised cried a leader in the name of so-called minorities. After going through the whole process of investigation and hearing at all possible stages, the honourable Supreme Court found Yakub Memon guilty and sentenced him the death penalty. His mercy petition was also cancelled and the date for hanging was pronounced. With the execution date pronouncing, some people from media, academic a legal fraternity made a hue and cry about the issue.
Another Story : Can Opinion Supersede Evidence?
The past two weeks have been full of comments and views coming from self-appointed merchants of pseudo-secularism. On July 30, 2015 when whole country was mourning over former President Dr Kalam’s death, some of our brothers and sisters were busy in creating chaos over Yakub’s death. Is it just a political game or a long term strategy of harnessing vote bank on ‘We’ versus ‘They’ approach?
Some of the media houses have left no stone unturned in communalising the Yakub Memon issue. Can our media afford to be irresponsibility in the name of freedom of the Press/media? The sickening trend was visible for making celebrity out of a terrorist. The projections and discussion in electronic media tried their best to prove Yakub a martyr while the prominent English dailies opted to give a two third of front page to a terrorist rather than a former President of Bharat.
Another Story : Sympathisers of Terrorist
Instead of denouncing the terrorist and distancing themselves from his crimes, some Muslims of Mumbai backed by secular intelligentsia came out openly mourning Yakub Memon as a celebrity. Incidentally, none of came out to mourn the death of another Indian Muslim, APJ Abdul Kalam. Between the two, it seems seculars would prefer Memon over Kalam.
The people who were arguing that ‘terror has no religion’, suddenly realised that the culprit is from minority community. The debate over capital punishment got wind all of a sudden, as if he is the first one to be hanged as per the established procedure of law. The emotional stories about the family of a terrorists and his ‘brave surrender’ were doing rounds in the media. The opinions and tweets of public figures like Digvijay Singh, Asaduddin Owaisi, Prashant Bhushan etc. are all the more shocking. They not only disrespected the SC verdict, but also fueled the spirit of ‘We’ and ‘They’. Digvijay Singh compared Kalam’s funeral to the hanging of Yakub Memon. Another so-called sympathiser of Muslims, Syed Ali Shah Geelani alleged that Yakub was hanged because he was a Muslim. These voices didn’t show any solidarity with the family members of the police personnel who lost their lives fighting with terrorist in Gurdaspur attack on July 27. Obviously, common Indians perceive these individuals as a traitor and potential threat for the nation.
This trend is all the more dangerous, especially when, the whole world is grappling with the treat ISIS and many youth are carried away with their ideas of Muslim victimhood. Instead of talking about the horrors of Mumbai terror attack in1993, portraying Yakub as a victim would definitely encourage such extremist tendencies. Youth claiming “I am Yakub” through social media and networking sites are signs of misguided youth. These youth can be a soft target for terrorist outfits.
The news of people across Mumbai getting together and offering Namaz forthe hanged terrorist is even more worrisome. Some newspapers represented Yakub as martyrs. Honourable Supreme Court and Government of India should take a strict and proper action against them who are spreading hatred in the name of freedom of Speech. People and media might argue about whether he deserved the death penalty or not but the ultimate truth is that he was a terrorist and it was proved beyond doubt in the court of law.
For the persons reacting to assertions that only Muslims were being hanged, it should be made clear to them by the statistics of Asian News International that after 1947, 170 people have been hanged in India with only 15 of them were Muslims. Do we need to justify the hanging? Was he not a terrorist? The time is ripe to discuss Constitutional limitations on freedom of Press or Speech and Express-ion in the name of democratic rights. Otherwise, the venom of ‘We’ and ‘They’ will push our society for further divisions and partitions. –Nishant Kumar Azad
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