What is the antidote for hate?

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What is the antidote for hate?

Saturday, 05 February 2022 | Jagdish Kaur

What is the antidote for hate?

Politicians, religious and community leaders and people from all walks of life should come together to oppose hate campaigns at the grassroots

India woke up to 2022 withthe shocking revelation about the “Bulli Bai”app, targeting minority women and putting their photographs for auction without consent in a derogatory and humiliating manner.  The app had displayed photographs of Muslim women from students, well-known and reputed personalities, prominent journalists,to social workers. Protests were lodged all over the country. With pressure from human rights and women groups, the Bulli Bai app was blocked by Github after various complaints regarding thedefamatory content of the app were registered.

A couple of owners of the Bulli Bai App have since been arrested by the CERT-IN (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) and currently kept in police custody.The “Sulli Deals” App, which was launched last year, had listed Muslim women for ‘auction’ with photographs sourced without permission and doctored. Its mastermind has also been arrested now.

Will the arrests stop this kind of humiliating action against women of certain religions, sects, community, caste, or group? Certainly not because these are not a one-time or stand-alone crimes. These are results of organized and sustained hate campaigns poisoning the minds of Indians, especially the youth, against minority communities. For the last few years, the social media has been extensively used to create platforms and material by these perpetrators of hate.

As per Statista Research Department, most hate crimes during the period 2015-2019, were targeted at Dalits, followed by Muslims. There have been several reports of Muslims not being allowed to pray in certain places in North India and Christians being targeted on suspicion of being involved in religious conversions. Human rights groups which monitor atrocities against Christians in India have documented the violence by Hindutva groups from all states and released a fact-finding report titled ‘Christians under attack in India’. The report released by the Association of Protection Civil Rights, United Christian Forum and United against Hate at a press conference in Delhi in October 2021 reveals that over 300 such instances were reported from across 21 states, particularly North India, in nine months of 2021. The farmers who protested for almost a year were repeatedly labelled as ‘Khalistanis’ and their supporters and hate messages against them were doing the rounds on all social media platforms.

Various forms of provocative incidences against minorities have been on the rise. We keep hearing about the incidences of ‘love jihad’, ‘gharvapsi’ and other newly coined terms to target certain communities.The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a PIL seeking probe into alleged hate speeches at two separate events at Haridwar and Delhi in December 2021. There are messages and videos circulating on social media regarding the atrocities committed by Mughals (Muslims) during the middle-ages on Hindus and provocation for revenge. The voices of making India a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ are getting louder by the day. The hate speeches and hateful actions against any religion can only serve to imbalance the public order and peace in society.

The rising hate crimes have put the country in a precarious situation. It has become quite a serious issue as the youth are falling prey to unbated hate campaign. Educated young people are debating religion and hate rather than constructive issues for nation building.

Do we have a solution? The harrowing trend of communal hatred is likely to meet with retaliation by those targeted in due course leading to destruction of the very fabric of multi-cultural Indian society. As Mahatma Gandhi said “an eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind “.The Constitution of India enshrined and ensured equality and respect for all Indians. All religions and faiths preach love and peace for the mankind.

Hate campaigns against any religion, community or sect need to be condemned in the strongest words and strict legal action should be taken against perpetrators of such hate crimes. Politicians, religious and community leaders and people from all walks of life should come together to oppose hate campaigns at the grassroot level. The school curriculum should have mandatory content on communal harmonyand respect for all cultures and religions so that our future generation is ingratiated with supreme values of compassion, and brotherhood.

In a world struggling to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, apart from dwindling economies, it is time to push aside all separatist agenda and vested interest of certain groups and stand together as Indians, as humans and as a peace-loving nation.

(The writer is President, Women’s Initiative for Liberation, Growth & Action. The views expressed are personal.)

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