How Naxals and Mayawati teach us to respect human kind

We (urban India like me) often wonder the kind of support that Mayawati enjoys in Uttar Pradesh. We often deride the way she or for that matter any politician manipulates the caste system in India. Dalits, the backward community to which Mayawati belongs has for long suffered at the hands of upper class sections of the society. It is not un-natural that see her as a symbol of the upliftment of their community. That Gandhi and Ambedkar did the same thing in a much modest and humble way is another topic of debate. But all I am saying here is seeing the kind of oppression that Dalits have faced in India for ages; it's not surprising to see that they support the kind of aggression and unabashed immodesty that she displays.

But things are changing and hopefully with time, the caste effect on nation's politics will die down. The recent news about, a Bihar court sentencing 16 people held guilty for a carnage Jehanabad in 1997, where 58 Dalits were killed by Ranbir Sena, a landlord gang of sorts, brings forward 2 things. One that, 50 years post the independence, a Jehanabad still happens in world's largest democracy. And this is not an isolated case. We are routine to cases of Dalits being attacked for entering a temple, drinking water from a common village well, marrying some one from upper caste, and so on. But the second and more significant is that finally justice is being delivered, such cases are coming into limelight and the guilty are being punished.

Slowly but surely, the rural landscape of India is changing, not only geographically and economically but also socially. Thanks to an active media, such cases are no longer brushed under the carpet by officials. The current Naxal problems of India and the appreciation showered by Mayawati's supporters to her aggression, should teach us a thing or two, about treating all human kind with respect and dignity. Because if we don’t, when it's their turn to rule you, they will surely give it back. And then we may find it too hot to handle.

Who is responsible for Dr Siras' death?

It's sad, shocking and the people responsible for it deserve a harsh punishment so that others learn the outcome of playing with someone's private life. I am talking about the alleged suicide of professor Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, the Aligarh Muslim University professor who was suspended from the University, after being filmed having consensual sex with a rickshaw-puller at his home in the University Campus. He was found dead in his apartment and police suspects suicide.

Though he was reinstated back in University after he appealed in court against his suspension, surely the scars never healed. How humiliating it must be for the man, to be subjected to that kind of mental cruelty? Indian being a democracy, any citizen is free to practise whatever he wants as long as it is not a criminal activity. Ones sexual preference is their private matter and all those who made public his private moments should be held guilty of breaking an important law of India's Constitution.

As a society, when will we learn to look at the skeletons in our cupboard and stop accusing anyone who dares to go against the general social norms?Those who filmed the Professor need to be punished severely for not respecting an individual's privacy and then should be the ones hiding their faces with society shunning them. If this was a suicide, all of us who made fun of the poor man when he was caught in camera need to hang our heads in shame for driving a human being to this.