The abhorrent tweets of a multi-national corporation employee Ashish Kaul about Kashmiri women have outraged Kashmir. The tweets which call for rape and trafficking of Kashmiri women and also celebrate their pain when their children are arrested by the security personnel reflect how viscerally hate-ridden and diseased his world-view is. Thankfully, his employer, the US-based Development Dimensions International (DDI) has taken a strong exception to the tweets and shown him the door. In its statement, the DDI has said it is shocked and saddened by the nature of these posts. In Kashmir, police has registered a case against him. Police has also asked Twitter India to provide details of Kaul so that he is made to face the law.
However, for all their exceptionally abusive and sick nature, the tweets have got some support too. Many have rallied to his defence and resorted to whataboutery in doing so. It is such support among a section of people or silence and generally a lack of outrage across a wide swathe of the society in the country that is more troubling. This makes Kauls tweets more a reflection of a mindset than the opinion of an individual. His tweets, thus, put into sharp relief the degraded nature of the times in which we live. The widespread silence and the absence of outrage over them also helps explain the protests and a full-fledged political and civil society campaign in favour of the accused in rape and murder of an eight year old girl in Kathua.
Such an environment incentivizes the abuse, crudeness, unethical and uncivilized behaviour. It even promotes violence against weaker sections of the society, especially Muslims. So, hate-mongers like Kaul can get away with their advocacy of the hatred and violence against the other communities. One can ask why did it become the responsibility of the J&K Police only to act against Kaul. The repugnant nature of his tweets should have prompted the police in New Delhi to initiate action against him. But such an action against a person especially when he targets minorities is unlikely to be the case in a country where majoritarianism now holds sway. The outcome of Karnataka polls where the BJP has won a clear majority has only further driven this point home.
As is clear now, the secularism and liberalism in India has taken a mortal beating. That is, even though secularism in India wasn’t all that it professed to be before the Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived on the scene. Muslims have become the choicest targets of a ruthless right-wing violence, one that now seems to enjoy a degree of social sanction. One hopes that after further consolidating his sway over the country following Karnataka victory, the PM Modi takes steps towards a more inclusive society and translates his sab ka saath and sab ka vikaas into reality. But that looks unlikely under the circumstances. But one can still hope against hope.
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