KOZHIKODE: Reflecting the deep pain and anguish over the brutal rape and murder of an eight-year-old nomad Muslim girl in Kathua, a journalist in faraway Kerala has given her name to his two-month-old daughter. Rajith Ram, a sub-editor with Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi announced this on his Facebook page on Friday. “She has been named. Yes, the same name. **** S. Raj. She is my daughter,” Mr Ram wrote, and within hours, nearly 20,000 people shared his post.
“Like all humans, I am terribly disturbed by the incident. My elder daughter is seven years old, and I am concerned. My wife and I want to keep the memory of Kathua kid alive, and we decided to call the newborn by her name,” he told Deccan Chronicle. Since then, Mr Ram has been receiving many calls, more from Keralites abroad to express their admiration. “I didn’t think it would grab such attention. I went by my conscience,” said the journalist who hails from Nileshwaram in Kasaragod.
He also changed his profile pic into violet as part of an online campaign to ensure justice for the girl drugged and gang-raped by eight men for days in a temple and killed. Many comments on his post thank him as his gesture had rightly struck the solidarity in the hour of anguish and helplessness. “Your deed is more than changing the profile picture on social media. It speaks volumes,” reads a comment of a Malayali from Bahrain.
