Brave victims show humanity in the face of horror—now it’s time for the nation to reject hate-mongers
The people of India stood together to defeat the designs of the terrorists who ran bullets into unsuspecting holiday-makers in Pahalgam after checking their religion but hatemongers within the country are playing into the hands of the terrorists and aiding in their mission to sow seeds of religious hatred in the country. The terrorists will have their mission accomplished unless the same
Indian people who resisted terror recognise this domestic danger.
The people of Jammu and Kashmir rose as one person against the terrorist attack; the Assembly in the Union territory passed a unanimous resolution condemning it. They were unusual acts. But more unusual was the way in which the living victims of the terror attack, several of them, responded. The daughter of a Keralite whom the terrorists killed in front of her after making sure he was not a Muslim said she lost her father in the terror attack but gained two brothers, both Muslim. She was referring to the way the local
tourist guides took care of her after the attack. The woman who lost her Navy captain husband in a similar fashion wanted justice to be done to her husband, but did not want people to go after Kashmiris and Muslims. A woman from Kanpur who lost her husband to terrorist guns said the terrorists were not even human.
But the sad part is that the victims themselves are being now showered with abuse for upholding the values cherished by humanity — kindness, forgiveness, composure, love and brotherhood. The haters who belong to the right wing are now creating their own stories about these heroic human beings and peddling them through their own channels, especially social media.
The attack has been so inhuman and demeaning that even the National Commission for Women (NCW) was forced to step in and admonish the hate- mongers. “Trolling a woman on the basis of her ideological expression or personal life is not acceptable in any form,” the Commission has said and suggested that agreement or disagreement must always be done with “decency and within constitutional rights”.
To expose him as a coward is the ultimate condemnation of a terrorist. He is not armed with logic or rationale and hence dare not present them before the authorities concerned; he cannot convert people from the other side to his for the same reason; he cannot fight his equals. Hence he arms himself with weapons and takes on unarmed people.
But the hate-mongers are mimicking the act of the very same terrorists whom they claim to despise. They do not understand the logic of humanity; they cannot comprehend the words of the heroic people who stand up for justice and humaneness; they are unsure of their own goals. They are sure they cannot look into the eyes of a sensible human being and argue their case; and hence they train all their energies and convoluted logic on innocent and unsuspecting people, like the victims of the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
It is not the NCW or other government agencies that can defeat hate; it is the very same Indian people who defeated the terrorists in their game who can do it again. India must rise as one person and support the bravehearts who reflect the Indian ethos that has gained this nation its place in the comity of nations.
Haters have no place in this country.
