14th February, a day which is supposed to be meant for love, turned out to be the day when democracy got slapped right across its face this time. As if the stupidity of Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha was not enough that the police also backed them up by arresting the protestors, who were trying to challenge their unreasonable diktat.
Have people lost the right to raise the voice their voice against injustice done to them? Because this is what it seemed it looked like in Delhi yesterday.
Students from Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University took up the responsibility on behalf of the entire nation’s youth by questioning Hindu Mahasabha in their own ground. They were shouting slogans right outside the Mandir Marg office of theirs so that they can clearly hear that we are not afraid to take a stand against them. Celebrating love is no crime, and Valentine’s Day doesn’t undermine our culture in any way. And even if it does, it’s an individual’s wish to believe in whatever culture he/she feels like. No ordinary guy wearing a saffron band has the right to dictate terms on him/her.
India is a democratic country and I just can’t understand how is forcing someone to have certain set of beliefs comes under the ambit of democracy. If singing ‘Love is my choice’ can lead you to jail, then I really don’t think there is much left to say for me.
The students came out in colourful wedding outfits to ask the Hindu Mahasabha guys to officiate their weddings. This bold step by the students turned ugly when they were pushed inside the police vans after they had broken the barricade to get near the office. Initially 100 policemen were deployed to keep the matters in control but when the government saw that the youth of the nation was not ready to sit quietly, they sent more officers to curb the voices of the students.
The President of JNUSU, Ashutosh Kumar said to the media, “Delhi Police backed by the BJP government has shown apathy and has done nothing about church vandalisations and continuous religious divides. But when students group organise peaceful protests against moral policing, it takes them just 10 minutes to crack down,” And I cannot agree more to what he said.
Dividing the society on communal lines, vandalising the churches, riots on the basis of religion and all other such disturbing elements of the society needs to stop. It is us who have to take up the responsibility to put an end to all this just like the students from JNU, Delhi University and few other colleges did. A job worth appreciating, and it must not go unnoticed.
Image Credits: The Hindu
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