Skip to main content

Hashimpura - Vibhuti Narain Rai

The Indian state, even after seventy years of Independence has miserably failed in providing a secure and just society to its citizens.


Vibhuti Narain Rai's chilling recount of India's biggest custodial killing wherein forty two Muslims were butchered down by policemen because of their religion is a stark reminder of this fact. Even more so, the fact that the incident happened just next to the country's capital is a huge shame for our nation. When the media got the whiff of the incident, it did what it does the best. It was 1987 and the media as subservient to a particular political party as it is today. It brushed under the carpet a henious crime.


On the night of 22 May, 1987 near the Delhi Ghaziabad border, members of the powerful Provincial Armed Constabulary rounded up some forty plus Muslims, put them in a van and took them to a canal to shoot them and throw them in the running waters. Its thirty years almost to the incident and we have not provided justice to those families or even an answer to their mothers and fathers why thier sons were so blatantly killed. What were those compelling circumstances that the entire Indian system, including the media and the judiciary failed to bring perpetuators to book. Indeed, the matter has been allowed to die a slow death, akin to the genocide of 1984.

This book is a must read for the author was the S.P. of the area where this happened. He was also one of the first people to reach the crime scene. Being a policeman himself, even though he was not directly involved in the investigation, he saw it all, he had all the accesses and knowledge of what was happening. 

Hashimpura is a reminder of what all is wrong with our society and most of it is our mindset. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Also read

Did You Ever Love Me? Book Review: Can Rithvik singh turn heartbreak into a homecoming?

Did You Ever Love Me? by Rithvik Singh is a tender contemporary poetry collection about love, heartbreak, longing, self worth and learning to let go. Its greatest strength is emotional accessibility: Singh writes directly to readers who feel intensely and care deeply. The collection offers comfort without pretending heartbreak is simple, though its simplicity may occasionally feel familiar to seasoned poetry readers. Did you Ever Love Me? Have you ever loved someone so completely that, after they left, you were left wondering whether they had ever understood what they had been given? Not merely whether they loved you, but whether they ever noticed how much you loved them, how much patience you offered, how many small things you remembered, or how often you chose to stay when leaving might have been easier. There is a particular loneliness in that question because it rarely arrives at a dramatic moment. More often, it finds you while you are doing something completely ordinary. Yo...
1 comment
Read more

Epitome of equality

First of all This is not to demean any religion.. I am a Hindu by birth, but yes I respect all religions .I offer my daily prayers , fast on holy days , but there was something that was disturbing me . God as per me was a Friend, someone who was by my side always , someone who was a dear friend , but this is not what everyone else thought , for others he was the Judge who gives his verdict always and punishes anyone and everyone . Walk into any temple and you would see , if you have money , you will be treated in a way as if you are the ONLY disciple of the God . I have had too many experiences where I was treated as a second class citizen in the temple . Why? Well I could not afford giving thousands as donation. This is not how it should be , God looks at each one of us with the same divinity .As I mentioned God for me is a friend, so tell me, do we chose friends based on their bank balances? Do we give our verdict on them ? then how can God do it? I know many of us would ...
32 comments
Read more

Satyameva Jayate - Free speech

More than 40 people have died in the riots that have followed the killing of Swami Lakshmanananda in Kandhamal in Orissa. 5 people were killed and 47 injured in Mumbai when Jerry Falwell made some comments saying that the Prophet of Islam was a violent man and a terrorist. 12 people had died in Mumbai in anti-rushdie riots. There are more instances I can point out, but these stand out because of the scale and because of how related India is to last two people. Mr. Falwell runs a Christian ministry in US and Salman Rushdie, although ethically an Indian, had migrated to Pakistan and was a citizen of UK at that time. Of all riots that took place all over the world following the statement by Jerry Falwell and against Salman Rushdie, India was the only place with causalities. Orissa has been a hotbed of communal tensions between Hindus and Christians for a while now. India is the largest democracy which is more than 60 years old. Why then are we so undemocratic in our conduct? I will not sa...
15 comments
Read more