![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Humra-Qkhushwant-singh.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWill the human havoc taking place in and around Lakhimpur Kheri remain contained to that region or\u00a0spread out? Will it drag along new patterns to killings?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Foremost, let us stop focusing on the horrific happenings taking place in foreign lands and neighboring countries. Let us concentrate on the build-ups here, within our country. In fact, even the fence sitters have been left near speechless, with no adequate words to comment on the recent brutal killings of our people in Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Lakhimpur Kheri.<\/p>\n
Going by the\u00a0videos in circulation, the farmers were crushed, mowed down, killed by\u00a0 political workers and son of\u00a0Ajay Mishra, who happens to be\u00a0 MOS\u00a0 Home.<\/p>\n
Tell me what\u2019s been on! Nothing but killings of the hapless citizens of our country. And to compound the tragedy, dictatorship\u00a0tactics inflicted to\u00a0such an extent that even the well- known Opposition leaders were initially not allowed to travel towards\u00a0Lakhimpur Kheri, to\u00a0 meet\u00a0 the relatives and\u00a0 families of those\u00a0 killed.<\/p>\n
Have we\u00a0bothered to reflect on the bigger and broader format: Will the\u00a0 human havoc\u00a0 taking place in and around Kheri (as Lakhimpur Kheri is popularly called by us, Uttar\u00a0 Pradesh wallahs) remain contained to that region or\u00a0spread out? Will it drag along new patterns to killings? Not to be overlooked the fact that encounters and encounter-killings have been already taking place in that state. Didn\u2019t many as 1,142 encounters take place between March 2017 and January 2018, in Uttar Pradesh.<\/p>\n
I recall\u00a0I had first heard the term \u2018encounter killings\u2019 in the\u00a0Kashmir Valley but today I\u2019m\u00a0 hearing this dreaded term from the people of my home state, Uttar Pradesh. And it\u2019s the same fear and apprehension\u00a0I have been spotting in the eyes of the Kashmiris I have been\u00a0seeing\u00a0 on the faces of the young\u00a0surviving in the Northern states of the country\u2026the young are sitting\u00a0 not just jobless but in fear of the goons brigades, which have been raised\u00a0and\u00a0 nurtured by the\u00a0 political\u00a0mafia to hound and spread around terror.<\/p>\n
Yes, what we seeing today is death and destruction spreading out as never before. Probably the situation reeks of complex political developments not just in the state of Uttar Pradesh but beyond.\u00a0 In fact, all those cries of those killed or near-killed in Assam have been growing louder and shriller. What happens next? Will these cries grow louder or get crushed by the\u00a0 might of the State force?<\/p>\n
What saddens me is that even at this juncture we are not speaking out in that collective voice. Why we, as a people, are not standing up, speaking out. Today how many amongst us are trying to counter the communal madness surcharging ahead? Are we, as a people, taking on the political mafia? No, as most of us sit like mute spectators, inhaling the poisonous propaganda in circulation.<\/p>\n
Getting nostalgic<\/strong><\/p>\n Gone are men like Khushwant Singh. Nostalgia hitting\u2026images spreading out of the dos hosted\u00a0 by Khushwant\u00a0 Singh\u00a0 at his Sujan Singh Park apartment\u00a0during that fixed one-hour slot, 7 to 8\u00a0 pm, when he would\u00a0 talk of the political\u00a0characters together with the \u2018fundoos\u2019 (fundamentalists) and their destructive unleash.<\/p>\n Khushwant was Khushwant.\u00a0When I\u00a0had asked\u00a0 him\u00a0 what\u00a0 are\u00a0 the regrets in\u00a0 his life, he\u2019d quipped, \u201cWish I\u2019d taken on these fundoos years back. They are hell bent on destroying this\u00a0 country. We don\u2019t seem to realize the damage they are doing. I should have written more about their misdeeds, exposed many more of them.\u201d<\/p>\n And one evening I had asked Khushwant how would he react if Mr Narendra Modi came calling. How would you react if Narendra Modi came calling\u2026pressing the door- bell of your apartment?<\/p>\n \u201cI will not meet him!\u201d<\/p>\n You will not?<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I won\u2019t \u2026hundreds of innocent Muslims were killed in Gujarat in a cold bloodied way in the 2002 pogrom, when he was chief\u00a0 minister of that State!\u201d<\/p>\n Alas, men like Khushwant are no longer around!<\/p>\n Woman of grit<\/strong><\/p>\n Gone also are the women of grit, like the\u00a0late Mrinalini Sarabhai who was one of the few to raise her voice in Ahmedabad as the pogrom had peaked in 2002. I recall that soon after the\u00a0 Gujarat pogrom I\u2019d written a\u00a0 piece for The Indian Express, along the strain: \u2018Where is our\u00a0 God ?\u2026Not\u00a0In Bharat, \u00a0Apparently!\u2019<\/p>\n It was a cry from my heart. Perhaps, the cry was piercing enough to have touched Mrinalini Sarabhai. Within a week of the publication of that piece, I had received a handwritten letter from her. Soothing gentle words, relaying that together going to fight this battle. No, she\u00a0 didn\u2019t know me; after reading my piece, took pains to\u00a0 write to me on the\u00a0 Indian Express address which was later re-directed to me.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n Mahatma\u2019s charisma held sway<\/strong><\/p>\n On this Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti leaving you with this touching relay\u2026 how his\u00a0 charisma\u00a0 held sway\u2026Though the very mention of \u2018Aligarh\u2019 brings up images of the Aligarh Muslim University but there is more to that town. I\u00a0 had met several interesting personalities in Aligarh. One such off beat couple was\u00a0 Professor Jamal Khwaja and his spouse Hameeda Durreshahwar Akbar Khwaja.<\/p>\n Professor\u00a0Jamaal Khwaja\u00a0 was a parliamentarian but after\u00a0 his term ended\u00a0 he went back to\u00a0 the\u00a0teaching\u00a0 profession at AMU. And he and his spouse led a\u00a0quiet, retired life in Aligarh. This couple was far ahead of their times. Way back, in the \u201950, the Khwajas had named their four children with a double name! That is, a combination of the Hindu and Muslim names.<\/p>\n Hameeda had told me that Jamal Khwaja\u2019s father, Abdul Majeed Khwaja, was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi. In fact, in 1920, Gandhi had even stayed in their ancestral home at Aligarh. And she and her husband were so taken up by Mahatma Gandhi and his concept of secularism that they had decided to\u00a0 name their\u00a0 children with a double name\u00a0 \u201cThough we are\u00a0 practising Muslims but\u00a0decided to\u00a0 name\u00a0 our four\u00a0 children with a\u00a0 combination of Hindu and Muslim names \u2014\u00a0 the\u00a0 eldest Jawahar Kabir , the second\u00a0 Gita Anjum, the third\u00a0Rajan\u00a0Habib and the youngest Nassir Navin.\u201d<\/p>\n And with\u00a0 immense pride, this couple had told me the details to their children\u00a0 \u2014 Whilst\u00a0 their two sons were working in America as software engineers, the third\u00a0 a bureaucrat, and Gita Anjum worked as a neurologist in a New Delhi hospital.<\/p>\n \nSheer coincidence or what!<\/strong><\/p>\n Sheer coincidence or what, each time a crisis erupts there\u2019s that quick diversion or call it distraction towards Bollywood.<\/p>\n Last month\u2019s\u00a0huge\u00a0haul – seizure\u00a0 of\u00a0 2,990 kg\u00a0 of cocaine from the\u00a0Mundra\u00a0 Adani\u00a0Port, brought\u00a0 along\u00a0 no startling\u00a0 disclosures except the\u00a0 mundane arrests of the smaller easily\u00a0 catchable fish. Nah, none of the names of any of the big buyers and suppliers. The powerful lot.<\/p>\n Now, all too suddenly, Bollywood super star Shah Rukh Khan\u2019s son, Aryan Khan and few other youngsters arrested for consuming drugs on a luxury cruise, off the Goa coast.<\/p>\n And here we go, sitting all too distracted, mouthing our \u2018expert\u2019 opinions, throwing\u00a0 about all those dos and don\u2019ts on\u00a0parenting, detailing the fall outs to this menace, how to protect our and your children from falling into traps of all hues.<\/p>\n Perhaps, sadly, in the\u00a0 midst of all these debates\u00a0 and\u00a0 discussions we\u00a0don\u2019t bother to ask\u00a0this vital: Who the hell are the suppliers and the ring masters?\u00a0 Who all are the big players? Who all are part of the nexus?<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n Time to speak up\u2026 these lines of Faiz Ahmad Faiz:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Speak Up!<\/p>\n Speak up, for your lips are not sealed<\/p>\n and your words are still your\u00a0 own.<\/p>\n This upright body is yours \u2013<\/p>\n speak, while\u00a0 your\u00a0 soul is\u00a0 still your own.<\/p>\n Look there, in that smithy,<\/p>\n its red oven ,fierce\u00a0 flames,<\/p>\n the padlocks are already\u00a0 opening their\u00a0 mouths<\/p>\n and each\u00a0 fetter is skirting around.<\/p>\n Speak up now, for time\u2019s running out,<\/p>\n Before your body and mind fade away,<\/p>\n tell us ,for truth\u00a0 is\u00a0 not yet\u00a0 dead.<\/p>\n Speak<\/p>\n Whatever you have to say!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Will the human havoc taking place in and around Lakhimpur Kheri remain contained to that region or\u00a0spread out? Will it drag along new patterns to killings? Foremost, let us stop focusing on the horrific happenings taking place in foreign lands and neighboring countries. Let us concentrate on the build-ups here, within our country. In fact, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,2205],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334303"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334309,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334303\/revisions\/334309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/334306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Humra-victoria-gate-1.jpg\")
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