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Had Daliya not been a Hindu...

By S. Gurumurthy
Op-Ed
The Pioneer
Saturday, July 10, 2004

Aadikanta Daliya, a 45-year-old
political worker, was burnt and
turned into a ball of fire in the
presence of his wife and children, a
girl aged 16 and a boy aged 14. This
happened on May 22, a few weeks back.
The place was Birsa Munda Chowk, part
of Sasra Gram Panchayat in West
Midnapore district in Bengal. This
Bengal district borders Orissa.
Aadikanta Daliya, a resident of
Jhargram, a village nearby, was a
Dalit and a BJP worker. His wife, on
religious fasting, did not cook at
home on that day. So Daliya came to
the Chowk, which was nearby, for food
at a wayside food shop.

As he began to eat, a violent group
testified by witnesses to be CPI(M)
workers, set upon him. He ran and
took shelter in a cloth shop. The
Chowk is a BJP stronghold. The
attackers soon swelled into a mob,
baying for Daliya's blood. It began
to loot, set fire to the shops
numbering around 50. As the news
reached Daliya's house nearby, his
wife and two children reached the
spot. Daliya's village peers also
arrived as did his brother. But
hugely outnumbered, they could do
nothing, as the mob did what it had
decided to. It pulled Daliya out of
the shop, brought him to the street,
and set him on fire. Soon he was a
ball of flame and ashes amid
harrowing cries in front of his
horrified and sobbing wife and
children, and in the presence of his
villagers and the people of the
Chowk.

Who were among the spectators of this
cruel drama? The Bengal Police! In
front of them, Daliya was reduced to
a heap of ash. Imagine the living
death experience of Daliya's wife.
Her ordeal did not stop with that.
She had to struggle for a week with
the authorities to secure the charred
remains of Daliya. The original sin
of the people of Sarsa Gram Panchayat
was that they had elected the BJP
between 1998 and 2003. How could they
dare to do so in the last residue of
Marxism in the world?

The simmering anger had its final
provocation. Ardhendu Satpathy, a
well-known extortionist of the area
and a CPI(M) activist, was found
murdered the very morning. So the
CPI(M) got the chance they had been
waiting for. Did the Marxist-
controlled police, who had come to
investigate the murder of Satpathy,
feel justified in allowing the
gruesome torching as an inevitable
retaliation?

Did any one in the country ever hear
of this gruesome news? The local
newspapers did carry it. But there
was not a word on it in any of the
national newspapers. For the
multitude of television channels, it
was, of course, a non-event. At that
very moment the media was full of
news on West Midnapore. About whether
there were hunger deaths in the
district or not, with the CPI(M)
vehemently denying any.

Why did the national media, fully
aware that Daliya was reduced to
ashes in the presence of his wife and
children, and with the Bengal police
as eyewitness, turn a blind eye to
it? Want to know the answer? Ask
another question. What would have the
media done had Aadikanta Daliya not
been a Hindu? This is the clue to the
media's silence. Recall Staines'
being burnt in Orissa five years
back? Rightly had the media then
highlighted and condemned this
gruesome murder, even though the way
they over-reacted, considerably
damaged the image of India in the
Western world. But even till this day
the media keeps the nation reminded
about the shameful crime.

But what is the difference between
Staines and Daliya? Graham Staines
was not a Hindu and more, he was a
White man. In contrast Daliya, though
a Dalit, was a Hindu, and worse
still, "a communal Hindu" in the eyes
of the media. Is that the reason why
it makes no news? Even if Daliya was
burnt most cruelly in broad daylight?
Or is it because such news would hurt
the image of the CPI(M), the guardian
of secularism in India? Why did the
media black out the torching of
Daliya? Will they explain?

More at:
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The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth:
I came not so send peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his
father, and the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter in law against her mother in law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own
household.
- Matthew 10:34-36.

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