Suffering the celebrators of death
A culture of worshipping dictatorial personalities, religious fanaticism and misguided nationalism is eating away the heart of our society It is a sad reflection of our society when some people celebrate the demise of others. On Saturday afternoon, as news of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's son Rakesh breathing his last broke, many vented their vitriol on social media.While some gloated that they were awaiting the deaths of Siddaramaiah, his wife, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and others, some claimed that the chief minister was being taught a lesson for all his `sins'. One need not mourn everyone's death... but to express glee at such times exposes the poison that has leeched into our civic society. Who are such vile people and what is it that turns them into such blood thirsty monsters?
When the late litterateur UR Ananthamurthy said that he would not like to live in an India led by Narendra Modi, a person named Naresh Shenoy had started a Facebook campaign against the writer and asked everyone to mail the Jnanapith winner money orders so that he could leave the country. After Modi won the elections, Shenoy even sent a one way ticket to Karachi to Ananthamurthy's residence.
Who is Shenoy and what is his background? Businessman Shenoy is the founder of a saffron outfit called NaMo Brigade which was formed in Mangaluru prior to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He was also part of various `patriotic' groups such as NaMO Fans, NaMo Groups, NaMo Foundation, Jago Bharat, Vande Mataram, etc. Shenoy is a close associate of Chakravarthy Sulibele who is a well-known spokesperson of the saffron brigade.
The same Shenoy now is the prime accused in the murder of RTI activist Vinayaka Baliga. It is widely speculated that Baliga was hacked to death by killers hired by Shenoy since Baliga had accessed information about how Shenoy had misappropriated crores of rupees from the coffers of the famous and rich Venkataramana Temple.
Shenoy, who is a proud Modi bhakth, a nationalist who demanded a secular man of letters leave the country, a pious Hindu who is accused of looting a temple, is today facing murder charges and is behind bars.
Before we go any further, let us take note that soon after news of Ananthamurthy's death was flashed in the media, some members of the right wing Bajrang Dal had gathered at Kadri in Mangaluru and celebrated by bursting crackers. Later on, Kadri police had arrested K B Manoj Poojary, Vijesh Poojary, Sharath Shetty, Anil and Umesh. It's no coincidence that of the five arrested, Anil and Umesh had earlier been held on charges of having assaulted Muslim cattle transporters. Needless to add, all of them are supporters of the Bajrang Dal.
When noted scholar MM Kalburgi was shot dead, a young man named Bhuvith Shetty had tweeted thus from his twitter handle @garudapurana: “Then it was UR Anatamoorthy. And now it's MM Kalburgi. Mock Hinduism and die a dog's death. And dear KS Bhagwan you are next.“
Let's look at the antecedents of Bhuvith Shetty, a co-convenor of the Bantwal chapter of Bajrang Dal. As the Indian Express had reported “one of the earliest cases registered against Shetty dates back to 2013 when, as a 22-yearold, he was part of a Bajrang Dal cow protection group that stopped a truck transporting cattle near the village of Kalladka in the Puttur district before severely assaulting the transporters.“
For his cow protection `gallantry' which was not very different from what happened in Una of Gujarat or Jaipura of Karnataka recently Shetty spent four months in prison before being released with a warning not to indulge in any criminal activities.
His incarceration did not dampen Shetty's `desh prem' or `Hindu pride'.Shetty, who holds a B Com degree from a college run by Sangh affiliates, had claimed that on hearing Kalburgi's death he had vented his anger spontaneously and that neither he nor his organisation had plans to kill anyone. The police arrested him under charges of conspiring to murder but he was released the next day on bail.
What followed was tragic for a poor Hindu family. Three months after Kalburgi's murder Karnataka was witness to clashes orchestrated by communal outfits over the government celebrating Tipu Sultan's Jayanti. Oblivious to the communal tension in Bantwal, two friends Samiullah and Harish Poojary had gone to play cricket and were returning home on a motorbike.That was when Shetty and his associate Achyuta waylaid them and launched a brutal attack. They assumed that since Harish Poojary was with Samiullah, he too was a Muslim and hacked him to death.
Shetty was arrested and put behind bars. The Inspector General of Police (western range) Amrit Paul had said “They wanted to kill someone and went ahead with just that motive... It was an act of pervert minds.“ Shetty of the `perverted mind' spent just 100 days behind bars. He is now out on bail.
Now, people with the same mind-sets are gleeful about another death.
Clearly, there is a common thread between all these incidents. That thread is made of elements such as worshipping a dictatorial personality, the `high' obtained from religious fanaticism, the menace of a misguided concept of nationalism and a sense of audacity which is bereft of humanism. As long as we have organisations and personalities who promote and support such behaviour we shall continue to suffer such celebrators of death.
The writer is an activist-journalist
