Another face of racism
Owing to misuse of social media, truth is traveling at a snail’s pace. People are blind to truth now. Hence, people get to know rumours faster than the truth. Rumours are more attractive over truth. Rumours for their part, gain wings no sooner they are spread and people love them too. They easily fall prey to those rumours started by miscreants. People take law onto their own hands. In one such instance, people in Bengaluru’s Chamarajpet have beaten a labourer from Rajasthan to death owing to a rumour relating to child lifters. One rumour that was circulated regarding child kidnappers, had spread like wildfire and this claimed its victim.
The fact that the Rajasthani fellow spoke to a child as a friendly gesture itself was enough to decide he was children kidnapper. People came to that conclusion immediately. And when they come together in groups, they get major bouts of bravery and false valour. Even the weakest man in the group turns into massive fighter owing to the egging on that happens in the group atmosphere. The cold cruel shades become strong colours. According to police department, this rumour about child kidnappers has led to 81 cases of people getting beaten up in the last 25 days. In many places innocent people have been beaten to pulp. This rumour about children kidnappers has spread in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and other places. This virus spreads faster than Nipah virus. Some people have even beaten up beggars who were begging to save their lives. One of them even lost his life.
Though these are sporadic incidents, deep down these can be classified as racism at a different level. Such groups are common in North India. Women have been put to death in Haryana and Jharkhand mistaking them to ‘witches’. Mostly, men who have plans of usurping single women’s property have spread such rumours to get them killed by a mob so that their job becomes easier. A hungry young tribal was killed in Kerala’s Palakkad. That is the highest form of racist violence we have seen in recent days. All those attacks on muslims for transporting the cattle in Haryana and Jharkhand are similar too. Muslims are the most hated community today and are biggest victims of racist violence. Small violences have turned into big time hatred for a community. Sikh massacre turned into Gujarat massacre.
Various group violence instances in Karnataka have happened on those labourers who came looking for employment from Rajasthan, Bihar and other surrounding places. Why should they be seen as robbers or kidnappers? Because they wear torn clothes?
All those who have stolen thousands of crores, have close links with politicians who wear suit-boot, have close contacts with underworld mafias. They wear branded and costly clothes. Aren’t they robbers? Why there isn’t a single attack on them by general public? The common people who come to a conclusion no sooner does a poor man speak to a child, do we show the same presence of mind when a well-dressed man speaks to a child? He could be one too!
We see the same racist violence being exhibited towards labourers who come from North Karnataka to cities like Bengaluru and Mangaluru. The way the bus conductors address them and treat them are different faces of racism. That someone could be ‘kidnapper’ is just a pretext. We need to strengthen our laws so strong that even if a mob lynches someone, we need to get them punished for the crime of having killed an innocent man. Even if the dead man is a child kidnapper, he has to be produced before the court. And no one has the right to take law onto themselves. The lynch mob needs to be taught a lesson by way of being awarded life sentence. Only then, their unruly behavior may come to some sanity.
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Rupee hits all-time low for second time in a week
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 31 paise to settle at 91.99 against the US dollar on Wednesday, touching the lowest closing level for the second time in less than a week, amid increased month-end demand for the greenback.
Forex traders said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe offered quiet reassurance. However, increased month-end demand for the American currency as well as the ongoing geopolitical tensions dented investors' sentiments.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 91.60 and touched an early high of 91.50, but pared all the gains to touch an intra-day low of 91.99 against the greenback.
The domestic unit settled 31 paise down, revisiting its lowest-ever closing level of 91.99 against the greenback. The Indian currency previously ended at this level on January 23 when it also hit its all-time intraday low of 92 against the US dollar.
On Tuesday, the rupee rebounded from its all-time low levels and gained 22 paise to close at 91.68 against the US dollar.
Analysts said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe bolstered investor sentiment.
India and the European Union on Tuesday announced the conclusion of negotiations for the free trade agreement (FTA), under which a number of domestic sectors such as apparel, chemicals and footwear will get duty-free entry into the 27-nation bloc, while the EU will get access to the Indian market at concessional duty for cars and wines, an official said.
The deal has been dubbed the "mother of all deals" as it will create a market of about 2 billion people.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.07 per cent lower at 96.14.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.43 per cent lower at USD 67.28 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex jumped 487.20 points to settle at 82,344.68, while Nifty surged 167.35 points to 25,342.75.
Foreign Institutional Investors turned net buyers and purchased equities worth Rs 480.26 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
