MLA Yatnal humiliates soldiers who laid down their lives
Just as the accused in Gauri Lankesh murder case are getting arrested one after another, BJP MLA Basanagouda Yatnal, addressing a public meeting, has said “if I was the home minister, I would issue orders to shoot the intellectuals en masse”. Yatnal’s statement can be interpreted in many ways. He has also defended the murder of Gauri Lankesh, along with criticizing the police for arresting the accused. He has also encouraged the antisocial elements to murder more rationalists and thinkers in the days to come. In the recent days, Yatnal has lost track of what he speaks and has continued the display of his ignorance and senility with his statements.
Let’s understand the term ‘intellectuals’. They are the same people who were behind the fight for freedom of this country, than the brainless ones like those in the RSS. People like Yatnal need to understand this clearly. A country gets its identity from the scientific and rational thoughts it encourages to thrive in its environs. Rationality has played a major role in the post-independence period in the progress of the country.
Most freedom fighters were also intellectuals, who had received their education in England. They planned the progress of India very well with the exposure they got. Brahma Samaj was established by an intellectual. Owing to intellectuals like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, India could end inhuman traditions such as Sati and child marriage. The movements he started, helped India become a progressive nation. Outfits like RSS has remained mute about the practice of casteism and untouchability within Hindu dharma.
Swami Vivekananda was an intellectual himself. There is a major difference between his stances in Hindu dharma and the stances of RSS. Vivekananda told those engaged in Gau Raksha to first rescue the human beings. He tore into the safe confines of Hindu dharma and criticized it like no one else did. If he was alive today, the goondas of Sangh Parivar would have assaulted him in the same way as they attacked Swami Agnivesh. Or, some elected representative like Yatnal would have issued orders to shoot him in public to death.
Bhagat Singh, who laid down his life opposing the British rule in India, was also an intellectual par excellence. While he was in jail, he wrote books that explained why he turned an atheist. He had opened himself up to many ideologies and was a voracious reader who read a lot even when he was in jail. He was very young when he was sent to gallows. He scared the ruling dispensation, the British, with his knowledge and determination.
At the same time, Veer Savarkar, the most revered idol of people like Yatnal, was busy writing mercy petitions to the British and sought their mercy to escape the prison. This country got its independence because of people like Bhagat Singh, Ambedkar, Subhash Chandra Bose and such intellectuals and not because of the Savarkar or Godse, Hedgewar or such believers of Manu. If India had followed them, the country would still be wallowing under the British rule.
Not only that, the Dalits, Shudras and other ‘lowly’ communities would still be serving the priestly class, and remaining subservient to them forever. Yatnal uses the platform of ‘Kargil Divas’ to criticize the intellectuals. Thus, he has insulted the sacrifice made by the soldiers for the country. Millions of soldiers have laid down their lives for the country, and not all of them have stood on the borders shooting down the Pakistani soldiers. Most of them died fighting the zamindari system in their villages, to rise beyond that and join the army. And every civilian who died in the fight to restore human rights and fundamental rights of citizens is a soldier indeed.
While soldiers defended borders of the nation, a civil rights worker defended the lives of people within the borders of the nation, to obtain Right to Information act, human rights act etc. Many people have been killed for their fights against the system.Persons like Pansare and Dabholkar who fought against superstitions, Kalburgi who raised his voice against the brahminical hegemony, Gauri Lankesh who raised her voice against Sangh Parivar violence – all of them are no less than any soldier who safeguarded the nation. They were killed because of their ideologies. People like Yatnal who would want rationalists dead, are the real enemies of the nation.
Yatnal and the likes are the ones who want to skew the noble interpretation of Hindu dharma, that was popularized all over the world by none other than Swami Vivekananda. Yatnals of the nation, are the real enemies of Hindu dharma and they are the reason as to why people have begun to turn their backs to Hindu dharma. The call given by Yatnal has been some sort of an encouragement to commit more crimes in the name of dharma. In this background, the police have to register a suo motu case against him for interfering with the investigation of Gauri Lankesh murder and for conveying a negative message to the society along with egging the miscreants to do more such crimes.
The state unit of BJP has to issue a clarification against Yatnal. If not, people will assume they are silently concurring with Yatnal’s words and its implications.
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5 schoolchildren among 7 killed in blast in southwest Pakistan
Islamabad (PTI): At least seven people, including five schoolchildren and a policeman, were killed on Friday in a remote-controlled blast in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, according to media reports.
The blast occurred at 8.35 am near a school at the Civil Hospital Chowk of the Mastung district of the province, Dawn newspaper reported.
“It appears that an IED (improvised explosive device) attached to a motorcycle was detonated near a police mobile,” Kalat Division Commissioner Naeem Bazai was quoted as saying in the report.
“So far, seven individuals have been killed, including five school students,” Bazai said. At least 22 people were injured in the attack.
Most of those injured were schoolchildren, Geo News reported, adding that they were shifted to a nearby hospital.
A police van and several auto-rickshaws were damaged in the explosion, according to the report.
An emergency was declared across all Quetta hospitals after the blast, the report said quoting the provincial health department spokesperson, adding that all doctors, pharmacists, staff nurses and other medical staff were summoned.
