According to ‘liberal’ logic, all the rape threats are equal but some rape threats are more equal than others. When Gurmehar Kaur received a rape threat on her FB post during Ramjas fiasco- media, intellectuals and feminists created a huge uproar. They hit the streets, conducted noisy prime time debates demanding justice for her and quick arrest of the culprit. But now when a Sadhvi is being threatened, abused and getting rape threats, everyone has maintained a stoic silence on this which shows how much these media houses, intellectuals and feminists are selective in their approach and outrage. People demanding justice for alleged rape victim of Kathua also posted rape threats on Hindu Sadhvi’s FB page. This shows their seriousness about ensuring justice to rape victims. Forget about justice, if woman does not belong to the community/ideology of these misogynistic people they will go on to the extent of threatening her with rape.
https://twitter.com/PartyVillage017/status/991259329327230976
It was not limited to rape threat only; people also posted murder threats on her page.
It all started when Sadhvi Saraswati of Chindwada district of Madhya Pradesh, the president of Sanatan Dharma Parivar Seva Samiti, addressed a convention in Kerala’s Kasargod district where she pleaded people to not to eat beef. She also delivered passionate speech against the growing menace of Love Jihad in Kerala.
However, after this few intolerant hatemongers who disliked her opinion started trolling, abusing, threatening and humiliating her by sending beef recipes her on FB page.
Instead of condemning this sort of behavior in an unequivocal voice and demanding strict punishment for the culprits, the News Minute editor-in-chief, a woman journalist, rather gleefully commented on the threats and abuses Sadhvi Saraswati was getting. Her happiness is evident by the emoji which she has used in her tweet mentioning ‘helpful Malayalis sending beef recipes.’
Sadhvi from MP lectures on Gau Mata in Kerala, says such people don't deserve to live in India. Helpful Malayalis send her beef recipes. 😂😂😂 https://t.co/DvZ92RKMDN
— Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) May 1, 2018
Other mainstream media news channels/pages/portals are also no better. They picked up only the pictures and the recipes, and portrayed it as a hilarious incident. Websites like the News Minute seeing the funny side of things when a woman is being harassed with sexual innuendo, speaks volumes about the level of their depravity. People took the bull by horns and lambasted News Minute for its biased and subjective reporting over this incident involving Sadhvi Saraswati.
Here @thenewsminute is objectively reporting on how a Hindu Sadhvi was offered Beef by peaceful people of Kerala coz she dared to speak about the topic in the state. Brilliant selection of peaceful messages to feature in the piece! Kudos @dhanyarajendran pic.twitter.com/Tc2qOn32fA
— Pratyasha Rath (@pratyasharath) May 1, 2018
Such selective condemnation and selective outrage over rape threats to people like Sadhvi Saraswati will lead us nowhere. Now after ‘Good Terrorism’ and ‘Bad Terrorism’ we are seeing ‘Good Rapes’ and ‘Bad Rapes’, ‘Good Misogyny’ and ‘Bad Misogyny.’ This amounts to ‘journalistic gangsterism’ where few elite journalists decide and define everything. What is right and what is wrong, what should be condemned and hat should not be condemned. Such ‘journalistic gangsterism’ challenges fundamental values of humanity and human decency. It is also threat for idea of equality which Article 14 of our constitution guarantees us. Because equality means we value all human life equally but from past few weeks what we are seeing is selectivity. We express sorrow, anger and outrage by looking at the religion or ideology of the victim first. Media gives coverage to any mis-happening or any unfortunate incident only when it suits their agenda. We should stand up against injustice of any form. As Martin Luther King said,’ Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere’.
