Social activists express concern over hate crimes

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 23

In the time of “hate and jingoism”, what is the new normal? “The new normal is quite weird, it’s even scary,” said Sunil Mehra, former journalist and activist, at the Majha House on Saturday. “We are losing compassion, talking about lynching like it was just another thing in the day.”

Sunil was joined by senior journalist Hartosh Bal, art curater Alka Pandey, human rights activist Syeda Saiyidain Hameed and former bureaucrat and social activist Harsh Mandher. Speaking on the subject of freedom and partioning of hearts, the eminent panelists, all of whom were quite vocal about the current political state of affairs, stressed the need for a social reform.

“Today, most of the population is being fed with hate while we take the role of silent bystanders quite seriously. But we should know that there are no innocent bystanders,” said Hartosh Bal. Harsh Mandher added, “There is a climate that is encouraged by the social as well as political establishments whereby not calling the violators we are creating more perpetrators of hate crimes.” He has been leading an initiative called Caravan of Love or Karawan-e-Mohhabbat to reach out to the families of victims of hate crimes, including that of Pehlu Khan.

“We started the Caravan of Love as we decided to respond to hate through compassion. We hold their hands and seek justice for them. We have so far visited 27 families across 14 states. Hearing their stories, we felt that we are the only people to reach out to them. There is a sense of fear among the victims rather than getting support and providing justice,” said Mandher. 

Hamid added that the current state of affairs is equivalent to the Partition where religious labels and tags define you. “I have never felt more aware of my religious identity than today. The label of being a Muslim has now been embedded inside me, thanks to repeated reminders through incidents of hate crimes.”

Bal and Mandher also stressed that social media is becoming a tool to  glorify the violent crimes. “Christchurch shootings are the biggest example. The imam of the mosque went on to say that they may be heart broken, but not broken, whereas we in India feel that we are being broken, not heartbroken,” said Mandher. 

The three-day literature and culture festival at the Majha House began with inaugural address by former diplomat and author Navtej Sarna. He spoke about Punjab’s journey over 100 years — from Jallianwala Bagh till date. He said there were three D’s of challenges that Punjab faced. “They are Daughters, Drugs and Debt. We are quite far behind in terms of not just skewed sex ratio, but also providing positive social climate to our daughters. Agrarian crisis and drugs, of course, are issues that the state has been struggling to find answers to,” he added.