New Delhi: Prime time Wednesday was split between two major, and sobering events of the day — the brutal gangrape and murder of a Dalit woman from Hathras in Uttar Pradesh and the Babri Masjid verdict by a special CBI court that acquitted all 32 accused of the demolition of the mosque in 1992, citing lack of evidence that it was planned. News channels raised sharp questions on the way the Hathras woman was ‘cremated’ by the Uttar Pradesh Police in the dead of night in the absence of her family, and on the controversial Babri verdict.
First, to CNN-News18, where, on ‘Brass Tacks’ with Zakka Jacob, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra responded to Opposition leaders’ criticism of the verdict: “You were in government for 10 long years as UPA. You had the CBI under you as the ‘singing parrot’ as quoted by the Supreme Court. So what were you doing?”
On another debate on the channel, hosted by anchor Maha Siddiqui, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said, “Well, Kamal Nath was sending bricks for the construction of Ram Mandir, Shrimati Priyanka Gandhi welcomed the bhoomi pujan. So the Congress party is equally responsible. Had Rajiv Gandhi not opened the locks, this day would not have come. So the Congress party cannot pull wool over my eyes. The people of India understand your hypocrisy. You are running with hares and hunting with hounds. It is not going to work.”
Moving to Republic TV, where even Arnab Goswami was forced to turn his gaze away from Bollywood and focus on what the channel dubbed the #HathrasHorror. Goswami said, “It is horrendous beyond words… Isn’t it disgusting that after a girl is gangraped in a field by four people who break her spinal cord and cut her tongue, the family is told that it is your fault?”
When a panelist responded and started speaking about “rapes”, Goswami cut him short and thundered, “Don’t generalise. I want you to talk about this specific case.”
He then turned to BJP spokesperson Anila Singh and said, “This has just crossed all limits… Why was the cremation forced in the middle of the night? The family decides when the cremation happens. The police has no business, let me repeat, the police has no business cremating her body forcibly. How dare they do that?”
On Aaj Tak’s ‘Dangal’ anchor Rohit Sardana asked when the government will open its eyes on the Hathras matter. “The way the girl’s dead body was burnt by the police and administration, it sends a message that they were in some sort of a hurry,” he noted. But his panelists seemed only to want to blame each other.
The BJP’s Cabinet minister from Uttar Pradesh Mohsin Raza defended the party (which is in power in UP) and deflected the blame, saying, bizarrely, that the administration understood the situation on ground and took the decision. “But SP and BSP should answer why the situation became like this. What Yogi ji is trying to destroy, that is a legacy given by Samajwadi Party”, Raza proclaimed.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Sudhindra Bhadauria, in turn, targeted Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, saying she “wanted to gift some bangles to former PM Manmohan Singh, now she has acquired silence,” he commented.
AAP Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Singh proclaimed that women are not safe in Uttar Pradesh, as proved by this incident.
Zee News‘ Aditi Tyagi resorted to clichés to discuss the Hathras incident). “Hathras ki beti ka hatyara kaun?” (Who murdered Hathras’ daughter?), she demanded.
Samajwadi Party leader Sunil Yadav noted that what had been done by the UP Police was not the last rites of a daughter of Hathras, but the last rites of the state’s law and order situation, while political analyst Shehzaad Poonawala objected that the victim was “reduced to her caste”.
On NDTV India, Ravish Kumar said that the police took the action of burning the body quickly at 2:30 am so that the matter does not get blown out of proportion in the morning.
“Questions need to be asked about who gave the order for the girl’s last rites in the middle of the night. Did the order come from Lucknow or did the district collector himself take the decision?” asked Kumar, noting the victim’s parents’ permission was not taken despite them expressing that they wanted to do the last rites during the day.
Kumar also noted that an encounter is not justice. “After an encounter killing, the case will get closed and the police will not have to face questions.”