By Apoorvanand
Would you poison the well from which your own children drink – if that helps you frame your neighbour and defame him or get him punished? Is hatred for your neighbour a stronger sentiment than love for your children?
This question has been haunting me, refusing to leave me in peace, ever since a disturbing incident in Karnataka came to light, where members of the Hindutva organisation Sri Ram Sene allegedly conspired to poison the drinking water of a well at a school. They thought that the blame would fall on the school’s headmaster, who happens to be a Muslim, and that he would be punished for it – either transferred or sacked. Or maybe an even more stringent punishment, who knows!
In Hulikatti village of Karnataka’s Belagavi district, Sri Ram Sene leader Sagar Patil and two of his associates were arrested for this shocking act. Patil had blackmailed his associate Krishna Madar, threatening to expose his relationship with a woman from another caste. Afraid of social consequences, Madar, along with another friend, Magangouda Patil, bought pesticide. They then lured a student with Rs 500 and a chocolate to pour the pesticide into the school’s well.
Children drank the contaminated water. Some of them felt nausea. The children detected a strange smell in the water. An investigation followed. A pesticide bottle was found near the well. The child who was made to do it, revealed who had given him the bottle and what he had been asked to do.
It is a relief that no lives were lost. Would this fact be used in defence of the accused? Might one suggest that these Hindutva activists had calculated the pesticide dosage and knew that it would not kill or cause grave harm to children, that their actual intent was not to harm the kids but to only to incriminate the headmaster? That their true goal was not murder of children but to frame and ruin the Muslim headmaster? A noble intention and act, perhaps, just poorly executed?
What can be more dharmik (religious) in the current climate than finding new ways to torment a Muslim? And after all, do our epics not show Lord Krishna himself employing trickery against his enemies? Why then should such deceit in the name of a “greater good” not be accepted – even celebrated? Must we not admire their ingenuity?
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
