Nagpur: Yes, it is shocking that an elderly woman from Meghalaya, Tailin Lyngdoh, was asked to leave the Delhi Golf Club on Sunday, since she was wearing a traditional Khasi dress, and according to club Manager and staff, “resembled a maid.”
There is unanimous protest about it with politicians also jumping into the fray and saying “this is shameful”, “it is a blot on our country” etc. etc. The C.M. of Meghalaya, even Minister of State for Home Kiran Rijuju have come down heavily on the Golf club for this action.
True! No one should be differentiated against on the basis of what they wear. Being evicted from a club publicly and rudely must have hurt the woman and her companions a great deal, but compare that to having to see your younger brother killed for wearing a skull cap???
Yes, this incident too happened in our country only quite recently.
A teenager was killed and three of his friends injured in an attack by a group of persons in a train in Haryana, the Government Railway Police said on Friday. The deceased was identified as Junaid, 16, of Khandabali village in Haryana’s Ballabhgarh. His friends too are said to hail from the same village. The GRP said the crime occurred on Thursday night when Junaid, Hasib, Shakir, and Mohsin were returning to their village on a Mathura-bound passenger train after shopping at Sadar Bazaar in Delhi.
Their sin? They were dressed in salwar kurtas with the traditional skull cap – attire of many Muslims in India. They were taunted, called ‘beef eaters’ then slapped around and finally attacked with knives. The young boys had just gone to Delhi by train to do some shopping for clothes and other trinkets for Eid!
Only 16, some say 15, years old, Junaid, died on the spot, after screaming his heart out for help and mercy, his brothers were badly injured too.
His elder brother who was there with Junaid but still could not save him says the image of his dying brother will haunt him for life.
Says Hashim “I get flashes at night. I cannot close my eyes. The moment I do, I feel as if it is all happening again before my eyes,” His hands tremble and his voice turns shaky. He takes a break, closes his eyes and continues. “It is impossible to get rid of the image of Junaid lying in my lap, soaked in blood. His white kurta had turned red. His screams, which became louder with every stab, are still echoing in my ears,” he says.
The senseless killing has affected his whole village.
After the killing of 15-year-old Junaid Khan, a resident of the Khandawli village in Faridabad, most Muslim residents of his village, or in places in near by areas are scared for their lives. They are abstaining from wearing clothes that would reveal their identities as Muslims or letting their children celebrate.
Eid, a day of celebrations, was spent keeping in mind that anyone could be attacked at any time. The new white kurtas and skull caps that are such a common sight on the day of Eid, was rare.
A 27-year-old Mohd Azharuddin who works says that he has been targeted for wearing a skull cap.
If it is unacceptable to our Ruling elite for a woman to be not allowed in a private club for the dress she was wearing, how have they accepted so calmly a minor, a child, being so ruthlessly murdered on the eve of Eid in ‘secular India’?
Since the Delhi incident happened, and the press and politicians
fell on them like a wall of hot bricks, the Golf Club authorities on Tuesday issued a formal apology letter describing the incident as unfortunate and indicating that disciplinary action was being taken against the concerned staff.
I do not see the Chief Minister of Haryana apologizing to Junaid’s father for his son being killed, when the boys had gone so happily to Delhi to just do Eid shopping!, forget Kiren Rijuju, we should have had Rajnath deploring the act, we should have had our Prime Minister speak up about it!
Why the deafening silence in this case?
