The alleged rape & murder of a 8-year-old Asifa in Kathua, Jammu has triggered a rage of protests across the nation. While public outcry over any crime of this nature is welcome, even desirable, the outrage has now acquired a distinct Hinduphobic slant.

Ever since the chargesheet, capturing every macabre detail, filed by JK police Crime Branch went viral, one detail has been repeated again and again, to the extent that it has now become the focal point of this whole sordid episode and almost eclipsed the need to get justice for the little girl & her family.

That detail is the Crime Branch assertion that Asifa was kept captive in a ‘devi-sthan’ (a make-shift Hindu temple for a female deity), where she was drugged and raped repeatedly, often after puja was performed of the devi. This is what Rahul Pandita, a Kashmiri Pandit journalist tweeted –

#Asifa pic.twitter.com/JQ6dIgG1Oa

— Rahul Pandita (@rahulpandita) April 12, 2018

Let’s leave aside the fact that many questions are being raised over the manner in which this case has been investigated, or that new facts are emerging which contradict the police chargesheet. The fact that this crime was allegedly committed by Hindus and in a temple, has led to one of the worst campaigns of religious hate-mongering possible. Under the guise of the horror which any rational human being would be feel over such a brutal crime, an entire community is being vilified and demonized akin to how Jews were demonized in Nazi Germany.

First off were Bollywood and other celebrities with their “I am Hindustan..I am Ashamed” placard campaign which stressed that the crime occurred in Hindustan (not India) and in a ‘Devi’-Sthaan –

The idea of rape being committed in a sacred place, that too in front of the feminine divine form is indeed shocking, but the Kathua case is not yet proven..would our celebrities carry out similar campaigns for rapes and murders committed in mosques and churches? Recent revelations have shown how wide-spread the malaise of sexual harassment and rape is in liberal academic circles and university campuses – does this mean that we should shame the entire academic community?

From the subtle Hinduphobia of the “I am Hindustan” campaign, things quickly went to brazen Hindu-bashing.  A cartoon created by The Hindu journalist Swathi Vadlamudi & shared on FB with the hashtag #YogiProtectsRapeAccusedSwamiji quickly went viral in liberal-secular circles and was tweeted by Times Now journalist Shabbir Ahmed-

A Kashmiri Pandit journalist, Aarti Tikoo Singh – a senior assistant editor with The Times of India – decided to label the accused in the Kathua case as ‘Hindu vultures’ –

Would Aarti Tikoo Singh ever label a Muslim rape-accused as a ‘Muslim vulture’ or reiterate a chargesheet where motive is ascribed as ‘Islamist contempt for Hindus as idol-worshippers’?

JNU student activist Shehla Rashid went to Srinagar to participate in a protest, where too the names of Hindu goddesses, who are otherwise considered false Gods and the object of derision & mirth by Islamo-fascists, were invoked to invoke a sense of shame in Hindus –

Islamist mobs shouting religious slogans to defend molesters, rapists and murderers is something which has been witnessed from UP to Bengal. How would our intelligentsia react if Hindus were to respond to such Islamist protests by invoking Islamic religious icons?

Barkha Dutt decided to tar ‘Hindu nationalists’ with the rape-defenders brush….spreading the distorted idea that a protest led by Jammu bar association demanding a CBI probe in the Kathua case along with other demands (such as removal of illegal Rohingya immigrants) was the equivalent of ‘Hindu nationalists’ defending accused rapists. She also conveniently masked the fact that even Congress leaders were part of the protests in Jammu.

Dear @BDUTT, I am a Hindu and I am a nationalist. I didn't defend the accused. Many Hindu Nationalists like me have raised anger. Remember, you were the one who defended terrorists as "Gareeb headmaster ka beta". Stop stereotyping Hindus and Nationalists for your political gains. pic.twitter.com/RWCB6m3ePI

— Rahul Raj (@bhak_sala) April 12, 2018

Do seculars shame India when they demand CBI or SC-monitored probes for encounter deaths of criminals and terrorists like Sohrabuddin Sheikh, Ishrat Jehan, Batla House?

Dutt’s article was a signal for an all out attack on the ‘Hindutva brigade’…..

https://twitter.com/AngellicAribam/status/984397262817181696

The macabre details provided in the chargesheet had by now undergone further distortion to say that “Hindu religious rites were performed on Asifa before she was killed by Hindu extremists inside a Hindu religious establishment”

Word. pic.twitter.com/3HZz1VX35k

— Caralisa Monteiro (@runcaralisarun) April 13, 2018

With so much Hinduphobia floating around, how could the ‘Communist paradise’ of Kerala be left behind?

#Shocking #Breaking Jihadis vandalised Lord Vishnu temple (Vaikundeswara Santhanagopala Murthy temple, Puzhavath)) in Changanassery, #Kerala with hate graffiti 'demanding Justice for Asifa' #StopPersecutingHindus pic.twitter.com/UnWyqr72Ti

— Ex-Comrade ☭ (@excomradekerala) April 15, 2018

But the real ugliness came to the fore with the attack on the trishul – a sacred weapon and symbol for Hindus which has long been on the left-secular radar.

WARNING – some of these images are extremely graphic and upsetting –

Clearly, it doesn’t take much for many, in Bharat and outside, to demonize Hindu society. It is almost as if many were waiting for an opportunity to unleash their agenda and the tragic death of 8-year-old Asifa has become the perfect vehicle for this band of Hindu bashers.

Yet, in the midst of this politically charged narrative and Hinduphobia, we must not lose sight of the fact that Bharat is indeed faced with a crisis when it comes to women’s safety – the victim might be Asifa, Payal, Arti or any other unnamed victim, an iron will is required to to implement the legal, police and social reforms that alone can tackle this menace. If and when that happens, many of the same liberals outraging over the Kathua and Unnao cases today, will be singing a very different tune.

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