Vidya Bhushan Rawat
A horrific beheading happens in US and there is no outrage. Is it because the murderer does not belong to particular faith or society ? Is it because the incident has not happened in South Asia ? Is it because there are other important issues in the US where the country is ‘moaning’ the death of Charlie Kirk whose opponents too are playing his horrific racist remarks but everyone condemned the murder suggesting in democracy you have space for disagreement.
Many people are asking similar questions as what would have happened after the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk, if the assassin was either Muslim or black or Asian immigrant ?
But then if we look at the beheading of Chandra Nagamallaiah case both are immigrants from Global south, though culturally as well as linguistically pole apart.
So making arguments on one incident is dangerous though happening mostly. The issue is how do we tread and role of law, security agencies, political parties and media on these issues. They need to be forthright and speak up for the cause of the oppressed. One fact is clear that space for democratic disagreement is reducing day by day.
The question is how long we speak like this. The fact is that gun culture and attaining other arms that are harmful and dangerous are easier in the United States than anywhere else in the world. So many young lives have been killed due to this and yet there is no unanimity in dealing with the issue. Though this issue is being seen as the crisis that immigrants posed in United States. It is time to understand these aspect too. Glamorising everything does not resolve the crisis. Ultimately, all the immigrants have to follow the law of the land they are living in.
Therefore it is sad that both are immigrants to United States and that too from global south but they bring their dirt too to these countries. There is no such thing as ‘united global south’. We all come with our own prejudices. We don’t admire the democratic space provided to us. We live in our own ghettoes and admire the societies where we don’t live and which does not help us survive. Frankly, we migrate to west to earn better livelihood and boosting our own personal economy but have least interest in adapting to local value system that provide us a levelling playing field. Living in prejudices and narrow confined of their communities and nationalities, most of these immigrants have not been able to adjust to new life style that the west offer to them. Of course, there are historical colonial issues too but at least those who migrate to these countries need to adjust to new realities of their lives.
American crisis seems to be much bigger but it is the country of immigrants and if these issues are not settled properly, it would be extremely difficult to handle it. The race relations have already endangered American unity. Right wingers like Charlie Kirk had been speaking against the immigrants and justifying race theory too.
It is surprising that there is no debate on this horrific murder in the Western Media. They will wake some day when there are larger protests. Right now, it is just a crime horror for them. The issue need to be further discussed.
It is reported that the Cuban immigrant was a criminal and was actually deported back to Cuba but rejected by the Cuban authorities and returned here. This is another danger. The issue has to be settled between the countries to resolve this.
The US administration should provide all the necessary help and support to Chandra Nagamallaiah’s family. US need to bring law to curb the gun culture which has resulted in so many deaths in the universities, colleges, malls and elsewhere. It also reflect the dark realities of the US politics as how the big companies lobby with power elite and get away with any prohibitory laws. All such lobbies that actually encourage or promote Gun culture must be exposed.
Let us see how President Donald Trump react to these issues in the coming days. An open and liberal democratic society must have capacity to engage and include diverse stakeholders on equal rights based on citizenship. Democracy has to succeed otherwise we will only see growing clamour for dictatorial leaders and closed societies.
