According to the Ghaziabad police, the fact that this happened is less important than the fact that this was reported. That people who tweeted and shared this to urge the authorities into action and to bemoan the state of Indian society today are the real criminals. Also, Twitter. Yep, everyone who has anything to do with this dastardly attack on an old man is an accomplice. Except the perpetrators, of course. Sigh!
However, this is very much in line with not just this government’s steadily and the long-held line of all problems being distilled to that of the messenger and of optics and not of what the message is or what the optics expose, but also with the way our civilisation has behaved in the past century or two when faced with a crime and people (whether artists, writers, journalists, or the common citizen) talking of the said crime: by denouncing the talk, discussion, reportage, exposition of the fact while ignoring the actual fact.
That you have a teenager who is pregnant and needs support is not an issue as much as what the neighbours will think of this.
The fact that there exists rape, murder, corruption, and moral turpitude in society is less of a problem than a film or drama showing these.
A book that mocks religion is more dangerous than the religious fundamentalists who, by literally following the fundamentals of that religion, hurt other people.
A debate on religion in politics or a social media post on caste is more dangerous than religion in politics or caste.
A foreign leader or journal talking about our undemocratic and authoritarian handling of dissent, whether by Kashmiri citizens, Delhi students, or Punjabi/Tamil farmers need our full attention and aggressive response than the actual issues raised by Kashmiri citizens, Delhi students, or Punjabi/Tamil farmers.
Dalit intellectuals organising marches and demonstrations to highlight their struggle is the problem to be solved with a battalion of police in riot gear with pellet guns, smoke grenades, water cannons, NSA, and UAPA rather than the reality that there are still Dalits in the 21st century.
Indeed, everything is about how it looks to someone else.
It is no mere coincidence then that this government and the leader that Indians purportedly so love focuses more on how they look doing nothing than the fact that they are doing nothing.
