In August, some really unfortunate incidents led to the minority community coming under threat and even being roughed up in parts of Gurgaon. Thankfully the situation in Chakkarpur and around, from where most of our working staff comes, remained peaceful.
On discussing with one of my maids who hails from the area, and is also averse to sensationalizing, I found that the Sarpanch of their area had not attended the Mahapanchayat and did not believe in this bunkum. The community was reassured that in case there is any issue, the landlords will stand by them, to protect them. Apparently, some lathi-wielding youths did collect one day in Tulsi Park but were asked to clear the area. As a preventive measure, a huge amount of police deployment was definitely done in the area, for a couple of days.
The entire chain of events was really disturbing and should be a wake-up call to how we all, in our small ways, are responsible for fanning this communal hatred. Regular social media messages we watch, and forward, are insidiously sowing seeds for this polarization. Putting a minority tag is easy, but the minute you break it up and see that you are talking about real people; your maid, who has been your support system for the past few years; the driver, who has been silently driving you around all these years; the sabziwala, who has been delivering fresh produce to you; your friend/colleague, who is your go-to, in tough times; these are the people you are referring to!
We need to all be watchful that we are not amplifying the polarizing narrative of the political parties and spreading hate or unnecessarily colour-coding all events. What we spread in the community is what will shape the community.
Some of the facts are vague, the militants who took their position before the event and opened fire at the pilgrims did not read our forwards, I would rather use the word DNA of a community instead of the polarization…