Protests have erupted across the state following the tragic incident of a man stabbing a woman to death. While protests against such heinous crimes are necessary, it is disheartening to see the threat to women’s safety in Karnataka. In August last year, Gauri was murdered by Padmaraj in Bantwal. Praveen murdered Ainaz and her family of three in Udupi in November 2023. Ruksana of Metagalli, Mysore, was murdered by Pradeep Naik on March 31, 2024. Ruksana was strangled to death with a towel near Doddaguni in Tumkur, set on fire by pouring petrol, and then her child was dumped near Nelamangala. Suresh’s murder of Anushka at Sarakki Park in Bengaluru on April 18 was widely reported in the media.
The driving force behind these recent protests is not the escalating crime rate or concerns about women’s safety. Instead, it is fueled by the religious identity of the accused, who is a Muslim. The news media have exacerbated the situation by labelling it as a case of “love jihad.” The IT cell has propagated falsehoods for electoral gains. Fascists on the streets have demanded the implementation of Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath’s bulldozer model in the state as a punitive measure against the culprit. In contrast, the horrific act of legislator and former Minister for Public Works Department of Karnataka, Prajwal Revanna’s sexual abuse of numerous women from party workers and women who sought help for various purposes, is stated as a ‘sex scandal’ by the news media. In the video recorded by Prajwal, a 68-year-old maid is seen begging for her life, pleading with him not to abuse her. The BJP is yet to take out a protest against their own alliance candidate.
Hence, one must question why such a dichotomy where an entire community is being blamed in one case while in other cases there is silence. Are they the ones responsible for this act? In reality, the college administration should be held accountable. The college management and the victim’s parents opposed their friendship, leading her to distance herself from him. Why should the management intervene and oppose a friendship solely based on religion? Why was this friendship perceived as an unethical activity that required intervention from the management? This raises serious questions about the direction our universities are heading towards. How can students continue their studies amidst suppression from the management and constant hatred from fascists?
The issue of mental health was never raised. How can one remain unaffected by the management’s actions and the pervasive hatred against their community? No one questioned what motivated the accused to drop out of his course.
Murder or threats to women’s safety should never be tolerated. But it is even more unfortunate when it is given a religious spin by the ruling party for their sectarian purposes rather than addressing the deep-rooted patriarchy in society. Right-wing student organizations, which barely address student issues, are fueling hatred across the state. They have also urged lawyers in the city not to take up the case of the accused. This situation calls for a critical examination of the underlying issues and a collective effort to address them.
