The Gnaw

I was told the rape and molested victims who testified before the Rajkhowa Commission would be provided with a contemptuous amount of one lakh rupees before the election takes place. Unfortunately it has become a tool for political mileage. The usually promising words were not delivered. It is still a mute tirade. Meanwhile the quest for justice is still voiced in the midst of silence. But how long can silence be silent? How long can we be blind to our brother’s who are maimed and killed by landmines? Our daughters and sisters who were raped and molested. Our brothers and sisters who were displaced to seek refuge outside his hearth and home. There is a rampant corruption. Politicians cornering our share of rights and privilege. Triggers ever ready to get burst. How long can we carry on like unrepresented people? Or are we unrepresentable? The issues that should have been gnawing us day and night are actually lying untouched and ignored.

Today it may be my turn to suffer. But you are not standing far enough. The spillover never leaves anyone free. Everyone is to be blamed for the mess. The Church is silent. The youth organizations. Students’ organizations. All the leaders and presidents. Politicians. The authorities.You and me. Just everyone are silent as if in collusion to the wrong and sin. If we stand up, it would be different. If we all speak out against what is unjust and wrong, the silent voices would have a tremendous influence on any injustice. We see, yet we are blind. We touch, yet we did not feel. But how long?

There is an ongoing discussion about the role of the Pope and the Church during the Holocaust. The Pope was fully informed about the extermination process, but deliberately refused to protest or even to condemn the Nazi atrocities. In Italy, where the Church opened its door to the persecuted Jews, the Pope did little to warn the Jews about the impeding danger. There is no doubt that the Vatican and the Pope knew beforehand about the impending deportation of the Italian Jews. There is evidence that the German Ambassador to Rome Mollhausen alerted the Vatican about the impending deportation. They believed that a strong stand by the Vatican, could forestall the deportations, but the Pope did not act. He was silent. If he utter, it would have been different. He would have saved the spill of thousand drops of blood.

The sin of silence would be the biggest.I understand that there is a certain element of being overwhelmed by the variety of problems we are facing, which is a sort of activism-fatigue. But, though this is our reality, we cannot turn our backs any longer. There are things we could do. We ought to do them. We need to galvanize ourselves around the issues and bring it to the forefront of our consciousness. This can be done by speaking against the ills and evils that is destroying lives and humanity. We need to build coalitions with individuals and institutions to build a critical mass of people supporting a resolution to put and end to all sorts of injustice trampling us. It is a grassroots effort, but it should be a key part of our efforts to make some sort of end to the unfortunate situation.

We ought to represent that challenge. Silence is a big betrayal. The danger, if there is any, won’t free anyone, not even one who is good in keeping silent. If silence could solve, more than six million Jews would have been saved. We could also have saved a lot. David Ben Gurion’s statement is worth pondering. He said: “What have you done to us, you freedom-loving peoples, guardians of justice, defenders of the high principles of democracy and of the brotherhood of man? What have you allowed to be perpetrated against a defenseless people while you stood aside and let it bleed to death, without offering help or succour, without calling on the fiends to stop, in the language of retribution which alone they would understand…”