Two recent incidents in North India makes us frown and smile at the same time. Let us first look at that which makes us frown.
Brutal Assault
On the eve of Dussehra, ‘Ramleela’ play was staged in Salempur Village of Kasgunj district in U.P. 48 year old Chand hailing from a Scheduled caste found an unoccupied chair on the ground and sat on it watching the play. Communal fanatics noticed him and raised voice of protest against a low caste man watching Ramayan based play, sitting comfortably in a chair. They made the police personnel guarding the venue drive him away.
The group of caste fanatics together with the policemen brutally assaulted the poor man Chand. He was crushed to pulp, abusing his caste. Chand wept profusely and asked, “What did I do wrong? Is sitting in a chair and watching a play a crime?”
Chand went back home and narrated his tale of humiliation to his wife Ram Rathi. She had consoled him but in vain. Unable to tolerate the ill treatment meted out to him, the merciless assault and the disgrace, Chand killed himself at night by hanging. He was the only bread winner at home feeding his wife and four children. The family has now been left in the lurch by the caste crazy upper caste beasts. The gruesome incident make us frown and raise our brows in fury.
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The Great Escape
Now to the incident that makes us smile for a change. A similar ‘Ramleela’ play was performed by prisoners on 11th October, 2024 at a prison in Rosharbad city near Haridwar of Uttarakhand State.
Praveen was a convict sentenced to life imprisonment on the charge of a murder. Rajkumar was a prisoner facing charges of kidnapping. These two prisoners cleverly got away from the prison while playing the role of monkeys in the army of Ram. The scene was their going to Lanka to rescue Sita. The two prisoners went behind the stage and scaled the wall using a ladder that was laid there for some construction work. When the goons masked as monkeys never returned to the stage, their great escape was found out. Infact, another prisoner named Chotu of U.P. had also attempted to escape along with them but he could not climb on the wall and leap. He was caught by the wardens but the other two jail birds smartly made it.
The prisoners had cleverly distracted the attention of the jail authorities and the guards when they were merrily watching Ramleela on the stage. As per press reports, Pushkar Singh Dhami, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand has ordered a probe into this incident of prison escape. Six prison staff members have been suspended. This makes us smile at the idiocy of those prison authorities who were taken for a ride by the leela of two jail birds.
Source: ‘Theekkadhir’ Tamil Daily and ‘
The Times of India’ – 13th October 2024
