After Kathua Rape, Kerala Houses With Girl-children Paste Posters, Boycott BJP Workers
As the nation witnesses a strong turbulence over the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, and rape of a 17-year old girl in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala is manifesting its frustration with strong political overtones. Keralites have spawned a campaign banning the entry of RSS-BJP workers into their households.
Posters appeared outside several households that said entry of BJP-RSS workers is banned into their houses, for safety of their young daughters.
“Leave your leaflets outside the gate. Vote-seeking BJP members, please do not enter the house, we have under-10 girls,” reads one of such poster in Malayalam.
“Leave your leaflets outside the gate. Vote-seeking BJP members please do not enter the house, we have under-10 girls”
Malayalis are posting pictures of variants of this poster on Facebook, as a protest against #BalatkariJanataParty and #RapeSevaSangh ? pic.twitter.com/PGMx50f3Ts
— The Last Caveman (@CarDroidusMax) April 13, 2018
Posters were pasted outside many houses in Kalamachal, near Vamanapuram area of Thiruvananthapuram district on Friday, banning the entry of the Sangh activists. Later, the protest spread to Alappuzha’s Chengannur constituency, which is gearing up for the imminent bypolls. Here, the Sangh activists were asked not to enter the houses to seek votes.
The posters clearly read: “BJP activists seeking votes, please leave your pamphlets outside the gate.” Pictures of these posters were being widely circulated on social media with the hashtag #BalatkariJanataParty.
Meanwhile, the BJP leaders and members have been busy defending the accused in the Kathua incident. The BJP leaders, including state ministers, have rallied in support of the accused in Jammu.
Kathua girl, a little child, who was “punished” for belonging to the Muslim community of Bakarwals in Kathua district, was kidnapped and held captive in a temple, nearly for a week. She was raped and murdered, eventually. Another girl from Unnao, who lost her father in judicial custody for filing a rape complaint against the BJP MLA, also awaits justice.
On the other hand, a private bank – Kotak Mahindra Bank, was forced to terminate its employee, Vishnu Nandakumar, after he made hate comments against the deceased Kathua girl. Vishnu had written on his Facebook page: “Good that she was killed at this age itself. Else, she would have grown up and returned throwing bombs in India." Soon after, social media was flooded with demands for dismissing Vishnu, who was working as an assistant manager in the Kochi branch. The Facebook page of the Kotak Mahindra Bank also became a platform for the backlash, since many users downgraded its rating.
On Friday, the bank was forced to issue a statement saying that they have terminated the employee. "We have terminated Vishnu Nandakumar from the services of the bank on Wednesday, April 11, 2018, for poor performance. It is extremely disheartening to see such comments being made in the aftermath of such a tragedy by anyone, including an ex-employee. We strongly condemn this statement."
— Kotak Mahindra Bank (@KotakBankLtd) April 13, 2018
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