At least the soul. The body was reduced to ashes by adding diesel to injury in the dead of the night with the family kept at bay and at least one cop smiling like he had had a Cheshire cat for dinner. Come to think of it, there never was such a funeral seen. And there are those who say that the Yogi Government will be buried after this, “just you wait and see!”

In fact, the gang-rape and the death of the girl galvanized Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra Gandhi who, while taking the bull by the horns, was mindful not to grab the tiger by the tail! Both were out on the road and tweeting like their lives depended on 140 alphabets or thereabouts. Congress spokespersons were showing their mettle on TV and Sambit Patra was not alone in cracking jokes at the expense of the rival party.

The gang-raped girl who before she died had told her mother of how much she “wanted to live” had to settle for a dying declaration which was recorded and played on television channels across the country with each news channel asserting it was an “exclusive.” TV channels are great for con jobs! The shenanigans seen in the green fields and ‘pagdandis’ of the Hathras village spoke of the shameless ‘TRP War’ being fought between bitter television news channels.

This, after reports said that the rapists, in a display of inexplicable cruelty, had cut off the girl’s tongue to see to it that she is not able to talk of the crime and nail the perpetrators. Indian as well as international media mentioned the slashed tongue, but did not question how she could give a dying declaration in her own voice without a tongue! Fact checkers did not do a ‘fact check’, which they routinely do when the shoe is on the other foot!

Which ‘other foot?’ must be left it to ideological bramble wire to catch. For the moment let’s concentrate on Yogi Adityanath and his bizarre police, whose ranks are now being whittled by a panicking CM. While on the police, let’s also not forget to single out the Hathras district magistrate who appeared to be touched by the sun though the weatherman reported winter was in the air!

The district magistrate, who hadn’t got his marching orders till Friday morning, held out dire threats to the rape victim’s family and allegedly kicked her grieving father in the chest. Whatever is happening to the IAS – acting like common thugs! In truth, the insensitivity on display was unlimited. Somebody asked somebody if the district magistrate had a family – sisters and mom? Even the single status of Yogi Adityanath and Narendra Modi was discussed.

Point is, what has somebody with a mom and sister got to do with the gang-rape and death of a 19-year-old with her tongue slashed? Let’s not be chary. Television is to blame for the hullaballoo. The inane questions. And the trauma to the public ‘jo sab jaanti hai.’ Bull! The public does not know a thing other than that the earth revolves on its axis, and goes round and round the burning sun!

Does the public know why Yogi Adityanath is behaving like a sprung spring? His obsession to keep media and opposition parties out of bounds of the “village” isn’t a piddling thing. Ostensibly, it’s to give the special investigating team (SIT) a clear field of action. Nosey media could spell raucous. And politicians like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra Gandhi, Derek O’Brien and Pappu Yadav, could stir up political ruckus. Not least, social distancing cannot be pooh-phooed. Why even POTUS and FLOTUS have caught the coronavirus!

The real story is that TV news channels and other media outlets are flipping sides after Hathras. There’s hope in the air. Collective. The ‘Empire’ is striking back and the ‘Republic’ is getting isolated. Suddenly, after relentless weeks of Sushant Singh Rajput and stoned to the barebones Bollywood-turned-drugwood media coverage, there’s something potent to hang the BJP from.

Rhetoric and opportunity apart, several questions still hang: Why’s the Yogi Adityanath Government behaving and acting the way it is? Has the BJP lost the plot? Is Modi slipping? What is the SIT doing plotting sitting inside the barricaded village? Is social media changing colour; is it not all saffron anymore? The original Nirbhaya’s gang-rape and death did not have much of a political impact, but “this Nirbhayakaand” will stir the pot and scald the shaven pate of a man who all of a sudden looks short a Thakur for the job! (IPA Service)