Hindu couple who lost son to Delhi riots refuses to fuel Muslim mudslinging

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Mar 09, 2020: It has been 10 days since her son was killed in the communal violence in northeast Delhi in the last week of February, but Mamta Singh still cannot bear to sit in her house, which feels like it is full of the 23-year-old’s memories, Yahoo reported. 

 

On Saturday afternoon, the 49-year-old homemaker stepped out of her green-tiled house in Brijpuri and lingered near the front door, which had a fading campaign sticker of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s lotus symbol along with the faces of Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and local MLA Jagdish Pradhan; a sign that said Radhe Radhe, a salutation to Hindu god Krishna; and another one that said Shubh Shubh, a prayer for good to prevail. After some hesitation, she walked to the marketplace at the end of the street and sat down in her family store, where they sell items that Hindus use for pujas.

That day, said Mamta, was the first time she felt like she could think clearly since 25 February, when her son Manish Singh was shot dead during the riots. (Most media reports have identified Manish as Rahul Thakur. Rahul is the name his friends and family used for him).

The first thing she wanted to know, said Mamta, was who was responsible for her son’s death. Not the person’s religion, but his identity.

“Of course I don’t blame Muslims for his death,” she said, dismissing the notion as bizarre. “We don’t know who shot him. Why should I blame Muslims when I did not see what even happened or where the bullet came from? A crowd does not have a face.”

The grieving mother’s response is in stark contrast to the bloodthirsty social media messages and WhatsApp forwards that have sought to squarely blame the Muslim community for the deaths of Hindus in the riots last month.

In a conversation with HuffPost India, both Mamta and her husband, Dilip Singh, an employee of the Government Railway Police, were adamant in their rejection of any hate politics around their son’s death, pointing out that...