Oh Orlando

Someone asked me yesterday why didn’t I write about the Orlando shooting. Was I afraid of getting into controversies? Or was I not sympathetic towards LGBTQ community?

Let me make this clear. I am not the one to be bogged down by any controversy and I have no problem with people’s sexual orientation. The reason I didn’t write about the incident was because I was disgusted by the whole thing and was numb by the shock. Well, we shouldn’t be shocked anymore by these heinous and pervert acts of crime against humanity.

But I am equally appalled at the politics of it all. This is, I think an act, which can actually bring in a president who is, himself, a homophobic by blaming a particular community. Who is not leaving any stone unturned to turn this incident into a political cocktail of hate and frustration? Who is trying to instigate a nation to block out its own citizens, who is trying to take mileage out of a tragedy to reiterate his policies of non-inclusion and intolerance?

I will not talk about Yateen’s connection to Daesh or how the ISIS is luring youngsters on the internet and brain washing them about how  sacrificing their life is going to get them in heaven. That is for another blog, another day. Right now my concern is that people like Donald Trump are going to make it a political issue and influence the outcome of the presidential election. He even went to the extent to ask for Barack Obama’s resignation because he refused to use the term Islamic racial terrorism. This is cheap politics. Trump should enter Indian politics; he will be the rightful contender of Mayawati, Arvind Kejriwal, Laloo Yadav, Mamta Banerji and others.

A leader of a nation cannot be partisan. Even if he/she may have reservation about a sect of people, they cannot and should not make it a political agenda. I hope the Americans have enough sense to realize that it’s a political gimmick and show him that a leader who can not include all people in his nation in the mainstream, who uses rhetoric to cover up his lack of knowledge about policies, who denigrates women and takes huge delight in downgrading his democratic opponent by saying ‘all she’s got that she is a woman’, can not fulfill the American dream. He cannot soothe the wounds of its people, he cannot lead the country in these turbulent times and he is not fit to represent his country as the head of the state.

Yateen should be condemned to jail yes. He should be punished for the crime yes. But lets not argue if this was a crime against humanity or LGBTQ community.