Social and conventional media are ablaze with the Faridabad immolation tragedy.

If innocent people, especially children, lose their life, it is natural for people to feel sad and pained. It goes without saying that the case should be investigated impartially and if there is foul play, perpetrators should be brought to justice.

In India, however, media and politicians are more interested in colouring the case with caste, accusing people of murder and subjecting them to media trial, showering insults on Prime Minister, putting the blame on Indian culture and Hinduism, and improving their TRPs and deriving electoral mileage from the tragedy.

On reading about the unfortunate incident involving a family including two children (whom “secular” media is interested in identifying as “Dalits” and linking their caste identity with their fate), my first reaction was sheer pain that it had to happen. But on seeing the coverage that the affair is getting, the angle it is being given and the comments that are being made about it, I was reminded of an incident in Badaun, UP, in 2014 that was first reported as a caste/gender crime, and later investigations supported a contrary story.

In that, as well as this case, I do not know what happened, but nor do any of these others who are so eager to vitiate our socio-political atmosphere by declaring this crime as rooted in caste, or perpetrated with political motive. I think it is their own sick attitude that enables them to see caste and politics in a case where we can instead mourn the dead, wait for the truth to emerge, and let the law take its course.

I hope that the people of India will reject the campaign to make them feel insecure; that they will not play into the hands of those who want to create and exploit mutual mistrust and hatred.