These last few days saw the country wide protests in the US, over the brutal killing of George Floyd , a 46 year old black America by Police, the culprit being one Derek Chauvin, the Police Officer who asphyxiated the victim by kneeling over him when he was handcuffed and lying down. ' I can't breathe. ..' were the last words Floyd was able to speak. The killing triggered protests and the protesters closed in on the White House, forcing President Trump to withdraw into a bunker.The protests are continuing. Most touching was the picture of a number of protesters , all white, prostrating on the ground holding their breath for nine minutes , literally empathising with the victim. It was ironical to have such a killing happen in the US that raises hue and cry over alleged violation of human rights elsewhere. However the worldwide protests do hold some hope for humanity . How the law deals with Derek Chauvin will be something to wait for and watch in the coming days.
Back home, the killing of an innocent pregnant elephant at Mallipuram in Kerala saw country wide protests . It transpires that the elephant strayed into a village and ate a cracker filled pineapple . Suffering in silence and
partly submerging into a pool of water, to seek some relief , the 15 year old elephant died after 3-4 days.
As expected, Ms. Maneka Gandhi , a BJP leader and an Animal rights activist waxed eloquent on the matter . She came in for severe criticism for showing concern for the elephant and not uttering a word on the plight of migrant labourers heading home on foot and suffering hunger, thirst and some of them even dying on the way.
All said , no parallel can be drawn over the two sad incidents except that both speak of our cruelty and insensitivity as a people. Close on the heels of the elephant episode is a similar incident in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh of a Cow getting injured by eating some cracker filled stuff. How come people have come to use such insidious and invidious ways of killing animals that harm their crops.
In all a sad commentary on the humans losing humanity and acting inhumanly !!
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