Politicisation of the Saidabad rape-murder issue shows the rot among politicians

Hyderabad: The last one week was full of anger, sadness and grief over the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in Saidabad. The horrendous incident also sparked protests as locals urged a magistrate level probe, which eventually led to a man-hunt of the accused P. Raju. He was found dead under suspicious circumstances on Thursday.

The atmosphere was tense and emotions fragile across the city of Hyderabad ever since the case came to light. However, most politicians and political parties clearly don’t know where to draw the line and be sensitive.

As one would walk into the basti of the victim’s family, a sight full of activists and ‘leaders’ of various political parties along with media persons swarming the streets would at once confuse a local citizen. It’s normal for local politicians to come and express their condolences to the victim’s family. However, that didn’t seem to be the case.

The politicians were there with the flashy posters and their respective party paraphernalia around the necks, shouting slogans in the faces of the grieving locals. Furthermore, many representatives of political parties were surrounding themselves with media and defecating their robotic speeches as locals saw the drama with bewildered faces.

Opposition Politicians on the scene spoke about how “alcoholism and drug ‘are ruining the city”, which they claim increased rape cases. They took it as a chance to show that the ruling “TRS government is not speaking up” and how there is no development in the area, among other things. State labour minister Malla Reddy also sought an encounter of the accused Raju a few days earlier,sparking outrage.

Any bystander there would point out that the politicians were not there to express condolences but to gain political mileage. And this is not the case with one or two political parties, almost all parties registered with the election commission where at the scene giving out their best performances in front of an uninterested audience.

“We understand that in a democracy the politicians have to raise questions to the establishment, but this is just plain disgusting and highly insensitive,” a bystander remarked.