Where is the honour in killing?

 Of lately, we have been hearing a lot about honour killing.

Some recent cases:

1. The young couple Monica and Kuldeep along with Monica's cousin Shobha were brutally murdered in the Ashok Vihar neighbourhood on 21st June. (Source)
2. On 20th June, Monika (18) and her lover Rinku (19), both from Jat families, were brutally killed for honour at Nimriwali village, near Bhiwani. The father of the girl, her brother, uncle and cousins are suspected to be behind the crime and are absconding. (Source)
3. Nirupama Pathak, a 22-year-old journalist was found dead in the last week of April at her family home in Jharkhand. The post-mortem report says she was murdered by smothering and that she was 10-12 weeks pregnant. Her only fault was that she fell in love with a boy from another caste. (Source)

These are but a scratch on the surface of the many that don’t even get reported because the parents on both sides are opposed to the marriage and end up covering the matter from police. In some cases, the police are also involved to “teach the young ones a lesson”.

According to 2007 estimates of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the annual worldwide total of honor-killing victims may be as high as 5,000.

Its not that this honour killing is something unique to India only. Worldwide cases have been reported on this matter. Most of them, however, have been reported in Islamic countries where the women are the main victims of such brutality. In India, democratic as we are, they don’t discriminate between the men and women and kill them both and any of the accomplices. Just like the “mob never forgets”, even these goons never forget how their honour was tarnished four years ago when their daughter married outside their caste, they will bid their time until the perfect opportunity when they kill them all.

And then the nerve of these people trying to justify the killings. The parents of the girl in the latest case on 20th June, are openly supporting the killers saying that they haven’t done anything wrong.

And what is our government doing on all this? Just waiting and watching, letting the phase pass; till the time the entire case cools down so that whatever decision they take does not affect their vote bank politics. Incidentally Law Minister M Veerappa Moily claims that Home Ministry has prepared a Bill aimed at "putting an end" to such crimes and which will be "a tight law to put an end to such crimes".

You know what I think about this?

Nobody has a right to kill anyone. Sometimes you may wish that killing was legalized just so that you can get even with that prick who keeps on bugging you. But you still don’t have right to kill someone. Who are these people to decide if the girl/boy deserve to die if they married outside their caste?

PS: If this trend continues, people might have to stop haggling over prices with various vendors lest the vendor takes an offence of the haggling and decides to “teach someone a lesson”.

Images courtesy the “honourable” gentlemen who killed those poor souls
(Sourced from blogs.reuters.com, ibnlive.in.com, images.sodahead.com and epaper.hindustantimes.com)  

Additional feed:
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/how-govt-plans-to-fight-honour-killings-33467
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/honour-killing-victims-family-justifies-murder/125138-3.html?from=tn