Danish Siddiqui — the Sanjaya of Today
We are all socially blind.
Rich blind with their power and wealth.
Poor with their daily struggles.
And the middle class is blind with its daily grind for a better future.
But not all want to remain blind. Like Dhritarashtra, many of us want to see the real picture through the eyes of Sanjayas of the modern days.
When I visited Myanmar during the heydays of its short-lived democracy, I was first amused and then horrified by Islamophobia.
The last census said Muslims were 4% of the population, but all on the streets were convinced they are 50% and growing. And like in UP in India, they picked up the Rohingyas of Rakhine province (who has been disenfranchised in 1982) as a basket case to teach a lesson.
Over time the repression grew strong. Dispossession of properties, pogroms, pushing a 1.4 million population to a marshy land with no factor resources with aid cut off, ultimately moved to a large-scale genocide in 2017.
About 750K fled to Bangladesh and 40K to India (Bangladesh had been accommodative to them since then, but India with 1/20 of the load is moving courts to repatriate them — after all Bangladesh is now richer than us).
The genocide caught the attention of the world, which for four decades was in slumber about the most “most persecuted minority of the world”. And apart from the stories of murder and mayhem, it was the iconic photographs taken by Danish Siddiqui which played a major role.
Lots have happened since then. India is on the verge of repatriating a 14-year-old Rohingya girl (national security). Aung San Suu Kyi the noble laurite State Councillor who steadfastly defended the Tatmadaw (the Myanmarese army) has been put to jail by General Min Aung Hlaing — the same general she defended (there is a possibility that she may never come out of jail).
And the army is now killing the same people who cheered them in droves. Last is that they are hoarding all the oxygen so that the forces and their families can breathe when the nation gasp.
Danish Siddique went on to become a legend from the icon. His photos exposed the COVID deaths, the Delhi riots, the frail health system, the gun-toting nationalists, the hapless migrants, the blood-thirsty Taliban.
Danish made many enemies. And he paid with his death and disparage for this (incidentally the arch enemies from both Hindus and Muslims joined here).
Danish was just 38. A precocious talent with eye, compassion, courage, and conviction.
Did he die young? Of course. But he lived too — which most of us struggle with every day.
Can we kill his legacy? No.
Can we besmear his memories — not possible.
But I don’t think a person like Danish ever bothered to be remembered or appreciated. He was too busy finding the truth.
And showing it to the world.
And for people like us, it was the Sanjaya moment. To penetrate our blindness to give a rare but much-needed vision.
