Insensitivity at its best

You can trust India to come up with bizarre news too often. The very recent one, which found place in media across the world, was the name of a café in Mumbai. A bright and talented entrepreneur, who is said to be 23 years old, named it as Hitler’s Cross. True to his wishes, his café got instant publicity. Everyone knows that for sake of publicity, any publicity is good publicity and cheap ones are most effective.

Things turned sour for him when the local Jewish community, Israeli and German government raised objection to the name and the Swastika (different from Hindu Swastika). The last news is that the entrepreneur agreed to change the name and the news name is ‘The Cross Café’. Even after everything is settled, there is a lingering question in my mind. What would it take for someone to name a place to dine and socialise on the name of that German dictator, one of the most hated figures of human civilizations? Who would try to glorify Hitler?

This is not a question of Jewish appeasement. As a matter of fact, did Hitler kill only Jews? Hitler killed 11 million people, out of which 6 million were Jews and 5 million others. Even if it was only 6 million Jews, will it be considered atrocity against Jewish population or humanity? Hitler was against mankind, humanity, societal civilization and not only against Jews. How can someone be so insensitive to disregard the slaughter of 11 million people in the cruelest way?

India is a plural society and naming anything after Hitler is perfectly legal. But does this issue fall only under legal ambit or has far broader scope? Does that ‘entrepreneur’ ever read a single book of history? There are justifications like, “there are many other cruel group, sections or governments than Hitler”. True, but does that absolve or lessen the crime of Hitler in anyway?

Imagine people living their life in concentration camps, and later burning in incendiary towers, the ashes falling from the sky much like snow fall? How good the feeling is for a person to name his café after Hitler? Perhaps if he ever gets time from watching cheap Bollywood movies, should see “Schindler’s List”. If he also likes reading then he should read ‘Fateless’ by Nobel prize winner, Hungarian Jew, Imre Kertész who has penned his life in the Nazi concentration camps. Agreeing to rename the café does not change anything. It betrays the mentality of a sick mind.

Is it a mere co-incidence that the café is located in Mumbai, a city lauded for ‘spirit’, which is nothing but euphemism for apathy?