Hauled Lifeless Off a Stage, Kulwinder Kaur Deserves Your Respect

Kulwinder Kaur, the dancer shot dead at a Bathinda wedding, is a lot and yet nothing like Jessica Lal.

In the late hours of Saturday evening, December 3, a 25-year-old dancer in Maur, Bathinda, was shot dead by a gun-toting, inebriated wedding attendee. The dancer was allegedly two months pregnant. She had refused to dance with the inebriated, gun-toting wedding attendee. Once he shot her, she was consequently picked up by her lifeless arms and half-dragged, half-swept across the stage like a rag doll, down unforgiving stairs, leaving a gruesome trail of blood in her wake, in deep, guttural contrast to her white dancer’s dress.

The dancer’s name was Kulwinder Kaur.

You know all of this. You know because you’ve seen it played out, in videos, over and over again. You’ve watched the shooting, you’ve watched the dead body of Kulwinder Kaur lying in a pool of blood streaming from her head, and you’ve heard in the background, Kulwinder’s troupe crying, “Oh my God” and male voices conciliating the former with “koi ni, koi ni”.

Also Read: 22-Year-Old Dancer Shot Dead at Wedding Party, Culprit on The Run

Yes, in the deluge of daily news provided by political commentators and political leaders, we have already begun to forget about her. We will forget her once the voyeur in us has been satiated; once we have squealed at the inhumanity of the ‘viral videos’ and have shared them aggressively on our social media pages.

Why Kulwinder Kaur is Not Jessica Lal

In 1999, a woman was murdered in a (at least thematically) similar manner. Her name was Jessica Lal, and she was a model. She’d refused an attendee a drink at a party at which she was bar-tending, because they’d run out of liquor. She had steadfastly stood her ground. The man she refused was the son of a Congress-elected member of Parliament who fired two shots. One (from his .22 calibre pistol) at the ceiling which was meant to serve as a warning to Jessica. The second, directly and fatally, at her head.

The man who shot Kulwinder, like Manu Sharma, had made a demand too – that she dance with him. Kulwinder, like Jessica, had steadfastly refused. The bullet that hit her was allegedly fired in the air. Fired at close range, however, it hit her squarely in the head and she died on the spot.

Also Read: Two Arrested, Including Main Accused, in Punjab Dancer Murder Case

On the surface, Jessica and Kulwinder share a world of similarities. Deeper down, though? They’re poles apart. Jessica was a model, a socialite – much beloved in Delhi and certain film circles. Justice for Jessica was excruciatingly delayed – but somewhere between a frenzy whipped up by Rang De Basanti and a vigil aroused by the candle light era, Jessica Lal’s memory was served and preserved.

Kulwinder Kaur, alas, shall see no such frenzy. The coverage of her death, both on and off social media, has followed a far more inequitable trajectory; certain profiles called her out for being a lady of the night, who must be reviled before she can be pitied. Headlines fussed over whether it was ‘celebratory firing’ that killed her or an ‘accidental’ shot – reiterated by the Station House officer himself, who, in an interview, termed the incident an accident.

NONE of this matters.

She Should’ve Seen it Coming...

There are no realms and realms of digital paper dedicated to Kulwinder the person. Nothing beyond the voyeuristic sharing of three ‘viral videos’ – one in which she is a grotesque nondescript thing at best, her dress ridden up to her waist to reveal star-spangled stockings, her head lolling and bumping against stage stairs. No cops were called immediately to cordon off the spot where she lay – no respect was offered to her lifeless body, till someone had had a look at her. There was no attempt to even lift her less bestially.

Because she was just a dancer. Shaadi dancers are not the same as party attendees; she wasn’t assumed to have a circle that would protect her from the arsenal of class or money. She wasn’t offered respect even in death or after on social media, because it was assumed she ought not to have expected any. She must have been lowly, dancing away like that to eke a living. She must have committed a grave travesty, refusing to dance with the groom’s friend, while she dared to gallivant on the stage in front of him, obviously inviting attention. She must be dragged off the stage, an easy victim to alcohol-fuelled machismo, because that just happens.

She should have expected all of this.

Because Kulwinder just didn’t belong.