Wake-up India

by abhay mokashi

The anti-Muslim agitation at Jantar Mantar and at Dwarka in Delhi is a wake-up call for the sensible people in the country, even as the whole nation seems to be in a state of slumber.

The fanning of anti-Muslim sentiments is now being done openly with the Delhi Police, which is under the control of Amit Shah, remaining a silent spectator. The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) -led government at the Centre has failed on almost all fronts and there are whimpers from the people belonging to different sections of the society, across the country.

In Dwarka some fanatic Hindus protested against the proposed construction of Haj House, while at Jantar Mantar, in an agitation supposedly against archaic laws, was clearly against the Muslims, with slogans of killing the Muslims and all this in the name of Lord Ram.

The farmers and labourers have been raising their voice against laws which are anti-farmers and anit-labour; the general public is badly hit by inflation, rising prices of fuel and unemployment among other things. Gradually, some voices are being raised against Modi, his party and his government. The BJP has already faced a crushing defeat in the legislative assembly elections in West Bengal and has been facing major set-backs in local elections in several states, especially Uttar Pradesh and Punjab and the party has realised that it will find it difficult to retain power in Uttar Pradesh after the ensuing assembly elections. As a result, the BJP has come out with the strongest weapon in its armory—the name of Lord Ram.

The slogans at Jantar Mantar, calling for lynching of the Muslims, were tagged with chants of Jai Shri Ram. Nobody has insulted Hinduism and Lord Ram, the way the Hindutva gang has been insulting since it launched the agitation for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya at the place where once the Babri Mosque stood.

The BJP and the other constituents of the Hindutva brigade are known to be anti-Communists, but they have made a capital of Karl Marx’s statement that religion is opium of the people. Whenever, the Hindutva gang lost its ground or popularity, it has fanned communal hatred, knowing fully well that the majority of the people in the country will fall for it and will forget all their problems. They have made religion work like a psychotropic substance and have succeeded in that effort.

The communalisation of politics and the society is dangerous for the nation and the country will pay a heavy price for it, unless the masses wake up to the situation.

It is shocking that the followers of Hinduism are allowing the use of the religion by these parties and organisations for their political gains. Lord Ram is described as maryada purushotttam (the most dignified or the follower of ethics). It is an irony that just the opposite is being done in the name of Lord Ram and there are no protests against this. The Jai Shri Ram slogan was also coined by the Hindutva gang and made popular in a country where this slogan did not exist.

While this is happening in the capital and other parts of the country too, we see a different story in neighbouring Pakistan. A Hindu boy, who had mistakenly trespassed in the premises of a Muslim shrine was apprehended by the local people and beaten up, as a result in urinated. The boy was soon arrested, but the court released him on bail. Angered by this, a mob of local Muslims attacked a Hindu temple and damaged the temple and idols of Hindu gods.

Pakistan’s parliament, the National Assembly, condemned the attack on the temple and some members of the parliament apologised to the Hindus about the incident and even announced on the floor of the House that they will collect funds from the public to repair the temple. The National Assembly also passed a unanimous resolution condemning the incident. Prime Minister Imran Khan order a probe in the incident and so did the Pakistan Supreme Court. All this happened in a country, which is not secular and against which a large section of the Indian media makes charges of being anti-Hindus.

We are a secular country and those who have taken oaths of office in the name of our Constitution are violating it blatantly, even as most Indians watch silently.

As a nation, we need to learn from Pakistan, how to protect the minorities. India is not a Hindu country; it should not be one and shall not be one. Theological nations cannot survive and cannot take care of all the citizens of the country.

Independence Day is round the corner and as Indians we need to remember that the freedom fighters did not fight for a Hindu country. Those who wanted a Hindu India were with the British, not with the Freedom Movement.

It is time that the nation wakes-up from its slumber and crushes the communal ideology, whether Hindu or Muslim. If we do not oppose such fanatic elements, we do not have to fear China or Pakistan. The threat to the nation is not so much from China or Pakistan, but from the communal elements within the country.