Why weren’t other religious minorities
forced to videotape their Independence Day celebrations in India?
Indian Muslims celebrate Independence Day with
national flags on the terrace of the Madrasa Arabia Islamia in the Juhapura
area of Ahmedabad on August 15, 2015. PHOTO: AFP
As if ghar wapsi programs and beef
lynching was not enough, madrassas in the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) ruled state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) have been
told to celebrate the Indian Independence Day with great
fervour and patriotism.
And to prove that their students are very good and patriotic
citizens of India, those who manage Indian madrassas will have to submit videos
of how they celebrated the patriotic day. Of course, it shouldn’t surprise us,
since after the appointment
of a rabid anti-Muslim like Yogi Adityanath as the chief
minister of India’s largest state (with a large Muslim population), killings of
Muslims suspected to have eaten beef have
increased. Now, to be a Muslim in UP is like being a Jew in Hitler’s
Germany.
Why is this being done? Why
aren’t students of other religious schools being asked to prove that they are
patriotic Indians?
Why are Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists in India not being
compelled to videotape how they celebrate Independence Day? Is it because all
Indian Muslims are considered to be ISI agents? What makes Narendra Modi think
that by forcing Indian Muslims to prove that they are good Indians (while
carrying out mass killing
of Muslims in Kashmir), his party will get the Muslim vote?
Of course, Indian Muslims have
been subjected to persecution ever since 1947, when the shock of seeing India
divided made the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its virulent activists
even more determined to rid India of Muslims.
In fact, as recently as 2002, more than a thousand Muslims were
butchered under
the supervision of Modi himself. Because he was suspected to be directly
responsible for the killings, Modi was denied
visa to visit the US for many years, until he became the prime
minister.
Then there is the recent
decision of the Maharashtra government to remove all references to
India’s Muslim past. They have even
removed pictures of Mughal monuments like the Taj Mahal from text
books to make impressionable Indian children believe that Muslims made no
contribution to the arts, culture and architecture of India.
There have even been claims by
Hinduvta fanatics that the Taj Mahal was built by Hindus and not by the Mughal
king Shah Jahan. It shouldn’t surprise us if one day they decide to demolish
the Taj Mahal on the grounds that it has been built over the ruins of a Hindu
temple, as they did with the Babri Masjid.
Modi and his BJP Hinduvta allies know that they can never have a
Hindu rashtra (Hindu state) unless they are able to significantly reduce the
population of its Muslim minority (comprising of 14.23% of
the population). They will try every means to achieve their goal, even if it
means killing as many Muslims as possible (if they are not able to convert them
to Hinduism).
Modi should ponder what the outgoing Indian vice president said about
“a lot of unease, a sense of insecurity creeping in among the minorities in
India”. He meant that minorities in India, particularly the Muslims, do not
feel safe in India.
“I sometimes become the
inadvertent object of political leaders who choose to make me a symbol of all
that they think is wrong and unpatriotic about Muslims in India. There have
been occasions when I have been accused of bearing allegiance to our
neighbouring nation rather than my own country – this even though I am an
Indian whose father fought for the freedom of India. Rallies have been held
where leaders have exhorted me to leave my home and return to what they refer
to as my original homeland.”
Has Modi already forgotten Maqbool Fida Husain, the most famous Indian of his
time? The most highly paid painter of India left
India and spent the last seven years of his life in self-exile
because he continuously received death threats. His crime, of course, was that
he was a Muslim who was not considered a patriotic Indian.
So if Modi wants to win the
loyalties of Indian Muslims, do not force them to do what they don’t want to do.
All you have to do is to trust them, give them jobs, tell your rabid followers
not to lynch them on suspicion of eating beef and stop treating them as second
class citizens.
And of course, you must order
your soldiers to stop killing the Muslims of Kashmir and settling Hindus in the
occupied territory with the aim of turning Kashmir into a Hindu-majority state.
Shakir Lakhani
Engineer, former visiting lecturer at NED Engineering College, industrialist, associated with petroleum/chemical industries for many years. Loves writing, and (in the opinion of most of those who know him), mentally unbalanced. He tweets @shakirlakhani (twitter.com/shakirlakhani)
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/55130/why-werent-other-religious-minorities-forced-to-videotape-their-independence-day-celebrations-in-india/
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