Bias, Hatred and Parochial Politics

Sixth of humanity lives in plural Bharat, which, somewhat legitimately, takes pride in synthesis also. The world at large respects India for its geopolitical weight, high GDP growth rate despite galloping inflation and market opportunities.

What, however, makes the internal situation vulnerable, if not exactly combustible, is a set of security-related challenges. These challenges include parochial politics and the ever-growing intolerance at social plane. Equality before law and rule of law, the sine qua non of a democracy, are shaken to their foundations the moment social justice goes on leave at popular plane, as we recently saw in Orissa or as we have been frequently seeing in the form of arrest of the highly educated Muslim professionals on the basis of suspicion of their involvement in the terrorist activities. This is sapping the Muslim community’s confidence gradually but steadily. Many a career has been, and is being, destroyed by the Saffron-inclined cops and investigators. This attitude is fast corroding social poise and equilibrium, mutual respect, mutual trust and mutual cooperation, the values that, in fact, run the heterogeneous societies.

The eminent political commentator, Mr. Inder Malhotra has rightly bemoaned recently: a non-issue turned into Hindu-Muslim confrontation in Jammu and Kashmir. Orissa has become the scene of Hindu-Christian violence of the most vicious kind. Until last week, no one outside the state had heard of Kandhamal; today it is being described as “ground zero” in “religious warfare” which is having international ramifications; the Pope and the Italian government having “firmly condemned it”.

Large kingdoms and small hearts do not go together, so had said, decades ago, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, while presiding over the Congress as president of the party. Where has the accommodation gone? Where has the catholicity gone? Where has the large-heartedness gone? These values of daily life are a “must” in a democratic society.

The Saffron states are not covering themselves with glory by avidly practising bias and prejudice. Their petty politics, sheet-anchored into disaffection and suspicion may garner votes for them for a while. But in the long run, it may prove fatal for the entire country. Hate begets hate only. By hitting below the belt, by stifling freedoms, by gagging the voices of innocence, you cannot usher in what you call Ram Rajya. Rama was not like you. He was Maryada Prushotham. Perhaps you know him much more than us. What sort of his greatest are you?

The Draconian laws like TADA and POTA were almost selectively used against the Muslims. But the poor conviction rate compelled the social activists and the civil liberty bodies to raise their voice against the repression. The Saffron pressure at whose behest it all was done is against baying for Muslim blood, knowing fully well that the blame lies elsewhere. How would the Saffron explain the killing of two Bajrang Dal activists while making bombs in Kanpur on August 24? Earlier too, the Saffron activists have been found involved in making bombs or exploding them at certain places like Nanded in April 2006, Malegaon in September 2006, Tenkasi in January 2008, etc. But the state police and Intelligence deliberately failed to pursue the leads provided by the palpably clear incidents.

The Muslim leadership has a lurking suspicion that in the gory incidents at Gorakhpur, Faizabad, Varanasi, Lucknow and Hyderabad too, there was a hand of either Bajrang Dal or the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. These bodies are no more a lumpen fringe. The CPI has recently demanded a ban on the Dal while the LJP leader and Union Minister Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan has demanded a ban not only on the VHP but the Saffron mother, the RSS also. To quote him: “If SIMI has to be banned then why not the VHP, Bajrang Dal or the RSS?

How the BJP-led or the BJP-allied dispensations aggravate the situations created by themselves. The CPI-M or Ms Brinda Karat, in a statement issued on August 31, said: “The connivance of the government was exemplified by the permission given to Praveen Togadia to take out a funeral procession of the Swami for 200 kms from the place where he was killed, to his main ashram. This deliberate fanning and inflaming of communal hatred against the Christian community directly resulted in violence being planned and executed by these organisations.”

The BJP-led state governments of Gujarat and Rajasthan are setting up milestones in harassing Muslim professionals by picking them up for their alleged involvement in the terrorist activity. Till August 22, about 20 Muslims were detained without arresting them formally for the May 13 Jaipur blasts. In a memorandum to the State Governor, Mr. S.K. Singh, the Muslim Forum of Rajasthan said: the State agencies were acting with a biased mindset and preconceived notion of involvement of Muslim youngsters in the serial blasts that had claimed 68 lives.

Muslim Forum’s convener Qari Moinuddin said the “illegal detentions” on the pretext of investigation would not serve any purpose other than provoking the majority community’s sentiments against Muslims and instilling a sense of fear and helplessness among the latter.

In the meantime, the Rajasthan Police claimed that the e-mail authors have been identified. But the Muslim Forum of the State, on September 3, claimed the authorities were trying to hoodwink the public by dragging the SIMI. To quote the state Jamaat-e-Islami president Er. Mohammad Salim: The SIT claim of having identified the author of terror e-mail defied logic as one of the accused, educated in Darul Uloom Deoband, had not even preliminary knowledge of computers and the other’s credentials as a SIMI member were yet to be confirmed.

The DGP, Mr. A.K. Jain has admitted that there was no direct evidence against the seven held earlier from Kota to implicate them in the conspiracy for the Jaipur terror attack.

What we are trying to underscore is that this avoidable harassment of Muslims and the deliberate letting off of the sharks might – we fear – cause dents in our geopolitical weight, high growth rate and marked opportunities.