In a weekly programme organised by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind on Feb. 4, Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, Secretary General of Welfare Party of India and Editor Urdu monthly Afkaar-e-Milli, talked about a very serious yet unknown issue of the ongoing Hinduisation in the state of Madhya Pradesh. He said despite the gravity of the issue people are oblivious of it and if immediate action and measures are not taken, then we might run the risk of facing another tragedy similar to Gujarat. The steps taken by the government of MP in the past decade are not random and cannot be termed as mere coincidence; instead it is a meticulously planned operation orchestrated by the people owing to Hindutva and who are hell bent upon establishing a new Hindutva laboratory in Madhya Pradesh.
We expect a state government to be secular and unbiased; however it is the opposite that we are seeing in Madhya Pradesh as the state government itself is propping up the Hinduisation and helping the radical forces in destroying secular values of the state. “Plans have been made and schemes are being implemented to destroy the minorities culturally and financially. This is the second term of BJP in MP and interestingly we do not see any kind of criticism or resistance from the opposition parties and exactly same is the case in Gujarat where no one is challenging the BJP government. It seems they have developed a silent understanding among them,” he said.
Various plans (government-led plans) have been devised to Hinduise minorities in the state. The first method to culturally destroy Muslims and to alienate them from their ethos was implemented at school level in the form of Surya Namaskar. It was introduced in the year 2007 and it was said that actions would be taken against the schools that refused to implement it. When some Muslim organisations opposed it, it was said that it is not mandatory and those who wish not doing it can do so. It must be noted that there are only 7 per cent Muslims in MP and Christians are even less and if these 7 per cent and others desist from doing it one can imagine how it will be dealt with. The minorities are left with only two options: either they surrender or face harassment at schools, he lamented.
Two more measures were taken at school level. One is that students must recite the bhojan mantra (a Sanskrit hymn) before eating their mid-day meals, and the other Gita Saar (extract of Gita) has been made compulsory for all the students after Class V. When the writ petition was filed by the Christians claiming that the move unjustly promotes one religion, it was said that the Gita has nothing to do with religion and it is a book of history and culture and hence other religious books cannot be included.
MP is one of a few states where anti-conversion law is applicable. This law was implemented at the time when Digvijay Singh was the chief minister, and according to this law one who wants to change his religion must declare it before Magistrate six months before. The magistrate will investigate and see to it whether the person is willingly converting or somebody is forcing him. The investigators often harass people in the garb of investigation. Muslim youths are being harassed and labelled as terrorists. “Recently a new bill has been proposed which is exactly similar to TADA, POTA or MCOCA, which says that if a person ‘confesses’ before the police then it will be considered his confession. The utterly preposterous bill, if passed, will become a new tool of harassing Muslim youths,” he said.
Recently President Pratibha Patil granted her assent to a law banning slaughtering of cow as well as bull and the state police have been given free hand to raid anyone’s house without any warrant if they doubt that there is beef in the house. And the onus of proving that the meat is not beef falls on the person in whose house it is found. The law is another instrument to harass tribals and Muslims as meat is readily available in their homes. There were also considerations to change the name of Bhopal to Bhoj Pal (on the name of Raja Bhoj) and eight cities in MP have been declared as holy cities and meat cannot be served there, not even egg.
Another measure to bolster Hinduisation can be seen in the naming of the government schemes and yojnas. The state’s water conservation scheme is called “Jal Abhishek” Abhiyan, a scheme for the welfare of the girl child is called “Ladli Laxmi” Yojana, a rural development scheme has been named “Gokul Gram” Yojana and another welfare scheme meant to provide financial help for poor families in order to marry off their daughters is called “Kanyadaan” Yojana.
Earlier government employees were not allowed to join organisations while in service, however MP government is now encouraging people to join RSS shakhas. Besides this, the government is giving large areas of land to RSS and other fascist organisations at throw away prices. In many cases the plots of land were handed over even before the registration was done. The lands were given mainly to the organisations owing allegiance to sangh parivar which include Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Akhil Bhartiya Vishwa Parishad (ABVP), etc.
According to Dr. Ilyas, all these measures and steps are being taken in order to translate the dream of establishing a Hindu Rashtra into reality. The Hindu Rashtra, which is in the making, when formed, will be a model state and would act as a source for emulation for other states. According to an expert, BJP has made such a powerful hold in MP that even if it does not come in power for another 10 years, RSS and its sister organisations would remain unaffected.
“In order to counter this growing Hinduisation one must bring all those affected (including Christians and tribals) at one single platform and Muslim leadership should take the lead. As it is a sheer political struggle, it should be dealt with politically,” he stressed.