Politics Divides Does Religion Unite?

Religion should not be misused for dividing people. The essential nature of religion is uniting people with the Creator and at the same time promoting unity and brotherhood among all communities. This is more important in a country like India, which has great diversity with the followers of almost all religions. Doesn’t Hinduism teach VasudhaivaKutumbakam…

Written by

Ejaz Ahmed Aslam

Published on

October 22, 2024

What happened in Bahraich on 13th October was not only painful but shameful as well. How long wouldour political partners and communal groups exploit and incite common citizens to fight with each other? How long will it take us to learn to live like brothers and sisters in this large and great country?Our political parties are intrusted less in solving the problems of people, and more in exploiting them to achieve their political aspirations. Conscientious citizens must give a wakeup call and unite the people to fight with political Shylocks for whom capturing power is the most important priority.

Religion should not be misused for dividing people. The essential nature of religion is uniting people with the Creator and at the same time promoting unity and brotherhood among all communities. This is more important in a country like India, which has great diversity with the followers of almost all religions. Doesn’t Hinduism teach VasudhaivaKutumbakam (the entire humanity is one family)? Doesn’t Islam stress the unity and oneness of the entire humanity? Doesn’t Christianity preach mercy and forgiveness? Doesn’t Buddhism praise Ahimsa (non-violence)? Then why are we fighting with each other?

It is extremely worrying that the political party, which claims to be the biggest political party of the world, with crores and crores of members, has adopted divide and rule as its best motif and base principle of its manoeuvring. But, on the other hand, we hear day in and day out the slogan of SabkaSaath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, and lately added SabkaParyas. This divisiveness has widely spread the poison of avishwas. The right-thinking Hindu intellectuals are worried that the fascist politicians have hijacked the innocent Hindu majority and are using them to provoke the Muslim community.

This is what exactly happened during the Durga immersion procession in Bahraich. Extremely provoking and abusive music and songs were blaring from DJs. Every noble Hindu will shudder to listen to such dirty songs abusing the religion and women of Muslims. The question is why the police allow and tolerate such provocative songs? How is it that such abuses were inflated in the entire country? This enraged some hotheads. We do not support the act of a young man who did not tolerate the provocative songs and desecration of the religious green flag. We not only disapprove the shooting of the victim but condemn it unequivocally. We support that the full weight of law should be used against the person who committed the crime.

At the same time, this is unbecoming for a religious procession to blare dirty songs denigrating a community. And the silent majority of our Hindu brethren do not approve that irresponsible behaviour. Then what about the deliberate police attitude that at the dead of night the next day i.e. 14th October full-fledged arson, attacks and destruction were enacted against the poor Muslims. The Yogi administration is squarely responsible for these acts of omission and commission. If Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee is asked to resign for rape and murder in the state, why shouldn’t CM Yogi be asked to resign?

People are asking why the judiciary is not taking suo moto cognisance of bhagwa elements. Is it not travesty of justice? Is it not open and clear discrimination and targeting of the poor Muslims? Prime Minister Narendra Modi, if he is true to his SabkaSaath… mantra, must take action. The victims must be significantly compensated and all confidence-building measures must be implemented. In future, all religious processions of all communities should be banned to stop recurrence of such events. Or, all such processions should be fully video-recorded.Peace and tranquillity, brotherly relations and unity and integrity of India is very important. These cannot be compromised at any rate.