Political
Diary
New
Delhi , 5 July 2022
Season
Of Poison
BEHEAD
HATRED
By
Poonam I Kaushish
The
power of rhetorical public abuse by our leaders’ underscores political
discourse is only rabble rousing, devoid of substance, spreading hatred and
widening the communal divide on religious lines to pander to their
constituents. Alas the suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma’s controversial
remarks against Prophet Mohammad refuses to die down. Whereby, our
polity is swiftly sinking into the marshy cesspool of bloodied religious
intolerance.
First of the mark was Congress’s Rahul
Gandhi who said the beheading of an Udaipur tailor in broad daylight by two
people for supporting Sharma was a “silly act of children” only to retract by
stating he was referring to the vandalism of his Wayanad office. Followed by
Samajwadi’s Akhilesh Yadav asserting, “Not only the face (Sharma’s) but the
body should also apologise and punished for disturbing the harmony of the
country,” earning him a notice from the National Commission of Women for
instigating hatred and ill-will.
It doesn’t end there. A poster for a documentary has also
drawn flak on social media for hurting religious sentiments by depicting
Goddess Kali dressed in a costume smoking a cigarette with many
demanding the film maker be arrested and others saying hurting Hindu
sentiments is not a right given by Supreme Court.
In 2021, the web series ‘Taandav’ too raked up a row for
allegedly creating a possibility of religious tension by portraying Hindu Gods
in a bad light alongside film ‘Ludo’ for promoting ‘Hinduphobic’
content. Akin to famed painter Hussain showing Hindu Goddess in poor
light.
Who does one fault? The onus is on both Hindus and Muslims
who have perfected intemperate language to inject poison in society over the
years. Just as one cannot clap with one hand, hate is a two-way street with the sole intent to grab headlines, earn
brownie points and widen the communal divide.
Since
October 2021 there have been over 89 instances of hate crimes and speeches in
the lead up to the 2022 Assembly elections in UP, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand,
Bihar and Haryana. There were weekly protests in Haryana against namaaz taking
place in public, a rash of crimes against Muslim-owned businesses with Hindutva
groups shutting down meat shops during Navratras in Delhi, UP, Haryana etc. In
Rajasthan’s Karauli Muslims retaliated with stone-pelting at a motorcycle rally
passing through a Muslim-dominated area on Nav Samvatsar leading to arson and a
chemist killed by Muslim youth in Maharashtra’s Amravati.
The
problem has got aggravated as there is a lot of heat generated on social
media and TV which is exaggerated for TRP ratings with some
Hindu-Muslim fanatics always looking for trouble all times. Right-wing elements
associated with both communities organisations are ever ready to fill the gap
left by vernacular media because of their silence on communal violence.
Primarily, as it is difficult to stop the spread of hate messages through
social media on a daily basis.
Following
the backlash on social and digital media over Supreme Court lambasting Sharma
“and her loose tongue for setting the country on fire asking her to apologise
to the whole country”, Justice Pardiwala stated, “the court has only to
keep ‘rule of law’ in mind and verdicts cannot be a reflection of the
influence of public opinion. Demanding regulation of social and digital media,
he added, it is “dangerous on their part to cross the ‘lakshman rekha’ and
undertake personalised, agenda-driven attacks on judges”.
Alas,
instead of crying halt, Parties have reaped electoral benefit out of this
divisive politics using religious communities as loyal blocks during elections.
Along-with framing laws, policy and strategy aimed at assuaging religious
minorities or the majority Hindu community has reared the ugly head of ‘vote
bank politics’ to wean away chunks of voters from the stranglehold of rival
Parties. Big deal if social prejudices
are becoming deeper and social schisms widening further.
Shockingly,
India ranks fourth worst in the world for religious intolerance among 198
countries with religious hostility trailing only Syria, Nigeria and Iraq
according to the Pew Research Centre. More than 4,500 people have been killed
in 10,000 communal violence incidents since Godhra 2002, J&K 2008,
Muzaffarnagar 2013, Meerut 2014 et al, read over two incidents every day
somewhere in India.
How does one control the hate mongers and blunt them? Our
leaders need to understand that by playing Hindus-Muslims against each other
they are only serving their vested interests. No quarter should be given to a
Hindu fundamentalist or Muslim militant as both are destroyers of the State,
which has no religious entity.
Remember communalism thrives on one community’s hate for
the other along-with playing up the psychosis of retaliation. Thus, our moral
angst cannot be selective but should be just, honourable and equal. No matter
what the provocation, the rule of law cannot be made to go for a toss.
Nothing justifies violence or the call to commit violence
in direct contravention of the law. If a Hindu has anger against his Muslim
brethren or vice-versa they should take up the legal battle against them.
Tomorrow, anyone looking to settle a personal score could accuse someone of
being a beef-eating Muslim or a Ram bhakt.
In a mammoth one billion plus country there would be a
billion views whereby one cannot curtail people’s political beliefs and rights.
One is free not accepting another’s view as it is a matter of perception. A
statement objectionable to one might be normal for another. However, no licence
should be given to anyone to spread hatred or ill-feeling towards any community
or against atheists who do not see themselves as Ram-Rahim-Jesus children.
In this dog whistle politics of surcharged communalism we
need to realise India is a big country with enough room for all to live in
peace and goodwill. The aim should be to raise the bar on public discourse, not
lower it any more. Neither Lord Ram nor Allah will forgive the polity and
fundamentalists for playing havoc in its name.
All fail to understand that appeasement or
turning a blind eye does not create legends but only Frankensteins who devour
the very people they claim to represent by pushing them on a path of
fundamentalism. The time to end this senseless hatred across religions that
our lives are getting drenched in has come as is distracting us from seeing or
worrying about real pressing issues: rising poverty, unemployment, health and
bettering lives.
We need to halt the country being pushed
towards brazen communalism, ignoring national interest. We
could do without leaders who distort politics and in turn destroy democracy.
India's destiny is larger than the petty minds of secular-communal
forces. ----- INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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