The anti-CAB/CAA protests have been nothing but an attempt to browbeat the majority Hindus into submission by brazen acts of vandalism, arson, mobilisation of Muslims bordering on violence against the Hindus as a consequence of passing of CAA or Citizenship Amendment Act by the Parliament. An act of Parliament passed by majority in both the Houses and notified by the President is a Law of the Land.
However, after losing the battle in the Parliament, the opposition parties and the assorted opposition in the country took the way of civil protests as the form of dissent against the said amendment in the Citizenship Act Of 1955. Protesting against a legislation is a political and democratic right in any democracy and the government must listen to the voices who are protesting, to see if there are genuine grievances in the protests. Having said this, there seems to be nothing but a deliberate attempt to disrupt the peace as the main reason for these protests.
The protests started with violence in West Bengal after Muslim mobs went on rampage after Friday prayers. Then it shifted to various parts of India, including in the national capital at a minority educational institution called Jamia Milia Islamia. Jamia, with its contentious constitutional arrangement which reserves 50% of its academic seats for Muslims, was the torchbearer of this protest against CAA.
The protests began with Jamia students on the roads supported by the nearby Muslim localities which turned violent, indulging in stone pelting at policemen, at public transportation, even school buses carrying young kids home were not spared. The crowd at Jamia was plainly Muslims shouting Allah u Akbar, the Islamic war cry, the conditions worsened after the protesters burned some buses which led to the police crackdown on Jamia. Crackdown on students is condemnable but the situation demanded a strict police action to save lives of innocent people who would be the target of the mob.
As if on cue, many places in the communally surcharged UP erupted in mass protests after the Friday Namaz on the streets of Muslim majority areas of Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Sambhal, Lucknow, and a dozen other places. It was no protest against CAA but a well planned and calibrated attack on anything remotely Hindu. Hindus bore the pain of attacks, they were targeted by the mobs at most of the places along with public properties.
Bengal saw massive mobilisation in mostly Muslim majority areas, attacking Hindu localities, trains were burned down by these protesters while the state government kept a distance watch not bothering to stop either the attacks on Hindus or burning of trains. There seemed to be a tacit understanding between the Muslim mobs and the TMC government in Bengal.
A layman or any neutral observer will vouch for the fact that the protests were overwhelmingly communal in tone, tenor and appearance. It became too obvious that the protesters were against granting citizenship to the persecuted Hindus and other minorities from the three professedly Islamic nations of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, CAA being a mere prop. The nature of these protests forced the planners to divert attention by raising the national flag at all protests after the initial attacks of vandalism and arson to blunt BJP charge of protests being anti national and anti Hindu.
Soon enough, JNU which had been on a protest since October 2019 jumped in to support the Jamia students, followed by the usual suspects Hyderabad, Jadhavpur Universities, including stray protests in IIT, Madras, Kanpur, some students’ marches in IIMs, IISc, TISS and similar institutions.
What was common was the posters and banners which abused Hindus, their beliefs, traditions, culture and above all, Hinduism itself in garb of Hindutva. Some protesters bearing posters saying “the Cow ate all my documents and so I ate the Cow“. Another banner held by some girls read “Hindurashtra is Rapist“.
If the actions of Muslim mobs was overtly intimidating and violent, their Liberal counterparts came up with most innovative abuses and deliberate attempt at demeaning the majority Hindus and their religion by these tactics. The hate being peddled by the protesters is hatred for Hindu and Hindu alone knowing fully well that CAA does not take away anybody’s citizenship in any manner.
Why am I as a Hindu being subjected to this hate ?
It is the Parliament, which in its profound wisdom, has passed the law with majority in both the Houses of Parliament. An act of Parliament is the law but can be challenged by the aggrieved parties and Court can decide on the legality and constitutional validity of law. If that be the legal position why should the Hindu be target of this hate from the Muslims, the Left, Liberals?
Perhaps his only fault is that he is consistently voting for Narendra Modi and BJP. Maybe, it seems that the mandate given majorly by Hindus in 2019 General Elections has been the catalyst for this hate and fear mongering by the anti Hindu forces. The demonisation of Hindu is the aim ultimatum of the protests, there is no coherence on the issue of protests, the protesters have not been able to articulate their protests in any comprehensible manner which is logical.
If the protesters are against a decision of the government, why is my Faith being abused and demeaned by the protesters ?
What have I as an individual done to evoke such hatred for my Faith ?
Why are my Gods being attacked ?
Why are my sacred symbols being abused ?
Why am I being threatened for an act which has been passed by the Parliament ?
Am I always supposed to be the Victim of the Minorityism ?
Will I as a Hindu be allowed to follow my religion without being abused, without being lured or threatened to convert?
Is the Crown of Thorns called Secularism my responsibility alone ?
Especially, when “ La ilah Ill lil lah” is the War cry of the Protests and the Protesters.
