This article erupts from my own personal experiences over a period of time. Last few months have been hard on our nation, and I was time and again, made to feel guilty for voicing my opinion on the current scenarios within the country. Issues like CAA, Delhi riots, Tablighi Jamaat doings, Mumbai Bandra terminus incident, lynching of 2 Hindu Sadhus in Palghar, and so on. During that time only, I came across this video message of Madhur (@theplacardguy), whose link I am attaching at the end. That is a good thought, and throws light on the aspect of so called friendships in this era of secularism.
This was the same situation I have been facing with a lot of people around me. Let me just list out a few of them:
1. The general secular guy – believes every religion has good and bad things and it’s only the perception of people misreading those books.
2. The egalitarian thought – the Delhi riots could not have been started by Muslims as they can never outnumber Hindus. Doing Saraswati puja in college because college had BJP leaning. This dilutes the secularism of college.
3. The UPSC aspirant – Why not free electricity / water rather than 20 lakh crore economic package? What will the poor person get out of this package? Demonetization and GST were failures of the government.
4. The Dalit guy- The person who drafted constitution had 32 degrees and now the people with no degrees are changing it.
5. The intellectuals – Lockdown was announced in a hurry without any proper planning. West is using super computers to simulate vaccines and Indians are drinking gaumutra. Why Yogi Adityanath is only now talking of generating jobs? Why did he not do so all these years?
6. The uninformed girl – Rich who don’t vote are being brought home by airplanes and poor who do vote, are left stranded to walk down their way home (sharing side-by-side two pictures – one of the airplane where people are being brought and other of the labourers walking home, with a child on shoulders).
Few of these people had been very close to me and at times, I respectfully stopped further discussion on the topic as it turned awkward. But through here I want to answer all these questions. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar did not put the word “Secular” in Indian constitution, it was put in 1977. And he made the provision of caste-based reservation “temporary”, to expire after 10 years. This reservation, which you think is your birth-right even after earning a salary in 7 digits.
The cow urine jibe – Cow is our mother. Only the milk of cow has the quality that a new-born baby can survive his life through, even if he is deprived of the mother’s milk. Just type in a search engine and you’ll find that cow urine is a proved anti-biotic and has registered patent.
The comparison of rich and poor migrants – Yes, our PM has started Vande Bharat mission to bring back Indians stranded in various countries. But at the same time, thousands of Shramik expresses are being run free of cost by our government. Why don’t you question the corresponding state government who has failed to provide food to these people, and not even able to make arrangements for their train boarding.
Muslims can’t outnumber Hindus? Yes they can! In the situation of riots. Because Hindus are not rioters. But at the same time, we have a few liberal self-declared intellectuals, who side with these rioters in the name of secularism.
Through the above, I was told that I have started seeing communal colours in lot of situations. Yes, I AM being communal. Because this all IS communal. This is not only about the Jamatis spreading Corona, it’s about the people of their community who are openly defending them. People, who pretended to raise their voices for women, keep calm when the wrong happens with Babita Phogat, Rangoli Chandel or Apurva Singh.
I was told that media will do anything for TRP and I should not let my opinions get fogged. And guess what, they’re following Faye D’Souza for credible news. The same Faye D’Souza who defends fake news peddler S Varadarajan in the name of FoE, praises Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray for good job being done in Covid time, but don’t write a single word to praise Yogi Adityanath. She does a Boom fact-check of the Bandra incident without a single evidence or statement of either the police or the locals, but I am supposed to believe her because she’s a so-called unbiased reporter. You just need to come out of your cocoons and see the real world. You just read The Wire / Print / Scroll and assume that is the whole world. But, to your disappointment, it isn’t. I read both – The Scroll and OpIndia, verify them from other official sources, check the evidences available, and then I decide what’s true.
Let me talk about Chand Mohammed, the fruit seller who was selling fruits after spitting into the weighing machine. If I talk about him, I am termed Islamophobe. You live securely in your apartments in gated communities, order groceries and milk online. Will you accept those fruits / vegetables if you had even a slight doubt that it may have been spat into?? No. Then why question people who carefully avoid buying fruits/ vegetables from them?
Let me show you the mirror. You’re happy when Supreme court orders in favour of petitioners for Sabarimala case, but when the same Supreme Court orders in favour of Ram Mandir, it’s biased, and a hospital should’ve been built at that place. And then you have the audacity to advise me to stay neutral. I would ask you to imagine yourself in the same situation. Your house has been forcibly occupied by the thugs. The matter goes in Court. Will you be happy if the court directs that a hospital be made at the location?
You don’t talk secularism when Kamalesh Tiwari is murdered for his freedom of expression, but secularism is all in while reporting COVID-19 cases, and Tablighi Jamaat conveniently becomes single source, and further completely disappears from the news. I hear the azaan 5 times a day, which says that there is no God but Allah, and never complained (once Sonu Nigam did, and guess what, he was immediately termed an Islamophobe).
You very conveniently compare our god Sri Krishna with playboys/flirts, laugh swiftly at gaumutra jokes. But when I support RSS for their hard work and perseverance in the service of the nation, I am termed communal.
And at last, about my faith in the current government. I say – Why not? There is a person on PM’s chair who is selfless and made of steel. The world today is taking pride on India, who, your beloved Chacha, showcased the world as the country of snake charmers, and his descendants are still doing the same. There is a person on the chair of Home minister who is ready to give his life for PoK, and has the courage to say it in Parliament with absolute confidence. The UP CM, a monk who has been very successful in controlling riots as well as corona in the India’s most populous and riot-prone state, and is pro-actively working on the path to generate 20 lakh employment opportunities within the state.
So enough of the guilt trip. I can, and I will, raise my voice against your hypocrisy. I would rather be happy to be such a communal that a bigot like you.
Annexure (The video message from @theplacardguy)- https://twitter.com/ThePlacardGuy/status/1251547476873621504?s=19
