As we all know, in India the logic for identifying something to be communal is very simple. If it is in anyway remotely connected to Hinduism is to be called 'communal' as we are a secular country. Our new Minister of State for Railways, Mian E. Ahmed saheb, has said/ordered that lighting of lamp, breaking coconut etc should not be done during Railways fuctions like starting new trains etc. According to his logic, these rituals are Hindu in nature and should not be performed in government functions of a secular country. What a noble thought! Folding of palms and saying Namaste is also a Hindu tradition. Ahmed saheb might soon ask all government officials, ministers, members of representative houses, judiciary, defense personnel not to greet each other with Namaste!!! Unfortunately well known dictionaries and thesaurus define Namaste as "Indian way of greeting". Ahmed mian will have to ask for corrections in all these references. Like this many Hindu customs have been accepted as Indian customs and tradition by the world at large. But our country has secular intelligentia for who de-Hinduising India is the mission of life.
As an addendum to such an order, they might also be asked to instead use Assalamu Alikum as it is a secular greeting. This derivation is based on past learnings like painting Hindu deities in nude by M F Hussein is secular artistic freedom whereas Mohammad's cartoon represents communal hateful agenda, those in support of keeping Shri Raam Setu intact are communal whereas those in support of babri masjid are secular etc.
Ahmed has a colleague in the Union cabinet named Mian Salman Khursheed saheb. His ministry has drafted a new bill to introduce a law to protect minorities population during/from communal riots. Well, communal riots happen between two communities. Both the groups suffer losses. Identifying the logic behind having a law to protect the minority community and leaving the majority community (read Hindus) to themselves is beyond my level of intelligence. Constitution is for the protection and progress of every citizen of this Nation but innovative ministers in the new cabinet are coming up with laws to protect one group in a fight between two groups.
Let us continue to wait and watch as we have been doing. 500 crores per annum and growing grant for Haj pilgrimage, hundreds of crores of rupees allocated to Wakf boards, Madarasa certificates to be equivalent to CBSE certificates, banning of lighting of lamp in government functions, muslim police officers for muslim majority areas, religion based recruitment in army etc etc.....
The C-word seems to be only word that is really mattering to our politicians! I wrote a long piece in my blog on this topic. The whole "being secular" thing has been given the best possible distorted meaning, and the media is quite happily lapping up this agenda!
ReplyDeletehttp://serious--fun.blogspot.com/2009/04/c-word.html