by B. R. GOWANI
http://youtu.be/Q0VPGO4zomE
While Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is busy imageshopping, and in controlling his venomous tongue, through foreign trips and Clean India mission, his party people and ministers are working overtime to vent out their, and Modi’s, hatred towards the secularists and religious minorities, and to remind them that now they are the subjects of Modi’s Hindu Raj.
Recently, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, while addressing a rally in Delhi, said:
“Aapko tay karna hai ki Dilli mein sarkar Ramzadon ki banegi ya haramzadon ki. Yeh aapka faisla hai.
“(You must decide whether you want a government of those born of [Lord] Ram or of those born illegitimately).”
Later she clarified:
“[My statement was meant] for those who don’t believe in Ram and in unified India.”
“In this country, whether it is Christians or Muslims, all are sons of Ram. Those who don’t accept it don’t believe in the country [and so should leave India].”
Back in April, during the election campaign, BJP leader of Bihar State Giriraj Singh had said a somewhat similar thing:
“Those opposing Narendra Modi are looking at Pakistan, and such people will have place in Pakistan and not in India.”
“Those who have united in Bihar and the country to stop Narendra Modi from becoming Prime Minister are pro-Pakistan. They have no right to live in India.”
Let’s assume for a minute that all the haramzades, secularists, non-believers, Muslims, and Christians migrate to some other land. Does it mean that Ramzades will be able to turn India into a peaceful and prosperous utopia, or to use their lingo, Ramrajya?
No. The Gujaratis, probably the next masters of India (and one of the masters in the multi-powers world), will come forward with their favorite god Krishna. In Gujarat, the common daily greeting among many Hindus is “Jai Shri Khrishna” (or “JSK” on internet), that is, Victory to Krishna. Then there are followers of Durga, Ganesh, and thousands of Gods and goddesses who will all try to see their deity as the supreme one. Then there are tens of ethnic groups and so many castes and sub-castes. Not to forget the low castes. The Indian Subcontinent is not a homogenous society, neither in religious sense, nor in ethnic sense – it is made up of many nations.
It would be timely and appropriate to quote, one of the Indian independence leaders, and later the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s description of undivided India in 1916.
Again, if we turn to the internal situation in India, we meet with a set of social, ethnological, and cultural conditions unparalleled in recorded history. We have a vast continent inhabited by 315 million people sprung from various racial stocks, inheriting various cultures, and professing a variety of religious creeds. This stupendous human group, thrown together under one physical and political environment, is still in various stages of intellectual and moral growth. All this means a great diversity of outlook, purpose, and endeavour.
One hundred years later, many more goddesses and gods, and ideologies have sprouted, and the population has increased almost fivefold in the fertile land of India and Pakistan. Pakistan has almost lost its way. The new Indian leadership is hell bent on following the same route?
It would be better if the communalists in the Modi administration, including Modi himself, learn to tolerate differences and live in a pluralistic country rather than day dreaming dangerous divisions.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com