The article by Sri Ashutosh Varshney conveniently avoided some of the most burning issues in the Indian polity, and the prevailing hypocrisy in the intellectual elite in India. Not well versed with the social fabric of the present day India and serving an alien university sitting pretty in thousands of miles away from the mother land, and judging the situation in India by the reportage of NewYork Times etc, is undoubtedly an act of insincerity.
After the Godhra incident and the aftermath killings in Gujarath, the U.S citizens had to assess the situation only through their New York Times and CNN. Going by these media reports it is but natural that they may be under the impression that the 85 crores Hindus are involved in the killings of 15crores Muslims in India. But in reality what was going on in Gujarath the following couple of days, it was only Gujarathi Hindus and Gujarathi Muslims were in riot. The rest of the country which accounts for nearly 90% by area and population was 99% peaceful. If the entire Hindus were to be communal, then one wonders what would have happened to them in rest of India. Our intellectuals and the media grossly ignored what exactly this suggests, and reflects, and the ignorance was deliberate and mindful. Reality bites and , particularly bites too hard if the truth is exposed in communal politics in India.
Hindus were never communal in the past, nor they are communal now, and will never be communal in future what ever may the dire provocation. On the other hand Muslims were utterly communal till Bahadurshah II and even after and till today. If they were communal to the extent of 25% then our secular parties like communists and the Congress made them to be 100% communal for their political gains. However it is always the Hindus who are being branded as communal and Muslims were sympathized for the sole reason Hindus are in majority and Muslims are in minority.
After the Godhra incident, down south in Hyderabad’s leading English Daily the ‘DECCAN CHRONICLE’ did not write an editorial condemning the killings of innocent Hindus at Godhra. The same daily did not write editorial the next day after the coimbatore bomb blast. The reason is uncomplicated, such incidents are not worth for an editorial, because the killed were Hindus and the culprits were Muslims in both the cases. You can not blame M.J Akbar alone for this hypocrisy, nor even the political system as you would generally expect to be blamed conveniently by any writer, but it is in the social system where in a pseudo majority in the name of Hindus is in existence in India. The pride of India lies in the regional cultures rather than the national Hindutva etc. such facts can not be gauged by the academics living in USA or elsewhere. In reality there is no majority in India, and the so called Hindus once they are branded as Majority the resultant insecure situation can be predictable. The definition of majority cannot be in statistical count but be on emotional cultural univocal identity. That is what exactly is prevalent in India to day. The Pseudo intellectuals as well the political parties subject the non-existent Hindus to much humiliation, thereby they gain the Muslims votes as a cakewalk. The so-called Hindus neither emotionally could be neither integrated nor politically made use of. This secret is probably realized by the congress and hence their so called anti Hindu rhetoric is unstoppable and enjoyable too. This will fetch the congress the much needed Muslim votes which is running in millions as on date, and evenly fetch the majority votes too with out any hindrance.
One more secret of Indian political parties pampering Muslims is their tactical voting pattern and high rate of franchisee. An average 85% Muslims exercise their franchise in any election in India where as the urban Hindus slog before the TV sets particularly so during the election day as if they got only one day holiday in a year after a hard work.
This is added to the fact that in India the English press could be dubbed as a synonym to Hypocrisy. What the innocent Hindu interprets the definition of Secularism is equality before law. Unfortunately this was a terrible mistake the Hindus committed or rather misinterpreted the definition of secularism/. To day in India the majority is sin, criminal, outlaw, junglee, medieval, all sorts of satan. On the other hand the minority is save, temperate, innocent, cultured, savvy etc for the sole reason they are in minority. The recent coverage of the Godhra and post events by the Indian as well the international press are any indication the same implies in such a way as if 85 crores barbaric Hindus suddenly found their way in to this sub continent, and started massacring the innocent save cultured native Muslims and Christians who hitherto lived happily in this land.
The star TV news coverage on that fateful day never mentioned that the victims were Hindus and attackers were Muslims. Only by afternoon I could realize this fact by rediff.com home page.
Let us analyze the electoral hypocrisy, the myth of Majority vote bank and secularism in India.
Just one month after the Godhra massacre [the English press never dubbed this as massacre’ even by mistake], the Delhi Municipal elections were held. The BJP was received a thrashing and the Congress got a thumping majority. Remember this is with in just one month after the Godhra massacre. Why I am repeating is, the congress never condemned the Godhra massacre, added to this they blamed VHP and Hindus, covertly pampered the Muslims. There was another shock in store then. All the culprits were members of the local Congress party. This in fact by any commonsense should have angered Hindus particularly so the neighbor Hindus in Delhi. But in reality the Hindus in Delhi voted for Congress keeping only the sanitary condition of Delhi in mind.
In spite of the best Administration provided by the BJP Government in U.P the B.J.P did not get the expected seats in the recent UP elections, in which state the bone of contention the Ayodhya is situated.
The Congress got elected twice in row in M.P in spite of the rampant corruption in M.P Congress.
Going back to the gory massacre of innocent Siks in Delhi in 1984, where a number of Congress leaders were directly involved in the massacre, the same congress got a majority in Delhi state elections last year, and above all the tragedy was, the orphaned kids who lost their mothers and fathers now voted the same congress in to power in Delhi.
Same situation in Punjab. The Congress party bagged the state by a thumping majority in Punjab last month. If the Hindus and Sikhs were to be communal why then they are voting the same communal party the congress who were involved in killings of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and the operation Blue star etc?
At the most the B.J.P was treated as an alternative to congress. The press blamed Hindus when they vote B.J.P as communal and when they turned back to them they become secular. On the other hand Muslims vote in India always remained as communal. They always vote to any non BJP party judging how best the party pampered them in religious matters. The rest of the national socio economic issues are all seems to be the Hindus headache.
Un less and until the Hindu pride is restored and Hindus forms a strong vote bank the hypocrisy continues endangering Hindus in our home land.
KRISHNA BAALU.
krishnabaalu@rediffmail.com
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