Right-wing brigades unleashed by political ruling lot to hound Muslims

Last week The BJP spokesperson, Nupur Sharma, used highly objectionable and abusive language for Prophet Muhammad. It was all out, there in the open, on the television screens, yet the prime minister and none of his ministerial colleagues neither condemned the blatantly communal-horrific unleash, nor asked for any action against Nupur Sharma and also against the particular news channel where she was allowed to speak in that highly objectionable manner.

This more than relays not just the anti-Muslim attitude of this government but also shows the pathetic depths we have sunk to. To use abusive language against the Prophet, shows the communal lows we have reached.

The political atmosphere has begun to suffocate and kill sentiments and much more. What more can be stated about the Modi led government’s completion of eight years in power at the Centre, when ironies hit as never before. Till date (date of my filing this column) though Nupur Sharma has not been arrested even though FIRs have been registered against her, but a student leader protesting against her abusive unleash against Prophet Muhammad, has been arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh! Yes, the president of Shibli College students union Abdul Rehman was arrested by police in Azamgarh district for protesting against Nupur Sharma and her communal offensive comments.

And just as I was filing this column comes in news of a controversy getting raked up by the Right-Wing, in Aligarh. Because an academic-teacher, Professor S R Khalid, was seen offering namaaz on the lawns of the Sri Varshney college where he teaches. As of now he has been sent off on a month's compulsory leave, for the supposed ‘crime’ - offering namaaz on the lawns of the college where he teaches!

I have been sitting introspecting, thinking aloud: My mother would carry the janemaaz (the traditional prayer mat) in her handbag wherever she went or travelled… She would spread it out on lawns or on the cemented floors of market places or even in non-Muslim friends’ drawing rooms for namaaz. And it was such a touching sight. After all, namaaz is praying, bowing before the Creator. My mother passed away over three years back, battling cancer; she wouldn’t have coped with today’s treacherous moves of these communally surcharged times where even to pray is becoming a challenge!

It is obvious that the right-wing brigades are getting unleashed by the political ruling lot, to hound and provoke the Muslims.

The biggest tragedy is that none of the obnoxious hate speech givers and those responsible for provocative statements are arrested. They could be the supposed who’s who in the right-wing but shouldn’t they be labelled destroyers. Destroyers of our togetherness…disrupting everyday life and living!

Months back I had written details about all those who’d come up with provocative comments and communal statements. Even at the cost of being labelled repetitive let me bring out those details once again.

The fact is that communal unleashes against the ‘other’ have been going on without any apparent halt. All in the public domain. And all rendered by the who’s who in the right-wing.

At the start of 2020, the likes of Anurag Thakurs, Kapil Mishras, Parvesh Vermas gave speech after speech, mouthing the absolutely unthinkable for the ‘other’. Mind you, none of them even bothering to camouflage or conceal their hatred. All out in the open!

At the start of 2019, Ananth Kumar Hedge came up with this threat — “hands that touch Hindu girls should be chopped off!” Before that, he had publicly said, “Till Islam is in the world there can be no end to terrorism!”

In 2018, right-wing MP, Vinay Katiyar, said loud and clear that the Indian Muslims ought to go to Pakistan!

And in 2017, Sakshi Maharaj unleashed sheer poisonous propaganda that Muslim men marry 4 times and with that produce 40 children!

In 2016, BJP MP from Fatehpur Sikri, Babu Lal, and also BJP MP from Agra, Ram Shankar Katheria, who was then Minister of State in the HRD Ministry (GOI) seemed hell bent on openly abusing and humiliating Muslims, in their public speeches. Going to the extent of labelling Muslims “demons …descendants of Ravana”.

Then Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti went to the extent of heaping gutter abuses along the Haramzada strain, on the Muslim community.

Not to be overlooked Sangeet Som’s communal speeches in Western Uttar Pradesh, threatening to ignite violence. Implicated in the Muzaffanagar riots of 2013, he was also accused of stoking communal tensions in Dadri’s Bisada village after the killing of Mohammed Akhlaq…Mind you, at the start of 2021, he came up with those “Go to Pakistan!” taunts.

Also, Vijay Goel’s controversial comments on the hijab can't be ignored.

And BJP’s MLA from the Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, T Raja Singh, could get away even after mouthing death threats to all those who come in way of the Ram Temple construction. “If there is anybody who has the guts to say he would stop the construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, let him come forward. I challenge that I will behead him…Until now, Uttar Pradesh had witnessed timid governments. Now, you have the powerful government. Baap ki sarkaar.”

And just days after stating that India would become a Hindu nation by 2024, Uttar Pradesh BJP MLA Surendra Singh came up with this communal taunt, “those who desisted from saying ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ are Pakistanis.”

I could go on …the list is long, of today’s Hindutva politicians who seem hell bent on threatening the existence and survival and identity of the Indian Muslim in the country. Though the likes Sangeet Soms, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyotis, Giriraj Singhs, Katiyars, Sakshi Maharajas, Hedges, have been openly and blatantly threatening, abusing, taunting sections of the minority community, yet they move around all too freely! Unchecked and uncontrolled!

Views are personal