Obfuscating civil servants are stroking the fake Islamophobia; their design of dividing India will not work

 

If not shaken, indeed I was baffled, when I received the news of 101 retired civil servants’ uncivil act of sending a misleading letter to the chief ministers and governors of all the states, expressing their “anguish over reports of harassment of Muslims in some parts of the country, particularly after the meeting headed by Maulana Saad Kandhlavi of Tablighi Jamat at the Markaz till March 28.”. The author, certainly never expected this kind of irresponsible behaviour while the PM is fighting tooth and nail, waging his battle against Covid-19. It would have astounded rather sagged the never say die spirits of Modi, who has left no stone unturned while saving the lives of the 130 crore countrymen. Fact is that these civil servants have erroneously singled out and then generalised some unfortunate incidents, where this could have happened. Police have taken action against these, wherever reported.

 

Not only these officers but people like Arundhati Roy (activist), Saba Naqvi Bhowmik (journalist) and others, the so-called champions of activism, like the “Tukde-Tukde gang”, “Award Wapsi gang”, Lutyen’s gang”, “Khan Market gang” and “Candle Light gang, too, at the behest of India oppressors, have joined hands to belittle the image of the country in the world by misstating. What they fail to comprehend is that the government needs a kiss of life from all its countrymen to assist it against the virus but all in vain. No matter, the Covid-19 virus will be sanitised but who will sanitise the minds of India-haters and baiters?

 

These retired Congress showboys asked about the heinous and devilish lynching from Akhlaq to Tabrez. Why didn’t they write a letter when doctors and health workers were stoned in Indore? Did they write a letter when two Sadhus were brutally butchered in Palghar? Did they write a message about the disappearance of the Corona super spreader, Maulana Saad of the Tablighi Jamat

 

It is a matter of shame that at a time when the best of their experience’s inputs were required, they turned offensive, including the former NSA Shivshankar Menon, former Secretary Keshav Desiraju, former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, former Chief Economic Adviser Nitin Desai, former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Nareshwar Dayal, former Foreign Secretary and National Security Advisory Board Chairman Shyam Saran and former OSD on Kashmir in Prime Minister’s Office AS Dulat, Amitabh Pandey and Ashok Vajpayee, the Hindi litterateur besides other. In fact, these people need to be reprimanded and in fact, arrested for trying to create parallel governance to dethrone Modi.

 

I have a couple of queries to make from these retired Congress show boys. Fine, they asked about the heinous and devilish lynching from Akhlaq to Tabrez. Why didn’t they write a letter when doctors and health workers were stoned in Indore and then in Moradabad where even women and children also threw bricks on the doctors and smashed their ambulance? Did they write a letter when two Vedic saints were brutally butchered in Palghar, Maharashtra? Did they write a message about the disappearance of the Corona super spreader, Maulana Saad of the Tablighi Jamat? Did these civil servants have the civility and heart of writing a letter of appreciation to the Chief Ministers and Governors for lauding the tremendous efforts of our doctors, nurses, health workers, safai kramacharis (scavengers), who are all serving to save lives at the cost of their own and their near and dear ones’ lives? This is a lobby of people with lop-side anti-governance officers who are good for nothing except cursing the Prime Minister and the government.

 

Unfortunately, not very long ago, India has already earned the wrath of the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC), an expert body with advisory capacity managed by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). It got registered its displeasure with India. Princess Hend Al Qassimi, a member of a royal family in the UAE, gave an interview to several Indian media houses and platforms in which she disparaged the Indo-Arab relationship, and it was an Indian channel (NDTV) only that gave her leeway.

 

To add to the travails of India was also the bogey of Islamophobia by those non-Muslim brethren, who, on account of the criminal negligence on the part of the Tablighi Jamat members, many of whom were Covid-19 positive. Some zealous ones misused the social media for misrepresenting the Muslims that they were Corona spreaders. The entire Muslim community cannot be reprimanded for spreading the deadly disease. This boomeranged, and the excellent work done by Prime Minister, Modi was destroyed by these people. Right that the Jamatis were perpetrators, but for that, the entire Muslim community should not have been targeted.

 

The truth is that almost all the Indian Muslims are the lovers of the land as Maulana Azad called it Dar-ul-Aman (land of peace). Still, the problem is created by the so-called Muslim leaders, intellectuals and clerics who appear on the TV channels and spew venom against the government, BJP, RSS and discard Prime Minister, Modi. One is shocked to see a politician like a barrister cum MP, Asaduddin Owaisi, who, in one of the debates at Aajtak (with the author who took him to the task) in 2015, bragged, “Hindustan hamarey baap ka hei!” (India belongs to our father!). While they blow hot and cold, these braggarts forget that the result of their horrendous outpourings will not only vitiate the entire harmonious ambience but will close the doors of the Hindu community. Come what may, it is time that the Muslim card or the Hindu card is shed, and its place is taken by the India card.

 

This incidentally reminds me of a brilliant Muslim son of the soil, Comrade Aftab Ahmad Siddiqui, once known as the messiah of the railway workers and president Northern Railway Men’s Union who often told Muslims, “Tum Hindustan mein baap kitarah nahin reh saktey; haan betey aur bhai ki tarah zarur reh saktey ho!” (You can’t live in India, calling yourselves as its owner but you have to live here as sons and brothers). Siddiqui’s observation is bang on target as some Muslims still live in the ghetto mind-set that they are the present-day Mughals. He meant that one is those days and today, Modi, BJP, RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad are a reality.

 

An India viewer is shocked to see the television channels today hovering around the lumpen clerics of the Muslim community, who are certainly not the voice of sanity but insanity! It is owing to such obscurantist platforms pretending to represent Muslims that the Islam baiters have a field day. They dictate terms and espouse views on issues that extend from the public domain of Indian Muslims to the privacy of their bedroom. They are wise and venerable men but their physical appearance on television and in newspapers confirm the unjust prejudices against the majority community. Stoke, a controversy involving Indian Muslims and the usual suspects, start emerging from the dark and infested woodwork of the city or its so-called keeper of the faith — AIMPLB (Muslim Personal Law Board).

 

Let the author also clear that the way these obfuscating civil servants have vitiated the otherwise a very cordial Hindu-Muslim ambience, is not going to work to their design of dividing India once again though such people have left no effort to turn India into a “tukde-tukde” map as all the people belonging to different faiths in India have gelled very well like sugar and milk.

 

 

 All these ex-civil servants must go through the communally harmonious and firmly cemented bond of interfaith concord of the Hindus and Muslims of India. The paradigm of India has been that an equal number of Hindus visits the Chishti dargahs (shrines), Mira Bai festival is celebrated by Muslims in Rajasthan and other parts of India. Durga Puja idols and Kali Puja pandals (canopies) are made by Muslim artisans while Eid celebrated in West Bengal by Bengalis and Muslims celebrate Durga Puja. At the same time, Meena Kumari, Waheeda Rehman, Nergis, Mumtaz etc. played the role of Hindu wife with sindoor (symbol of the wedding), and Urdu ghazals (poetry)of Ghalib, Mir, Momin, Zauq, Iqbal, Faiz and Faraz are relished by all Indians. Who hasn’t enjoyed Mohammed Rafi’s bhajans (Vedic chanting) and Begum Akhtar’s thumri (musical composition) at temples are a treat tow listen.

 

If Shivaji’s military commander was Allahabad Khan, a Muslim, Aurangzeb’s commander was a Hindu Maratha — Appa Gangadhar (in whose memory had been built Appa Gangadhar Mandir or Gauri Shankar Mandir at Delhi’s Chandni Chowk). On the occasion of Ram Navmi procession from Poddareswar Mandir while on the way for years is greeted by a group of maulvis. Finally, take the film Haqeeqat (Reality), starring Dharmendra and Priya Rajvansh. The music was by Madan Mohan, the singer, Mohammed Rafi. KaifiAzmi’s words: “Kar chale hum fida jaan-o-tan saathiyon/ Ab tumhare hawale vatan saathiyon/ Kat gaye sar hamare toh kuch gham nahi/ Sar Himalay ka humne na jhukne diya”. 

Off the record, some of these have also been vitiating the atmosphere as has been done by Arundhati Roy that the nexus between the mainstream media and the government has strengthened under this regime, a Hindu-Muslim divide that may be a harbinger of the genocide of Muslims in future. Shame on her!

 

Let the author take leave by quoting a beautiful couplet from the celebrated Urdu poet, Afzal Manglori, “Koi mushkil nahin hei Hindu ya Musalman hona/ Haan badi baat hei is daur mein insaan hona!” (There is no problem for being a Hindu or Muslim/ What matter is to follow the humanity paradigm).