(reposted on : 28 May 2023, on occasion of the opening ceremony of Central Vista, new Sansad Bhavan)
(NOTE: This article was published in Mid-Day, Gujarati two days after the 27th February 2002 hindu massaccre at Godhara in the Sabarmati Express. This was a front page edit wtitten by me. The english translation was searched by a friend from the net. I do not have the name of the translator. -Saurabh Shah)
In the train passing through Godhra, instead of burning the Ramsewaks returning from Ayodhya, suppose there were Hajees, and the Hindus had thrown kerosene dipped burning rags etc inside the compartments closed from outside? Suppose the BJP govt. in Gujarat had refused to carry out the mass funeral of those 62 dead bodies which were totally charred and had refused to burry all those 62 dead bodies? Then those ignorant, stupid or pseudo-secularist boys and girls working for the English newspapers would have raised a hue and cry, but after the Godhra carnage their laptops remained silent.
Few of the English newspapers are deliberately ignoring this and some have chosen to criticise this episode only in a few typical words like ghastly and dastardly act and stating, “The construction of Ram Mandir with effect from 15th March: Cause of incitement of Muslims”. Merely saying this can they undertake such merciless acts against the Hindus. As if this would not suffice, to put salt on their wounds, they write that while investigating those responsible for the Godhra episode, the Govt. should take precautions that the minority community is not unnecessarily harassed. They have used the phrase witch hunting. Whenever the police goes searching and apprehending the Muslims communalists, there pseudo-secularists of the English newspapers, deter them “Be cautious” when you touch our minority community brethren.
In the release of these Muslim criminals responsible for the 1993 bomb explosion in Mumbai, the newspapers most vehemently opposed the ordinance like TADA which was in fact inevitable in national interest. The same pseudo secular newspapers once again instead of exposing those Muslim leaders who are responsible for the Godhra carnage, they are out to criticise and irk the Hindus, “How dare you talk about construction of Ram Mandir.” Ram Mandir at Ayodhya is a non issue. The pseudo-secular newspapers as well as the TV people, who have become the puppets in the hands of politicians, especially the Muslim politicians and Mulla Mulayamsingh like other shameless politicians, have made out a very serious issue out of it. The more they oppose Ram Mandir the more are the Hindus enthused. Let there be or let there be not construction of Ram Mandir. What difference does it make to pseudo-secularists or Muslims? In this case by construction of Ram Mandir Hindus would not be in exultation and without construction of Ram Mandir Hindu religion is not going to be in danger.
As stated earlier Ram Mandir is a non-issue. Then what is the problem? Not one, there are many problems. The biggest problem for any Government is its policy of the appeasement of minority. If one speaks about the hypothetical example of starting a train for Haj Pilgrims, we know the Govt. of India is already giving financial help together with various extensive concessions to Muslims very liberally. I am not entitled to any of these for pilgrimage to Shrinathji. You do not get any while travelling to Samet Shikhar. We have to spend from our own pockets. We wish that even they pay from their pockets. If the Govt. of India is a government of the Hindu Nation then it should offer financial assistance or subsidy not only for Shrinathji pilgrimage but for pilgrimages to all Hindu pilgrim places. You say India is not a Hindu nation but a secular nation constitutionally, then the partisan bend towards any one religion by offering assistance/subsidy for Haj must cease.
If , however the subsidy for Haj is to continue, then Vajpayeeji, instead of keeping that orange strip in the tri colour flag, it should be converted into total green colour, which will expose the reality of Bharat in the world. Then whether you live in Bharat or Pakistan or Saudi Arab, for you it will be just the same. The dispute is not of Ram Mandir. The dispute is about the effect of that instigation to their community which the Muslim leaders resort to. After all how long should the Hindus tolerate it? The answer to the burning of 62. Hindus can certainly not be in burning 620 Muslims because after that 6200 Hindus followed by 62,000 Muslims. Murder for Murder can this logic ever see its end? If you desire to see the end of this, then the deplorable partisan attitude of saying that the Muslim blood is blood and the Hindu blood is water must end. Such attitude by your Govt. sitting in Delhi, by your politicians and by the English newspapers you read in toilet must be abandoned. The pseudo-secular mentality of such boys and girls reporters of the English newspapers, who have entered the field without proper base, has proven very harmful for all. They have tried to elevate those advocates, pleading cases of the Muslim criminals in the jam packed courts, to the level of the Christ the protector. To unnecessarily to irritate the Hindus and to shower sympathy on the Muslims is the hypocritical secularism of these people.
One thing must be understood very clearly. Which is the birth place of the Hindu religion? Is it Hindustan or some other land? That land on which the Hindu dharma, Hindu Darshan or Hindu way of life and culture have developed and have prospered, on this very land followers of other religions lived peacefully and happily, which is the measure of tolerance of Hindus. But when the secularists try to crush these and the Hindus oppose it, this is termed as communal then perhaps that tolerance of the Hindus is taken for granted. The Hindu tolerance is being put to test. When you accompany me to a Lassi shop and you do not take Lassi it just does not matter, but if you try to open a liquor bottle there and take it to your mouth, that is not correct. You must know that it is a Lassi shop. The liquor den is on the other side.
The principles of the Islam do not go well with the Hindu thought. The Hindus believe in many Gods. You can worship whatever you believe in. Islam believes in a single God. Not only that, howsoever we may keep repeating that Ishwar and Allah are names of the same God, yet the Islam does not recognize the Gods of other religions. Those followers of religions other than Islam are insulted by calling them with a wretched, insulting and dirty title as Kafirs. Kafir, as per Islam, is the one who does not admit the rule of Allah, Kafir is a nonbeliever, Kafir is a secular, Kafir means he who hides the facts or the truth (lier), Kafir is the one who disbelieves the dictates of the God, Kafir that is traitor. Kafir that is ungrateful, Kafir who obstructs or harms religious works and therefore the one against whom one has to fight. All these meanings of the word Kafir have been taken from various acknowledged Urdu dictionaries. That religion whose moulavis instigate their people against the Kafirs, surviving in Bharat, who try to destabilise the country by striking at its very roots, if their followers constitute the vote banks of our country and therefore they are being wooed which direction will our national policy go, is anybody’s guess.
A living example of this has been available through a latest episode. Godhra is just one small instance but what is the aim of this policy? Just try to imagine. Unless uniform code is adopted for all and without deleting article 370 which offers special status to Kashmir, the future of Bharat is in danger. It is entirely because of the obstinacy of Muslim leaders and the pseudo-secularists for not allowing the Ram Mandir to be constructed, that the Godhra carnage took place. They should better give up this obstinacy. They ought to remember that this is the birth place of the country’s religion. They should better remember this. They should desist from meddling into religious sentiments of others, protect their own religion and stop calling those who do not worship Allah with insulting cheap abuses like Kafir. Then and then only everybody in India can live in peace and harmony.
And the last thing! Those who do not have any background of the culture of this nation, or the Hindu way of life, those who do not have adequate experience, those immature boys and girls who dabble in reporting for the English newspapers can not be taken very seriously. Those who without having deeper knowledge of music, start finding fault with Pt. Jasraj and where he went wrong in singing his notes and thereby try to prove their importance through rubbish discussions, then one has to understand that their capacity is nothing beyond those standing at a pan shop and discussing Vividh Bharati songs. They can not be taken seriously. Ladies and gentlemen, everybody is well aware of the dangers of religious pursuit. What they call fanaticism will ruin this nation. There is not an iota of doubt in this. If I have to choose on one hand religious frenzy and on other hand testing of tolerance, Sarva Dharma Samabhava and peace then naturally I shall choose the option to live peacefully with the followers of all religion by rejecting the first option. But if suppose you are required to choose between the Hindu religious passions and the Muslim religious passions then? The so called secular news papers publish cartoons showing, half necked, long haired, ash smeared sadhu sitting on the benches in the Sansad, I would like to say that rather than seeing the Imams, Maulanas and Maulavis, I would any time prefer to see the sadhus there. Why? Well, supposing you know repairing of TV and you are confronted with a TV and a fridge what would you select? You will certainly choose the one which you can repair. What, where and how much is wrong in Hindu religion, as a Hindu I know it fully well. I also believe that any efforts to bring about improvement in those will bear fruits. Only because I have an acceptability amongst the Hindus. They would certainly not drive me away by calling me a Kafir.
A warning to those with pseudo-secularists mentality, before printing this editorial anywhere else, take utmost care to bring out each single context, preceding and following sentences, and the essence of each paragraph clearly brought out. Please be aware of the risk in misrepresentation of the facts.
( end of article)
