While BJP’s Nupur Sharma’s communal comments shocked India on TV, another interview of a Kashmir Pandit is taking the Internet by storm.
Nupur Sharma from BJP stands from a position of influence to make hateful communal statements
The comments that Nupur Sharma made from an elevated platform of the leading party’s pedestal were very dangerous, to say the least. Hateful communal statements from political pulpits have been uttered over years that have stirred riots. The whole situation turns a different color when someone of party influence easily emits anti-Muslim, anti-Hindu, anti-Christian, and other anti rhetoric so easily. With greater power and liberty and freedom comes even greater responsibility which political leaders are misusing and really do not deserve to be in power when they do so.
I will not repeat Nupur Sharma’s degrading factually incorrect comments about the Prophet Muhammad to avoid setting more fuel to blazing flames but will start by expressing a core problem is national television debates need to have standardized classifications with boundaries on what they cannot spew on TV in front of a nation of one billion people because igniting words have the power to unroot and destabilize a country. When talking about freedom of speech, even the Constitution of India does not allow incitement and hate towards another religion because of its potential to play havoc with the emotions of people.
While Nupur Sharma has alleged death and rape threats against her and her family after her inflammatory words on national television, this too is condemnable because no one should ever threaten death, rape, or violence to anyone.
The bottomline is, in a nation such as India, one cannot afford to be communal, castist, or racist because we are a multi-source civilization, not a single-source one, drawing our cultural impulses, traditions, and practices from a variety of heredities and migration histories from over one billion people.
India has a rich ethnicity with many religious conglomerates which existed for centuries, living peacefully (mostly) over thousands of years. What is the purpose of political leaders to break it up in the 21st century? We just cannot afford communalism. We are all Indians. This is why China went ahead of India because they focus on hard work, development, growth, and money, whereas India’s focus is on communal and caste wars and linguistic battles.
Right now, Elon Musk chose Indonesia over India to bring in Telsa, and can we ask why? Perhaps our economy is very shaky on the bedrock of communalism. Major companies and industries such as Ford and others pulled out of India in recent years.
There appears to be a political movement to divide Indians
Narsinghanand Swamy, the head priest of the Dasna Devi Temple, famous for his hate speeches is now repentant and asks for forgiveness for his old life and wants to live a new Dharmic life and keep away from politics. Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati says, “Now I will never say anything against Islam and Muslims, till now whatever I have spewed venom against Islam was my fault, I am sorry for this, next life will be spent only for the service of Mahadev”.
The words of Narsinghanand Swamy reveal that politicians are picking up sanyasis and using them to politically divide India between Hindus, Muslims, and Christians specifically. Thus, very often, they make venomous statements against Muslims and Christians, specifically. Let me share some poisonous statements made by BJP leaders in the last few years:
Pastor Bryan Nerren of Shelbyville Tennesee was arrested in 2019 and kept in a room under house arrest in Siliguri and was only released after seven months. He had been carrying funds to help the orphans in India but was arrested.
He said “During my time of house arrest, a senior member of the BJP in that area of Siliguri who was the president of the Rotary Club at the time (2019-2020) and said, “I hope they put you in prison forever, somebody needs to teach you a lesson that we don’t want you here and we don’t care about poor children.” He said, in his own words and this was also repeated by a few other customs people, but this man, in particular, said, “India will be a Hindu only country. Every Muslim and every Christian will convert to Hinduism, leave the country, or be eliminated.“
BJP leader Rajeshwar Singh said in a speech, “Muslims and Christians will be wiped out of India by December 31, 2021.” He further said that ‘we’ have decided that Islam and Christianity will be finished in India by 2021. He asserted, “this is the pledge taken by my colleagues. This is our pledge.”
Anurag Thakur, of BJP, current Minister of Sports at a rally in Rithala “Desh ke gaddaron ko (traitors of the country)”, and the audience responded with “goli maaro saalon ko (shoot them all)”. The Delhi riots occurred after this because the crowds were already fueled up by politicians.
Parvesh Verma, BJP MP provoked Hindus to rape the anti-CAA protesters, kill them the way militants had treated Kashmiri Pandits. He also said that all mosques that have come up on government land in his constituency would be “demolished” after the BJP comes to power in Delhi.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of BJP speaking about Shaheen Bagh protests said, “Boli ki bhasha nahi manenga toh goli ke bhasha samjayega (those who don’t understand words, will surely understand the language of the bullet)”. He is known for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and lynching and brutality toward Muslims have increased in the last few years. He also called the Muslim League a green virus.
Amit Shah, Minister of Home Affairs trying to set the BJP campaign in the Delhi elections, told the voters to give a befitting reply to all those who raised slogans like “Jinnah wali azadi” at Shaheen Bagh. He also mentioned the ‘tukde-tukde’ gang, saying his government acted swiftly by putting JNU student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid behind bars for raising anti-national slogans (in a 2016 sedition case).
Umar Khalid is still behind bars purportedly for WhatsApp forwards and a manipulated distorted video because his actual words were “We won’t respond to violence with violence. We won’t respond to hate with hate. If they spread hate, we will respond to it with love. If they thrash us with lathis, we keep holding the tricolor.” It is funny how they call a young man like him anti-national!
Delightful words from a Kashmiri Pandit, Roshan Lal Mawa
In all this gloom, let me share a little ray of light shining from a Kashmir Pandit named Roshan Lal Mawa who returns to Kashmir, and please do watch his video below.
Ever since the movie the Kashmir Files which incidentally some nations such as Singapore banned because of its potential to create communal hate, India has been wobbly on tectonic plates with mobs screaming anti-Muslim chants all over the country. Shakeel Hasan Shamsi, editor-in-chief of Daily Inquilab, wrote a stunning article about How Agnihotri achieved what terrorists could never accomplish. Basically, politicians and a movie used by them poured out more poison to break their friendship. Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmir Muslims have lived in wonderful unity over centuries.
The Kashmiri Pandits who live in Kashmir refute the claims made in The Kashmir Files upset with the disharmony it is creating.
Richa, the interviewer on her show, Zindagi with Richa starts by asking the Kashmiri Pandit Muslims also harmed you and helped you?
The Kashmiri Pandit replied that Muslims are nice people, they are humans. Muslims in Kashmir are in a dilemma. They are caught between the guns because on one side are the Army guns and on the other side are the Mujahideen guns and if the Kashmiri Muslims help the Kashmiri Hindus, they would also get killed by the Mujahideens.
The Kashmir Pandit went on to say that years back, there was a thin Kashmiri Muslim boy of around 13 to 14 years old working in his shop who was shot. The Kashmiri Pandit had tears in his eyes on remembering him.
He also spoke about his son who about three years back brought fifty Kashmiri Pandit families back home to Kashmir. During that time, the Kashmiri Muslims marvelously sheltered them in their homes.
The interviewer asked him that presently, it looks like Hindus and Muslims cannot live together anymore. The Kashmiri Pandit replied emphatically, “Honestly, it is the politicians, who divide and rule.” He said that the Kashmiri Muslims and Hindus visit each other’s homes and regard each other’s children as their own. They celebrated functions and lived together as one family. The Kashmiri Pandit said, “We knew life is very short, we have to live in harmony and get along.”
The interviewer asked the Kashmiri Pandit whether it was possible to bring back that unity between the Kashmiri Hindus and Kashmiri Muslims and he replied strongly, “Honest to God, today there is a new sweet perfume that I smell in the air.” He went on to say how both needed each other and the locals were the greatest friends. He repeated that the Kashmiri Muslims were caught between two guns through no fault of theirs.
At the time the Kashmir Hindus were leaving in the 1990s, the Kashmiri Muslims were crying and asking them to come back soon.
The interviewer said that as she was coming to meet him, the driver in the car told her a sweet story of how after the Kashmiri Pandits left in the 1990s, Kashmiri Muslims were lighting diyas for them in their temples and maintaining their temples.
The Kashmiri Pandit nodded and said, “Yes, it is true. Bad things happen when there is ignorance. Listen, it happens that when there is a storm, everything gets destroyed together. However, when the Kashmiri Muslims realized this was wrong, they made the Hindu temples again, maintained them, cleaned the temples, and lit them up with lights and diyas.
Over the years, he frequently visited Kashmir and now returns on ghar wapsi and got a royal welcome with the highest honor from the Kashmiri Muslims who love them from their hearts. If Kashmiri Hindus and Muslims meet each other now, they will start weeping, nothing more says Roshan Lal Mawa.
When Richa asked him if he was happy now, he replied, “I am very happy, and I want to die in Kashmir, this is my wish, this is my place.” He ends by speaking to the Kashmiri Hindus across the globe, “This is your place, come back, they love you, if take courage and come and if you take one step, they will take ten steps for you, please come back.”
Progressive nations never allow communalism or racism
The Kashmiri Pandit’s conversation clearly reveals there is no enmity between communities when they live together in an area. All this is created by forces who do not want unity. While there is a good relationship among communities, it appears the politicians are doing the most damage by bringing disharmony and dropping all layers of civilization triggering off uncouth conversations before mobs and televisions which turn into violence from mobs.
Communalism and racism only rise in jobless nations. Most nations in Europe and countries like Malaysia and Singapore are progressive and have no time for communal and racist garbage. Also, their governments will have none of it. UAE and Saudi nations also want to build a progressive atmosphere thus no hate is spewed at Christians or Hindus and they feel safe.
Mumbai at one time was the safest city for women in the atmosphere of acceptance, and hard work, Mumbai being the economic capital. A woman could walk safely alone at midnight and feel secure because no one would touch her, the people were busy with work and progress, and no one had time for rubbish. Mumbai also was one of the most open cities to people of all religions at one time, where religious harmony, trade, and business flourished together, a mixed metropolitan culture, akin to the diversity and business of New York.
India’s communal violence is a red marker of severe joblessness, reaching a low ebb for the first time in 45 years. People with loads of time on their hands, who probably earn a little by being paid by political leaders are into the job of rioting, and on Internet spaces abusing. It is becoming a new business.
Also, it seems that the BJP is doing what the British did in India, divide and rule. The British were known to cause communal riots between Hindus and Muslims and once again, the BJP is awakening the same levels of hate that were frothing at the time of the partition of India. Presently, we are in very dangerous zones while politicians keep playing their games of divide like Pied Pipers who will keep the public dancing to their tunes slowly taking everyone to crash down into abysmal pits of darkness.
Children growing up seeing communalism and hate among religions are openly saying they do not want to live in India when they grow up. Is this the India that our politicians are building? Whichever politician can get rid of communalism and bring peace and harmony amid economic prosperity is worthy to govern India.
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