Wednesday, April 24, 2013

India’s sorrow: Crony socialism & crony secularism

There is a chilling story in our sister publication The Sunday Indian from Srinagar that tells a lot about how Indian intellectuals, journalists and pundits practice secularism. Kaiser Bhatt runs a school for kids called Orange International Playschool in the outskirts of Srinagar. In April, 2012, he invited some Muslim friends from Malaysia to visit his school. They sipped tea, exchanged pleasantries and soon left. Within minutes, the playschool was surrounded by an angry mob that had gathered in response to a rumour that the playschool was actually a ‘Christian’ outfit and that the visiting Malaysians were Christian missionaries. Scared stiff, Kaiser desperately pleaded with his Malaysian friends to come back to scotch the rumours. The Malaysians returned and were forced by the mob to ‘prove’ that they were Muslims. Only then did the violent mob disperse. But Kaiser’s troubles were not over as worried parents wanted to withdraw their kids. Worse, school staff were reluctant to come to the school since they were scared a mob will pounce on them.

Sensing financial ruin, Kaiser pleaded with Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to come to his rescue. The separatist leader ‘pronounced’ that the playschool is Muslim enough for parents and the staff not to be worried. After assuring angry Muslims of the neighbourhood that Orange International Playschool (meanwhile, the playschool plastered its walls with Quranic verses) was not a Christian conspiracy, the ‘separatist’ and ‘spiritual’ leader told The Sunday Indian, “We have strong evidence to suggest that Christian missionaries are working to convert Kashmiri Muslims using unfair means”. In November, 2011, a Christian priest Chandar Mani Khanna was accused of proselytizing. Someone called the Grand Mufti of Kashmir ‘summoned’ the priest for interrogation and ordered him to cease and desist. The priest was arrested and allegedly beaten up and tortured and remained locked up for about 20 days. Of course, he was then ‘banished’ from the valley. The so-called Grand Mufti now routinely ‘summons’ alleged offenders to his Sharia court.

In case you don’t know or have deliberately chosen to forget, the Kashmir valley is overwhelmingly Muslim majority (most Kashmiri Hindus were forced out of the valley in the 1990s and now live in wretched refugee camps) with Hindus, Christians and Sikhs being insignificant minorities. In case you have chosen to forget, India’s secular warriors ceaselessly cry themselves hoarse – while raving and ranting against all things and symbols Hindu – that it is the duty of the majority Hindus of India to protect its secular identity and Constitution. Very unpalatable question that even those who have not been blinded by Marxism and secular fundamentalism feel uncomfortable about asking: where are the loud ‘secular’ voices when Christians are being so ruthlessly targeted in the only Muslim majority state in India? What happened to the vocal chords of Jholawala Leftists who never give up an opportunity of pointing out how intolerant, obscurantist and ‘fascist’ Hindus are when it comes to dealing with minorities? Would they have adopted a self imposed vow of silence if Christian priests were similarly harassed in Gujarat?
 

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
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