I am distraught with grief, sobbing over the fact that the nation today is swarmed by divisive forces trying to mangle the most serene and balanced socio-cultural fabric that has always celebrated diversity. To the sore displeasure of many politicians and people who are soaked in excessive religiosity, the Dadri incident is very much an Indian problem just like how Nirbhaya was. They say that those vile looters the Brits sowed the seeds of division in the soil, but to me this bitterness sprouted much earlier comfortably hiding in the minds of men and women who have been taught those unscrupulous ethos of social stratification and order - from the law books of Manu Smriti. After this came the Mughal invasion - which got way too worse during the reign of that fool of an Emperor called Aurangazeb, adding to the wounds that had not dried yet from the already prevailing complications. We were a society that had long accepted divisions and were very much comfortable deranging our own lives with such lowly levels of obnoxiousness that goes by the names of caste and overdosed religion, so it just required the right trigger from those cunning Whites after the Mutiny of 1858 to help us blow this out of proportion in order to spell our own doom and that was how we gave birth to Pakistan, the fruit of our own hate.
There are two lies the right-wingers would love to feed you - one, that India belongs only to the Hindus; and two, that the Hindus are being made to behave like second grade citizens ripped of all the benefits because of the secular nature of the republic. Both assertions are gravely wrong. If you look back, there was never a ONE India - before August 15, 1947. We were 562 princely states with 562 different rulers warring against each other. Moralities and sensibilities have always evolved over time. And in a medieval setup where there were no pacts and treaties, invading another country was never seen as violation and the Mughal invasion luckily happened during those times in history. Unlike the Brits, the Mughals did not loot the country and run away - but they settled here, mixed with the soil and became sons and daughters of the land. Of the 562 princely states that were collectively called as India, there were a considerable number of them ruled by Islamic kings. So clearly with all due respect, India cannot belong to the Hindus alone - this nation is truly mother to every man and woman born here irrespective of their caste, creed, region or religion!
We are a democratic republic by all means. All our MPs and MLAs are picked by the electoral college that functions with clearly defined rules and regulations. The minorities do not get to vote twice or thrice during the elections so the results could swing their way. In 1949 - when the Sri Lankan Government stripped the Tamils of their nationality and the right to vote, they became second grade citizens. In the last 67 years of Independence, no government has ever treated the Hindus worthy of being called 'second grade citizens'. I personally see this is as an insult and offense of the highest order. About the remorseful talks on benefits, it stemmed from an institution called the Mandal Commision set up by Prime Minister Morarji Desai with an intent to identify socially and educationally backward groups in the nation - so funds from the government could be streamlined to uplift them. Faced with a lot of criticism, it was never implemented until Mr. VP Singh came to power in 1989. If you deeply analyze the report, there are more benefits listed for the Hindu backward castes than the religious minorities. So benefits being channeled only to the minorities is a blatant lie. The idea of caste-based and religion-based reservations, to me, doesn't hold any relevance to the current day setting of the state. What makes more sense is to quantify backwardness based on earning - that is how you would get to know who the real poor are!
In the preamble to the Indian Constitution, it is clearly mentioned that India is a Secular state. The Modi government is trying its best to erase that word from its usage, but fortunately being secular is not an abominable thing at all - it is in fact highly honorable! All the right-wing fanatic groups we see in the nation needlessly take offense at the very mention of this word. They fail to understand that without India being a secular state, diversity can not be preserved by any which way. They think that being secular is to give in to the demands of the minorities. As opposed to all of their pre-conceived wrongful notions, being secular, simply, is to respect the beliefs of others. That would mean to not impose whatever you believe onto them and to not poke your nose into their personal freedom. I respect the nobility in the devotion few people show towards religious rituals though I do not believe in religion, but that does not give me any right to forcefully ask the whole world to stop believing in religion altogether - reasoning that their very belief in religion provokes me to take the dagger and go kill them. That is exactly how a psychopathic retard would react, not a human in his right senses.
I was in Mumbai last week meeting with the children of the sex-workers from Kamatipura. I could tell you a thousand gruesome stories from there that would leave you sleepless - night after night. There are young kids trafficked and put into those cages, they knock, knock and knock at those metal doors from inside - sitting in the dark - hurting their hands and wailing bitterly till they finally budge to becoming a prostitute and allowing men to violate their bodies. When such heinous acts of human rights violation are happening in broad day light, all that people worry about is the imposition of a measly beef ban and killing of those who allegedly eat it - because somewhere it is written in the religious texts that cows are not just animals but gods - however chickens, buffaloes and goats are not gods so - no offense - you can eat their meat all you like and slurp their marrows down your throat. Pathetic, illiterate and highly inhuman! All these mongrels know nothing of love! This is a humble call to all the dear (Hindu and Non-Hindu) brothers and sisters of this country to please not get yourself dug into that quicksand of religious fanaticism, but to rise above all of these mundane issues that those right-wingers are cleverly trying to pull you down to. They do it for political benefits, because they have seen it in the past how hate-mongering has reaped huge dividends. Kindly do not give in! There are real problems in this world that you can concentrate your thoughts on - where every religion has deeply failed! What the land badly needs is love and not another religious riot!
We are a democratic republic by all means. All our MPs and MLAs are picked by the electoral college that functions with clearly defined rules and regulations. The minorities do not get to vote twice or thrice during the elections so the results could swing their way. In 1949 - when the Sri Lankan Government stripped the Tamils of their nationality and the right to vote, they became second grade citizens. In the last 67 years of Independence, no government has ever treated the Hindus worthy of being called 'second grade citizens'. I personally see this is as an insult and offense of the highest order. About the remorseful talks on benefits, it stemmed from an institution called the Mandal Commision set up by Prime Minister Morarji Desai with an intent to identify socially and educationally backward groups in the nation - so funds from the government could be streamlined to uplift them. Faced with a lot of criticism, it was never implemented until Mr. VP Singh came to power in 1989. If you deeply analyze the report, there are more benefits listed for the Hindu backward castes than the religious minorities. So benefits being channeled only to the minorities is a blatant lie. The idea of caste-based and religion-based reservations, to me, doesn't hold any relevance to the current day setting of the state. What makes more sense is to quantify backwardness based on earning - that is how you would get to know who the real poor are!
In the preamble to the Indian Constitution, it is clearly mentioned that India is a Secular state. The Modi government is trying its best to erase that word from its usage, but fortunately being secular is not an abominable thing at all - it is in fact highly honorable! All the right-wing fanatic groups we see in the nation needlessly take offense at the very mention of this word. They fail to understand that without India being a secular state, diversity can not be preserved by any which way. They think that being secular is to give in to the demands of the minorities. As opposed to all of their pre-conceived wrongful notions, being secular, simply, is to respect the beliefs of others. That would mean to not impose whatever you believe onto them and to not poke your nose into their personal freedom. I respect the nobility in the devotion few people show towards religious rituals though I do not believe in religion, but that does not give me any right to forcefully ask the whole world to stop believing in religion altogether - reasoning that their very belief in religion provokes me to take the dagger and go kill them. That is exactly how a psychopathic retard would react, not a human in his right senses.
I was in Mumbai last week meeting with the children of the sex-workers from Kamatipura. I could tell you a thousand gruesome stories from there that would leave you sleepless - night after night. There are young kids trafficked and put into those cages, they knock, knock and knock at those metal doors from inside - sitting in the dark - hurting their hands and wailing bitterly till they finally budge to becoming a prostitute and allowing men to violate their bodies. When such heinous acts of human rights violation are happening in broad day light, all that people worry about is the imposition of a measly beef ban and killing of those who allegedly eat it - because somewhere it is written in the religious texts that cows are not just animals but gods - however chickens, buffaloes and goats are not gods so - no offense - you can eat their meat all you like and slurp their marrows down your throat. Pathetic, illiterate and highly inhuman! All these mongrels know nothing of love! This is a humble call to all the dear (Hindu and Non-Hindu) brothers and sisters of this country to please not get yourself dug into that quicksand of religious fanaticism, but to rise above all of these mundane issues that those right-wingers are cleverly trying to pull you down to. They do it for political benefits, because they have seen it in the past how hate-mongering has reaped huge dividends. Kindly do not give in! There are real problems in this world that you can concentrate your thoughts on - where every religion has deeply failed! What the land badly needs is love and not another religious riot!
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