Ireland welcomed Narendra Modi in an unexpected way. They had Irish children welcoming him by reciting Sanskrit shlokas. Never the one to miss a chance, Prime Minister Modi took a dig at secularists by saying had this been done in India it would have raised questions.
But of course he ended up hurting a lot of Indians because he was apparently insulting India in a foreign nation. Because insult of the secularist lobby of India is the Insult of India. Wow. The secularists are quick to jump to a conclusion and start throwing brickbats at Modi before doing a retrospection themselves.
They forget that they never fail to initiate a massive secular-communal debate on the pettiest of matters.
Let us talk about Meat Ban. Meat ban, as also the other “bans” have been a fodder for the secular communal debate for a while. They are presented as a proof of BJP’s grand conspiracy to Hindu-ize the country and push its Saffron agenda down people’s throats. The fact that it has been an old practice is never discussed.
Let us talk about renaming of the Aurangzeb Road – Whatever History I have read suggests that Aurangzeb was a cruel despot and happens to be the most prominent scar on the country’s secular face. He was both ruthless and insecure. He reintroduced the Jiziya tax. He swept his father Shahjahan off the Mughal throne on to an isolated room of the Red Fort. He decapitated his three brothers. He did not even trust his own sons, he imprisoned and exiled three of his sons. Under his command Sambhaji and Guru Tegh Bahadur were executed in the worst possible manner. He killed Sarmad Kashani, a Sufi Dervish on charges of blasphemy. He destroyed the Kashi Vishwanath temple. He destroyed the Somnath Temple. He destroyed the Keshav Dev temple in Mathura. I may be a right wing bigot but my simple mind fails to decipher the greatness of Aurangzeb to whom we dedicated a prominent road in the national capital. But when the road was dedicated to one of the greatest scientists of India, Late APJ Abdul Kalam, the same secularists started the secular-communal debate.
Let us talk about Yakub Memon – Common sense tells me, broadcasting news in favour of a terrorist who called an all-out war against India is anti-national, questioning the authority of the President and the judiciary on national Media is not wise and inviting terrorists to throw their two cents over the entire episode is, well, simply the murder of all journalistic ethics. The Indian media houses must understand that such news incite people. Marginalizing a community by making them feel like proxy citizens amounts to provoking them. Almost all leading houses of the media are flag-bearers of secularism and they went all out in support of Yakub Memon. All leftists, secularists joined the bandwagon too.
Let us talk about Zeeshan Khan – a Muslim youth who was denied a job offer by a PRIVATE firm that allegedly hired only Non-Muslim candidates. Now the head of a firm can be a bigot, homophobe, sexist or racist. These are personal traits and have got nothing to do with the government. If tomorrow a gay man is denied an offer by a Homophobe company director of a private firm or a South Indian is denied an offer by a racist North Indian Managing director of a Delhi based firm, should we all come out in hordes and start blaming Modi? No. But that’s exactly what media and secularists did.
Let us talk about the debate over Maharana Pratap’s inclusion in School Syllabus – How Firstpost accredited all of Pratap’s achievements to Akbar and how other media houses called it saffronization of Indian History?
And remember how Yoga was made the biggest question mark on India’s secular credentials?
Modi’s snide remark may sound bitter to the secularist’s ears but that is the truth.