The cost of manufactured intolerance – who will pay the price?

“Intolerance” is the new buzzword ruling our country’s airwaves. It is deeply disturbing to see the opposition, media, leftist intelligentsia and sections of religious clergy connive to vitiate communal harmony by unleashing malicious propaganda, made of spurious charges against the GOI. In their desperation to somehow malign the PM and his government, they seem to care two hoots about national interest. Thanks to their “outstanding” work in collaboration with powerful Christian fundamentalist groups, whose stated aim is to harvest the soul of every last human being for the Christ [Jesus will be cringing in his heavenly abode seeing things done in his name], our country is often being clubbed with Pakistan when it comes to religious freedom by commissions formed by the likes of EU, US Congress etc. Now, playing politics over dead bodies like in Dadri lynching and Haryana Dalit children incident and the high decibel propaganda to paint the current government and by extension, the country as a majoritarian, intolerant and fascist state has reached a crescendo that the chauvinistic western media and our known enemies are having a ball at our expense. Having a lancing glance at recent incidents is enough to see through the concocted stories being spread, and understand the deep-seated malice. Intolerance

1) The unfortunate lynching of a Muslim man at Dadri in UP over allegations of cow slaughter deserves to be condemned in the strongest possible manner. There is no doubt in the minds of any sane person that the perpetrators should be brought to book. But, politics being played on the incident to tarnish the central government cannot be condoned. The law and order of UP are the exclusive domain of the Samajwadi party led UP government. So, it is bewildering to see everyone seeking to put the blame squarely on the PM without even bothering to ask questions to the Akhilesh Yadav government. Oh, how can we question the “secular” party of Mulayam Singh right? Further, communal incidents are unfortunately a norm in UP. It was only recently a 14-year-old boy was shot dead by a minority mob for the “crime” of grazing his cattle in their fields. Dozens of Indians die every year in communal flare-ups in the state- victims coming from both minority and majority community. And, cow slaughter has been a trigger for communal tension since the days of the British. So, acting like these incidents started from April 2014 and even audaciously blaming the center of being complicit in the unfortunate incident is plain ludicrous- it exposes the intolerance of leftist intelligentsia for a government that is not sympathetic to their outdated ideology. Intolerance

2) Murders of rationalists Kalburgi, Pansare and Dhabolkar was squarely blamed on the ruling party and even the PM by vested interests for political mileage. While Pansare was gunned down in Maharashtra when BJP was in power, Dhabolkar was killed in Maharashtra when both the state and center being ruled by Congress; Kalburgi was killed in Karnataka ruled by Congress- so much for the propaganda holding BJP responsible! The weird logic going around is that since the needle of suspicion is said to be on some fringe Hindu groups, the central government should be held responsible, just because the current dispensation is not ashamed of their ancient heritage as expected by our “intelligentsia”. If a party which doesn’t get even half the votes of the majority community should be held responsible for crimes of anyone having a Hindu name, the same logic should apply for the so-called secular parties which corner more than 80% of minority votes as well as the votes of the ultra-left wing. Further, even the charge that these despicable acts were the handiwork of some fringe Hindu groups is just insinuation. Pansare led vociferous protests against toll taxes which earned him dangerous foes. Dabholkar and Kalburgi opposed god men and superstitions in all religious groups which made them targets for fanatic followers.Dabholkar and his organization MANS, the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti, had held vehement protests against the canonization of Mother Teresa by the Pope and even wrote to the Vatican in this regard. It is entirely possible that attacks on them have their genesis from these aspects. When, we talk about rationalists, we cannot afford to miss Sanal Edamurukku who was slapped with blasphemy charges and haunted out of the country by the “Catholic Secular forum” for exposing a “miracle of Jesus”. The man who had to seek refuge in Helsinki for dear life was offered redemption by the Arch Bishop of Mumbai, Oswald Gracias, who promised that things will go back to normal if he apologized to the Church!. Dabholkar was the man who stood by him when all the “liberals” looked the other way. Another rationalist, Prabir Ghosh is a marked man today, receiving multiple death threats for exposing the “Teresa miracle”- claim of a lady being cured of ovarian cancer solely by keeping mother’s medallion beside her bed, cited by the Vatican in her beatification ceremony. So much for the rhetoric being built that it is only the Hindu organizations who haunt rationalists. And, for the insinuation that it is done with the active connivance of the ruling party of India, less said the better. Intolerance

3) The horrific deaths of two Dalit Children in Haryana were shamelessly given a political hue by ridiculous propaganda blaming the PM and his party for the incident. It was shamelessly insinuated that the ruling party was complicit in the alleged revenge attack by men from upper caste. It was nothing but a shameless attempt to create a schism between the castes within the Hindu fold due to a fear of majority consolidation in favor of the ruling party. Dalits were repeatedly provoked by a desperate opposition, citing historic injustices in order to vitiate social harmony and hatred against entire communities were fanned in a shameless way. How can this be any different from inciting minority and majority religious groups to have a go at each other? Even more painful was the nauseating efforts of sections of so-called intelligentsia and media to reopen old wounds- their excuse being scuttling the Hindu unity so as to weaken the “majoritarian, fascist” government run by PM Modi! Intolerance

4) A disgusting incident of the rape of a venerable nun in Kolkata was blamed on RSS affiliates by a ruling TMC minister, and rest of the politicos, media, and sections of clergy went ballistic blaming the GOI of encouraging the attack on minorities and even dragging in the PM. Later, when Kolkata police arrested illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, everyone lost interest in the case; not even an apology rendered. Intolerance

5)Desecration of a Church in Agra blamed on Hindu groups, and blame squarely put on GOI for encouraging communal strife; Alas, now UP police arrests a spurned lover, A Muslim youth distraught at his love for a local Christian girl going unrequited.[ Apologies for mentioning the religious affiliations; but required to lay bare the propaganda being spread]. Even incidents like an electric short circuit, cricket ball smashing the window panes, and drunken misadventures of a few young men who made a wager were played up by media, politicos, and sections of religious clergy as a vicious communal campaign against minorities done with the blessings of GOI. In sharp contrast with this whipped up frenzy, hacking to death of an anti-cow slaughter activist, Prashant Poojary, by a minority mob for trying to close down an illegal slaughterhouse in the Congress-ruled Karnataka was blacked out by the media for more than a week. Intelligentsia also kept mum as the incident doesn’t suit their rhetoric of minorities being persecuted by a majoritarian government. Intolerance

6) Regarding the high decibel campaign about Churches being under attack in Delhi during the last assembly polls [eerily similar to how “intolerance” campaign gathered steam right before the Bihar polls], statistics of crimes against religious places released by the authorities show that while there has been hundreds of such cases regarding temples, a significant number regarding mosques, and gurdwaras; the number is in single digits when it comes to Churches.!! Even the secular credentials of the Supreme Court and the CJI of India was questioned by this brain dead, prejudiced farceurs in their desperation to make the GOI look bad. They had no qualms about maligning the one institution which can protect the constitution, rights of minorities in case of any eventuality in the future. Intolerance

The people who are trying to portray India as an intolerant, totalitarian nation where minorities are under grievous threat, out of their desperation to score political brownie points, are grievously damaging our national interest by maligning India’s image abroad, and sowing seeds of communal discord within. India is probably the only nation in the world where the majority community suffers from a persecution complex [Reason being, hundreds of years of subjugation by foreigners who mostly viewed indigenous culture with contempt and the relentless appeasement politics (actually benefitting only the clergy while keeping common people destitute and hence ripe for exploitation for votes) practiced by our so-called “secular” parties]. Add to this the attempt to scare minorities of an existential crisis by using majority community as the bogeyman, we are staring at a catastrophe. Further, the clergy and people who genuinely care about minority rights will do well to remember the fable of the shepherd who cried wolf; there will be no one to help if God forbid, a genuine crisis strikes. Intolerance

PS: Ours is a civilization which has never systematically persecuted minorities in its 5000-year-old history. Persecuted groups from across the globe have found refuge here since time immemorial. I am in no way arguing that there are no communal strains in our country, but we have to agree that India provides a high degree of religious, and political freedom which is on par with almost every liberal nation. The point is, rather than trying to widen communal chasm, and peddling lies, and half-truths for political gains, we should try to bring everyone together, and work towards a strong, exuberant, and united India. Intolerance

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