Teesta Setalvad is back to her mischief-mongering days. One would expect that someone whose market credibility is worse than the Zimbabwean Dollar would retreat from the public eye and enjoy a lifetime of retirement by earning bank interest on the huge sums of money she has conned out of gullible public. Sadly, Teesta enjoys limelight even more than her love for swindling needy folks and hence filed a plea in the Supreme Court asking it to re-consider its 1995 judgement on Hindutva, claiming that the verdict had led to devastating consequences and was threatening the Secular fabric of the country.
If one could earn a dollar for every time a liberal claimed India’s secular fabric had been threatened, one would perhaps be a billionaire by now. Any how, the Supreme Court, which is occupied with other pressing matters, including examining Corrupt practices under the Representation of People’s act, wisely set aside Teesta Setalvad’s plea, which no doubt was filed with malicious intent and had strong political undertones. Incidentally, the 1995 judgement that Teesta had cited had defined Hindutva as a way of life of people in the Sub-continent and had explicitly declined equating Hindutva with fundamentalist Hindu religious bigotry. With the rise of BJP and the tightening of noose around her own neck, Teesta felt that this was a great opportunity for her to mire the party in a potentially polarizing debate that could inflict electoral losses and therefore stem its popularity. It was with this purpose perhaps that her plea defined Hindutva as becoming a mark of nationalism and citizenship which threatened the fundamentals of Indian nationhood.
Nothing better can be expected from Teesta and her band of liberal-secular elite.
Funded, as is commonly alleged by Mullahs and Missionaries, they are on a mission to malign and disparage Hinduism and India’s ancient cultural traditions, while at the same time turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to reports of rising Islamic extremism and militant missionary activities.
In their eyes, it is only the practices of the majority community that need to be targeted and curtailed, while belonging to a minority, gives one the license to do as it please. Therefore, while this a furor on the issue of dowry killings (and rightly so), our liberal-secular elite purse their lips tightly whenever the issue of Triple Talaq is brought up. Their minds, blighted by years of Mullah-Missionary propaganda, come up with the distorted logic that Minorities alone must have the right to reform themselves.
In other words, Muslim women must suffer their fate, till such time the self-proclaimed leaders of the Muslim community, the Mullahs, decide to confer Muslim women with equal rights. This is hypocrisy at its best. The non-existent issue of ‘Saffron terrorism’ riles our Liberal-Secular elite to no end, while the same Liberal-Secular Elite are quick to pass off Islamic Terrorism as ‘youth gone astray’. For them, Ghar Wapsi, needs to be protested violently, while converts from the Hindu fold, need to be applauded for their courage. Frankly speaking, our Liberal-Secular Elite are so far removed from the reality that with their narrow vision, they have constructed a dreamland of their own.
Hindutva, as the honourable Supreme Court defined in its 1995 judgement, is indeed a way of life.
Unlike what is claimed by the Liberal-Secular elite, it is not a supremacist definition of Hinduism that excludes the weaker sections of the society. In fact, it is just opposite of that. Hindutva seeks to unite Indians of whatever caste, creed, religion, geography and gender.
Hindutva espouses a belief in the idea of India as an ancient country in the modern world. It seeks to unite divergent practices, antagonistic beliefs and different viewpoints in its fold and integrates them for the glory of the nation. Unlike Islamism that seeks to impose a hegemonic Salafi dominated version of Islam on the world, Hindutva seeks to unite different Indians in its fold by reminding them of their glorious nation.
Only a mind prejudiced against India can come up with the theory that Hindutva seeks to undermine India. And such minds are to be found aplenty in India. From the champagne sipping liberals, to self-professed seculars, people with no understanding of India and its culture are contriving to subvert the country from within.
One must be wary of people such as Teesta now. It does not bode well for a country seeking to establish itself as a confident nation, seeking to join the comity of developed nations to accommodate doubting thomases whose sole purpose of doubting is to undermine the country. The people too are able to see through the nefarious designs of our Liberal-Secular elite who, while protesting against animal sacrifice in temples, stay mum during Eid. Who, citing their concern to environment, protest against the bursting of crackers on Diwali, are content to stay in AC environments 24*7. Who, while castigating regressive practices in Hinduism, maintain studied silence when it comes to other religions. Who, while calling for gender equality among Hindus, would rather see Muslim women suffer under the Mullah’s Yoke.
As a nation, India must offer scope for dialogue, debate and dissent, but there must be no tolerance for hypocrisy. India must show the Liberal-Secular elite their true place- the dustbin of history.