Recently, the ordinance for triple talaq was passed with much fanfare in Lok Sabha. While BJP vociferously stood behind the ordinance, the so-called harbingers of women empowerment from Congress and other parties like AIADMK, SP etc. staged a walkout in protest of the same. Since the bill talked of making triple talaq a criminal offence, it also irked the left liberals all around the nation, who anyway view BJP as an obstacle to their years of domination on the governance of India.
One such tweet was posted by journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani, senior editor at the left-liberal mouthpiece The Wire. The tweet was as follows:
Lok Sabha passes the Triple Talaq Bill with the house chanting
‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’.
And we witnessed a lot of ‘secularism’ talk by the ruling party members including the Law Minister. pic.twitter.com/c3t5e4jmE2— Arfa Khanum Sherwani (@khanumarfa) December 27, 2018
For those unaware, Arfa Khanum Sherwani is the same journalist who of all people had the guts to threaten Imam Tawhidi, the world famous critic of Islamic terrorism, with legal action. This was because Imam had made fun of Rahul Gandhi’s antics at the No Confidence Motion, asking if people were ready to elect such jokers to power, and rightly so.
But the way Arfa Khanum Sherwani mocked the slogan ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ was not something a journalist would do in the right frame of mind. Surprised by her anti-Indian tweet, a Twitter user, who goes by the handle @Ankur_tiwari2 asked if saying ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ was communal?
'Bharat Mata ki Jai' is communal?
— Ankur Tiwari (@Ankur_tiwari2) December 27, 2018
Soon enough, he was attacked by various left-liberal Twitter users, who used absurd justifications to support Arfa’s stance on the same. But matters came to the head when Arfa herself issued the following tweet, which was not only atrocious but outrageous, to say the least:
Yes ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ is communal. Because it forces a certain mythological idea of motherland being a Devi, a deity.
This may suit your faith and religious philosophy but not people who believe in monotheism- one God.
It is clearly a majoritarian slogan. https://t.co/4HNewg0rVu— Arfa Khanum Sherwani (@khanumarfa) December 28, 2018
According to this tweet, chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ is communal for her because it is not secular, but majoritarian, and it is not associated with monotheistic communities like Islam, Christianity etc. Interestingly, known terror sympathizer Kavitha Krishnan came forward in full support of her, mocking people protesting against the tweet with the following tweets:
Really? Your mom dresses like this, has a halo around her head and sits on a lion? Exactly like an Amar Chitra Katha Devi? pic.twitter.com/4xrGPQlTpt
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) December 29, 2018
Stuck for an explanation aren't you? So ranting. Let me repeat the question: if she is just a Mata not a Devi why is she dressed like a Devi not like any Mata anyone of us has ever seen?
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) December 29, 2018
While journalists like Shilipi Tewari and Amrita Bhinder rightly criticized the duo for mocking patriotic slogans for brownie points, there’s a crucial factor that cannot be ignored. If someone says Bharat Mata ki Jai, he / she is majoritarian. If this is the case, then perhaps one of the most iconic revolutionaries from the freedom struggle, Ashfaqullah Khan Warsi is a lesser Muslim than Arfa, since he wrote the following before attaining martyrdom in 1927:
Ashfaqullah Khan wasn’t the only one who affectionately addressed his nation as the ‘Mother.’ There were also people like Nawab Mincha, Dalil Rehman, Mir Ahmed Ali, who were a part of the Chittagong uprising of 1930-34, when they spied on the British for their leader, ‘Masterda’ Surjya Sen.
Even Abid Hasan Safrani, who coined the slogan ‘Jai Hind’ for Netaji’s INA, was a devout nationalist, who chanted ‘Vande Mataram’ and addressed his motherland as ‘Madr-e-Watan’ [Motherland]. If they were alive today, they would probably never have received the certificates of being ‘Muslim enough’ from the great Arfa Khanum Sherwani. APJ Abdul Kalam, one of the greatest minds to have blessed our nation, is already an eyesore in the eyes of such left liberals for being devoted to his motherland.
