If the fire of hatred is not extinguished

Seven years after the Hindutva forces came to power under the leadership of Narendra Modi, they have taken care to not only implement just one of the declared agenda but also moved forward in the same direction, as indicated by the daily happenings. That agenda is nothing other than what their leader has documented in his bunch of thoughts, i.e., oppression of Muslims, the number one enemy of the Hindu nation and society. Although there are signs of setbacks and failures in the social, economic and political spheres, there is no relief in the socio-political horizon for 135 crore Indians seeking succour from starvation and poverty. The decisions taken and the laws enacted by the Modi government in the shadow of the ever-fattening corporates are falling into the abyss of failure, as most recently demonstrated to the world in the epic victory of the joint farmer agitation. Still, the Sangh Parivar government's concern is not about recovery or relief from this state of affairs, but on the contrary, about sadistically defeating their traditional enemies and fooling the loyalists within their own ranks. One of the best examples is the outcry circulating on social media, public forums and news debates in the enlightened state of Kerala, regarding halal food. The absurd aggression of the BJP state unit president and others against the display of halal (permissible) boards in their restaurants by some of the Muslim community and non-Muslim traders is on full display. The repulsive question being asked to them is, "Are you eating food spit by Muslim priests?" The aim of constantly repeating the fiction without an iota of truth is to forbid non-Muslim friends and citizens from entering restaurants run by Muslims and buying goods from their shops. It's so much elating for them when a shop runs into loss and closes! They are encouraged by the fact that the law does not extend its hand against such evil propaganda which promotes maximum religious hate.

The most gruesome version of this can be seen in Haryana, which is ruled by RSS-trained Manohar Lal Khattar. Gurugram, an industrial city with the presence of many multinational corporations, employs a large number of poor Muslims on a daily basis. They have negligible presence in any of the white-collar jobs. However, through hard work, they feed themselves and their families. They do not have mosques for Friday mid-day mass prayers. The government is not ready to give permission to Muslim places of worship if they ask for them. So, they conduct their Friday prayers, that last barely 20 minutes in vacant lots. But extremist Hindu organizations are not ready to tolerate it, even though it does not affect them in any way. Eventually the government intervened and allowed prayers in 37 places where no disturbance would be felt. But then, the Samyukta Hindu Sangharsh Samiti is encroaching on the same place with the excuse of a made-up pooja, shouting that even such congregation could not be allowed.

Mohammad Saleem, the leader of the Jamiatul Ulema, a Muslim religious group, has openly stated during his attempts to resolve the issue that Muslims are not allowed to worship anywhere. The Samyukta Sangharsh Samiti is upset that the Sikh brothers have spared their limited facilities at the gurudwara for this purpose and the Hindu brothers there have allowed their shops to pray for a while. The government demolished the existing mosques, encroached on Eidgah and Waqf land and finally under pressure withdrew the permission granted for a few minutes of prayer in government land. This is not just the case in Haryana, but in all the states where the BJP is in power or wields influence. At one point, the Shiv Sena in Mumbai also had rioted against prayers on the road. One can now see and hear what happens when hatred, animosity and intolerance are so sharply propagated and even common sense is subdued. It is in such a situation that Mohan Bhagwat, the supreme leader of the RSS, repeatedly proclaims that Muslims in India have nothing to fear, and Bharat is the safest place in the world for them! In such a darkness of hatred and animosity, it is imperative for peace-loving, patriotic sections of the population, who are anxious for the future of the country, to come forward to put out this fire of hatred. Our own history bears witness to the fact that otherwise the great Republic of India will fall into the abyss of destruction due to internal disintegration and infighting.