Opinion Half and half
The Godhra verdict was very much like the Babri Masjid one.
The Godhra verdict was very much like the Babri Masjid one. It gave no one quite what they wanted but then neither did it not give them nothing. What it did do is expose the sheer inhumanity and absurdity of the overriding political palaver about secularism/communalism. When you contrast the UC Banerjee Report and the Nanavati Commission report,you wonder if they inhabit the same world. Why is it necessary for secularists,albeit fundamentalist ones,to ignore the ghastly tragedy of 59 people burning to death and then go out of their way to prove that they self-immolated? Are karsevaks,not human beings,are they not Indian citizens?
And why is there not a scintilla of apology from the BJP/NDA/VHP crowd about the fact that 63 out of 94 suspects were held unnecessarily for nine years without trial? Are Muslims not entitled to justice like any other group of citizens in India? Gandhijis photo is the latest must-have decoration for Gujarats ministers; could they also learn something about empathy from that famous Gujarati?
The secularism/communalism divide has disfigured both sides and they have forgotten that beyond their sordid point scoring,there are lives at stake. Muslims have been left to fester in backwardness for sixty years of independence by those who call themselves their friends. They are hounded,on the other hand,sometimes literally to death,by those who deny them respect as fellow Indians.
In India,there is no neutral party,no voice which says let each enjoy his/her rights and let justice be done as it would if we could blind ourselves to religious identities. Could I,if I were a Muslim,get by not mentioning that fact,not out of fear or embarrassment but because I may think it irrelevant? Would the secularists denounce me for that? Will the VHPwallahs try and expose me as a fraud?
There is no doubt that sixty-four years after 1947,we are failing to establish a polity based on equal respect for all,regardless of labels. Indeed,what with Mandalisation,labels are now the badge of politics and we shall no doubt proliferate labels as we make more distinctions among the citizens. If you want to receive the largesse of the State (it is your own money they are giving back after having deducted their bribes),you have to show your labelBPL/SC/ST/OBC. I recently read that Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi could not qualify as Vice Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband because he was a low caste Muslim and not a Saiyad. So let us have a non-Saiyad Muslim backward caste (NSMBC) and give them reservations.
The problem is that those in power,both secularists and communalists,have a feudal mentality. They believe that it is their right and prerogative to bestow gifts on the lower orders. Those beneath should be grateful. They may not want 35 kg of wheat or rice; they may prefer bajra or even chicken. But foodgrain they will receive because that is what the masters think they should have. No question of asking BPL households what they would like. That would be too democratic and democracy is only allowed at election times.
The tragedy of this feudal mentality is being played out in Orissa where Malkangiri district Collector R Vineel Krishna is being treated as a pawn in the game of let us be nice to the terrorists because they can quote Lenin! If the poor man had got one- hundredth of police protection that the Delhi VIPs enjoy (while they are stuffing their Swiss bank accounts),he would not have been abducted so easily. Those who face the real dangers arising out of the feudal system which doles out inadequate benefits do not get the resources they deserve. There are sons and sons-in-laws of the ruling class whose privilege as VIPs are more important.
Then,when one of us out there without a lal batti or Black Cats dies,they do not ask our names. They just want to know whether we are Muslims or Hindus,whether we are the property of secularists or of communalists. If neither,then no one will care. Jai Hind.
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