06-06-2005, 09:47 PM
The Santa of Secularism By Talveen Singh
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The week in which we commemorate the 21st anniversary of Operation Blue Star is a good one to discuss the evils of mixing religion with politics. It is something we discussed ad nauseum when Atal Behari Vajpayee was prime minister <b>but ever since the advent of Santa Sonia of Secularism the subject has been so neglected that only one newspaper noticed that Madame attended a rally of the Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Hind last Sunday. Every time BJP leaders meet Hindu priests it makes headlines but the leader of the Congress party attends a gathering of mullahs and not even her Marxist friends see anything amiss. </b>
To this nice, secular gathering Madame reportedly said, ââThe former government was a communal government. It tried to damage the (sic) history. The freedom struggle of the country was also distorted.ââ Madame then told them proudly that the first thing her government did was to repeal POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) and that all their ââgenuine demandsââ would be addressed.
What do terrorism and secularism have in common? Well, our anti-terrorism laws have been used mostly against Sikhs and Muslims which does not surprise me personally since terrorism in the past twenty years has come mostly from these two religious groups but as with much else in our benighted land even terrorism has become a religious issue. As with gurudwaras in the time of Sikh terrorism, mosques are being used these days to shelter Islamic terrorists and Soniaâs new best friends, the mullahs, routinely abuse America from their pulpits and almost never condemn Islamic terrorism. But, nobody will disturb their activities or examine what goes on in their madrassas because under the new secular dispensation in Delhi the only fanatics in India are Hindu. They see no threat from minority communalism even in these days when radical Islam is responsible for most acts of terrorism in the world.
<b>It was this kind of Congress secularism that allowed the patronage of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale until he became a monster. Remember how it was a Congress government in Punjab that allowed him to thrive and spread his wings?</b>
Remember how it was a Congress Home Minister who allowed him and his followers safe passage across the country so that he could go home to Punjab and ensconce himself in the Golden Temple? As someone who spent much time covering the Golden Temple, let me say that it would have been the easiest thing in the world to arrest him and charge him with the crimes he allegedly committed. The Punjab problem may have ended there. But, ââsecularââ Congress ideals prevented this till the Sikh community as a whole could be blamed for the hatred and poison Bhindranwale alone was responsible for spreading. Once every Sikh came to be regarded as a killer and a fanatic it was easy to justify the massacre of thousands in 1984.
Now itâs the turn of Muslims. Santa Sonia of Secularism will fraternise with the mullahs, allow her close ally, Ram Vilas Paswan, to announce publicly that he wants a Muslim chief minister of Bihar and encourage her protege, Arjun Singh, to introduce a law that will make the Aligarh Muslim University into an institution of sectarianism rather than education and then when there is a reaction against Muslims she will blame Hindu ââcommunal forcesââ.
Hindutva at the moment lies in the garbage bin of history because its proponents talk rubbish most of the time. Last week, while switching channels, I came upon that most repugnant of Hindutvaâs fanatics, Ashok Singhal, speaking against the World Health Organization for ââlyingââ about HIV-AIDS figures. Everyone knows, he said, that Hindus have less sex than anybody else. But someone should ask him how 80 million Hindus came to populate this Earth. With men like him leading the Hindutva movement there is every likelihood that it will die a natural death unless we return to old fashioned Congress secularism of the kind that led to Muslims being given permission to consider themselves above Indian law. It was only when Rajiv Gandhiâs government gave Muslim men the right not to pay maintenance to their divorced wives on the ground that maintenance was not permitted under the Sharia that ordinary Hindus realised there was something wrong and joined the Hindutva movement. Incidentally, ââsecularismââ is such a fundamental of Indian journalism that few people asked then why Shariat punishments should not also apply to Muslims and those who did were immediately labelled communal.
Journalistic secularism is almost as dangerous as the Congress variety so there has been insufficient condemnation of the Sikh gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) attack on that film. Jo bole so nihal is the Sikh war cry and has nothing to do with religion but Jagir Kaur of the SGPC managed to stir passions up enough for bombs to go off in cinemas and people to be killed. If we were truly secular, she would have been arrested.
If Santa Sonia was truly the patron saint of secularism she would not have allowed Sanjay Nirupam to join her party. Or does she believe that even the Shiv Sena can become secular as long as it agrees to join the Congress party. If she does she would be doing India an enormous favour by persuading Bal Thackeray to join because then the absurdity of what is going on would be clear enough for us to seriously debate where we are going with this secularism nonsense. At the moment there are far too many fine, bleeding-hearted liberals who genuinely believe that with the change in government we have traded in sectarianism for secularism when <span style='color:red'>all we have got is sectarianism of a more insidious and dangerous kind.</span>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The week in which we commemorate the 21st anniversary of Operation Blue Star is a good one to discuss the evils of mixing religion with politics. It is something we discussed ad nauseum when Atal Behari Vajpayee was prime minister <b>but ever since the advent of Santa Sonia of Secularism the subject has been so neglected that only one newspaper noticed that Madame attended a rally of the Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Hind last Sunday. Every time BJP leaders meet Hindu priests it makes headlines but the leader of the Congress party attends a gathering of mullahs and not even her Marxist friends see anything amiss. </b>
To this nice, secular gathering Madame reportedly said, ââThe former government was a communal government. It tried to damage the (sic) history. The freedom struggle of the country was also distorted.ââ Madame then told them proudly that the first thing her government did was to repeal POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) and that all their ââgenuine demandsââ would be addressed.
What do terrorism and secularism have in common? Well, our anti-terrorism laws have been used mostly against Sikhs and Muslims which does not surprise me personally since terrorism in the past twenty years has come mostly from these two religious groups but as with much else in our benighted land even terrorism has become a religious issue. As with gurudwaras in the time of Sikh terrorism, mosques are being used these days to shelter Islamic terrorists and Soniaâs new best friends, the mullahs, routinely abuse America from their pulpits and almost never condemn Islamic terrorism. But, nobody will disturb their activities or examine what goes on in their madrassas because under the new secular dispensation in Delhi the only fanatics in India are Hindu. They see no threat from minority communalism even in these days when radical Islam is responsible for most acts of terrorism in the world.
<b>It was this kind of Congress secularism that allowed the patronage of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale until he became a monster. Remember how it was a Congress government in Punjab that allowed him to thrive and spread his wings?</b>
Remember how it was a Congress Home Minister who allowed him and his followers safe passage across the country so that he could go home to Punjab and ensconce himself in the Golden Temple? As someone who spent much time covering the Golden Temple, let me say that it would have been the easiest thing in the world to arrest him and charge him with the crimes he allegedly committed. The Punjab problem may have ended there. But, ââsecularââ Congress ideals prevented this till the Sikh community as a whole could be blamed for the hatred and poison Bhindranwale alone was responsible for spreading. Once every Sikh came to be regarded as a killer and a fanatic it was easy to justify the massacre of thousands in 1984.
Now itâs the turn of Muslims. Santa Sonia of Secularism will fraternise with the mullahs, allow her close ally, Ram Vilas Paswan, to announce publicly that he wants a Muslim chief minister of Bihar and encourage her protege, Arjun Singh, to introduce a law that will make the Aligarh Muslim University into an institution of sectarianism rather than education and then when there is a reaction against Muslims she will blame Hindu ââcommunal forcesââ.
Hindutva at the moment lies in the garbage bin of history because its proponents talk rubbish most of the time. Last week, while switching channels, I came upon that most repugnant of Hindutvaâs fanatics, Ashok Singhal, speaking against the World Health Organization for ââlyingââ about HIV-AIDS figures. Everyone knows, he said, that Hindus have less sex than anybody else. But someone should ask him how 80 million Hindus came to populate this Earth. With men like him leading the Hindutva movement there is every likelihood that it will die a natural death unless we return to old fashioned Congress secularism of the kind that led to Muslims being given permission to consider themselves above Indian law. It was only when Rajiv Gandhiâs government gave Muslim men the right not to pay maintenance to their divorced wives on the ground that maintenance was not permitted under the Sharia that ordinary Hindus realised there was something wrong and joined the Hindutva movement. Incidentally, ââsecularismââ is such a fundamental of Indian journalism that few people asked then why Shariat punishments should not also apply to Muslims and those who did were immediately labelled communal.
Journalistic secularism is almost as dangerous as the Congress variety so there has been insufficient condemnation of the Sikh gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) attack on that film. Jo bole so nihal is the Sikh war cry and has nothing to do with religion but Jagir Kaur of the SGPC managed to stir passions up enough for bombs to go off in cinemas and people to be killed. If we were truly secular, she would have been arrested.
If Santa Sonia was truly the patron saint of secularism she would not have allowed Sanjay Nirupam to join her party. Or does she believe that even the Shiv Sena can become secular as long as it agrees to join the Congress party. If she does she would be doing India an enormous favour by persuading Bal Thackeray to join because then the absurdity of what is going on would be clear enough for us to seriously debate where we are going with this secularism nonsense. At the moment there are far too many fine, bleeding-hearted liberals who genuinely believe that with the change in government we have traded in sectarianism for secularism when <span style='color:red'>all we have got is sectarianism of a more insidious and dangerous kind.</span>
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