""Is it Muslims only who have feelings? What about Hindus? When Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur were arrested, did anyone think of feelings of Hindus?" Thackeray questioned."
The above excerpt is taken from this article here. And I think it represents the kind of entanglement of problems that India is finding itself in, all of them at once.
First for some background and context. Thackeray is Bal Thackeray, leader of the Shiv Sena, a regional political party with a strong foothold in Maharashtra. And the backdrop for these comments are the recent riots in Mumbai, much better told about in the article and related.
Following is what I find wrong with the outtake :
1. "Is it Muslims only who have feelings?"
Objectively or otherwise, No. Everybody has feelings. But a country cannot be run on feelings. When you call a country secular, you have rules and a Constitution that is based on that very secular thread. Unfortunately, the Constitution of India is not very accurate when being judged on the secular parameter, which is where the problems begin. Ironically, the definition and outline of what secular means in the context of India has been clearly outlined in the Constitution.
2. Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur
The above excerpt is taken from this article here. And I think it represents the kind of entanglement of problems that India is finding itself in, all of them at once.
First for some background and context. Thackeray is Bal Thackeray, leader of the Shiv Sena, a regional political party with a strong foothold in Maharashtra. And the backdrop for these comments are the recent riots in Mumbai, much better told about in the article and related.
Following is what I find wrong with the outtake :
1. "Is it Muslims only who have feelings?"
Objectively or otherwise, No. Everybody has feelings. But a country cannot be run on feelings. When you call a country secular, you have rules and a Constitution that is based on that very secular thread. Unfortunately, the Constitution of India is not very accurate when being judged on the secular parameter, which is where the problems begin. Ironically, the definition and outline of what secular means in the context of India has been clearly outlined in the Constitution.
2. Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur
Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi is a Hindu seer, read more about him here. The main thing to establish context here is, the seer was arrested on November 11, 2004 and charged by Tamil Nadu state prosecutors with being a conspirator in the murder of a temple manager, Sankararaman. So, he being a Hindu and a seer does not have anything to do with anything. He was being charged and treated as a criminal being accused of murder. If you feel bad for an alleged murderer, please try to be objective and not a cunt.
Sadvi Pragya Singh Thakur a long-time Sangh Parivar worker and believer in its core ideology of "Hindu rashtra (nation)". She has been arrested and awaiting trial for orchestrating the Malegaon bomb blasts. The charge sheet for the crime has not yet been filed, holding up trial, indicating something fishy being afoot.Though for the purposes of this write up,objectively speaking, she is a terrorist. And that should be the end of that.
3. The Hindu-Muslim problem.
Now, this will directly date back to the time when India was first attacked by rulers from Central Asia and I think the bad taste for what India had to suffer at the hands of Muslim invaders and rulers over a number of years has remained. Fast forward to pre-Independence India, the riots leading up to the Partition of India and the aftermath did not help at all. The formation of Pakistan, a Muslim majority state, the Kashmir insurgency problem, wars with Pakistan did not help. Then came the Shah Bano case and twisting of secular laws in the Constitution and laid down by the Supreme Court, demolition of the Babri Masjid and the riots that followed that and the tension that has remained ever since in one way or another. Be it the Godhra train burning incident and riots that followed in its wake, 26/11 terrorist attacks, Mecca Masjid blasts in Hyderabad or the recent spates of violence that erupted in the North East.
As a secular country, India should not let religion dictate the politics. Even though the word secular was added in the preamble only in 1976, the country has always been secular in spirit. But right from the moment India became free and wrote her own Constitution, religion has never stayed out. It has become part and parcel of the way we think about the idea of India's existence, which is stupid because so many religions have their fingerprint in this land and have basically co-existed in peace for so many years.Even though 65% of India's population is Hindu, we take pride in calling ourselves secular.
And that is how it should be. A spade should be called a spade. Two wrongs cannot make a right and tit for tat can never be the foundation for a sane ideal. A crime should be treated as such without being viewed through the tinge of religion, caste or creed. We need to be better Indians, to make a better India, not religious douchebags to create an unstable State. Objectivity and common sense need to be restored in the system to make that happen. This will take time. But India does not have another way out.
Thanks to additional comments and inputs by Swayambhoo Jain and Balaji Sridharan on this write up.
And that is how it should be. A spade should be called a spade. Two wrongs cannot make a right and tit for tat can never be the foundation for a sane ideal. A crime should be treated as such without being viewed through the tinge of religion, caste or creed. We need to be better Indians, to make a better India, not religious douchebags to create an unstable State. Objectivity and common sense need to be restored in the system to make that happen. This will take time. But India does not have another way out.
Thanks to additional comments and inputs by Swayambhoo Jain and Balaji Sridharan on this write up.
What you say is correct 100% and let me please clarify I am not defending Bal Thackerey, but I guess what he meant is when hindu leaders are arrested nobody thinks of what Hindus will feel but arrest the guilty people, whereas the same thing doesn't happen for muslims. The issue of there sentiments will be hurt always plays a bigger role. I can quote an incident, I remember there was some religious maulana from Delhi who was accused in some case was not arrested only because he was a maulana and there will be problems if he gets arrested. Such things make hindus believe that there is no use of this country being the one where hindu live in majority, because minorities are always favored.
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