09 April 2009

Indian Taliban

I had a conversation with a BJP party member yesterday. It grew to a
debate, contained many arguments, and made me a better informed Indian
citizen.

No topic was spared and no depth too sacred in this exchange that led
to the proposed Ram temple, the demolition of the Babri Masjid,
terrorism, and a variety of other topics. It isn't as if this one
party member represents the entire party or its resultant standing
point on any issues, but some revelations cannot be ignored.

For the sake of convenience, I shall refer to this person as Mr. M.

It was my observation that the BJP was communal and had a communal
image that sparked off the entire exchange. The ground was neutral,
at a mutual friend's place, where neither of us had to hold back, be
politically conservative in our opinions, or defensive. I wish there
could be more opportunities like this.

M asked me why I thought the BJP was communal and I immediately
referred to the Babri Masjid, which he vehemently supported the
destruction of! He then reeled off a list of religious shrines and
places that were Hindu that were destroyed and/or converted to Masjids
and churches over the last few hundred years. He wouldn't buy my
argument that no matter what happened in those years, India was born
on the 15th of August 1947, and whatever we inherited had to be
treated as our heritage and respected.

M mentioned a few other disputed Hindu religious places that are under
attack by elements that, in the name of minority politics, wanted to
expand their hold over India. I conceded that those were wrong too,
and the ongoing legal dispute in itself indicated our constitutional
right to disagree and seek refuge under a law we all signed on for.
Then came the damning statement - that our Constitution was a piece of
paper that could be shredded and thrown out and written again as one
pleased!

When I disagreed, the threat came out - "Wait till we come to power
with 277 seats! After that we will show you how it is done!". Up
until this point, I thought we had a civil debate, not an open
challenge by a party member with an agenda of immense implications.

According to M, the BJP condemns the influence of Western culture,
completely and unabashedly condones and even appreciates the goons who
attacked people at a pub in Mangalore, does not want nuclear power,
wants us to wait for all the rivers in India to be linked so we have
plenty of hydro electric power, wants to raise the Hindu population to
proportionately match the growth of the Muslim population, wants to
build the Ram temple on the same ground as the broken Babri Masjid,
wants to bring back a Rama Rajya where money has no place, and
abundance and justice abound.

According to M, all the problems in India are due to the influence of
other cultures, and because of Indians imitating the West. He asked
me if a Christian putting his wife on a bus in India would kiss her
before she boarded. I said, "Probably not", and to that he asked me
how a Christian in America did exactly that. I asked him what the
relevance of his question was to the topic, and he said, "See how our
Christian behaves differently from an American Christian?". I offered
silence as a way of passing over a blatantly stupid argument. It was,
thankfully, taken.

Then came a very strange accusation - that I was a traitor to the
Hindu religion because I was a Hindu and chose to remain single. The
argument was that I did not contribute to maintaining the sufficient
population of Hindus, while being overtaken by those of Muslims! I
told him that was my personal choice and had nothing to do with
religion in any case. He said there is no such thing as personal
freedom in these matters, and that I had to learn how to live in
accordance to the expectations of the community and the country!

Now, I had to sneak in the question - so, since he is so against a lot
of things Muslims do and stand for, wants to destroy one of the
monuments that represents that faith, and compete with their
population through more Hindu births, would it be okay to call him
communal, and since he was a BJP party member, by implication made the
BJP a communal party? He said he is definitely anti-Muslim, and the
party was interested in Hindutva - the best and the only solution for
all of India's problems.

So, I asked him about Hindutva, and strangely got no visionary
explanation, a clarification that would blow my mind away, and make me
more curious. I got a roundabout allusion to an idea that if we
rolled back time to the days of King Rama, we would have a great,
prosperous, advanced, healthy and proud nation. I was told about
Shushrutha, the magical Indian surgeon (that left behind no
documentation of his work), about giants of men who lived in this land
that were very strong and courageous, and how foreigners used tricks
to defeat us in unfair, unethical battles.

Somehow we drifted through a few topics in bad taste and landed on Mr.
M's visit to Mumbai, where he saw women in short skirts that would
make any man think wrong thoughts (I wonder if Sita was dressed in a
short skirt when Ravana stole her!). I had to remind him that there
was something called freedom, and quite nicely, a law against indecent
exposure as well. Then I had him - he wanted all women to dress
"decently" and behave "properly" in public. I had to voice my opinion
that no matter what, social change could never be externally enforced.
Quite astonishingly, he reminded me of Islamic societies where indeed
such laws were there and enforced quite a bit!

He also accused me of supporting anti-Indian causes and pointed out
how badly we did with "freedom of the press" during the 26th Nov
attacks in Mumbai. Barkha Dutt's incompetence really should be no
reason for us withdrawing her freedom, and I told him as much, what
with her being a Padma Shri and what not. He told me the Padma Shri
could be bought! Now, I wonder what kind of vision people like this
would bring to restore any kind of faith in anything at all that we
call Indian.

So, I had to ask him how the BJP thought nothing about bringing the
country to its knees when one of its airliners was hijacked, conceded
every inch of ground to terrorists, and released dangerous terrorists
who were in prison, and would come back to attack India later. His
answer was that the BJP did not have a majority government and that
things would be a lot different this time around.

To me, and from here on, these are just my opinions - there's no
difference between the Taliban and lunatics like M. There is no
difference between the party and its members. With members like this,
you cannot hope for a progressive party, modern thinking, or realistic
agendas. With the BJP, we're in for a Talibanisation of India.
Nothing less. (I can actually see how things will be different this
time around if these lunatics come to power!)

This thing called Hindutva is a concept that has some merit, but is
not a complete idea worth considering for any sort of implementation.
It most certainly has no place in my vision of India and it most
definitely invites my ire and scathing criticism when it okays the
destruction of national monuments in the name of religion and
correcting history. What kind of a retard has ever succeeded in doing
that, and to what avail? I really don't think the Babri Masjid is in
any way a shameful part of India's past, till it was broken by "RSS
Cadre". I think the Vidhana Soudha building in Bangalore, that
proclaims "Government work is God's work" is a shameful reminder of
our present sorry state of incompetence and corruption.

To me, a fort, a stable, a grinding stone and a place of worship from
historic times deserve equal respect as treasures from our past, and
if Germany can maintain its Nazi era concentration camp sites without
hanging its head in shame, there's absolutely no reason for any Indian
to feel threatened by a mosque that was supposedly built over a
destroyed temple. The entire story is part of the history of my land,
and the duty of our country to protect it. I see no difference
between the destruction of the Babri Masjid, and the destruction of
Buddhist monuments by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Soon after the attack on the pub in Mangalore, Advani was quick enough
to accept that people should be free to go where they want, and
proceeded to distance himself from such despicable attacks on personal
freedoms. But his "cadre" is very much for such attacks. On the
ground, it won't be Shri Advaniji upholding the Indian Constitution.
It will very much be monkeys like M who will use every political sinew
to twist us into a rotten existence.

How dare he tell me that I could live in fear every Dec. 6th for the
sake of Hinduism? One day in a year, that's all, he tells me! I
would be pissed and fuming through my ears if some idiot tells me I
should live in fear for a heartbeat and I'll be damned if I give into
a party that subscribes to views like this.

I remember an afternoon in Bangalore when a group of people claiming
to be from the Indian Insitutute of Science came around asking for
donations to build the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Why they could not say
they were devotees of Lord Rama instead of seeking some sort of a
refuge of respectability under the secular name of the "Indian"
Institute of Science, while supporting a clearly anti national act of
destruction in the name of religion? The Indian Taliban are
everywhere, but thank God, India hasn't given them a chance yet.

India was born on the 15th of August 1947, and anyone who thinks the
Constitution is a mere piece of paper is an ignorant fool, who doesn't
deserve any of the highest ideals India stands for. India may not be
anywhere near perfect in its collective standpoint, but that high
ground is grand enough and beautiful enough to deserve our complete
support as Indians.

It is already disgusting that your vote should be used not to select
amongst great parties. It is very disturbing that you should choose
to vote in order to prevent certain agendas from gaining mileage, but
the idea that is India is going through a process of clarification, of
definition, and it is coming to age on its own.

This idea should not be hijacked, sidetracked or ignored by any
political party. It should be nurtured and given its chance. There
are thousands of examples of it working, for every instance of it
coming unstuck. Those that do not subscribe to the vision of India as
a modern, diverse, vibrant, progressive collective may kindly find
their own country to Talibanise.

2 comments:

Acoustic Dreamer said...

You must well be out of your senses to compare BJP with Taliban. Relax. They are not going to flog women, nor put a ban on music, nor create or instigate suicide bombers, not create schools for juvenille terrorists, nor place bombs in local train compartments of Mumbai, nor kill the "infidels". I can give you a bigger list of the Congress' "achievements" for a better part of post-1947 and how even when they had power to better our lives for more than 50 years, they haven't done ANYTHING at all!!
Do you know for starters that almost 87000 crore...yes you read that right, 87000 crore rupees has vanished from the Government treasury? And I am not saying this. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India says this. Go and google it up. But no media will ever report it. Because the Media is bought out completely by the Congress! The Congress plans to give CBSE certification to Madarssa students when even Pakistan is closing down almost 6000 Madarsas. It has given 50 crore rupees grant to Harvard and Cambridge Universities! Why? Have Indian students got every facility? It gave 3000 crore donation to Afghanistan for building a super-speciality hospital. Why? And why is it that none of us know this? That's because no media will ever talk about it. And the one-sided propaganda will continue. After every terrorist attack, the government holds talks with terrorist nations. Nothing really has changed here in Mumbai after 26/11. If another attack happens in the future, the aftermath is going to be the same. Or worse. The Congress has got it all wrong. Being stern against terror does NOT mean that they are against a community. When on the other hand they themselves shout from rooftops that no community has anything to do with terrorism. Varun Gandhi for his "hate-speech" was put behing bars and was slapped with NSA. Why not such hasty action against even hardened terrorists?? If these questions do not disturb you or force you out of your old ideas/concepts/loyalties, then you are still in deep slumber. This time please vote for a change. The BJP is no saint either! But I am may feel more secure or atleast have the satisfaction that for a fear of a particular community's feelings getting hurt, they won't stop from taking appropriate action against the perpetrators of terror.
Vote.
Vote for change. Please!

BSK said...

I have a grouse against the BJP and you have enlightened me about your grouse against the Congress. Why the automatic connection?

Where have I said that the Congress is fault free, my friend? The Congress being full of hideous schemes of their own does not absolve the BJP from its own stupidity. India should never be blackmailed into such limited choice, and that is the point.