Faces Behind the Thin Screen by: Mohammad Adeeb (Former Member of Parliament)

Faces Behind the Thin Screen

Modi’s Intentional Stony Silence, Encouraging Culprits.

Real Players of Partition Game Must be Exposed

by: Mohammad Adeeb

(Former Member of Parliament)

The moment, India was divided into two nations, Indian Muslims, as a community also got chopped into two—Indian Muslims and Pakistani Muslims. A good portion of the community migrated to be a part of the newly born nation. It’s an open secret now that Pakistan was not solely created by Jinnah, but had come into being, with the warm will and full agreement of the Indian leadership—sans Maulana Azad. In fact, most of congress leaders also desired a Pakistan, in order to secure, their monopoly in the remaining part of India. But, an undeniable fact is that, those Muslims, who chose to stay in India and refused to go to Jinnah’s Pakistan, were evidently against the very idea of Pakistan. Otherwise like others, they could migrate enmass to the so-called new homeland of Muslims. It’s an evident truth that all those Muslims, who preferred not to leave their ancestral homes and abandon their places of birth, as they honestly thought, India was their only homeland. They never really wanted any Pakistan, which was in fact, the outcome of a conspiracy, schemed by the British rulers and a host of the leaders in undivided India, who were greedy of posts and positions, in two separate countries. Majority of Muslims in India of those days was against the very demand of Pakistan. Similarly, today’s Indian Muslims can in no way be held responsible for the partition of the country. Needless to say that the present Indian Muslim Community comprises the new generation of Muslims, who have been born, in Independent India.

Ironically, the Muslims, who by their choice, stayed in India have been treated by the majority community in all worst possible manners. The just approach of the government and people of India should have been to value the sentiments of the Muslims, who had willingly decided to stay back, in India. Their commitment to secularism and intolerance should have been termed as credible and honourable. But, what actually came up was a hostile attitude, which turned the lives of Muslims in India, into hell. They have neither been protected, nor encouraged and nor made a partner in the overall progress of the new nation, during last 68 years or so. The new innocent generation of Muslims in India is held responsible, for the partition of the country, without any fault of theirs, and they are being punished for the sins, they have never committed. No sane person can endorse this tyrannical practice. But, no body seems to be ready to acknowledge the truth of history that Indian Muslims were neither for Pakistan before partition and nor they are pro-Pakistan, today. Indian Muslim community has been victimised through all sorts of aggressive and oppressive tactics, threatening their lives, honour and property. They have incessantly been tortured, physically and mentally, for all these years.

Now the situation has taken a new turn for worse. Since, the BJP has come into power on its own, following last general elections and Mr. Narendra Modi has taken reins of power as Prime Minister, the Muslims at large, have been targeted regularly for the last one and a half year. If one Dick asks Muslims to leave India enmass and settle in Pakistan, then the other Tom threatens to destroy all mosques and turn them into temples and another Harry demands a blanket ban on cow slaughter or even slaughtering the buffaloes. Simultaneously, some fanatic elements lure poor Muslims to abandon their faith and enter the fold of Hinduism. They even make luxurious offers, which are never supposed to be turned into reality. It seems that earlier whatever feeble and formal checks were in force to contain the communal forces and merchants of hate have now been removed. The intentional, stony silence of Prime Minister Modi and the other top Brass of BJP, leads one to the simple conclusion that they are all equal partners in encouraging and patronising communal, fascist and fanatic elements, who are on the prowl now. Obviously, if an incumbent government, takes tough instance, in any regard, no one can afford to oppose it, leave alone, challenging it.

The nadir is that even a Chief Minister in chair—Haryana CM. Mr. M.L. Khattar—advises Muslims, either to abandon beef eating or cross the border to live in Pakistan. This is perhaps the worst example of a responsible person, not less than a Chief Minister of a State to resort to such irresponsible pronouncements, like a slogan monger in the market. Perhaps, he takes India, as his personal estate, where he rules the roost, as a theocrat. Here, let’s ask them what would be the fate of those non-Muslims, in a larger number, of course who are habitual consumers of cow-meat.

Now, it’s happening in India, our motherland that an incumbent Chief Minister of a State—who is supposed to be the guardian of all citizens in his State—issues irresponsible and stupid statements, before the media, like the above-mentioned one and the Prime Minister and other senior leaders of the party, simply perform their natural and moral duly, merely by saying that ‘this might be his (CM’s) personal view’. They do not take any action in this regard, except some lip service, which is always available in abundance. Chief Minister’s post is the top position in a State and he is supposed to restrain from loose talking, like slogan mongers. By now, he must have been in the dock for such dirty utterances or should have been dismissed from his post, to save the situation.

In fact, all such practices are a part of a larger conspiracy and a dubious scheming, aimed at putting all the secular forces in the country, at stake, in general and Muslims in particular. This is all evident from the ugly events, which have taken place in near past. For instance, Shiv Sena’s vandalism against Pakistan Cricket Control Board, hackling of an MLA in Kashmir, blackening of the face of an elder man, dragging, beating and ultimately killing of an innocent Muslim in Dadri and that merely on the basis of a baseless rumour, targeting Muslims by Sakshi Maharaj of BJP in Orissa and not only that, he promised to establish complete Hindutva in the country by 2019. As I said earlier, this is all a part of the conspiracies, hatched several years ago. The unveiled objective of this unholy tactics is to eliminate secularism from the country, altogether and impose Hindutva on the people for ever. This is only the beginning of the execution of evil planning, as the fanatics see a favouring authority, at the helm, at the centre and in various states.

Now, this is a moment of great concern for all Muslims. If the community and its so-called leadership, still prefer to hide faces in the sand, like an ostrich or they still choose to be comfortable in their ivory towers, and do not wake up to the prevailing situation, even now, then no body can save them from what is in store for them and what is in the offing; they may either be annihilated or made slaves, deprived of their faith and liberty. They would be subjected to all sorts of tortures and tyrannies. Neither, their honour nor their lives would be spared, in the changed circumstances and then, no body would descend from any sky to rescue them, as they would be victims of their own deeds, faults and follies.

Perhaps, due to the compulsions of the governance and on account of some strategic demands, the Prime Minister, some of his ministers and even the BJP President, seem to be worried, due to the threatening and poisonous statements and propagation of hate by some elements, in their own ranks, hurting Muslims, at large, adding salts to their existing injuries and drifting them away from BJP, further, on one hand and affecting non-Muslim secular forces, on the other, to the extent that all such people are losing their faith—whatsoever it was—in the incumbent government and the political party in power, getting fed up of the both, day in and day out. Beyond that, such irresponsible practices are spoiling the credibility of the Government, globally. Hence, in order to mend the situation, somehow, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley have begun to stress, in their speeches publicly and before the media, on the point that they themselves, their government and their party are at all not linked with all the threatening and poisonous slogan mongering, by some of their own party members and all such utterances are their personal acts. But, again this is only a theatrical gesture, in an effort to deceive people and to make them believe that the powers in place and the party at the helm, have nothing to do with all this. But I do not think any body would buy these hollow explanations, as this new tactics is also a part of the old game of misguiding fellow countrymen and just another unholy attempt to make them fool, once again.

But, the million dollar question is; if the ‘sincere and sane’ leaders of BJP really disagree with slogan mongers, then why they are not reprimanded, punished and thrown away from the government and party. The mischief has gone to the alarming extent that Giri Raj Singh, a BJP leader, had announced, at an election rally, and that too in the presence of P.M. Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh that those, who are opposed to Modi, becoming PM of the country, may wilfully migrate to Pakistan. The Election Commission took a serious notice of the statement and began legal proceedings, against him. Resultantly, he fled away from the scene and later surrendered in a court of law. Now, the same Giri Raj Singh is a union minister. What message is hidden in such a practice? What does Modi really want or prefer to do? Does it speak of his actual thinking?

When, poor Akhlaq of Dadri was beaten to death by some 200 BJP workers, then leaders from all political parties—though for the sake of vote bank politics or a mere show biz—visited the victim’s family in the village and offered condolence and a few words of sympathy. But our Prime Minister, not even spoke a word in that regard. He maintained his strategic silence, on such a sensitive issue.

The President of India, Hon. Pranab Mukherjee, in a highly responsible manner, sensed the gravity of the state of affairs and felt greatly concerned over the prevailing situation. He has a bright political, past behind him and is bestowed with a rich experience. He rose to the occasion and condemned all such happenings. In fact, he had realised, where the Gandhi’s nation was heading to? Then, Modiji emerged from his slumber and expressed his grief on Aklaq’s death, in a very formal manner. His grief waited for a full fortnight to come out and that too in an election rally.

Let’s see, this is the attitude of the Prime Minister of 130 crore of people, including 25 crore Muslims. The conclusion is that the present state of affairs is simply distressing and pessimistic, for Indian Muslims. Nevertheless, there is a ray of hope, at the last corner of the tunnel, that a good majority of secular people still exists in the country. The evident proof of this fact is that some Sahitya Akademi members have openly spoken against the growing intolerance and rising communalism, in the country. A number of awardees have returned their awards and titles, as a mark of protest. Not only that, numerous scientists, artists and film makers have also joined them. They all have raised their collective voice of protest and anguish, in a unified manner. They have made the whole world believe, a fresh that secularism and sanity are still alive in India.

This beautiful development fills new confidence, in people, like us. It assures all that if such elements are still alive and pro-active in the country, then the evil forces of fanaticism, communalism and fascism would continuously be defeated, not only once, but again and again.

If Mr. Modi, really believes in his pronouncement that he is the Prime Minister of all the people of the nation, then his first and foremost duty is that he should make his politics transparent. The way, his government is serious in bringing the documents, regarding Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s disappearance and mysterious death, then in the same vein, it is even more important that the political players, functional behind the game of partition of the country should also be brought to the book, so that the reality may be exposed and the RSS, its affiliated outfits and other like-minded people would become aware of the actual state of affairs. Thus, possibly a long standing misunderstanding may also vanish and the truth may finally prevail.