Friday, September 18, 2015

AR Rahman. Fatwa. Ghar Wapsi.


There is no way you can equate the terror-mongering, suicide-bombing fanaticism of extreme Islamists to petty vandalism (on Valentine’s day) and loose 'communal' comments of the so called 'extremist' Hindu groups.
There is nothing in the Hindu world that will remotely counter/compare with the fatwa-issuing-and-beheading reptilian cold bloodedness of Muslim fundamentalists.
Even the demolition of one Babri Masjid blown up a hundred times is a molehill when placed next to the mountain of a thousand temples razed by Islamic ‘rulers’ of the past (so what if there was no constitution then?, the present day Muslims hero worship all those invaders, even Aurangzeb! and condone their depradation), or with the festoons of Pakistani flags in Muslim areas of present India, or with the open support given to Kashmiri separatists by others of the same ‘brotherhood’, or with the ten thousand ‘Innocent’ Muslims who joined Yakub Memon’s funeral procession.

There is no way you can compare the million Hindus voices condemning one Godhra and their insatiable craving for secularism and Muslim welfare, with the thundering silence from the Muslim community over the slaughter of five Lakh or more Kashmiri Hindus, over the bull dozing of temples in Pakistan and Bangladesh, over terrorism, over the blowing up of Bamiyan Budhhas by the Taliban.

But the media does it again.

“Who are you to dictate to AR Rahman to do Ghar Wapsi?” was the opening comment of the debate.
When and where did the remark from VHP sound like a dictation???
They played the clip again and again, hoping to make up with quantity, for what was lacking/completely absent in quality, but in vain. It just did not sound like a dictat, and not remotely close to a Fatwa on someone’s head.
It was a simple invitation. A message of welcome. There was neither threat, nor compulsion, nor persuasion with incentives.
But the media went on.

In fact, the invitation for Ghar Wapsi must have come as a relief to the media. They would have found it awkward, somewhat uncomfortable to condemn the Fatwa issuing Muslim group.
The VHP, by issuing an invitation for Ghar Wapsi, has surely come to the media’s rescue. Now they can take all their ‘condemnation’ to the Hindu group, assure the Muslims that ‘look, we are not condemning you alone, we are condemning the Hindus as well; in fact, we would not condemn you at all, but what to do, compulsions”, and keep the Muslims appeased.

These were the same dogs who fought for the rights of Christian missionaries to propagate their religion, quoting the Constitution, fundamental rights and legalities again and again.
These were the very fellows who hijacked one statement from Obama about restriction of religious freedom in India and used it freely to support the missionaries in their shameful maligning of idol worship and polytheism.
To be sure, these are the same people who have looked the other way as the Vatican funded church has converted people of independent India to Christianity every day using money, other incentives, persuasion and what not.

And today, when VHP merely invites a once Hindu AR Rahman to return to the Hindu faith....... they declare war against him!
When the VHP spokesman gave it back to them in their own language and said, “the Constitution gives me the right to propagate my religion”, the journo fumbles, for jut a second and then quickly recovers and says, “It’s not about legality, it’s about propriety”!!
Really?
Where was their sense of propriety when told about the kind of derisive stories the Christian missionaries were telling in tribal villages about Rama and Krishna. They said freedom of speech was a ‘legal right’.
When told ‘kissing in public’ might be against propriety, they said ‘freedom of expression’ was a ‘fundamental right’.
When told about banning of meat for mere four days as a courtesy to a Jain minority, they said “People have a ‘right’ to eat what they want, who are you to tell them not to?”; there was no consideration for propriety then.
When some dumb Bollywood actor recorded a video on ‘Sex outside marriage- my choice’, these fellows weren’t thinking of propriety.
When told about giving preference to Sanskrit over German, it did not occur to them that it was only ‘proper’ to nurture a language of Indian origin over a foreign one. They talked of students’ ‘right’ to choose German.

Isn’t it ironical that the thing the media exposes most is itself?
I am hoping, that despite all this, if people still watch these news channels, it is for the same reason as they watch ‘Halkat Jawani’ by Kareen Kapoor, or a ‘Baby doll’ by Sunny Leone, or ‘Munni Badnaam Hui’ by Malaika Arora.
Cheap entertainment and titillation.
Most importantly, I hope, there is NO TAKE AWAY.

The media is definitely wrong in equating Islamic Terror with RSS Hindutva.
But the viewers are absolutely right in equating Presstitutes with Prostitutes.

2 comments:

Nitish Ratnam said...

I have been a big fan of AR Rahman ever since his debut and feel that his music is brilliant because it has generous chunks of spirituality which can come only from an evolved mind and soul. That someone has issued a Fatwa on him and questioned his allegiance to his religion is highly condemnable. One remembers the recent incidents in Bangladesh where several secular bloggers were hacked to death. The people who commit these travesties are so attached to their philosophies, their wrong interpretation of their religion that their judgement is clouded and they lose sight of humanity. No one can deny that Islamic fundamentalism and the terrorism due to this has been a problem both for Islam and the world in the last 2 decades. However the solution is to not stereotype Muslims and assume that most of them are baying for the blood of the rest of the religions. In reality it is just a very tiny percentage of Muslims who are incorrigibly fundamentalist to a point where they think that other religions and followers need to be destroyed. A vast majority of Muslims in this world wish for peace and peaceful co-existence. In light of this, it was very heartening to see scores of Muslims who came out in support of AR Rahman in the social media. Every age has it’s own trouble makers, be it the Turks in the medieval ages, Nazi Germany in the 20th century. Islam should eventually tide over it’s current crisis and root out fundamentalism with support from rest of the world.
Its very true that Hindus are a very accommodating people and this is the strong point of Hinduism (and not a weakness). On the other hand it’s very wrong to assume that Hindu fundamentalism is limited to ‘petty vandalism’ during Valentines day. It has taken a much serious turn over the last few decades. In the recent weeks and years there has been a Fatwa (the Hindu version of it) on eminent personalities and it has been executed as well. Several anti-superstition activists and rationalists have been mercilessly murdered, the most famous among them being Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi. We see so many Hindu fanatics (and some opportunist politicians) on the social media who are so intolerant and spread lies and malice. They have no respect for other people’s opinions and try to impose their wrong interpretation of Hinduism as the correct and supreme ideology. They try to hijack the legacy of true patriots like Bhagat Singh and Bose and use it to their own advantage. They try to rewrite history with their own versions and make gullible people believe what they say (much like the authoritarian regime in the book 1984). Just today an eminent personality like Nayantara Sahgal returned her Sahitya Akademi award in protest against this kind of mindset in people. Now I’m 100% sure that the backlash against her will begin in a few hours’ time from all of the right wing guys in the social media , given that she is a niece of Nehru (although that isn’t relevant to her present actions).
Again I’m not saying that these people are a majority, they are as of now just a tiny percentage, but certainly the rot has begun. For Hinduism, it is very clear that the danger is from within. It’s our duty to guard Hinduism from this kind of intolerance and madness.

Nitish Ratnam said...

http://www.indiaresists.com/tum-bilkul-hum-jaise-nikle-a-pakistani-poets-message-to-india/