The
recent construction of an illegal mosque in Delhi is symptomatic of the crass
politics of minorityism played by the Congress which is desperate to win Muslim
votes.
The nonchalance with which the MLA of Delhi’s
Matia Mahal constituency, Mr Shoaib Iqbal, went about raising a mosque at
Subhash Park on the pretext that that was the exact spot where an ancient
mosque existed is both shocking and not-so-shocking at the same time.
The incident is shocking because the
construction of the mosque on land that belonged to North Delhi Municipality
and had been leased to Delhi Metro, went on for days but the administration did
nothing. It was only after the other locals objected did the Delhi Government
intervene and finally a court order was issued to halt the construction.
However, by then a massive wall for the proposed mosque had already been built.
On the other hand, the incident is not so
shocking because this is what is to be expected from our Government under
Congress rule. The entire system bends backwards to please one community to the
exclusion of all others in what is drummed up as secularism in India. And
hence, some clerics of the community ask the Government to prevent author
Salman Rushdie from visiting India, and the Government works to keep him out.
Similarly, Muslim leaders in Hyderabad manhandle another famous author Tasleema
Nasreen for her writings and the Government gets her to leave the country as
well but does not punish the perpetrators.
Worse still, in Muslim majority Jammu &
Kashmir, residents of the State have been thrown out lock, stock and barrel
because they are Hindus. But the Congress-led Union Government that is supposed
to protect the basic rights of every citizen does not even talk about this
exodus. On the other hand, the 2002 violence in Gujarat remains a talking point
for the Centre even when its alleged victims want to get on with their lives
and forget the past.
In Kerala, where the Muslim League is a
partner of the Congress-led United Front State Government, the former gets to
appoint five Ministers as against its quota of four and then goes about
communalising the State’s education system much to the collective shock of the
other communities. This forced the two major Hindu communities in Kerala, the
Nairs and the Ezhavas, to come together and oppose such appeasement politics.
Even the Christian party, Kerala Congress, is disturbed.
The Congress in its eagerness to monopolise
the Muslim vote-bank has gone all out not just by bending backwards but also
genuflect before that community. Consequently, communalism now threatens to
divide this country.
The Prime Minister has said on record that minorities
(read Muslims) will be given first priority on development funds. His colleague
had sought to institute a Muslim-only-quota within the OBC quota but could not
implement it due to the intervention of the Supreme Court.
Across the country, Islamic religious schools
or madrasas are
being given the same status as regular schools affiliated to accredited
secondary education boards. As a result, certificates issued by madrasas will now have the same
value as that of accredited schools even though the former are usually not
registered and do not teach secular subjects.
To make matters worse, the Congress is now
proposing a separate Muslim banking system where there will be no interest
rates. If this proposal is implemented, soon enough India will have two
economies in one country. One economy where interest rates will be determined
by a central bank and all activities will be governed by the RBI’s laws and
regulation, and a second economy over which the Government will have no
control.
Already, there are two sets of rules as far
as family laws are concerned. For instance, while polygamy is considered
criminal for the rest of the country, it is legal for Muslims. Similarly, with
respect to family planning, Muslim couples are allowed multiple children while
non-Muslims are penalised for having more than two.
Thus, the Congress is pushing the country
towards a duality. A dual state that allows a Hindu minority community in one
part of the country, to be thrown out on the one hand, while encouraging the
pampering of Muslim minorities; a State wherein a majority of children will
learn English, some regional languages, modern science and humanities while a
minority of children will learn Arabic and some Islamic religious texts.
Self-styled secularists in the Congress seem
to be unconcerned if this division leads to political consequences. Even the
carrying out of a death sentence handed down to the terrorist who attacked
Parliament has been stopped keeping in mind ‘communal considerations’.
This very cleft-foot attitude of some
political parties is encouraging the separatist forces as well. In Tamil Nadu,
the ‘Tamil Eelam’ demand has raised its ugly head once again. Yet, the hanging
of Rajiv Gandhi’s killers is being resisted on grounds of regionalism. The DMK
supremo may have been prevented from going overboard with his ‘Tamil Eelam’
demand when he sought to inaugurate a conference of Tamil separatists, but it
was only at the last minute.
In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress regime
has thrown all caution to the wind in promoting Muslim irredentism by giving
pensions to Muslim clerics, according official status to madrasas etc. In Uttar Pradesh, the
country’s largest State, the party in power is totally subservient to the
Muslim orthodoxy that wants no change in family laws applicable to their
community only. Other pseudo-secular parties are only making the situation
worse by competing among themselves to placate such communal irredentism.
What one recently witnessed at Subhash Park
in Delhi was inevitable in such a circumstance, where one community is
encouraged to believe that it can get away with separatist demands to demarcate
themselves away from the majority of the country’s culture, ethos and even the
economy.
Otherwise Mr Iqbal would not have dared to
begin an illegal construction on Government land and then get his men to turn
it into a prayer ground while the authorities shut their eyes to his flagrant
violation of the law of the land. This is the second such incident in the
nation’s capital after the Jangpura land grab and mosque construction case.
There is more than symbolism in this: It is
now clear that the communal challenge to the country’s authority has reached
the national capital itself.
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