Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Am I Communal?

From some of the responses I'm getting I'm getting a feeling that I might be sounding communal, anti-Muslim to be more specific. That's why let me try to introspect into what might have caused this.
I've said that we've to be very harsh on terrorists and if that means indiscriminate killings, we shouldn't mind doing that. History says me that more innocent people are always killed to contain a few terrorists, but that pays off because the few slain terrorists could have killed much more than the few hundred innocent people killed in the encounters. That's what all governments do, be it Russia or Germany or US or Israel. I'm equally vocal against the LTTEs, all of whom happen to be Hindus. People like Karunanidhi shouldn't have the audacity to sympathize for the killings of Tamil speaking people in Sri Lanka because most of them are LTTE sympathizers. Resorting back to my old bearded man, Tagore - Anyay je kare, ar anyay je sahe, tava ghreena jena tare treena sama dahe - meaning "he who commits an unlawful act and he who tolerates an unlawful act, your hatred should crush both of them under your feet like grass". I think this is the most violent form of expression from Tagore. His writings never talk about even little harm to people and animals and plants. A terrorist and a sympathizer of terrorism are both equally criminal and should be punished under law with the strongest of punishments. Politics shouldn't come in between tackling terrorism. Whenever regionalism or religion comes in the way of government actions against terrorism things get complicated and finally inefficient. None of my official identity cards, passport, PAN, driving license, voter's ID, ration card etc have the mention of my mother tongue or my religion. My identity is that of an Indian and anything else is just ignored officially. Why can't the same be true every where? Some of my close friends happen to be Muslim. Their religion or their ethnicity rarely come to my mind. And to be very frank I don't find any similarity between them and the Islamic fundamentals. That I'm hell bent to eradicate the Islamic fundamentalists from our country doesn't mean I want to wage a war against my friends also. My friends are Indians first and Muslims much later. The very idea of Hindustan doesn't link to any religion. Anyone staying in this part of the world has been referred to as Hindu and Hindustani for centuries. Hindustan has nothing to do with any religion or language. Akbar was a Hindustani very much like a Shivaji or Guru Govind Singh or Rana Pratap Singh. Historically even a Hindu is not a religious entity, but a geographical entity. Anyone staying in the land of Sindhu is a Hindu or Hindustani or Indian or what-so-ever you call. But anyway, I don't want to go back so much into history. The bottom line is that anything that strikes at the very concept of India should be dealt with the most stringent actions. If that means killing more people belonging to a particular community so be it. Does this mean I am communal?

No comments: