Author: T.R. Gopalan, Madurai
Publication: BJP Today
Date: December 16-31, 2000
This relates to the letter of Syed
Sahabuddin (BJP TODAY Nov. 1630)
So far as Haj pilgrimage is concerned
it is not the question of anyone's right to travel abroad. It is the question
of the host country not being able to make satisfactory arrangements regarding
stay, medication etc. Saudi Government is insisting on India sending less
number of pilgrims. But our Government is continuing to send more and more.
Sahabuddin says that he always opposed
the subsidy extended by the Government. But if he is honest in his opposition,
he must persuade Muslims not to accept any subsidy, the major portion of
which is after all Hindu taxed money and hence gotten from kafirs. Syed
Sahib says that this subsidy was being granted since 1970. Since three
decades, they are utilising this sullied and "napak" money. Now it is time
they rise up to say no. They cannot be allowed to run with the hare and
hunt with the hound.
I may ask Syed Sahib to refresh
his memory of history. During the British days Babri monument was demolished.
Immediately, the then English Collector imposed punitive tax on Hindus
and reconstructed the monument and asked the Muslims to go and offer Namaz
there. But Muslims said that a monument constructed with the money of Hindus
could not be considered a mosque according to Koran and hence they would
not come and offer Namaz.
I may ask, if a place of worship
somewhere in Ayodhya could become unworthy of Namaz simply because it was
constructed out of Hindu money, how worshipping in Mecca, the most pious
place of all the Muslims of the world become worthy when the pilgrimage
is subsidised mostly by Hindu money? I may ask Syed Sahabuddin to reform
himself before reproaching others.
Syed Sahib says that the Shankaracharya
could inaugurate Parliament session only after India declares herself a
theocratic state. If England without declaring itself a theocratic state
could invite the head of the Church to inaugurate Parliament sessions and
yet get acclaimed as a secular state, why not India? Syed Sahib says that
he was grateful for small mercies. Mercy is not something earned by way
of right but by way of generosity of the bestower. If such an act boomerangs
on the bestower himself then he is bound to bow out.
If Syed's opposition is real he
must persuade Farook Abdullah to deesist usurping hundreds of crores of
money offered by Hindu Bhaktas in Vaishnavi Devi Temple in Jammu, why Hindu
money is required particularly when all the Hindus have been driven out
of Srinagar. This action of Farook does not stand to commonsense.
Syed Sahib says that he would believe
BJP is for Muslims only when supported by deeds. One can wake up a man
really sleeping but not one who pretends to be sleeping. Even after all
the special concession that are denied to the majority here and that unavailable
in the world are bestowed on Muslims in India do not satisfy Syed, then
no more sensible step can ever satisfy him.
T.R. Gopalan
Madurai
