Author: R.S. Bhargava
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 7, 2002
URL: http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=2195
Introduction: The majority community
in this country has been rendered silent and defensive
The nation today is clearly divided
into two groups. The electronic and print media, as well as the so-called
secular politician, are clearly siding with the minorities, obviously to
appease them and to secure their votebanks. On the other side of the divide,
the majority community remains as ever the silent sufferer - unable to
raise its voice for fear of being dubbed as Hindu fundamentalists. All
kinds of crime committed by anti- social elements in Gujarat are being
attributed to the members of the RSS, BJP, VHP, without any investigation
or verification. This only creates further hatred and divisions in society.
Yet, it is a known fact that these
very groups have always remained on the forefront during times of any natural
calamity in any part of the country, or indeed when politicians tried to
impose the infamous emergency upon the people and when all democratic rights
were suspended at the stroke of a pen by these very secularists. At that
stage, the media crawled when they were only asked to bend.
It is extremely painful to read
any editorial or writings by columnists on the Gujarat riots, as none of
them, to the best of my knowledge, has even tried to go into the Godhra
issue in depth and discover and dare to publish the real motivations behind
such a horrendous human tragedy. By no stretch of even the wildest imagination
could a crowd of more than 2,000 people collect with petrol bombs, pull
the chain of the train and set a bogie on fire within a few minutes.
The prime minister, who raised the
issue in his famous speech at Goa, was labelled a Hindu fundamentalist.
The reports of the speech that were carried were very distorted. One would
like to ask these people whether it is a crime to demand to know who the
attackers at Godhra were, and what there motivations could have been. To
my mind, the reasons for such extreme actions have been provided by one
of the tallest personalities on the world stage, the former president of
the US, Bill Clinton.
In his famous lecture series in
the UK, after the September 11 attack on the WTC, he said - and I take
the liberty to quote from his speech -''There are a 100 million kids who
never go to school. Part of our problem in Afghanistan and in the Muslim
world is all these kids could not go to public school, so they went to
madarasas where they were indoctrinated instead of being educated.'' He
further adds: ''It is no accident that most of these terrorists came from
Muslim countries that were not democracies.''
It is these very madarasas which
have been consistently producing quality products over the years in the
form of the Ghaznis, Ghoris, Babars and hundreds of other invaders. Today,
they continue to produce bin Ladens, Omar Sheikhs, and Shahi Imams, who
do not feel an iota of shame in regarding themselves as Islamic heroes.
It is people such as these who draw
great strength from the unstinted and assured support they receive from
our media - and secularists - for obvious reasons. These people are also
confident that in India they will not only go unpunished but it will be
the majority community who get all the blame.
