Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 22, 2008
Jammu continues to burn as Hindu nationalists
struggle alone but undaunted against sabre-toothed partisans of Allah who
seek to efface all vestiges of civilisational heritage from the land of Rishi
Kashyap. Backed by a de-nationalised media and a shameless political dispensation
at the Centre, the events in Jammu & Kashmir must be seen in the context
of a perverse drama enacted in Parliament on 21-22 July 2008, when the UPA
won a tainted trust vote to pursue a subordinate alliance with Washington.
We shall never know if the Islamic political
theatre witnessed in Parliament was scripted or pure ad-libbing; certainly
it was impressive. The backdrop was the warning by the Left and Bahujan Samaj
Party that Indian Muslims were opposed to the nuclear deal with the United
States. This gave the erroneous impression that Hindus favoured surrendering
national sovereignty to the US, a falsehood abetted by an effete BJP leadership
that coyly endorsed the substance of the deal and strategic alliance, while
siding with the Opposition in the matter of the trust vote. This absurd stand
left the party with egg on its face; the un-exposed sting operation on cash-for-abstention
increased its discomfort; and the 'dominant faction' had to take full responsibility
for the fiasco.
The brouhaha over the Muslim vote, however,
pushed the ruling coalition to prove that Muslims in Parliament were on its
side. Mr Salahuddin Owaisi of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen shrewdly defended
his decision to side with the Government by enumerating the enormous financial
outlays made exclusively for Muslims. This set the tone for the unwholesome
projection that the Muslim community alone could legitimately endorse or oppose
Government policy. Ms Mehbooba Mufti's shrill ranting about the Babri Masjid
and Gujarat riots, and demand that Jammu & Kashmir be treated with extra
sensitivity, augmented the view that the UPA needed to pamper Muslim leaders
alone.
But it was Mr Omar Abdullah -- much celebrated
since by the anti-Hindu media as the 'star' of the trust vote -- who took
the cake, raging against the aggrieved Amarnath pilgrims and claiming to speak
as a "Muslim and an Indian". Now, the first thing a bona fide Indian
would know is that Hindustan has a hoary Hindu ancestry, and that it is impossible
to be truly Indian without having some kind of 'Hindu face'. Interestingly,
Mr Farooq Abdullah takes care to make nominal obeisance to Bharat Mata, Sri
Ram, and often visits Tirupati Balaji.
Mr Omar Abdullah, however, pretending shock
at the allegation that Kashmiri Muslims want to stop the Amarnath Yatra, raged
against himself for staying put in the NDA Government during the Gujarat riots
-- a pure drama scripted for a communal constituency in the coming State Assembly
election. This pandering to a communal vote-bank was completed with the astonishing
question: "Why does the land need to be transferred (for Amarnath pilgrim
facilities)?"
One good reason is that Kashmir was an ancient
Hindu kingdom with a living Hindu civilisation, until centuries of religious
persecution and systematic ethnic cleansing reduced it to a cultural wasteland
where politicians can shamelessly ask why Hindus should be given a toehold
in land so carefully purged of their presence. It is irrelevant that ordinary
Muslims en route serve the pilgrims and make a living out of this service.
What is relevant is the political ethos of a State that declares Hindu pilgrims
to be 'guests', not citizens equally at home in another part of the same country!
Far from being ashamed of his intransigence,
the MP went on to defend persons born of foreign parents, an allusion to his
British, and Christian, mother. He spoke vaguely to the media about "the
passport that I carry", and it is unclear if he meant that he avails
of 'dual citizenship' laws in other countries. What we do know however, is
that Mr Omar Abdullah married a Hindu girl who naturally had to convert to
Islam, and that, unable to resist pressure from more fundamental political
rivals in his State, he has joined the bandwagon of competing for communal
votes at a very base level. This is what propels him to talk of strengthening
Article 370, when everyone knows it is in the interests of even Kashmiri Muslims
to throw it into the dustbin.
Jammu has understandably been in flames since
the so-called impassioned speech. The very next day, a young man, Kuldeep
Kumar, who was participating in a chain hungerstrike against revocation of
the land transfer to Sri Amarnath Shrine Board, died after consuming poison.
Several persons were injured in the protests that followed; curfew had to
be imposed in Kathua, Samba and Udhampur towns.
The situation took a turn for the worse when
thousands of protesters assembled at Bishnah town, Samba district, and seized
Kumar's body from the police who were trying to cremate it with old tyres
and kerosene oil. Armed with swords, sticks and rods, the protesters injured
half-a-dozen policemen and marched towards a police station, pelting stones.
The Prime Minister and Home Minister have remained mute spectators; and nothing
should be expected from the supine Governor. Since then, a collaborationist
media has not even reported that angry Hindus have been blockading the Kashmir
national highway! Renewed clashes between protesters and the police have now
let the cat out of the bag.
One does not have to subscribe to the foolish
view that the serial bomb blasts that took many lives in Bangalore and Ahmedabad,
with Surat narrowly averting a similar tragedy, were the handiwork of the
Centre to avert attention from the cash-for-votes scam. What cannot, however,
be avoided is the perception that the blasts were intended to inform a Hindu
audience (hence BJP-ruled States) that others will decide the moments of peace
and the hours of anguish.
E-mails to news channels revealed it was jihad
-- being waged to fragment the ancient unity wrought by the tapas of 12 Vedic
seers from whom all Hindus claim descent. Media has noticed the targetting
of centres of traditional and emerging economy (diamonds, IT), but the aim
is to frighten Hindu business and professional middle classes; to convince
them of jihad's awesome power; and persuade them to fall in line behind the
pusillanimous political class. Developments in Jammu should convince Islamists
that Hindus can think on their feet.