Shiban Khaibri
It was Jonathan Swift, an Anglo- Irish satirist, political pamphleteer poet who had said,” We have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love one another.” If he would have been alive around the present era, he would have been compelled to write something very pungent when he would have learnt that how religion was exploited and how religion exploited the people, the latter of course how it was interpreted to suit a political pursuit or ambition or looked at, again how to use it to get to the saddle of power or to the notional paradise only after killing a person practicing a faith other than “mine” or “ours”.
While writing of these lines, incidentally the day coincided with one of the blackest day in the history of Kashmir as 15 years back; as many as 24 innocent, harmless, meek and submissive Kashmiri Pandits were massacred in an abject barbaric way by Jihadi terrorists in Nadimarg Kashmir. A tiny tot, 3 years bud among the victims, who had received four bullets in the upper area of his “buttery” body lay exactly as if in deep carefree sleep, after having drunk some little milk through his feeder bottle, with bewitching allurements of stamping only kisses on his rosy tender cheeks. Many stones around the site of his angelic sleepy body, it is learnt, had melted into water notwithstanding the type of “love” he had received from his devourers. His fault like other 23 victims was only this religion, born in a faith other than those of the heartless killers.
The day also coincides with remembering the enviable martyrdom of three top heroes of our independence movement, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev who bravely kissed the noose this very day in 1931 in Lahore jail. They practiced the religion of patriotism. Among many of Bhagat Singh’s famous sayings, the one which I like the most is, “Bombs and pistols do not make a revolution, and the sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting stone of ideas.” Well, this advice , it is high time, should be emulated by those remaining few hard core followers of Marxian Leninian ideology in India who still daydream about the possibility of some revolution and the resultant dictatorship of the proletarians for the proletariat , through the proletariat and by the proletariat, leading to proletarian “self abolition” and the resultant communism in India. We have not seen anything like that happening in West Bengal even during their 35 years strong rule, nor in Kerala nor any way in Tripura, as the adage goes self evident needs no proof and there is no scope, absolutely not, in the near future.
Why were 40 Indians abducted by the Islamic State terrorists from Mosul in Iraq along with Bangladeshi workers in June 2014 and then all the Bangladeshis let off while 39 innocent young Indians gunned down, the 40th Indian allowed to “go” simply because he “satisfied” the savages that he was a Muslim? The 39 Indians were massacred because they professed faith other than the killers. See the element of religion playing such a crucial role. When the External Affairs Minister tried to inform the Lok Sabha about the heart rending reports that their deaths were fully substantiated, she was not allowed by the “matured democratic and secular” opposition to read the statement. The speaker tried to intervene many a time beseeching the members to allow the Minister read out the statement and keep silence as the raison d’être for it related to the sensitivity of the matter, the din instead was sharpened. The Minister could not read out the statement and most unfortunately, the elementary courtesy of showing some respect for the killed Indians by way of keeping two minutes silence, even was given a go by. The Minister had earlier read out the shocking statement in the Rajya Sabha where two minutes silence for the departed Indians was duly observed. That there could be such a deficit of the sense of elementary empathy towards our fellow Indians that a five minutes break in the protest in the Lok Sabha “to protect democracy, liberty and the constitution” from the “dictatorial rule of Modi” was not allowed is shocking. Is our democracy, individual liberty , constitution and the Nehruvian secularism so much under “threat” from Modi that even a break of five minutes in the din, shouting, sloganeering and displaying of placards would have wrought immense harm to their cause.?
By precluding Sushma Swaraj from enunciating the government’s version in the Lok Sabha, the sensitivities of the agitating members towards the loss of 39 young Indians was found in wanting followed by turning this tragedy into cheap politics, shall remain ingrained in sensitive Indian hearts for a long time. Why misled, why not first the victims’ kin informed, why this , why that, aired from and outside the Parliament stands insignificant before the superb handling of the entire issue by Sushma Ji especially the aftermath of the recovery of bodies of the 39 kidnapped Indians by the ISIS . No one from such agitating members condemned the gruesome massacre by IS terrorists let alone resolve to fight to the finish, this scourge and grave threat to world peace and civilization. Let us not go in the merits of putting questions to the government, much less to Sushma Ji who has a wonderful track record of even going out of the box in helping those Indians who were finding themselves undone and losing hopes while getting stranded in hostile and war zones of different countries. Let us be invested with feelings of sensitivities and kindness in tragic issues like the 39 Indians killings. The world is watching us.
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