Why Indian Secularism is a Euphemism for Hinduphobia

Last week, on October 26th, a bunch of upstarts from Hanuman Sena got together and organized a Pork festival at the Malabar Christian College.  Police swooped in and arrested 50 Sena activists including the state president, vice-president and legal advisor.  These 50 people have been booked for inciting communal hatred, unlawful assembly and impeding traffic.  Except for this small news item, I did not see anyone protesting this action by the police.

On October 27th, someone calls the police PCR van to say that beef is being served in Kerala House and they go to INQUIRE about it because it could lead to tension.  Just the act by police of inquiry becomes a national debate focusing on intolerance, communalism and fascism.

On Arnab’s Newshour Debate titled Akademi Exodus, where the film-makers were protesting intolerance like the Dadri incident and the ink throwing on Engineer Rashid when he held a “Beef Party” in Jammu.  Against the flow of the discussion on how the country’s social atmosphere had been vitiated, Arnab asked the film-maker Anand Patwardhan one question –

We are not only talking of protest, Mr Maduresh Kumar, we are talking of the level of protest, the intensity of protest, it is about the unison of protest, the manner of protest.  Now, my question Mr Maduresh Kumar is – How many times has the same group and the same people – have they protest vehemently, strongly, and passionately against fanatic Muslim groups?

Pin-drop silence.

No one uttered a word, until Maduresh Kumar took the discussion to Maoists incidents where he suggested he protested the Dantewada Massacre where the Naxals/Maoists killed 76 Indian paramilitary (CRPF) policemen.  Btw, I searched the net to find the reference for Madhuresh Kumar’s protest but found none.

Now, the whole question went away unanswered.  How has no one ever protested Muslims groups?  In the north-east several attacks and killings have been done by Christian terror groups.

How did we miss all that without protesting?  In fact, when the Terror Muslim groups attack and kill with impunity, the protests are not against the terrorists, but FOR them!  Take for example the Batla House case.

Batla Case: When “Secularists” Passionately Fought for Muslim Terrorists

On September 19, 2008, Delhi police took action against Indian Mujahideen terrorists Atif Amin and Mohammad Sajid.  The Delhi Police inspector MC Sharma also died in the exchange of fire.

The activists calling themselves “Act Now For Harmony and Democracy” (ANHAD) NGO filed a suit in Delhi High Court implicating Delhi Police instead for doing a fake encounter.  Members of ANHAD include – KN Panikkar, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, Shubha Menon and Shabnam Hashmi.  Interestingly, Shabnam Hashmi is also the founder of SAHMAT.  SAHMAT is the organization which released the statement on behalf of the 53 historians who protested growing “communalism” last week.  A mutual back-scratching merry-go-round indeed!  Or is it the Clique of the Modiphobes?

Samajvadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samajvadi Party (BSP) had also followed suit and riled against the police action.  Everyone, from Jamia Milia Islamia students and teachers to the Muslim community leaders – protested against the police.  Meanwhile the truth of the case was that there was solid intelligence information of the terrorists hiding in the house and when police approached, firing happened and the events unfolded the way they did.  Of course, you will remember how famously even Sonia Gandhi had cried for the death of the Indian Mujahideen terrorists as recounted by her son Rahul Gandhi.  However, here is the story leading upto that police raid:

Mumbai police crime branch chief Rakesh Maria made the next breakthrough last month, when his investigators held Afzal Usmani, a long-standing lieutenant of ganglord-turned-jihadist Riyaz Bhatkal. From Usmani, the investigators learned that top commander ‘Bashir’ and his assault squad left Ahmedabad on July 26 for a safe house at Jamia Nagar. Armed with this information, the investigators came to believe that Atif Amin either provided Bashir shelter or the two were one and the same person. Inspector Sharma was asked to settle the issue.

‘Vodaphone salesman’

Sub-inspector Dharmindar Kumar was given the unhappy task of trudging up the stairs in the sweltering heat, searching for Bashir. Dressed in a tie and shirt, just like other members of Sharma’s team, Kumar pretended to be a salesman for Vodaphone. At the door of Amin’s flat, he heard noises — and called his boss.

According to head constable Balwant Rana, who was by Sharma’s side, the two men knocked on the front door, identifying themselves as police officers. There was no response. Then, the officers walked down an ‘L’ shaped corridor which led to a second door. This door was unlocked. Sharma and Rana, as they entered, were fired upon from the front of and to the right of the door. When the rest of the special team, armed only with small arms, went in to support Sharma and Rana, two terrorists ran out through the now-unguarded front door. Saif wisely locked himself up in a toilet.

It takes little to see that Sharma’s team made several tactical errors. However, as anyone who has actually faced hostile fire will testify, combat tends not to be orderly. In the United States or Europe, a Batla House-style operation would have been carried out by a highly trained assault unit equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment. Given their resources and training, Sharma and his men did as well as could be expected.

Now, let us cut through the whole crap and look at the situation the way it is.

Again, what did you say Secularism was?

We have an interesting situation in our country today where the definition of Secularism is basically a euphemism for Hinduphobia.

Pork Party happens and the organizers are arrested for spreading communal disharmony and creating unrest.  Beef Party happens and the organizers are backed for right of expression and protesters are booked on charges of communal disharmony and creating unrest.

Is it only me or does it seem so clearly that in Indian Secular paradigm only ONE group can be wrong… HAS to be wrong, by definition?  Period!

When some fanatic kills a Muslim, he is a poster boy for Religious Intolerance.  When Indian Mujahideen terrorists – who have killed scores in well orchestrated attacks purely out of religious hatred and perpetuated Jihad – are challenged by the law enforcement of the Indian state and they open fire – they become the poster boys for Religious Persecution.

There comes a time in a society’s life where its own morality becomes a caricature and shouts hypocrisy.  In those times, words, which have been willy nilly used for ideological grandstanding lose meaning.  Then, it is best to look at one’s very core once again.  Secularism and Communalism have lost their meaning now in the Indian context.  Secularism is Hinduphobia and Communalism is anything to do with Hinduism.  The dice of such bastardized and meaningless words is so heavily cast against one religious group that its perfidious machinations cannot be ignored any further.

We need a new social paradigm.  One where everyone is equal.  Where the truth finally pervails.