Neither A Temple Nor A Mosque Will Save India

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

INDIA: Neither A Temple Nor A Mosque Will Save This Country

The elaborate security and precautionary arrangements made by the state and central governments expecting a communal violence in response to the anticipated judgment of the Allahabad High Court is proof to the fragility of India. It exposes the depth of the fissure into which the country and its people have fallen after being communally, religiously and politically poisoned by the so-called Indian leaders. Yet without shame, they have all called for 'peace' and 'calm' and requested everyone to respect the decision of the court, irrespective of its nature. The country and its people today are at a point of no return from this festering crevice of religious and sectarian intolerance the world's largest democracy has dragged itself into.

It is expected that the case to decide the title and the right to use the land where the demolished Masjid once stood will be decided today. The court decision however will not end the 60 years long litigation. Neither will it be a solution to the question as to who has the right to pray or worship in the disputed site. This is because the litigation is only the tip of the iceberg. India's religious and political leaders have carved their dungeons deep below this peripheral pile of litigations into which they have forced and led the population and trained them to hunt, maim and kill their neighbours based on religious, caste, communal and political colours. In the process they have eaten up the foundations of secularism like termites eating into the foundation of a house. A court judgment cannot save the country from this mess, unless the people who are intoxicated by the sectarian poison they have been fed so far decide to quit their addiction and determine to find their way out from the deep abyss they are now live.

The country today has become a celebration of violence. It is showcased every day in Kashmir, Manipur, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Kerala; in police stations, religious schools, churches and educational institutions to name a few. A corruption and nepotism ridden administration has facilitated this with its demonstrated unwillingness to deal with anything that would challenge the unacceptable status quo. The rule of law and true norms of democracy were thrown out of the country's borders long before, as they were found to be uncomfortable hindrances towards achieving the greed to maintain power of a selected few. Quotients of human dignity and equality are interpreted depending upon the narrow political interests of the ruling elite or that of the convenience of those who aspired to attain power - political, religious and financial.

What better proof to this is required when those like Mr. Narendra Modi, a criminal mastermind who orchestrated the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat, continues to be the Chief Minister of the so called best performing state, Gujarat and is projected as the future prime minister of the country; when former Prime Minister Mr. Narasimha Rao presided over the central government and did nothing, but rather facilitated the demolition of the mosque in Ayodhya; when Mr. L. K. Advani who has at least twice travelled the length and breadth of the country stirring up religious extremism to build a Hindu nation and today sits in the Indian parliament as its leader of the opposition; when Christian Bishops and priests urge believers to come for the Sunday mass armed with knifes and swords so that the factions they lead can repossess churches and its ill-gotten wealth from those who have evicted them from their golden pedestals; when a teacher is chopped by Islamic fundamentalists because he used the name Mohammad in a examination paper; when the Communist Party of India (Marxist) use violence to evict subsistence farmers from their land to setup an industrial hub; when the Naxalites kill jobseekers by exploding landmines on the roads; when villagers are flocked together in the name of Salwa Judum to hunt and kill villagers in the name 'self-protection'; when every Muslim living in Kashmir is viewed as a terrorist by the Indian security forces; when an innocent pregnant mother and a young man are shot dead in board day light in Manipur and the state Chief Minister labelling them terrorists within hours in the state legislature; when corporate houses decide national polices and praise fundamentalist politicians as India' visionaries for cheap stakes; when the so-called secular and national media questions the logic of the Home Minister for refraining from carpet bombing villages to end Naxalism?

The vulgarity of the banality of it all is showcased today in New Delhi when the country tries to portray it as a 'fast developing' nation by holding international games spending billions while millions of Indians starve and many die from hunger and from diarrhoea induced by malnutrition each day. And yet, those who made this all possible in India today call for 'calm' and 'respect of the court judgment' without a spec of shame or honesty.

In this week alone India will spend millions for extra troupe deployment and security measures to guarantee that the country will not burn due to communal violence. Will this in any form bring a cure to the cancer that the country's religious and political leaders have painstakingly cultured and injected into the arteries of India's and the region's social fabric? How long can they prevent the impending implosion of this state already in utter chaos? Can India save itself by blaming Pakistan or the adverse western interests for what it has dropped in its own front yard? Or will anyone in India accept responsibility?

ENDS

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