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An inconvenient truth

Whenever I start writing on any serious topic, there is a voice in my head that says, "There are so many beautiful things to write about, why I am writing on serious political issues?" I listen to that voice many times but some events leave me overwhelmingly outraged, vilified and suffocated. Agreed, politics is not my forte but as a citizen of this great country I am compelled to write about issues that can be no more ignored conveniently, no matter how inconvenient the truth sounds.  

Last week in Mumbai, Raza Academy (an organization working for promotion of Islamic culture) organized a protest to condemn the alleged attacks on Muslim in Assam and Myanmar. Sunni Jamaitul Ulma, Jamat-e-Raza-e-Mustafa, Avami Vikas Party and several other Muslim organizations also supported the protest. Interestingly, within minutes of the protests, people from media and police were attacked and public property was damaged by rowdy protesters. With such lunatics at large, security of people became a challenge leaving many seriously injured and two people dead. I wonder where the so called "secular" leaders  who have always thrived on appeasement politics, were when these fundamentalist hooligans were threatening law and order. 

Frankly, I am always jittery over anyone/group/ that claims to be a voice of community/group/nation, articulating well-crafted rhetoric! I am yet to understand if such protests lead to any alternate suggestions/answers in constructive ways. Wearing black badges and converging to Azad Maidan, the Muslim protesters expressed concern over alleged massacre of people from their community. I am curious to know their stand on issues of Kashmiri Pandits being massacred and thrown out of Kashmir from their legal, legitimate homes. 

Nothing can justify violence and human rights violation. Ironically, we are not perturbed by rampant abuse of human rights as nation but our "sentiments" are easily ruffled by non-issues that stir up to the extent of creating civil unrest to meet political agendas!

The significant human rights violation in Assam over the decades is compelling evidence of violence emerging from suppressed anger, injustice, mindless greed, filthy power games, administrative lethargy and all that resulting in deeply ingrained hatred, suspicion and hostility. The tragic predicament of Bodo community is mainly caused by illegal immigration of Bangladeshi Muslims who not only snatched their lands but have become very dominant in past few years threatening the very survival and also diluting cultural and social identity of Bodo community. Sad, the ruling parties in the state have not seen underlying threat these immigrants have posed to political, economic, cultural and social well-being of our country. 

Why does our past and present always have to remain in conflict? How many more decades  are we going to still choose to be imprisoned by useless rage and damnation? It is time for reconciliation on our blunders of epic proportion that made our country suffer dearly. I know, the ethos of such framework is never a simple black and white solution. Compassion and re-conciliation can be our guiding lessons to move forward but before we think on that line, we need to quell the disruptive forces in mediation of who we truly wish to be as country. Unless we do this exercise with utmost honesty and conviction, the rhetoric of a "great democracy" is "in deep s**t"!

This 15th August, when we buy those tiny Indian flags from the kids at traffic signal and feel great about being patriotic enough, let us not forget that many lives are being lost in silent desperation and somewhere down the line we have knowingly or unknowingly contributed to the mess by being comfortably silent! 


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