Dadri killing: Secularists, partisan media train guns on BJP, Modi

Even most Muslims also think the same way as the Hindus. This was evident from the presence of over 10,000 Muslim ‘Gau Palaks’ at the recently held All India Muslim Gau Palak Sammelan at Mewat in Haryana. The event was organized by the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) a social reformist movement active amongst the Muslims since 2002. The MRM had collected over 10.5 lakh signatures of the Muslim in India supporting ban on cow slaughter.

The issue of cow slaughter is more a political than religious. For, neither the Holy Quran nor the Prophet had ever granted sanction to sacrifice of cow. On the contrary, it had directed the Muslims against consuming beef as it caused diseases and advised to consume milk and ghee to improve health. During the Moghal Rule, Emperor Babur had advised his son Humayun to ban cow slaughter. Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal had issued a decree impounding capital punishment to those indulging in cow slaughter. But in modern India, this issue of cow slaughter and beef consuming has assumed a political dimension. Even during the pre-independence days, the Congress under Mahatma Gandhi allowed cow slaughter as ‘religious duty of the Muslims’.

Mahatma Gandhi was a staunch proponent of banning cow slaughter. But he had also compromised on the issue because of political compulsions of the Congress party. In one of his regular evening prayer discourse of July 25, 1947, he had stated: “In India no law can be made to ban cow-slaughter. I do not doubt that Hindus are forbidden the slaughter of cows. I have been long pledged to serve the cow but how can my religion also be the religion of the rest of the Indians? It will mean coercion against those Indians who are not Hindus.” (Colleted Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol 88, Published online by the Gandhi Heritage Portal)

The Constituent Assembly had also discussed this issue of banning cow slaughter. But instead of framing a law, it arrived at a consensus that there should be no national statute banning the consumption of beef. Therefore, it included the issue in the Directive Principles of the State policy and that too in ‘non-abiding’ category!

The regulations so far:

However, the issue of ban on cow slaughter and beef consumption has a long history. Though the BJP and RSS are being slammed for the contentious issue, the fact is the law in this regard was passed in different states by the then Congress governments! It is therefore, most unfortunate that the Opposition and the Media are politicising this issue for political mileage and in the process it has further complicated the communal relations endangering peace and harmony amongst the Hindus and Muslims.

In Maharashtra, the ban on meat dates back to 1964 when the Congress ruled BMC enforced it for a day during the Jain festival of Paryushan parv. In 2004, the Vilasrao Deshmukh-led Congress government extended this for another couple of days. Meat ban in Gujarat was introduced in 1960 when the state came into existence and Jivraj Mehta of the Congress became the first chief minister. In Rajasthan too, prohibition of sale of meat has been in force for many years, Ashok Gahlot, during his tenure in 2009 had extended this ban for 8 days during the Jain festival. The BJP government had reduced this period to three days, yet Chief Minister Vasundhara is under fire!

The fact is in no state the law was implemented properly. It is during the BJP government that the existing law is being implemented for the first time. And unfortunately, they have to bear the brunt and accept the blame for the implementation of laws made by the Congress governments. The BJP has no fault of its own in this entire issue but it is on the losing side in this war of perception!!

Anti-Hindu, anti-Modi design exposed:

That the media is obsessed with anti-Hindu bias in this case and in many such cases where the victims happened to be non-Hindu or secular or left intellectual. When the victim happened to be a Hindu the media has no tears, nor even crocodile tears, to shed for them. This anti-Hindu bias has been exposed on a number of occasions Dadri included!

This anti-Hindu bias is not limited to Indian media alone. The foreign media is always at it. A recent article in the New York Times by Sonia Falerio, daughter of a former Congress Minister can suffice this.

They all demand a statement from none other than the Prime Minister Narendra Modi whether irrespective of the significance of the incident. Writing in context of Kannada Writer Kalburgi’s killing, the author writes: “These killings should be seen as the canary in the coal mine: Secular voices are being censored and others will follow”.

“While there have always been episodic attacks on free speech in India, this time feels different. The harassment is front-page news, but the government refuses to acknowledge it. Indeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence is being interpreted by many people as tacit approval, given that the attacks have gained momentum since he took office in 2014 and are linked to Hindutva groups whose far-right ideology he shares.

Earlier this month, a leader of the Sri Ram Sene, a Hindu extremist group with a history of violence including raiding pubs and beating women they find inside, ratcheted up the tensions. He warned that writers who insulted Hindu gods were in danger of having their tongues sliced off. For those who don’t support the ultimate goal of these extremists — a Hindu nation — Mr. Modi’s silence is ominous.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/opinion/sunday/sonia-faleiro-india-free-speech-kalburgi-pansare-dabholkar.html)

These secular and left intellectuals and journos don’t apply the same yardstick if the victim is a Hindu and attackers are Muslims or Christians. In such cases their language assumes a soft tone and devoid of harsh words. They amplify the Hindu aggression and downplay the Muslim or Christian or Communist attacks with soft words cleverly placed. 

Another striking feature of these media attacks is the media assumes the role of a prosecutor and a judge and issues verdict against the Hindu organizations, leaders and parties not even sparing the Prime Minister. In spite of the Supreme Court’s clean chit to him in Gujarat riots, they still blame him for the 2002 massacre. A recent article in Dawn by its correspondent in India Javed Naqvi, shamelessly tries to equate Vajpayee and Modi vis-a-vis communal clashes. The article says: “While Mohammed Akhlaq’s recent lynching by a mob of cow worshippers has set off finger-pointing at Modi, and rightly so, it was during Vajpayee’s rule that Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two small sons were roasted alive in their jeep by a Hindutva mob in Orissa”. (http://www.dawn.com/news/1211117/vajpayee-modi-and-a-shared-dna)

There is no similarity in the two incidents which Javed Naqvi quoted. But still he tried to impress upon the readers as to how these Hindu Nationalists are against the Muslims and Christians. This is the mischief media is playing.

The media wantonly used the bogey of 2002 Gujarat riots to instil fear in the minds of the Muslims in this country during the 2014 elections. Unfortunately, they failed in their design to stop the Modi and BJP juggernaut in 2014. Now they have devised this strategy to malign the party, government and the Prime Minister in particular to further their agenda.

Therefore, the cases of attacks on secularists, rationalists and liberal intellectuals are being blown out of proportion at local and global levels in the media so as to defame the Modi government by drubbing it ‘extremist’ Hindu government.

This media will not find time to report the condition of Hindus in Bangladesh or Pakistan who are living in constant fear for their lives; who are forced to flee to India to seek shelter. The killing of Kashmiri Hindus in the late 80s and early 90s, the attacks on Hindus in rural West Bengal where swarms of migrant Bangladeshi Muslims have occupied their lands and evicted them from their hearths and homes, raped their women and killed their men mercilessly, similar incidents happening in Assam and other northeastern states will never attract these secular, left journalists and writers. No such incident will find place in the New York Times or the Washington Post.

A Hindu truck driver was dragged out of his seat and lynched by a Muslim mob because he blew the horn while passing through a Muslim-dominated area. No newspaper or TV channel discussed this incident nor any secular intellectuals wrote about rising intolerance amongst the Muslims threatening the secular fabric of Indian society.

A Muslim man in UP just killed his 4-year-old daughter because she refused to cover her head. Are you going to come across an article in The New York Times or Washington Post decrying this dastardly act by a father driven by religious derangement? Never.

A Hindu boy was dragged out of his house in Delhi by drunken Muslim boys because he had protested against them creating a ruckus in front of his house. Will you read in your usual newspapers that the drunken boys were Muslims and the victim was a Hindu? No.

Such incidents happen in every part of the country. They are unfortunate, n o doubt, but they are basically come under the purview of the concerned state government and law enforcing agencies. They need not have bearing on national politics or administration. But in India, the attacks by Hindus are blown out of proportion while those by Christians and Muslims are downplayed and often painted as threat to secular character of the country.