The violent protests against what Nupur Sharma, a BJP leader, uttered in a TV debate in response to provocative remarks by another panellist have stretched too far for Muslims in India and other Muslim countries which would have wider social and political implications in India and elsewhere.
While the Indian law and ethos do not allow any sort of disrespect to any religious figure, the law of the land does not allow the people to take the law into hand and indulge in violence, mayhem, intimidation, threatening and passing public decrees for the execution of the ‘offender'. Unfortunately, the heat created and the intensity of anger shown on the streets has been too excessive and frightening for society and the people of other faiths.
A simple question: Where were all these protesters, Maulvis, Ulemas, Religious heads, Leftists and the protesting Muslim countries when Akbar-Uddin Owaisi of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, an MLA a few years back here in India, openly in a public rally of Muslims used abusive, contemptuous and derogatory language against Lord Rama, His Mother Kaushallya and other Hindu deities? The videos were witnessed by millions of people in India and across the globe. Public debate on Pakistan media shamelessly applauded his ‘daring' speech. However, not a single condemnation came from such a protesting lot in India or elsewhere. No saner element or so-called intellectual ever uttered a single word against Akbar-Uddin Owaisi or condemned him. His elder brother and Member of Parliament Assaduddin Owaisi passed on the derogatory remarks of his brothers as an aberration and nothing more. Yet the majority community here has shown tremendous tolerance towards such incidents. Apprehension however is, that they may not continue with such contemptuous acts in future over similar incidents of insulting Hindu Gods or their religious symbols.
The point is who prompted this provocative situation. After the discovery of a Shivling, Islamists on television debates and social media started mocking Hindus and their faith. They called Hindus penis worshippers and far worse. During the Times Now debate, when panellists started mocking the Hindu faith yet again by calling the Shivling a fountain, Nupur had had enough. She lashed out asking the Islamist panellist how he would feel if she was to mock their faith. She did not mock him per se – she asked how he would feel.
And the men gave the Islamist answer. They took to the streets, shouted ‘sar tan se juda' slogans, pissed on her picture, hung her effigies and did everything that one expects from uneducated and ruthless barbarians.
As of now, Nupur Sharma, the ‘Islamists' judgment convict', is under protection and alive. One has to realise the fact that she is a woman marked for life. Would not take most for us to reconcile with it, sadly? That is just how the majority of Indians are. An atrocity that shocked us yesterday would become the norm tomorrow. The Hindu memory is painfully short and soon, the community would move on to the next outrage cycle leaving Nupur Sharma alone to deal with the consequences of bruising the extremely fragile sentiments of the Islamists. What has been going on in reaction would have dangerous consequences for all the citizens of India. The principle of respecting the religious sentiment should be the norm for each and everyone in India without any exception which most of the time the critics of Hinduism have been enjoying in the name of freedom of expression in speeches, debates, writings and so-called ‘Art forms'. The intolerance shown by the Muslims has belittled them and their faith in the eyes of the majority of Hindus who have been so far neutral or opposing the extreme viewpoint being pursued by a section among them.
