Modi’s Men and their Mean Machines

Every illegal religious shrine ought to be demolished. We have far too many devotees and too little faith. We have too many places of worship, but no sense of regard for each other.

Having said this, I wish to know how a 200-year-old dargah qualifies as being ‘illegal’. After a couple of centuries it is suddenly seen as an ‘encroachment’.

On May 1, the dargah of Sufi saint Syed Rashiuddin Chishti was demolished by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation. Police Commissioner, Deepak Swaroop, said, "We are trying to bring a modern look to the city and anything that would obstruct us in this matter will have to go. Anybody who comes in the way of developing this city will have to change.”

Noble sentiments.

The ‘modern look’ should start with the state’s chief minister, who has been milking communalism for all it is worth.

And the police. Why did they open fire?

And the people. A 32-year-old man was burnt alive by a crowd of 1,500, two days after the demolition. Mohammed Rafiq Vora had no stake in the dargah and he was not going for any prayers. He was chased by a mob and burnt alive in his car when he was merely passing through a crossing.

The others dead and injured are both Hindu and Muslim.

Is this a ‘modern look’?

The police commissioner says he was aware it was a communally-sensitive issue. So, why did he not ensure that the people would not resort to violence? This is the job of the cops, not to make politically-motivated statements, as he had been doing.

Gujarat is becoming an experimental lab for proponents of the Hindu Rashtra. It has the added advantage of being a wealthy state, so it cannot be deemed ‘backward’. Modi has acquired iconic status even amongst the educated who believe he is on the right track.

The government is slyly marketing ‘progress’ and that means ‘taking everything out that comes in the way of it’.

Typically, we hear the counter-arguments: Why did the Mughals demolish a Ram temple and build the Babri Masjid over it? If that is indeed the case, then the sheer logic of it is simple – they were colonisers and behaved like aggressors. Let us not forget that several Buddhist and Jain temples too have been demolished by Hindu kings.

Surely, we cannot bring in history on every occasion and most certainly not to justify the acts of elected leaders in a democracy.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has claimed that temples also get routinely demolished.

* * *

I know it. I have been witness to one such incident over two years ago. This was part of the Mumbai municipal corporation’s move to demolish all illegal shrines.

They razed a temple across the lane where I live. I have put an emphasis on the word because it was not supposed to be any such thing.

I had got so used to seeing people around it, and it had become a part of the topography. In its early days, they would install an idol during the Ganapathy festival and that was it. But slowly, there began small gatherings, a lamp was lit daily, flowers, coconuts and people were always there. And every festival became reason for disco lights and loud music; one religious hymn was a concession followed by the latest Hindi film songs.

That tiny area had got a life of its own. Mary, who at one time worked as a helper at our place, graduated to becoming a businesswoman. She had set up a stove and started selling vada-pao -- aloo tikkis sandwiched between small loaves of bread lathered with chutney.

I would watch that idol, harmless on a stool with a makeshift shiny cloth as canopy. Did gods need protection?

When it was brought down, the behaviour of the people was commendable. There was no hue and cry. No protests. No danga-baazi. As a citizen, and a true Mumbaiite, I felt good that we were getting rid of structures that come up and impede normal life. I wanted this to happen to Muslim shrines (and they too were on the list) as well, though there might not have been too many, simply because of the nature of the religion and not due to any conscientiousness on the part of the community.

Christian crosses come up just about anywhere -- even at sleek traffic turnings, and these days not only do the people merely make a quick ‘sign of the cross’, or light a candle, they have even started full-fledged Mass at many of these makeshift churches.

These are not things that happen spontaneously. Those who have faith believe. And those who want to prove that their beliefs are supreme make a spectacle of their own faith.

I wish there was a provision to excommunicate such over-enthusiastic believers. When you pray you are essentially talking to your soul. Why, then, let that private conversation become a tamasha?

* * *

So, why am I protesting against the dargah demolition now? Because it is not a religious issue; it is a political one. There is also the technicality: if it is illegal, then where is the evidence to prove it? How can a structure registered in the first city survey carried out by Sayajirao Maharaj in Baroda in 1912 (although it existed much before that) become an encroachment?

They are saying that since it is not a masjid, no prayers were offered there. People do offer prayers at dargahs. And the Muslim community and the caretakers were willing to let the authorities take away the adjoining ground area (it really is a small place). Why was that not considered?

In an interview to ‘The Deccan Chronicle’, Gani Qureshi, of the BJP’s Baroda wing who also heads its minority cell, admitted “the demolition of this dargah is a very well planned conspiracy. The municipal corporation authorities had promised us that it would not be demolished. We were working upon a compromise formula, but they backed out and simply razed it.”

Mr. Qureshi further stated that the daily diya and expenditure were borne by a Hindu family. “This was not just a Muslim thing”.

According to some reports, the BJP leaders wanted the “mini-Babri Masjid” completely destroyed.

* * *

The community in Gujarat has still not recovered from the 2002 carnage. The cases are still pending. How do such incidents help in the healing process? What signals are sent out when the central government has to deploy 600 paramilitary personnel to the city and the local police authorities say that those forces will only be doing the flag march?

Having realised that rath yatras are not making much of a dent and Varanasi was not willing to become a scapegoat, the saffron brigade is sticking to Gujarat.

On what grounds did L. K. Advani state, “The Congress party is dividing the nation by continuously harping on the minority protection in the same way that the British rulers did for their own ulterior motives”? Does he not realise that the basics of a democracy are to protect all its citizens?

Dismissing the party for its vote bank politics, he declared, “The BJP will fight this divisive politics of ’minorityism’ tooth and nail.” He should start with his own party’s Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who started dancing the minute actor Feroz Khan made some negative comments about Pakistan, calling him a “true nationalist”.

Did Feroz Khan comment on the Varanasi blasts? Or the ones in the Jama Masjid?

Here we had two examples of ‘modern look’ -- the priests in Varanasi, and much as I dislike the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid his attitude at the time asking the community to maintain peace was certainly commendable.

Where were the moderate Muslim voices? Where was Shabana Azmi? Did she issue any statement? She is quick to jump into any Indian Muslim debate. On one panel discussion, they had her on video-conferencing. Sitting in Goa, she said she was frightened. It wasn’t the bird flu. It wasn’t terrorists. It wasn’t the System.

She said she was frightened when she saw this huge rally of Muslims protesting against George Bush’s visit.

And this is the face of the moderate mohtarma? A moderate who is afraid of her own people. Can you imagine the kind of disgusting stereotyping this is? Sitting in a studio mouthing platitudes is easy. Would Ms. Azmi please go and meet these maulvis?

Whether we like it or not, we are surrounded by religion. And we need to applaud any sentiments that make it rise above the pettiness it is imbued with.

But these Muslims will remain silent because it is not a big issue. Instead, we will have some bearded fellows brought in and once again the country will get ‘frightened’ by Islamic terrorism. Of course, there is no connection, but has there ever been any?

The moderate/liberals will talk about being ‘cultural Muslims’. Well, then, I have news for them. Heritage sites come under the purview of culture.

So, wake up, and ask why there were eight rounds fired and 78 tear gas shells thrown into the crowds. Where did the crowds come from? If discussions had already taken place, then why did such a situation arise at all?

Ask. If you don’t want the community to be overtaken by fake leaders.
Ask. If you don’t want the establishment to run rough-shod over people’s right to know.
Ask. For not many can. They are the dead or the dying.