Recent times have seen a surge of religious sentiment to levels that have not been seen or heard in recent times. It all started with some obscure Danish newspaper publishing seemingly harmless (for them) caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed who as far is I understand is the most respected figure in Islam. Angst and displeasure was natural and certainly expected, but what followed has well been beyond anyone’s wildest imagination, with violent agitations across the world leaving hundreds dead and destroying property worth millions.
In this whole episode what fails any explanation is how did such protests spread so wide , wild and far, and that too, the worst protests taking lives of people, coming approximately 4 months after the Cartoons were first published, this has for sure raised valid concerns that maybe these were not just a natural reaction to a seemingly provocative caricature of the Prophet, but more like an organized attempt to fuel these protests, a reflection of the current standoff between the Islamic world and the West ,with the cartoons being just the spark a few vested interests were waiting for to cry war.
Now this issue has been debated so much in recent times at various forums that further dwelling into the how’s & why’s wont make sense, here what I intend to do is to get closer home and try to bring forth how our own local so called “secular” Indian leaders have not been left behind in exploiting this issue and the sentiments attached with it,also try to draw a parallel with something which has happened in India itself.
Now this starts off at the top when our esteemed Prime Minister sends of a strong letter of protest to Denmark to convey how bad we are feeling about the Cartoons knowing very well that the caricatures were printed by an Independent private publisher which had already tendered apologies inspite of there being no law in the land of Denmark which would have forced them to do so, but that is also absolutely fine Mr Prime Minister, but would have loved to hear one word of ridicule or protest for Mr M.F. Hussain following his great display of respect for Hindu gods and goddesses , but off course why would you do so especially when there is the possibility of losing out of a Vote bank through suspected alienation of Muslims from your Party (U know how many contenders are there in the race to capture their votes :) )after all yours is a secular party.
Now when all this is going on, how can our pillars of secularism be left behind, Our own Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and his bete noire Ms Mayawati come out crying foul…. “snap trade ties with
With Mr Chief Minister leading the way how can the minister of state for Haj (Now whats that ministry?) comes out shouting at the top of his voice, 51 Crore for the cartoonists head !!!!!!!!!!! In what age are we living it, this is a person holding a constitutional position and is expected to be responsible for upholding our constitution. Even after all this not even a murmur from anyone , even the media is happy to keep it on the 8th page. And then there have me many more realted comic incidents in the recent past and these are just samples.
I have called this Post Cartoons Vs Painitings for a simple reason, I just came across a protest against the MF Hussain paintings on the Net, now to see how according to me protests ought to be done go through the links below,
http://www.sanatan.org/hussaincampaign/painting.php
http://www.sanatan.org/hussaincampaign/index.php
also have a look at the Paintings of MF Hussain in case u haven’t seen them yet, Instead of Shiva in that pose had he drawn the Prophet, going by what has been happening, there would have already been a 3rd World War. I would have never written on this subject had I not seen these paintings today.
There has also been another interesting development today, One Mr Ashok Pandey who claims to be the President of the Hindu Law Board (Obviously a pun on the Muslim Law board) has offered Mr Yaqoob Qureshi 101 Crores for the head of MF Hussain and 51 Croeres for anyone else J , Now this is the kind of challenge the Indian administration need to take action.
Link to the above story - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1424968.cms
I am an agnostic, as is written in my profile, It is not like I am deeply hurt religiously that’s why I have written this, my sole purpose of this post is to expose “secularists” and their double standards.
P.S. – had just wandered over to this one, this guy anant has put my views very aptly in his post – http://o3.indiatimes.com/anant_rulz/archive/2006/02/18/484615.aspx
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