Destroyers of Babri Masjid Are Freed!
By Aslam Abdullah
Fontana, CA
Pakistan was responsible for the demolition of Babri Masjid. Its agents were in Ayodhya with explosives. With the help of anti-social elements. Photographs, videos, and even the footage of the Babri Masjid's live demolition on Indian television was not trustworthy. The evidence presented by the CBI implicating 32 members of the Bharatiya Janta Party, RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and other Hindutva organizations were not legitimate. Hence the court, officiated by CBI Special Judge Surendra Kumar Yadav, acquitted all the accused.
What you read above is not fiction, nor is it a concoction. It is what happened, happens and will happen in India from now on. The RSS paid, and trained bureaucrats under the protection of the BJP government now have full liberty to make whatever decision they deem to serve the interests of Hindu Rashtra. No one can stop or challenge them—those who do languish in prison.
India is no more a Republic. The constitution is only a piece of decoration. Democracy is an oligarchy, and the Hindu Rashtriya, with all its hierarchies and inbuilt prejudices against Dalits and minorities, is the ideology.
It is no different than a dictator-run state.
Only an armed revolution will eliminate this power elite or the disintegration of the state into several countries. North India, with parts of western and eastern India, is in the grip of fanaticism. South India is still unsure if Hindutva fascism is the path it would take to define its identity. Bengal, along with Manipur, Meghalaya, and Tripura, are in a state of flex.
Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, and even Jains have little to feel safe regardless of what the RSS upper-caste elite assures them. Sikhs should learn a lesson from Kashmir, where a Muslim majority could not protect its interests amid massive militarization. Punjab, with a Sikh majority, may face a similar fate. Other minorities will find increased Hinduaisation of their traditions and faith.
No one can now stop the RSS from dictating Muslims and Christians to convert to a Hinduism serving the upper castes' interests or face humiliation and violation of human rights.
The country's commitment to secularism is limited to a scattered elite with no power or mass appeal, especially in North India.
Despite the dark clouds that hover over India, the possibility of a mass movement to overthrow the fascists either through violent or peaceful means always exists. In the worst period in human history, changes take birth and revolution flourishes. No power stays forever, and even the mightiest, have to leave. The RSS, the Hindutva, and the dream of a Hindu Rashtra led by the Upper-Caste Hindus will also perish. But before that happens, millions might have suffered unspeakable torture and persecution.
Under the Hindutva extremists, India is not safe for women, minorities, Dalits, and anyone who stands for human rights. The fascists have forced Amnesty to wind their work in the country. The police no longer protect Dalits, women, and minorities. The upper-caste Hindutva goons early this month, raped a woman, cut her tongue, broke her spine. Instead of arresting the criminals, law enforcement denied the parents the right to perform the last rites. These are not isolated cases. They are now the pattern.
Muslims are the scapegoats. The fascists have convinced their followers that Muslims are traitors and serve Pakistan's interests while living in India. Every time they want the country to legitimize the government's policies, they raise the bogey of Pakistan. They can get criminals freed, free people jailed, organizations banned, and even opposition killed blaming on Pakistan.
It is what they did in the case of the accused in the demolition of the Babari Masjid. They were there and inciting people, and they watched the destruction and expressed jubilation and congratulated each other. They had approved the plan of tearing down the Masjid. They knew that the police were theirs, courts were theirs, and the judges were theirs.
But from now on, they will not take 28 years to approve the persecution or lynching of Muslims. They will free the criminals blaming Pakistan or Muslims for self-homicide.
The US has many people with these tendencies, who have developed strong ties with white supremacists. If human rights activists do not notice their manipulation in the country, they will destroy the pluralistic values this country has preserved for centuries.
(Dr Aslam Abdullah is resident scholar at islamicity.org . He is editor in chief of Muslim Observer and a trustee of American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin. He gives Friday sermons at Islamic centers in California and other states)
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