Picking A Fight Is Easy, It's Tougher To Live Peacefully Despite Differences
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-06-08 10:07:50
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The fallout of the remarks against Prophet Muhammad is going to hurt India, now and in the future, despite the governmentâs rapid and urgent attempts to fight the fire. The government was ignoring the signs that the world was increasing becoming intolerant to the Centre's attitude of benevolent tolerance towards attempts to divide India. Instead of introspecting and taking corrective measures, it chose to protest and term it as 'interference' when US officials and some Muslim nations drew attention to hate speeches and attempts to take over Muslim religious places. The governmentâs silence on these issues has increasingly emboldened these elements and now it just takes a just a couple of people, even one person in some cases, to create a dispute over a place of worship.
The result is that after Nupur Sharma and Navin Jindal's uncalled for and intemperate remarks against Prophet Muhammad, India's stock has gone down considerably even in friendly Muslim nations, particularly in the Middle-East. Qatar cancelled a state lunch of Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu with deputy emir Abdullah bin Ahmed al Thani at the last moment. The 'official' reason given was 'medical' but the whole world knows it was in protest against the Sharma-Jindal outrage. In other reports, stores are reported to have taken down Indian products from the selves in Kuwait. Other nations will follow suit. Then there are thousands of migrants from India who are working in Gulf nations and sending millions of dollars every month back home. Their safety will also be at risk.
The government has to take strict action against those who have made it a habit to spew hate against the minorities. It has not do so on its own without waiting for the Supreme Court to intervene. There are many ways it can do so and the best way is to call all who are identified as hate mongers for a meeting and drill it in their head that not one word of hate against fellow citizens will be tolerated. If they do not reform even after that, the same draconian laws - sedition, UAPA or NSA - that are used against others for lesser offences must be used against them. The idea must be to let them, and others like them, know that hate mongering will not be tolerated and the state will come down heavily on those who indulge in it. That would be the best way to stop it. India must not only act against those who spread Islamophobia but also be seen to do doing it with all seriousness.
