 | « Back to article | Print this article |
'It is a frightening situation as the most threatening aspect is the development and growth of society.'
'Once our society comes into perpetual violent mode, then investments will drop.'
Author and political commentator Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay believes the current campaign of hate towards Muslims is a ploy by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to keep the masses diverted from its failure in power.
"Just keep telling people that we have fixed the Muslims, and they will not be bothered about their empty stomachs or empty wallets," Mukhopadhyay told Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com in the first part of his interview.
"Muslims have been given a choice that if you want to live in peace you have to become invisible," Mukhopadhyay says in the second segment of a three-part interview.
The police seem to arrest only Muslims, not anyone from the Hindu mobs brandishing swords. Why?
It is because the police are always with the majority community.
We had the PAC in UP (Uttar Pradesh's Provincial Armed Constabulary). It is known for its majoritarian bias.
I have covered riots in India from 1982 and I have never seen the police to be on the side of Muslims.
I have always found that the policemen are tilted towards the majority community in such situations.
Photographs have appeared in Jahangirpuri of a Muslim man flashing a gun.
Don't tell me the same photographers never found any Hindu men flashing swords and daggers in the Hindu procession in Muslim localities.
In such a scenario, what does the future hold for Muslims in India?
Muslims have been given a choice, that if you want to live in peace you have to become invisible.
Be invisible and don't ask your rights or demand anything.
Don't pray outside on the roads during Friday prayers.
Pray in your homes. Become vegetarians -- even on days when you want to splurge a bit.
If you have any grievance, don't create a situation like Shaheen Bagh.
In other words, don't protest -- do not ask for your rights.
If Hindu mobs are shouting slogans to provoke you, keep mum, stay quiet.
Is this the future for India's 200 million Muslims?
The message is that you don't accept this humiliation, and if you don't keep quiet, then we will start a violent campaign against you.
Once violence becomes endemic in society, we do not know what direction society will take in future.
It is a frightening situation as the most threatening aspect of this is the development and growth of society.
Once our society comes into perpetual violent mode, then investments will drop.
Hindus feel if they can't take out religious processions, where will they do so?
I have been covering Hindu Right politics for the last 35 years and I do not recall Hanuman Jayanti being celebrated in such a massive manner in the country, at least not in North India.
This country does not belong to any single community. We chose not to be a Hindu Pakistan -- but this is what the BJP is making us to be.
Hanuman Jayanti functions happened rarely and not in such a widespread manner.
Is it a coincidence or is there some Zubin Mehta type of conductor sitting and directing the symphony?
This is a violent orchestra being conducted by unseen forces.
Many educated Hindus too are falling for it, isn't it?
Education has got nothing to do with sensibilities.
Who said if you get educated, you become more sensible?
The answer is, no.
Muslims in India number 200 million unlike the Jewish population in Nazi Germany (estimated at 523,000 in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler became chancellor). Is it then right to draw such parallels?
They think they can hit Muslims in such a way that they will become absolutely quiet.
They think they have power on their side and that can be a delusional thought.
It is very difficult to say what will happen in future.