Dear Editor,
Indeed, “Hindus can’t be terrorists” and so “there is not a single incident in history of Hindus engaging in terrorism.”
So, what was the religion of Nathuram Godse, who killed the father of our nation – Islam or Christianity? Terrorists affiliated to which religion killed former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi? What was/is the religion of the LTTE and the ULFA cadres?
Following the 1984 assassination of Indira Gandhi, which community had butchered innumerable Sikhs in New Delhi? And the less said about the 2002 Gujarat pogrom the better. Which religious community had committed gang-rape and mass murder upon absolutely innocent Muslims who had no relationship with the criminals of Godhra?
May we know which religious community the killers of Mohammad Akhlaque to Junaid to Pehlu Khan to Afrazool (to name only a few) were affiliated to? Do the threats, assaults and murders in the name of ‘goh mata’ not amount to terror at all? And perhaps the killers of Narendra Dhabolkar, MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Gouri Lankesh are necessarily non-Hindus?
However, terrorism by Hindus far exceeds the killing of the Mahatma to innocent Gujarati Muslims to Kalburgis to Akhlaques because if the murder of these individuals can still be counted, how large might the total number be? The daily terrorism inflicted upon the ‘low castes’, the ‘untouchables’ and the Dalits, which is continuing since centuries back, is uncountable as the victims are beyond any count.
Even in today’s ‘elite’ India, Modi’s Gujarat has witnessed how Dalits have been beaten up for sporting a moustache or witnessing a Garba dance. And what about the khap panchayats and ‘independent honour-killers’ who don’t hesitate to kill their own innocent children or couples for their ‘sin’ of marrying another Hindu of ‘lower’ or ‘another’ caste?
Terrorism is not just about Pakistan or detonation of bombs. These series of psychological torture and physical killings through bullets and daggers or mob assaults are no lesser acts of terrorism than Pulwama. Pulwamas are separate, occasional instances of terrorism. But various forms of terrorism, especially the psychological and non-fatal ones, like beating up the ‘outcastes’, unleashed by the Hindus have been continuing for centuries, making their impact much more deadly.
It disgraceful to see how none other than the persons holding the leading constitutional posts, who are supposed to represent all, are shamelessly dividing the electorate and the citizens as ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ and scandalously batting for the Hindus only while lecturing on terror or taunting Rahul Gandhi’s democratic right to choose constituencies to contest for.
What a unique idea to whip up rabid Hindutva and ‘nationalism’ so as to sweep all failures of security and intelligence leading to the series of Pathankots to Uris to Pulwamas under the petty religious and ‘patriotic’ carpet!
Sincerely,
Kajal Chatterjee,
Kolkata