Unaccountable courts!
PHILANTHROPIC approach towards life is the only approach all religious philosophies convey to their followers.
Be it the Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Hinduism or Islam or even Atheism, all philosophies guide their followers to a path leading to just one theme ‘love-humanity’.
We see that the followers of all these philosophies have been doing a lot for the betterment of mankind since ever.
Religious philosophies are never limited to the betterment of a specific group of people; all religions have an innate desire of flourishing and expanding and this desire could never be fulfilled unless the message they convey has universality in it; no doubt ‘love-humanity’ is the most universal message.
Blaming some particular religion, caste or creed and patronizing hatred-based extremism is the worst kind of terrorism.
Recently a report was shared at different forums. The report was prepared and published by Georgetown University USA.
It was pointed out in the report there are more than 200 million Muslims in India whom the Hindu extremists see as ‘an impediment of Hindu nationalist’s goal of remarking India as Hind-only nation.
’ Those who prepared this report expressed their apprehension that a Genocide of Muslims is underway in India.
Unfortunately such reports never seem to reach the US authorities; if such reports have reached them, they would certainly have shifted their kind ‘patronizing-hand’ from the tormentors to the crushed ones.
The hatred-based extremism is always a mischievous act of a small number of notorious people who have their ulterior motives behind.
Groups consisting of such people could be found in every society and every religious school of thought.
If the government is serious, such groups are crushed at very initial stages but in case the government is non-serious rather supportive to them, things become horribly disastrous.
We have the ever-worst example of the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India. That was 6 December 1992 when some Hindu extremist groups under the supervision of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party, ransacked the historic Babri mosque and turned it into debris.
The situation after this incident turned into a riot-like scenario and ultimately resulted in the killing of thousands of innocent people, mostly the Muslims.
The most pathetic fact with reference to this incident was the partial rather prejudiced silence of the government of India.
Indian Court acquitted all accused-figures particularly those who were very active members of the BJP.
In other words, the Indian judiciary denied justice and failed to hold people responsible for criminally razing down the mosque and to take to task all those who were responsible for this cruel lawlessness.
The partiality demonstrated by the Indian courts paved future-way for targeting of other Muslim religious sites, especially in Kashi and Mathura in the Uttar Pradesh State.
For the investigation of this sad incident a Commission was also set up which concluded that the demolition of the Babri Mosque was meticulously planned and the mobilization of the cadres of RSS, Bajrang Dal, BJP and Shiv Sena in Ayodhya was neither “spontaneous or voluntary” but “orchestrated and planned.
” The case of demolition of the Babri Mosque had been under trial for many years, from Inquiry Commission to the lower courts and then to the Supreme Court but nothing could come out of it as the courts intentionally ignored the on-ground realities.
As a result of this intentional ignorance 32 accused, including senior RSS & BJP leaders like Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti were acquitted.
In short justice was denied to more than 200 million Indian Muslims. In this way, the verdict by the Indian court delivered victory to hate, intolerance and chauvinism and thus encouraged the Hindu extremists to be harsher, more narrow-minded and more prejudiced in their approach towards the minorities in India.
As a result of this encouragement, different extremist groups got more strength and they started a very well planned movement against centuries-old Mosques and Madaris under the garb of their alleged linkage with historical Hindu sites.
In 2022 alone, a score of Madaris and Mosques have been demolished. The next target of these extremists is the historical Gyanvapi Mosque, located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
It was constructed by Aurangzeb in 1669. Hindu extremists claim that this mosque was built after demolishing an older Shiva temple.
Now the place is in the throes of a dispute which could stoke fresh tension in Hindu-majority India, where Muslims are the largest religious minority.
According to the BBC, ‘a bunch of Hindu petitioners have gone to a local court asking for access to pray at a shrine behind the mosque and other places within the complex.
A controversial court order which allowed a video-recorded survey of the mosque is said to have revealed a stone shaft that is the symbol of the Hindu deity Shiva, a claim that has been disputed by the mosque authorities.
’ Certainly after these court orders some more blood-shed is expected in near future. This criminal biasedness of Indian courts shamefully confirms Indian judiciary connivance with Hindutva agenda.
‘Crush the Muslims’ is in fact a joint-venture of the BJP Sarkar and of those who think that Hindutva philosophy is the guiding star for them.
—The writer is Principal of a Government College and senior columnist, based in Multan.