Gujarat Simmers

Thirty-eight people burnt alive in a district in Ahmedabad, twelve
among them were children. Property worth lakhs of rupees gutted down to
ashes. Shops looted and vehicles torched. Welcome to the land where the
Father of the Nation spoke about ahimsa. Sabarmati is in flames.

Vikram Patel, Swastik Mehta, Heeralal Shah, Iqbal Mehmood, Aslam Khan -
these names hold no significance; they are just a part of the
statistics splashed in newspapers across the country the morning after.
Hundreds of innocent people are being killed in the name of religion.
The Hindus say they have lost their patience; the Muslim community
fights for its existence. The BJP blames the Congress; the opposition
parties raise their fingers on the irresponsibility of the ruling
government. And in this war of words, the common man is
butchered.

How do we determine our religion? Who tells us we are Hindus or
Muslims? Who influences us into reading the Gita or following the Holy
Koran? Our parents? Our society? Or we ourselves? The Indian
constitution has given me the right to practice the religion of my
choice then why should a certain saffron clad fanatic tell me that I
should chant Jai Shri Ram? Why should I be subjected to emotional
blackmail and labeled a kaafir if I choose to adopt Christianity even
though I was born in a family that practices Islam? What right does
this self styled moral police have to interfere in my choice of
religious practice?

Bombay burnt as an aftermath of the Babri Masjid debacle. Gujarat is
witnessing gory scenes of communal unrest as a result of this burden
that we have been carrying in our collective memories for the past ten
years. Countless families have been orphaned, crores of national wealth
has been destroyed, lives of innumerable people have been cut short
unwontedly; and yet the silent war rages on. Is the construction of a
building at Ayodhya worth this public massacre? Can this brick and
mortar structure be rightfully called a temple? Is the blood of all
those who are being slaughtered in this race for communal superiority
going waste?

I have grown up in a family that kneels in the church, bows its head at
the masjid and folds its hands in prayer at the temple. The sanctity of
each of these sacred places of worship is determined by the purity in
one's heart and not by the suffix to one's name. I wear a cross around
my neck, a taaweez around my shoulder and sport a red tika on my
forehead. If these symbols help one determine the religion I believe
in, go ahead tell me who I am. A Hindu by birth, a Christian by choice
or a Muslim by preference?

The army is being deployed to normalize the sensitive situation in the
Mahatma's land. No one is willing to offer his right cheek when his
left one has been slapped. The firing of guns, the reverberating sounds
of breaking glass and burning buildings will usher in the mourning
morning. A child is wailing round the corner. Listen to his cries
carefully. Is it Jai Shri Ram he cries or do you hear
Allah-o-Akbar?