Muslims across the country are angry and agitated. But their anger and agitation are not in the right direction. They are responding to verbal violence with physical violence and moving the entire controversy in the direction of a clear religious discourse, which has great potential for political use. Muslims chose Friday as an expression of their indignation. This in itself was a wrong move. The choice of a religious day to express outrage has proved to be a turning point in the entire controversy. Due to the riots coming out of the mosques after the Friday prayers, a perception has been created in the majority society of the country that the anger of the Muslims is not spontaneous, but is sponsored and religious. Keep in mind that there is a history of demonstrations and stone pelting on the first Friday. There have been incidents of stone pelting after Friday prayers in the Kashmir Valley. That’s when it seems that Kashmir is being repeated across the country in protest against the objectionable statement made on Prophet Mohammad. Because of this, the forces that bake political bread by making a Hindu-Muslim narrative are becoming easier to give a new look to this dispute.
Keep in mind that on May 27, a national spokesperson of the BJP made an objectionable statement on Prophet Mohammad. Of course, at the same time, there must have been outrage in the minds of Muslim people, but its first public expression came a week later on June 3, when demonstrations and violence broke out after Friday prayers in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Even after that the Muslim people remained silent for a week. During this, Arab countries objected to India, which was quickly clarified by the Government of India and the BJP expelled two of its spokespersons from the party. The BJP also issued a statement and said that it does not support views that insult any religion. By law, the dispute should have ended after the clarification given to the Arab countries and the action of the BJP. But its the opposite. Instead of ending the dispute, it escalated.
It seems that due to the opposition of Arab countries and coming on the back foot of the central government and BJP, the courage of Muslim people or their leaders increased and they started violence and demonstrations all over the country. Police were pelted with stones, temples were pelted, vehicles of security forces were torched, fatwas were issued for the murder of a BJP leader who commented on Prophet Muhammad, effigies of that woman leader were hung on electric wires and false and true. The messages went viral on social media. The total effect of this was that a large section of the majority society which opposes the divisive politics of the BJP also got angry.
Keep in mind that the objectionable remarks on Prophet Sahib did not have the support of the entire Hindu society. There is a large section, which considers such a statement to be false and opposes it. It is also to be noted that despite all the efforts in the country, Hindu polarization has not even reached the level of 50 percent. If one Hindu supports the BJP and votes for it, at the same time more than one Hindu votes against it. This is the real picture of a democratic, secular and tolerant India. That’s when the nuisance that is taking place on the pretext of protesting against the statement on Prophet Mohammad is putting the Hindu population in dilemma, which has so far kept distance from the Hindutva agenda of the BJP.
It seems to him that the Muslim people of the country are happy that the Arab countries took their side and the Indian government bowed before the Arab countries. If for some reason the Government of India has clarified respecting the opposition of Arab countries, then it is not a sensible thing to promote it by calling it insulting to India. It is sheer foolishness to start an agitation after two weeks on this basis and indulge in violence, sabotage etc. The Muslims of the country, their leaders and intellectuals who oppose the government for everything on the basis of secular ideology, should understand that the publicity of bowing down of their government to any foreign power will not be liked by the common people of the country. Not at all during this government, because through propaganda, an impression has been created in the country that there are some forces inside and outside the country, who oppose the country on the pretext of opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. So, even though the Government of India had to face humiliation because of the spokespersons of the BJP, the subsequent developments have sidelined the fault of the BJP spokespersons and the episode of conspiracy by the anti-national forces has entered the popular discourse.
This will cause great loss to the Muslim people of the country. They should understand that Arab countries cannot become their power. Arab countries have their own diplomacy and economics. They intervene only on select matters keeping in view their interests. They don’t speak on incidents against Muslims in India the same way they don’t speak on Uighur Muslims in China. Since this issue was related to the core principle of Islam i.e. insulting the Prophet, the Arab countries objected to it. India immediately took cognizance of this objection and clarified its stand. But the Muslim people and their leaders misinterpreted the whole matter and started the movement. They felt that the Indian government was on the back foot, so it should be pressed further. But this has proved to be a horribly wrong strategy. This has given the BJP and its governments an opportunity to hide their mistake. Secondly, doubts have also arisen in the minds of the majority secular population of the country.
So the Muslims of the country need not get any illusions from the reaction of Arab countries. They should not think that Arab countries will protect the Muslims of India or bow down to the Indian government. They should also understand that the politicians leading the Muslims of India do politics only for the religious agenda. They can never be their real benefactors. The secular politics of the country will benefit the Muslims. For this they also have to follow the path of constitutional democracy, in which there is no place for such violence or disturbance. Some people are justifying violence with the argument that violence and arson are involved in every movement in India. This is where the culture of movement has become in India. Such people should be ignored because knowingly or unknowingly they are harming Muslims.
