Ram and Naseer were good friends since their childhood. They would go to school together, exchange their lunch boxes and play in the evening. Diwali and Eid were few of the many occasions for celebration when their families would come together and share happiness with each other. Everything was fine and both 15-year-olds had several plans to study and travel around the world together. But one unfortunate day, Naseer’s father was killed by a mob who were protesting against the killing of cows in the city.
Naseer’s father’s fault lay in the fact that he was returning to his home, carrying mutton in his bag. He had bought the mutton from the butcher’s shop after paying namaz in the mosque. He was stabbed several times in his stomach and beaten up to his last breath by the so called protectors of religion. Naseer was left alone with his poor mother. Ram was stopped by his parents from meeting his friend. Naseer’s mother is begging for justice for her husband and son but her voice remains unheard in the world’s largest democracy.
This fictional account of Naseer is the reality of today’s India. From Mohammad Akhlaq to Hafiz Junaid, a number of people from the Muslim community have been lynched. This has not just ended their lives but has destroyed their families which are already marginalised in society.
The minorities in India no longer live in a secular nation. We were taught since our childhood that our nation is the world’s largest democracy, a nation which holds together despite its diversity. But for the last few years, it seems as if it’s a not a good country for our minorities. We don’t know when the world’s most diverse nation turned ‘Hindu’. The ‘holy animal’ is now more precious for our majority countrymen. The worth of a human life is nothing for them in comparison to it.
We were tied up with several social evils like the caste system and Sati, which haunted the lives of Dalits and women respectively. It was only possible for the British to rule us for more than 200 years because we were scattered into different groups. A society where the ‘upper caste’ people never wanted the lower caste to grow. Our freedom fighters dreamed of a united India. They sacrificed their lives for a free state. And we have ended up turning barbaric on our own brothers and sisters. The greed for power and position has led our politicians to divide the nation again into a country of separate identities, and we are foolishly becoming the victims of their propaganda.
Was this Gandhi’s dream of an independent India? Did Ambedkar give India the world longest Constitution for these kinds of practices in society?
What has happened to us that we have become so insensible and violent? According to a report, there has been an increase in the incidents of violence against Muslims and Dalits in the country. We remain silent about these incidents as if it doesn’t bother us anymore. But that day is not far when we become the victim of the mob’s justice! The mob will firstly put fire to our acquaintances while we helplessly watch them burning in front of us and at last, we will be thrown in the same fire to burn to ashes.
One cannot even show their disagreement with these barbaric acts on public platforms. If someone attempts to do so they would be labelled as ‘anti-nationals’, a major trend in our ‘civilised’ society which was also once the place of Buddha, Nanak and Sai, the great messengers of peace. If you attempt to condemn the act in media, you will be treated to ‘authentic facts’ from incidents that had taken place 300 years ago in the country!
Our citizens have turned so foolish that whatever propaganda our leaders try to enforce on us through mainstream media, the majority agree with it. What can be more unfortunate than the fact that the issue of falling economy, rise in unemployment and decline in quality of education in our country is not bothering us? But the idea of saving an animal, which is nowhere facing any danger, manages to bother us. In India, many farmers either commit suicide or are killed by the police, women are raped and murdered, where members belonging to the minority community are killed in front of the public, and the Prime Minister remains silent on all this. Such a country can never develop.
What can be more unfortunate than a well-established politician, who happens to be a Dalit, being offered the position of President by a government to cover up its faults in maintaining law, order and peace in the country? While at the end of the day, another Akhlaq will be killed in some other part of the country without affecting any citizen.
We have been so eaten up by these traitors that we are unable to think how they are attempting to destroy a 1000-year-old civilisation for their greed of ruling a diverse nation.