It’s not a matter of right or wrong, but about what humanity has come to. Where is the corner, wherein a person is treated as a person and not a disciple of their religion? If there is a place like this in this world, I’d like to be there and learn their language. I want to learn the language and truth of humanity.
A 23-years-old man, was brutally killed on a busy street right in front of his parents, while everyone stood there wondering how the guy probably deserved it, how he was a disgrace to the society – and that’s not because he committed a heinous crime, but because he committed the crime of falling in love – something most of us in the Indian society are not allowed to.
He fell in love with a girl from a different religion. While he offered his prayers at a temple, she bowed down to the name of Allah, and hence, this one fact was enough to make her parents hold the right to kill the man their daughter fell in love with.
What I want to question is, “Why?” Why couldn’t they digest the fact that love doesn’t watch out for societal norms. Love never has and probably never will watch out for the boundaries made on ground, it clearly holds together on the ground of brotherhood.
In today’s time, I believe our nationality doesn’t really matter to anyone as much as our religion does. It’s not a matter of private affairs anymore. It’s not a matter of our personal beliefs, but has turned into a political identity to hold religion as their shield as they hold the ground on the battlefield of elections. Religion has grown to be a ghost haunting the secularity and sovereignty of the country, and we are doing nothing. Like bystanders, we are watching our country deteriorate at the hands of communalism, and no one but ourselves and our ideology are to blame for it.
When one visits a doctor, never have I heard the doctor ask the person about their religion before operating on the patient. But then, why do we need religion to be a reason enough to kill someone when we don’t hold it to be a reason to save someone?
How can we let communalism be the reason for destruction, not only of one individual but of humanity? How can we justify that killing someone saves the family’s honour? How can we be mute spectators when lives are at stake? But do we plan to change anything? I don’t think so.
Communalism is the brewing termite to the pure teak of our country and as our beliefs turn hollow, what’s decaying is the dead relations of humanity. Let’s not allow our religion to hold our right to life, let’s not allow another Ankit Saxena to be killed in the name of protecting one’s honour, or else what we’ll leave behind is a broken nation that was once together.