Author: Tavleen Singh
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: November 25, 2007
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/243066.html
How interesting to see Islamism raise its
ugly little head in secular, Marxist West Bengal last week. And how interesting
that those proud warriors against 'communalism' that constitute the West Bengal
government should kowtow to the worst kind of religious fanatics by throwing
Taslima Nasreen out of the state on a midnight flight to Rajasthan. Tch, tch,
tch! What is happening to Marxists these days? Have they become crypto-communalists
while we weren't looking? A secret cadre of the 'communal' Bharatiya Janata
Party? How else to explain why those who subscribe to an ideology that rejects
religion should bow before its worst manifestation?
Taslima Nasreen is a writer. An intellectual
refugee who fled the wrath of Islamists in her native Bangladesh to seek shelter
in a country that supposedly stands for secularism and freedom of thought.
We owe her protection or we violate the fundamental principles of our Constitution.
The Marxist government of West Bengal should be ashamed of itself. Instead
of throwing Taslima Nasreen out, the jackboot should have been brought down
hard on the Islamists whose violent protests, ostensibly over government brutalities
in Nandigram, caused Kolkata to be placed under curfew and the army to be
called out.
Taslima Nasreen has been living quietly in
Kolkata, making almost no public appearances since she was attacked by Islamists
in Hyderabad a few months ago. Why was her name dragged into the protests
against what happened in Nandigram? Liberal, secular journalists report that
the Islamist mobs that destroyed public property and stoned policemen in Kolkata
were incensed not just over Nandigram but over some article that appeared
in an obscure Bengali newspaper. If the Marxist government stood by its own
principles it would have told the all-India Muslim troublemaking front that
this is not Saudi Arabia but India and we cherish the right of free speech.
Shame on you, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.
As for me, I am neither secular nor liberal
when it comes to religious fanatics of any kind. So in the plainest words,
I would like to say that there is no room for Islamists in India. They must
be deported to a country like Saudi Arabia where life runs according to the
laws of the Shariat, or so the Saudis tell us. Last week a 19-year-old girl,
who was gang-raped because she was seen in the company of a man who was not
her husband, brother or father, was sentenced to a punishment of 200 lashes.
This is the sort of primitive justice that our homegrown Islamists approve
of but they must be told firmly that this is not the Indian way. In secular
India, secular laws apply and it is the rapist who gets punished and not the
victim. In India women can hang about on their own and even with their lovers
without being punished. Unlike in Saudi Arabia they are even allowed to drive
cars.
On a more serious note, we need to pay close
attention to the threat of homegrown, south Asian radical Islam. In the name
of 'secularism' the prime minister has closed his eyes not just to the disturbing
number of madrassas that have come up on our borders and in remote villages
but also to the increasing number of organisations that shield Islamism. They
function openly in our cities, and if they are not openly spreading poison
against other religions, they are actively involved in promoting the idea
that the only religion worthy of respect is Islam. That these organisations
are dangerously influential is evident from the thousands of ordinary Muslims
that pour into the streets to protest against whatever they are told is the
new Islamist cause.
There is always a hysterical edge to the protests
that make the protesters link all sorts of grievances together. What does
Taslima Nasreen have to do with Nandigram? What does Nandigram have to do
with Islam? What does the All-India Minority Front that led the violence in
Kolkata have to do with any of these things?
We need to protect India from this kind of
religious hysteria. We have an economy on the verge of a boom, a stock market
that goes up steadily, and a huge population of young Indians who seek modernity
and prosperity. If there is one thing, in my humble view, that can bring all
of our hopes and dreams crashing down, it is radical Islam. It is dangerous
for our policymakers to continue to ignore the threat we face from the military-mullah
dictatorships in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
It is because they make no distinction between
ordinary Indian Muslims and Islamists that no action has been taken so far
against the front organisations of radical Islam. It is these organisations
that are directly responsible for the kind of meaningless violence we saw
in Kolkata last week. They must be stopped.
