By the Editor: Siddharth Sehgal

Recently, there was a so-called religious gathering called “Dharam Sansad” in Haridwar where some so-called “saints” openly appealed for genocide against the Muslim community in India. As disturbing as these blatant calls to violence were, what was more disturbing was the muted response of Uttarakhand and the central government to this call for violence. Only after significant criticism at the national and international level, the governments thought to register a case but there hasn’t been an arrest so far. Similarly, there were some reported attacks on Christians celebrating Christmas in various parts of the country but the response from authorities was not what should have been in a democracy.

Being a nationalist does not mean that any person or group can make a mockery of your nation’s laws. It is simply unacceptable that someone can stop Namaz or Christmas celebrations or try to bully our citizens from minority communities in the name of Hinduism or nationalism and the government looks the other way. Being from any political or religious organization does not give anyone immunity from the law and yet time and again we see open contempt of our constitutional laws that give our citizens a constitutional right to practice their faith. I have lots of Muslim friends in the workplace, in school, and in college, these people are law-abiding citizens, they have families just like any other Hindu or Sikh household in this country, they enjoy movies, go to picnic with family and friends and they try to make their lives better just like any other Indian. It is okay if we agree or disagree on some things, it is also okay if we have different eating habits but a group can issue a call to blatantly kill Indian citizens and the Uttarakhand and central government letting that go unchallenged is simply astounding. There are many Muslim and Christian servicemen in our Army, Navy, and Air Force, there are Muslim and Christian supporters of BJP, and many hold leadership positions in the saffron party, will the BJP stand ideally-by if its members or our defense personnel are threatened with Genocide?

This is utter madness that will lead us to ruin, the ruling political leadership should step up to the occasion and condemn such activities but somehow it feels that it’s asking too much from them. How would we feel if such a call to Genocide will be made in Pakistan and Bangladesh against Hindus, what are we trying to become, a beta version of Pakistan where religious fanatics can virtually hold a country to ransom? Just as we express concern over atrocities on Hindu and Sikh communities in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan we have to ensure that we walk the talk of protecting the rights of minorities in our country.