By Asma Anjum Khan for TwoCircles.net,
Some time ago, at the height of Anna-Kejriwal movement, against you know what, I read a little line which really got me. It said, “The average Indian mind no longer processes the word corruption /scam.”
Period.
I am reminded of the same as I watch Modi’s election campaign and how the average Indian Muslim mind today, processes the word Gujarat as Genocide. The year 2002 was different from others, the riots /pogrom became the defining moment for him. They were different in many regards but most perhaps in their having government sponsorship. Many Bhagalpurs have been forgotten,[ we even forgot the Bombay of 1992, what more do you ask for?], but Gujarat continues to sting us even after 10 years. Perhaps it would continue to simmer till fair and complete justice is given to the Indians butchered in it.
Presented here are the photographs of Cricketer Irfan Pathan in Gujarat BJP campaign at Kheda with Chief Minister Narendra Modi. [Photo Courtesy: DeshGujarat.com]
I remember reading somewhere in Khushwant Singh’s writings, where he describes, how one day as he sat brooding, discussing the brutal massacre at Delhi of 1984, his Muslim friend after sensing his gloom remarked, Arre, Sardar jee, aap 3000 ke liye ro rahe ho, itne toh hamare ek dange mein mur jaate hain [ Sardar [KS] you should not even mind the killing of your 3000 Sikhs, these many of our men [Muslims] are killed normally in one riot alone.]
Gujarat and its development trumpet is all too well known to write home about, so what if it takes place over hundreds and thousands of dead bodies?
Since 2002, as a ‘concerned ‘ Indian citizen/Muslim, I have done a lot , to make better the lot of my people of Gujarat. I have written on various forums and expressed my hatred towards Modi and demanded justice all the more and all the time. I have fought bravely against those who said Modi should be forgiven!
Forgiven?
No way. Because Paulo Coelho says, forgive, but never forget, because it renders the lesson learnt useless. So there is no chance of me forgiving or forgetting this savagery.
Education and rehabilitation of the victims of this savagery, I leave to others, as they are best for the job, I know well. Schools etc is kind of missionary work and my Christian friends do a better job of it and after relegating all the court battles to our Teesta Didi ,all these years I have expressed my strong displeasure against the communal forces [ and if I was really in a seething mood ] I have even ‘dared ‘to
call them Fascists !No need to congratulate me for the bravery, it was after all my duty. You know, towards my community.
I need and wish to do more for my not 3 crore but some 20-30 lakh Gujaratis, the victims of the pogrom. [That Harsh Mandar , though a good man, once wrote , that this word pogrom was not proper [probably too strong] to use for an occurrence like Gujarat, his naiveté amuses me really. Lord Meghnad Desai now thinks Modi is PM material, oh, how naïve I too was to think of him as a secular minded person so far. Lesson: Never trust these intellectuals along with the politicians…..who said that thing about the last refuge and the scoundrels? . As a further gesture of my fight against communal forces, I have decided to stop watching KBC. [So what you thought, I ‘d allow Amitabh Bachchan jee to sail away smoothly , after becoming Gujarat and Modi ‘s agent of change or what they call brand ambassador?
There must be the hand of Amar Singh in this too, to malign my childhood hero, ….don’t know…but politics indeed makes strange bed fellows. And yeah I have also now firmly decided, to no longer take his bahu Aishwerya Rai , to my dreams, Mard ki ek baat. Her Vadodara act , makes me punish her this way , anyway she has now become too fat to fit the job . So this is not very difficult a task but , I tell you it was hard to not watch , Ajay Devgan’s Son of Sardar[ At first I thought the film was a dedication to Modi himself, Son of Sardar [Patel!] However, God made my task easier with Jab Tak Hai Jaan, the Shahrukh starrer , and I succeeded in boycotting , the Son and his Sardar altogether .[Alas how I wish we Indians could do the same in real life as well as I did with the reel] I can still offer to avoid watching any more films/TV shows of actors who have supported our arch enemy Modi, after all , as an Indian ,its my duty to fight the communal forces.
But just a while ago, my heart beat almost stopped as I watched Irfan Pathan, sharing stage with Modi and a man with the weirdest hairdo, in recent times. [Really you must watch this guy to believe what I say!]
Thus ,hereby I pronounce my solemn resolve with the witness of [ I swear by] my one billion strong plus Bhartiya junta, that I won’t watch any match which even has a shadow[ so what did you think of the 12th man in the squad, so far?] of a Miyan bhai, called Irfan Pathan.
Now I am huffing and puffing, boycotting so many people who have so far been my heroes, brings its own stress. Now after writing one more piece about the need to fight the communal forces, with a generous sprinkling of demand for justice and a smattering of truth shall prevail type quotes, I would try my best to not watch KBC but if you catch me red handed , then , I too am human.
In that classic absurd film , Jane Bhi Do Yaaro, [1983] a character [Shrivastav] while mourning the death of the former commissioner of the city de Melo , concludes , Kal commissioner sahib ki yaad mein shehar ke saare guttar bund rahein ge, isliye aap sab se yeh prarthana hai ke peene ka paani, ek din pehle hi bhar kar rakh lein.[ All the gutters[drainage]will remain shut in the sweet memory of our late commissioner de Melo , so the citizens are requested to fill their water, in advance.]
I wish to say,
Kal communal forces ki jeet ki khushi mein , shehar ke sare conscience bund rahein ge, apni secularism ka matum aap sab , aaj hi manaa lein.[ In anticipation of the victory of the communal forces tomorrow, mourn the death of secularism today]
Dhanyavaad.
Thank you so much.
—
Asma Anjum Khan is Assistant Professor of English in Maharashtra