An extremist act in a democratic
country
Shiv Sena MP of Thane Rajan Vichare forced Arshad, a
catering supervisor at the IRCTC canteen in Delhi’s New Maharashtra Sadan, to
eat a chapati during his Ramzan fasting period last week. This is clearly a
high-handed approach of Vichare and his colleagues from the Shiv Sena.
It is high time Shiv Sena stopped specialising in
using strong-arm tactics to silence those who disagree with it. This is an extreme and unacceptable
behaviour. The Sena has violated the
law of the land with impunity time and again. This act was performed in spite of the fact that Arshad was in uniform,
displaying his name badge. This act
has been captured in television footage.
It is now clear that in India the powerful still
enjoy impunity. The elected representatives are supposed to set an example for
people by their behaviour, The
distress caused to a Muslim employee by the callous, even if not deliberate,
disregard of his religious sensibilities is apparent. It was a very bad act, and in poor taste. The MP had many other ways to
express his disapproval of the quality of food served in the Maharashtra sadan.
The supervisor could have been summoned and questioned and asked him to take
corrective action. Now the incident
has been blown out of proportion to give it a communal colour and create a
divide in the society and the press is playing a major role in this negative
publicity.
What needs to be looked into is whether such
behaviour is more common than we think and is present across all levels of
society.
We can conjecture that this is exactly
what a home owner would do to his/ her servant, a father to a son, husband to a
wife or teacher to a helpless pupil. It is only from such a society that such
representatives attain high office.
Powerful actors drive expensive cars and kill
pedestrians and aim sharp rifles and shoot endangered species. Rich sons of
former ministers get bail, organize huge rallies, and destroy property. A
well-connected actor gets away with murder. High ranking officers routinely
violate subordinates. It may or may not have any connection with religion and
caste but merely the projection of the power of wealth, brute force, and
official influence of the perpetrators. Media should focus on specific
individuals in each case in order to isolate them from their uninformed
followers.
For change to happen, we will need more sensitive
and humble people coming into politics and not the current brazen lot, only
when this changes, Indian Politician scenario is going to change. This change
has to happen at one constituency at a time and not from "New Delhi".
We tend look at "New Delhi" for solution to all our issues, where is
the local responsibility.
While this incident by this MP is condemnable
without question, Muslims should stop using this to further add to their
"victim-hood" mentality. As for Gujarat riots, as horrible as it was,
it was not started by Modi. It was started by the barbaric act of burning alive
defenseless women, children and old people in the train compartment. Had this horrible incident not occurred, there
wouldn't have been any riots, not that the riots are justified.
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