Saturday, September 16, 2006

The Vandemataram hullabulloo

The Vandemataram episode and all the fracas surrounding must have really been an eyesore for any self-righteous Indian. It clearly exposed, on the one hand, the BJP's desperation to ride on an issue into public attention & the shallowness and insecurity of the self-proclaimed Muslim leadership, and on the other hand, the absolute sad state of affairs of our motherland. If this is an issue which grabs political attention and imagination at a time when farmer suicides are on the rise and foodgrain imports are soaring, we can very well kiss the dream of a developing India goodbye.

The views of eminent writer Javed Akhtar really set the issue in perspective, “If a Deoband maulvi asks me not to recite the song, I’ll recite all the verses. If the BJP says I sing the song, I’ll not recite even a single line.” The self-appointed Muslim leadership is still in the medieval and fundamental mould and can’t in the least claim to be the representatives of the Muslim fraternity. They are just disillusioned personalities who want to push an entire fraternity into an abyss of backwardness and self-ghettoisation. They are hungry for publicity and are basically insecure. It was this fact that was leveraged by the BJP to somehow prove they were still in existence. All they have managed to do is dent their already dismembered amour and stand exposed as a party facing its nemesis. This worries me all the more because such a state of affairs means that there is no competent alternative to the ruling power at the centre and that can be disastrous for the country.

On a personal note, I have a strong query. Just how many Indians know the entire Vandemataram by heart???

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