| A menacing Neo-Jinnah (Quaid-e-Azam) in U P | |||
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By: V Sundaram, IAS, Retd. October 25, 2006 Views expressed here are author’s own and not of this website. Full disclaimer is at the bottom. 
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"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live." ---Sir Winston Churchill Haridwar, also referred to as "the Gateway to the Gods, is considered as the gateway to the four pilgrimages in the Uttarakhand region. According to Hindu mythology, Haridwar is one of the seven holiest places of pilgrimage for the Hindus. Haridwar is famed in song, history, literature and legend as a sacred spot, blessed by the trinity of Lord Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. It is also one of the major Shaktipeeths. The holy river Ganga, which flows down the mountains, enters the plains at Haridwar. The Ganga becomes quiet and calm here. Millions of Hindu pilgrims from all parts of India come to the banks of the Ganga in Haridwar every year to have a holy bath on the different ghats built on the river banks here. It is believed that a holy dip in Ganga, purifies the soul and opens the way for the Nirvana, the ultimate freedom. Hardiwar boasts of many temples dedicated to Hindu Gods and Goddesses built across centuries. In the evening, the town acquires a unique charm, as the ghats become colorful with thousands of Diyas and Marigold floating in the Ganges. Like Mahmud of Ghazini in the 11th century, Muhammad Ghori in the 12th century, Qutbuddin Aibak, Iltutmish, and Balban in the 13th century, Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Timoor in the 14th century, Babur in the 16th century, Aurangazeb in the 17th century, Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali in the 18th century, invading the sacred territory of Bharat, Mulayam Singh Yadav has culturally invaded the ancient, sacred and holy city of Hardwar on October 14, 2006 by organizing a state sponsored program of festivities on the banks of the river Ganga for the Muslim voters of UP. This most irresponsible and no less reprehensible Chief Minister of UP, a repository of some of the most virulent anti-Hindu hatreds that have ever corroded the human breast, has thus shown an indivisible and unconcealed contempt for the ancient and time-honored religious feelings, sentiments and susceptibilities of the Hindus in majority in UP by opening the doors of Haridwar to Islamic festivities. On 14 October, 2006, the Islam- embracing and Hindu-hounding Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav organized an Iftar party at Har ki Pauri on the banks of the Ganga in Hardwar. Har ki Pauri is a space especially sacred to Hindus. Would Muslims allow a Hindu celebration in the compound of Delhi's Jama Masjid? Would any Islamic or Christian State allow a Hindu celebration in any of its sacred spaces? In this context we have to note that the Muslims in Triplicate in Chennai object even to a Hindu procession entering their streets on Ganesh Chathurthi Day every year. This barbaric act of Mulayam Singh Yadav is viewed by all enlightened people as a typical "Mahaamoodha" Mulayam gimmick to woo the Muslims of UP on the eve of Assembly Elections in that state next year. In this context the most significant fact that has been ignored is that right from the days of Lord Dalhousie, Governor General of India in the 19th century, Hardwar was treated as a centre of Hindu pilgrimage and activities by non-Hindus that offended Hindu religious sentiments were prohibited under the local City / Municipal Laws. There is no mosque in Hardwar, despite the fact that more than 30,000 Muslims live in the town. The nearest mosque is eight-km away at Jwalapur. Violations by non-Hindus invite penalty, either by way of fine or imprisonment, or both. In fact, the municipal by-laws instituted by the colonial administrators of British Raj as late as in 1940 prohibited Muslims from living in Hardwar and building a mosque. Selling of both meat and liquor was also strictly prohibited by law. Politically, the city's location is crucial. It is bound by Muslim-dominated Muzaffarnagar and Bijnor in the south and in the west it has Saharanpur known for Deoband, the seat of Islamic learning. Not too far from Haridwar is Bareilly, which is again known for another Islamic school of thought the Barelvis. I fully endorse the views of the eminent columnist Anuradha Dutt: "By attempting to open the doors of Hardwar to Islamic festivities, a sacrilege for many, he appears to have taken on the onus of extending the frontiers of Islam into Hinduism's most sacred precincts". His eye is clearly on the Muslim electorate that comprises 15 per cent of the total voters in UP. The phantom of creating a multi-racial and multi-cultural pluralist society based on the vacuously perilous quick-sands of Minority-Vote Bank politics, conceived and organized and launched by politicians like Mulayam, seems to be the most dangerous epidemic raging in the India of today. Even in a small multi-racial country like Malaysia, many Islamic clerics and scholars have recently criticized joint celebrations of two impending festivals, Diwali and Id-ul Fitr, one Hindu and the other Muslim, falling within three days of each other. Id-ul Fitr marks the end of fasting during Ramzan,. The public outcry against the secular chimera of such sham festivities is getting shriller every day. Some rabid Muslims have forbidden their community from extending traditional greetings to Hindus, who are a significant minority group in this multi-cultural society. Many non-Muslims have understandably come out against this show of fundamentalism. The Malaysian Government is watching this Allah versus Law situation with Pan-Islamic compassion! Here in our wretched country, Mulayam Singh Yadav has already cast his official vote to the Muslims on the banks of the river Ganga to get their full support in the next year's Assembly Elections in UP and Uttaranchal. Thus by bending backwards in a political bid to win the hearts of Muslims, he has bartered away our permanent national interest to the minority-Muslim vote banks in general and to the forces of Islamic terrorism in particular. While there is so much of confusion in the mindless hearts and heartless minds of our perverted seculars like Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lallu Prasad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, Dr.Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, about places of ancient and sacred places of Hindu pilgrimage, crystal clear clarity in such matters seems to reign and rule supreme in the Islamic country of Saudi Arabia. Mecca and Medina are cities of great importance in the Islamic tradition ? centers of pilgrimage and prayer, sacred places where Muslims are free from the distractions of daily life. The ban on non-Muslim visitors is mentioned in the Quran as follows: "Oh you who believe! Truly the idolaters are unclean; so let them not, after this year, approach the Sacred Mosque...." (9:28). This verse specifically refers to the Grand Mosque in Mecca; later scholars have included Madinah in this ruling as well. The Government of Saudi Arabia, which controls access to the holy sites, has imposed a strict ban on non-Muslims in both these cities in their entirety. Unlike the confused non-Government of Mulayam Singh Yadav in UP and the even more confused non-Government of Dr Manmohan Singh, the Government of Saudi Arabia is committed to the strict enforcement of a policy of providing a haven of peace and refuge for Muslim believers and to preserve the traditional historic sanctity of these two holy cities. It is very heartening to note that even a very tolerant and accommodating country like England which has given refuge and asylum to many of the greatest revolutionaries in world history, has woken up to the reality of global Islamic terrorism. At a recent press meeting, Tony Blair the British Prime Minister made it clear that his Government's approach to cultural diversity had changed. He said that the new policy of the British Government can be summed up as - Integration, rather than multi-cultural separatism;". He removed any doubt about the Government's new stand by declaring that he "fully supported" the decision of Kirklees Council to suspend the Muslim teaching assistant who had refused to remove her veil at work. He also reinforced this point with the observation that the veil was a "mark of separation". Tony Blair rightly concluded, "the British Government is of the view that the policy of multi-culturalism, as it has been understood and practiced, is antithetical to integration". In this otherwise bracing context, I am only concerned about the Government of India, in the vicious grip of a grisly gang of perverted pseudo-seculars in New Delhi, taking a knee-jerk decision to cut off all diplomatic ties with the Government of UK, just in order to out-maneuver Mulayam Singh Yadav's initiative in Haridwar and thereby staking a higher claim for Muslim votes in the forthcoming Assembly Elections in UP and Utranchal !!. Despite mass killings of Hindus by the Muslim rulers well documented in thousands of books and documents round the world (excepting in the text-books of Mullah Arjun Singh(!), the fact remains that the Muslims did not succeed in eliminating the Hindus as a race altogether nor could they succeed in reducing Hindus to a minority. Despite forcible conversions, India could not be Islamized. How did it happen? Alberuni has solved this riddle: "The Hindus differ from us in religion. There is very little disputing about theological topics among themselves, at the most they fight with words, but they will never stake their soul or body or their property on religious controversy. In all manners and usages, they differ from us to such a degree as to frighten their children with us". Just as the Indian Muslims have reconciled themselves to the peculiar circumstances of their conversion in India, if they could also learn to live as a minority implicitly respecting the religious feelings, sentiments and traditions of the tolerant Hindus in majority, there will be peace for them and peace for all in India. V Sundaram, IAS, Retd.
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