Secular

Published on July 19, 2004 By Confusing Musings In Current Events

Sometimes, I try to define secularism to myself. Neither I am an unsecular like VHP and chums and nor I find myself secular like Congress, Left , Media or Human Rights activists observing encounter of Ishrat Jahan. The former phrase doesn't need an explanation, but for latter I'll explain you why I feel so.

Ishrat Jahan, a student was traveling in a car intercepted by Gujrat police. There was firing from that car. Even if we assume that there was no firing, vehicle must have tried to escape. I say must because there was a lot of illegal ammunition found in the car later. The two backseat occupants turned out to be Pakistani. The one driving the car was a guy called Javed. So far so good. But now some interesting developments start taking place.

Claim - Mumbai police hurriedly declared Ishrat could not be a terrorist because her classmates and neighbours say she was a student, that too a sincere one.
Counter- Haven't these guys heard of SIMI. Were they not students? And were they not terrorists? This logic came from the police that is said to be arguably, the most efficient in the country and second only to Scotland Yard in the world. I have begun to have my doubts.

Claim - Ishrat's mother says that she did not know Javed.
Counter - However, Javed use to work for her husband a few years ago. Memory loss? Many people have reported to police that she actually knew Javed very well.

Claim - Ishrat's mother didn't know she was going to Ahemdabad. She didn't ask.
Counter - When queried why didn't she ask? Answer : I had full faith in her. Great!!

Claim - Ishrat's mother didn't even ask when she'll be back.
Counter - This because, her mother knew she would return. She always did. However she didn't , this time.

There many such loop holes in the story. There is a diary of Ishrat which clearly states that she knew Javed and Pakistani militants before hand. There were cash transactions between them which were recorded in the diary . She used to travel out of station for as long as a week , quite frequently. Even then, she was claimed to be a sincere student. She was traveling in a car which had illegal ammunitions. What was she doing there in first place if she had no business to be there!

The media , politicians are not questioning these facts. Instead, they are questioning the intent of Gujrat police, which were fed with this information from Mumbai Crime Branch and BSF. Minority right activists like Testlavad are providing monetary help to Ishrat's family.

All this in the name of holy secularism. Even if terrorists genuinely hatch a plan to kill some one in this country, they will get away just because they might be from minority community. Someone give me a break ! This is not secularism. This is crass politics. This is an indication that elections are due in Maharashtra.

I will stick to that definition of word Secular , which we were taught in our schools -follow your own religion, and let other follow theirs.

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