Omkar Dattatray
India is the land of Ram and Rahim, Gautam and Karim and there is no place for Hindu-Muslim tension and disturbances. Ours is a secular and plural country as we have embraced secularism as the state policy and our constitution guarantees religious freedom and freedom of worship and all citizens are free to practice, propagate and even to change his or her religion. There is religious freedom subject to public order. Even otherwise India being a very tolerant nation, its people are very tolerant as they are the inheritors of the great culture which is tolerant, all absorbing and assimilative and therefore India would have been following inter religious harmony even without having embraced and adopted secularism as a matter of state policy. Thus it is obvious that the people belonging to various faiths live like brothers in peace and tranquility. But it is very disturbing that the vested politicians and political parties play dirty politics over the religious sentiments of the people and divide people in the name of religion and faith. So unfortunately Mandir-Masjid issues are often raised to polarise the situations and sensitive religious issues and this should not be allowed to happen and disturb the communal harmony in the plural country where all the citizens have to live in peace to further the foundations of secularism. Therefore there is no justification to raise the Mandir-Masjid issues time and again as it has the potential of disturbing the inter faith harmony and as such non issues of Mandir-Masjid should not be raised to pollute the secular tenets of the country. Thus in no case Hindu-Muslim tensions and disturbances should be created and those stoking communal fires and issues should be dealt with sternly so that the forces hell bent to create communal disturbance and tensions will be discouraged as communal tensions and disturbances are alien to our grand and great culture and civilization and so all should live in harmony and peace and follow and practice their religion. Gullible people should not be carried away by the vested politicians game plan of creating communal disturbances on the non issues of Mandir-Masjid because in our secular democracy all the people belonging to different faiths should live in perfect inter religious harmony and peace because communal tensions and disturbances have no place in our secular and plural country. The political parties and the people should concentrate and raise the real and mundane issues of bread and butter and those issues which concern to people and desist from raking and raising futile Mandir-Masjid issues which should be consigned to the dustbin of history so that these are not raised again to pollute the inter religious harmony. It would be better and in the best interests of our developing economy to raise the issues confronting to people. So the issues of unemployment, inflation, militancy, corruption and the like should be raised so that the government is forced to resolve these and other such issues in the interest of the people. Moreover the issues of electricity, pure drinking water, good schooling for children, good roads, better sanitation and health care should be the issues which should attract the attention of the political parties, politicians, government and last but not the least the people of this country. Therefore the powers that be should focus its attention on these problems and not allow the vested politicians to raise futile and non issues of Mandir-Masjid for their ulterior motives. The Mandir-Masjid issues cannot quench the thirst and fill the empty belly of the people and so the futile and non issues of Mandir-Masjid should not be raised as these issues have the potential to disturb the communal harmony in the multi religious society. Since ours is a multi religious, multi lingual and multi culture as well as the multi dimensional country and so there is no place for hate, hatred between the religious communities and also for raising the useless Mandir- Masjid issues. Therefore the political parties and the cunnings politicians should not raise the non issues of Mandir-Masjid and these non issues are raised to divert the attention of the people from the more pressing issues confronting to them. Therefore the political parties and the government alike should attend to the real issues which should be addressed and resolved for the interest of the gullible masses and the people should not fall prey to the political and mischievous machinations of the political parties and as such should not allow themselves to be exploited by the cunning and vested politicians who only rake and raise non issues of Hindu-Muslim and thus mislead the people for their vote bank politics. In fact it is better that politicians, political parties, the government and the people should concentrate on the real issues and problems which matter most to the people and these problems should be resolved for the benefit of the masses instead of raising futile and non issues of Mandir-Masjid. This country and its people have experienced much controversy over Mandir-Masjid in 1990s and it has damaged the secular fabric of the country and our march towards development became the first casualty and this Hindu -Muslim controversy has done no good to the communal harmony and thank God that the Ram Janambooni Babri Masjid issue which was lingering from long time and disturbing the communal harmony has been resolved by the well intensions of the prime ministers and the court decision which was honoured by both the communities. Unfortunately these days the dispute of Ghanyapi Masjid near Kashi Vishwanath temple premises has become an eyesore of the cunning politicians and the non issue of the Mandir-Masjid issue has again reached centre stage and both the Hindu and Muslim community is staking claim of the ownership of the Ghanyapi Masjid. Hindus claim that the Masjid had been built after damaging the temple but the Muslims claim that it is the Masjid and so there is religious controversy on the Mandir-Masjid issue. This non-issue of Mandir-Masjid should not be allowed to disturb the communal harmony in the country. The people are required not to open the old cupboards and skeletons to foment the communal trouble in the plural country. In our secular country the temples and mosques stand side by side and it is the best example of secularism and inter-faith unity and no step should be taken to create communal trouble in the name of the religion. We should uphold the secularism and Hindu-Muslim unity and not allow ourselves to be swayed by the religious emotions on flimsy grounds. There are hundreds of places of the worship of the both communities side by side and nothing should be done to question the uniqueness of this nation where temples and mosques are standing side by side and no communal tension should be allowed on this great example of the inter faith harmony in the country. If we open the old skeletons it will not serve any useful purpose except to foment communal tension and so in all the cases of disputes the statuesque should be maintained so that there is no communal tension and disturbance in the country. Thus the political parties, politicians, governments and the people should pay attention towards the pressing problems which need immediate solution instead of raking useless issues of Mandir and Masjid which will do no good to the people. Therefore it is better to allow the statuesque on all the Mandir-Masjid disputes so that there is no communal tension in the country. The communal tensions and disturbances are an obstacle to our economic development and therefore it is in the interest of the country and communal harmony that the Hindu -Muslim issues should not be raised rather sincere efforts should be made to focus our attention towards the pressing problems which need immediate attention. So instead of raising futile issues of Mandir-Masjid and Hindu and Muslim we should not allow the cunning politicians to whip communal tensions in the name of religion and the politicians, government and above all the real masters of democracy– the people should try sincerely to resolve the mundane issues confronting them. To conclude we can say that in this land of Ram and Rahim there is no place for communal tensions as these are alien to our grand culture and we should allow Ganga-Jamni culture to flourish and fructify and thus should we water the orchard of different faiths so that the doctrine of unity in diversity is protected and followed for the interest of the people belonging to different faiths.
(The author is a Columnist and Social Activist).
