(Published in the Hindu on 19th
2010, p.14, Sunday Edition)
Fifty
years ago, during the Ramadhan in my home town of Taranagar in western Rajasthan, plain millet breads,
dal/potato shorba, coarse home made savainya, sugared water,
dates and halwa, each from different homes, would come to mosque for
Iftaar, ‘breaking of fast.’ Each crumb was eaten with gratitude to the
Provider. Iftaar bonded the community spirit.
In
a Nairobi mosque in a black neighbourhood (as also in Chardarwaza Dargah,
Jaipur), Muslims from nearby neighbourhoods bring food for Iftaar shared by the
poor and others together. Travellers and passer-by are asked to join in a spirit of fasting and
sharing. This is Fellowship, common
among religions of revealed books. It
pleases Allah immensely, says a Sufi, as His children are fed together after
fasting. (In Kerala grand-father of a friend never took dinner in Ramadhan till
a traveller joined him. Worried villagers used to coax travellers to oblige
them!)
Times
are changing and so are the motives and
magnitudes of Iftaars. Politicians in power ignore basic problems of Muslims, including threat to their lives and
property. But they seek them for Iftaars. The Bush-Blaire duo led attack on
Iraq and Afghanistan, killing thousands of innocent Muslims, including children
and women, and damaging hospitals and homes, justified as collateral damages.
The world, outraged, still agonizes. Unblinking Bush called his spin doctors.
Shocking the world, Iftaar party was hosted in the White House! Dead bodies
turned in graves in NJ, Iraq and Afghanistan. A gulf exists between outraged sea of bereavement and island of
carpetbaggers.
Disturbing
images of Iraq, Afghanistan, Gujarat, Mumbai and Srinagar keep crowding psyche
of civil societies and Muslims. Ramadhan
is a month of cleansing of body and mind by observing fast and austerity.
Politicians have changed its pristine philosophy to a mechanism to exploit sentiments and creating divisiveness among
Muslims, ignoring justice and governance for them, confronted with stubborn red
lining, communal attacks, loss of life and property. But party must go on.
UPA
president, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, hosts Iftaar
party for Muslim leaders and dignitaries from Muslim countries. Unlike
free mixing in mosque Iftaars, invitees are stratified by status: foreign
dignitaries and senior cabinet ministers in the core circle, VIPs in the middle
and the rest in outer circle. Wheelers and dealers manage to sneak in. Even a
slot in the outer ring is statement of importance: ‘I was invited in Soniaji’s
Iftaar Party!’ Party chiefs, governors and ministers host lavish Iftaar for
dignitaries, politicians, and Muslim elites. Mounds of leftovers is wasted.
Size and quality of crowd hugely satisfies the host. Investment in such
Fellowship ‘improves’ political image, bringing electoral returns. This is the
crux of the tamasha.
Other
political formations are not behind in enticing Muslims for political
harvesting. The JD (U) and SP supreme are at their best in Ifaar bonhomie.
Iftaars gives new blood transfusions. Media reports the likes of the Advanis and
Ataljis adorning skull caps and green pugrees foisted on them by
over-enthusiastic and calculative Dargah heads. In their own perceptions, Muslims and political hosts
are happy with the ‘conversion’ of the other! Party enthusiasts are ordered to
bring in buses loaded with Muslims, preferably in skull caps and beards, from
Jama Masjid and nearby towns. Expensive piping hot delicacies have their own
magnetism. Though hardcore Hindutva elements fume and fret in private, BJP’s
spin doctors smile at the spectacle without forgetting core communal agenda:
abrogation of the Article 370, enforcement of Common Civil Code and Ram Temple
at the demolished Babri Masjid site. Pragmatists counsel: Iftaar ki raftaar
mein sab chalta hai! ‘All is permissible in race for Iftaar!’
Once
a respectable Muslim leader sought suggestion for hosting Iftaar in Jaipur.
Underlining its futility in Jaipur, I suggested him to host it rather in his
constituency in poor Mewat region for true fellowship. It further endeared him.
This Ramadhan a Rajasthan cabinet
minister hosted a huge Iftaar in a five-star hotel in Jaipur, raising many eye
brows. Who footed the bill was not a mystery: he holds a key portfolio. Some
say it was a litmus test to judge solidarity among agitating Muslims who had announced boycott of Iftaar
by politicians.
They
are agitated because last July, following killing of one Meena tribal
criminal by a Muslim criminal, just
before Ramadhan, mobs attacked innocent Muslims in Sarada, Udaipur, in the
presence of district administration. The
mob was instigated by the RSS activists. Through Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad (VKP),
Mewar is fast become a testing communal laboratory. During the curfew hours,
seventy Muslim houses were burnt and looted. District Magistrate, IGP, SP and
heavy posse of armed forces stood as spectators. According to the eminent
scholar Asghar Ali Engineer, arson and looting didn’t happen in 2002 even in
Gujarat areas where DM was present. But it has happened in Congress ruled
Rajasthan. There are shining examples of
law upholding Superintendents of Police
in Gujarat and Rajasthan (Sarada July 2004 and Balesar May 2010) who performed
their constitutional duties firmly, containing riots to save Muslim lives and
property. Oddly, these SPs were
transferred immediately by Rajasthan BJP in 2004 and Congress in 2010,
apparently playing, respectively, hard and soft Hindutva cards. Ironically, BJP replaced SP Dr. Ravi Prakash
Meharda by Dinesh MN (now in Gujarat
jail in the Sohrabudin case).
Most
Muslims of Sarada were herded in the police station before the mayhem
began.only their houses were searched for arms.
Police locked a family in two
rooms and let the mobs set the house on fire. An elderly woman sobbingly
narrated this harrowing experience in a Jaipur public meeting. Sarada Muslims
were rendered homeless and jobless during the Ramadhan, ruining both their
fasting and Eid festival. They demand dismissal of responsible officers and a
judicial inquiry. Rather, government instituted an inquiry by divisional
commissioner (who neither took any preventive action, despite knowing the tense
condition), keeping DM, IGP and SP out of the purview of terms of reference (TOR), despite the damning
report against them by the Rajasthan PUCL team. Even then, the governor and CM
are hosting Iftaar parties expecting Muslims to attend, adding salt to injury.
Indian
state has no official religion. Its only dharma, if at all, is to protect the
lives and property of people. Iftaar is a religious activity to be not
politicised. Muslims are agonized over the
politics of Iftaar which often divides them. Hosting Iftaar in official residences by
constitutional post holders is problematic, like building and nurturing temples
and mosques there, damaging the secular
image of the Indian state.
-----------------------------------------
*Writer
was professor in the HCM Rajasthan State Institute of Public Administration and
is currently Member, Rajiv Gandhi Social Security Mission, Rajasthan
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