Crude Religious Hatred and Shitty Politics - Violence in Gorakhpur

One of Alka’s friends called from Gorakhpur and as Alka and Vasu were sleeping I picked up the phone and talked to her for a few minutes. But a few days ago she had a lengthy talk with Alka about the ongoing religious turmoil there and it was both sad and shocking to know how it all started and what sort of nefarious politics is being played to appease different religious communities for political gains.

It all started with a stupid incident. There was a marriage procession, and there was a Moharram procession. People in the marriage were firing rounds in the air (this moronic act of bravado should be banned immediately) and one of the stray bullets hit someone in the Moharram procession. The people in the Moharram procession were carrying machetes, knives and swords. As was expected, they came running for the marriage procession and the people ran from there.

A poor vendor had come there to eat the food being distributed in the marriage and somehow he got left behind. When he saw the murderous mob of Muslims running towards where he was, he ran and hid himself in a police jeep. They dragged him out of the jeep and hacked him immediately.

The actual trouble began when a mourning prayer was being organized for the slain vendor. Yogi Adityanath — a local Hindu sadhu-cum-goon-cum-politician — was going to attend the prayer. He was arrested on his way and put in jail.

Now, a person who is not privy to the ground realities will totally agree with this step (even I would) — such people are arrested to avoid further escalation. But the problem is, Alka’s friend said the Muslim community over there is so violent that if it were not for goons like Adityanath, the Hindu community wouldn’t be able to live there even for a few days. It’s sad,  but it’s a hard reality. So arresting him was a politico-religious gesture just to appease the Muslims. Even the educated Hindu community of Gorakhpur likes the yogi and everybody is sure he was just going to meet the family and present his condolence.

His arrest sparked off the widespread rioting. Of course this shouldn’t have happened but sadly it did.

The bullet was an accident, and I would go to an extent of saying that the slaying of the vendor too was an accident given the nature of the Muslim mentality of loathing every other community around, but after that, it totally turned into a political game. Since crucial elections are nearby, some politicians just want to show the Muslims how “secular” they are by arresting people left and right and transferring/suspending policemen. Where was this alacrity when Nithari was going on?

I think it is a good chance for BJP to show they have some political IQ left. I know it is too much to expect from the BJP, but they shouldn’t play into the hands of the “secularists”. For once, instead of playing the saviors of Hindutva they should work with the community to establish peace. This way no one will be able to blame them and get an excuse for worsening the situation.

And even Yogi Adityanath cannot be absolved of the entire mess. Sometimes I feel all the political parties work in tandem. They all want to take advantage of the situation, whether they are Hindu community leaders or Muslims.