vyakta

Just a couple of days after the 7/11 Mumbai train blast had occurred I was reading an opinion column in the national daily “THE HINDU”. The essence of the opinion is – the Mumbai train blasts is an inhuman act, it’s an act against humanity & not just against, the terrorism has no religion and so on.

Last week there were riots in Bangalore. Left front & Muslims were protesting against Saddam’s execution. Suddenly it took a violent turn against a Hindu organization. This time CNN-IBN had panel of experts to analyse the problem. Strangely it was summarized that Bangalore has two sets of people, the hi-tech/software industry associated ‘have’s & the other ‘have-not’s. It is this difference, as told by them, which is sparking the ‘have-not’s to get into the riot mode every now and then. May it be on November 1^st- the Karnataka Rajyotsava day, may it be after Rajkumar’s death, may it be the recent riots a couple of weeks ago.

But to include the communal riots under the category of a clash between rich & poor would be absurd. Few months ago such communal clash was seen in Mao (UP), and few days ago in Gorakhpur. How well the theory of rich and poor hold good there?

By wrongly attributing communal clash to some economic issue OR quoting an act of terrorism to be non-communal, we make two mistakes. First, we misinform people about the incident. It requires all the people, especially Muslims themselves, to come out and openly condemn such acts. By misinforming, media gives a wrong comfort to Muslims that it is not necessary for them to take the responsibility of reforming their fellow religion people. Second, we stop people from analyzing the situation and coming out with a comprehensive solution.

Observed deeply, we see four kinds of people who commit the mistake of not speaking up straight about communal issues:

• Ignorant: They have no clue what so ever as to what is happening to around them.
• Indifferent: These people are unmoved by what is happening around them, they might even be selfish in a sense. Will act only when it starts affecting them. Very similar to the Jews & Hitler story. They might be too late when they want to act.
• Hypocritical: They know the truth, but speaking up openly would harm their interests. Most of our politicians also fall under this category
• Spineless: They know the truth, but do not enough guts to speak up.

So what is the way out? Be informed, keep your eyes open for what is happening around you in your day-to-day life, do not believe in everything the media says. Use your prudence to make the judgment as to what is the truth. If we have to lead a peaceful life, it is we who have to make the difference.

# posted by ananda k s @ 10:23 PM