The officials of Vadodara municipal corporation and the policemen are shouting from the rooftops that the dargaah was an encroachment and even the media did not bother to check the facts.
Whenever there is a road beside a dargaah and the road has to be widened from single lane to double lane, the widening is conducted in such a manner that structure comes in the middle so that traffic could pass from either side.
But the trouble comes when the road has to be further widened from double lane to four lane or six lane. Naturally the structure has to be accomodated in a traffic island. This particular dargaah is a 200-year-old structure but everyone keeps on saying that it is illegal. How come such an old structure be an encroachment.
Now look at the tone of the Commissioner of police who on Aajtak says taht ‘Whoever will come in way of development will have to face consquences’. Can you believe that it is the voice of a supposedly-responsible officer of a democratic state.
So his force shoots people, Indian citizens, in the head. And he is justifying that. Does he understands the trauma of those whose kin were killed and is he not aware of the rules about ordering fire and that it should not be targeted in the chest or head? The cops were clearly seen aiming at the heads of protesting people.
Clearly, they are care two hoots in Modi’s Gujarat. They show that Muslims are anti-development, protest everything and are to be appeased all the time. But they don’t say that the other dargaah was also demolished peacefully because it was an encroachment and that this dargah was NOT UNAUTHORISED.
Provoke Muslims, spread falsehoods about them, label a structure as unauthorised and when they protest you kill them. That’s a solution exactly from the Hitler’s book.
Look what media projects–20 temples were shifted but when it came to the dargaah the Muslims are up in arms, they are after all troublemakers, aren’t they?. The road was illegally widened and it was a conscious decision to use force to demolish the shrine and hurt the sentiments of Muslims.
The section of lumpened middle-class Hindu hates Muslims that is a well-known fact so all this would boost the morale of the Pride Gujarati and thus the government and the BJP would get mileage. The message is clear ‘It is Gujarat, Hindu state and we will do whatever we want’. But what one expects from this state where people are so communalised. Where this hate will take the Gujarat and the Gujaratis?
Adnan (www.indscribe.blogspot.com)
Malaysia demolishes century-old Hindu temple
KUALA LUMPUR, APRIL 21 (AFP)
Malaysian authorities have demolished a century-old Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur, bulldozing the building as devotees cried and begged them to stop, Hindu groups said today.
The Malaimel Sri Selva Kaliamman Temple was reduced to rubble after Kuala Lumpur’s city hall sent in bulldozers, they said.
In a complaint to police the temple’s vice president, Subramaniam Ragappan, said about 300 devotees were praying Tuesday when the machines arrived, accompanied by police and city hall officials.
“We were forced to stop our prayers and (rituals) halfway as they proceeded to tear down the temple,” he said in a copy of the complaint obtained by AFP.
A copy of a letter from city hall to a local lawmaker, who had asked for the temple to be left intact, said the demolition was going ahead to make way for a building project.
“Everybody was crying and saying how could the government do this, but they still broke the temple,” he told AFP.
“For 100 years we prayed there. How could they come to remove the temple?” he said, adding that they were given just one day’s notice of the demolition.
Hindus didn’t riot in malaysia when the Malaysian government destroyed a 100 year old temple in Malayasia calling it an encroachment neither did hindus riot and attack police ?
They accepted it
Why can’t you accept the destruction of the Dargah ?
Maybe the police wouldn’t have fired on the crowd had they not been attacked themselves ?
Abhayfrombangalore, even if what happened in Malaysia was wrong (which can’t say without knowing more facts), it does not give us a right to do a wrong ourselves. Remember, *”Two wrongs don’t make a right.”*
Every country and religion has “good” and “bad” people. Why compare ourselves only with the “bad” ones? Maybe the temple in Malaysia was demolished by some “bad Muslims”; so what? There must also be lots of good deeds done by Muslims elsewhere – even in Malaysia; why not try to match those deeds?
Also, pointing fingers at others does us no good. Even if you have been *personally* wronged by some member of another community, your grievance should only be with that person. If you must take revenge, take only against that person. If you act against any innocent member of that community, you may feel satisfied, but from that innocent person’s point of view, now you are the wrongdoer, and they are the wronged ones. Now they will be in pain, and might want to take revenge. And so, if we generalize our grievances – if we hold an entire community responsible for the actions of one member of that community – the pain only spreads.
I hope you think over these points a little, and that you find peace within yourself.
Take care.
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Hi Abhay from Banglore,
May peace be upon you,
Being a Muslim I can understand the plight of any religious person when he gets to know about his religion/community/place of worship being subject to opperession. But, what one needs to be careful about is the intent of the person/media carrying the news for you.
Given the past record of Malaysia, I tend not to agree with this news(the manner in which it highlights the demolition), unless proved otherwise. I hope you won’t doubt my empathy towards you in the face of such a cowardly act.
But, there are some let out just to provoke communal fervors in the name of secularism, and they shamelessly call themselves journalists.
All religious minded people should be skeptical about them, since they are particularly targetted.
Lawless in Baroda
- By Balbir K. Punj
Baroda is finally normal, much to the relief of civil society. But the restoration of peace in the former princely state-town has left the sham secularists with the feeling of being cheated of an opportunity to nail Narendra Modi. The sordid episode also brought out some home truths about the “secularists” and the Indian establishment.
Those who have been accusing the Sangh Parivar of playing the “Mandir card” were seen brazenly practising “Mazar politics.” The unauthorised shrine, one of those numerous such places of worship that dot virtually all busy roads in all Indian cities, suddenly became a reference point for secularism. Rumours aimed at stoking communal flames were circulated as authentic news, which in a nutshell meant that Muslims were a terrified lot in a BJP-dominated Gujarat, awaiting a massacre like sacrificial lambs. And that all this was engineered by the Sangh Parivar in view of the Gujarat Assembly elections scheduled next year.
Let us chronicle the sequence of events. On May 1 morning, a squad from the municipal corporation arrived at the scene, under police protection, to remove a dargah standing in the midst of a busy road. A well-prepared Muslim mob began to stone the devil — first the squad from the municipal corporation, then the Hindus of the neighbourhood, and lastly the police. When the police resorted to lathicharge, they started throwing stones from the roofs of the houses in the narrow lanes of the locality. Evidently, the stones had been gathered in advance.
In the meantime, the mob stabbed to death two Hindus. The angry mob also attacked the local court and beat up the lawyers. They were angry with the court because it had not stayed the demolition. The mob also attacked a nearby hospital. The police had to open fire in self-defence, and that led to the death of two mobsters. The images of a wild mob throwing stones at the police, and destroying property were seen on television on the night of May 1 on all television channels. Was this the behaviour of a community under siege?
More violence was to follow. On May 3 night a mob attacked the Navapura police station and burnt down a bakery in Khanderao market. But how did it take the shape of a communal conflagration? In the same way the anti-Danish cartoon rallies in Hyderabad led to the looting of Hindu shops, the ransacking of the BJP office in Lucknow; the way an anti-Bush rally led to the killing of four Hindus and the injury of ten others in Lucknow.
The UPA government promptly moved the Supreme Court and obtained a stay on the Gujarat high court’s orders on the removal of religious structures encroaching on public places. To quote home secretary V.K. Duggal, this was done in view of the “law and order situation” in Baroda and the “potential” it had. The same very establishment overlooked the “potential” when it came to the demolition and sealing of shops in Delhi and New Delhi. May be the vyaparis (shop owners) and their dependents, including their employees, are seen to be incapable of indulging in mass-scale violence. So law enforcement is not governed by the rule of law, but by the “potential” of the affected persons to indulge in violence.
About 1,200 Hindu and Jain temples, and 260 Muslim “shrines,” were ordered by the Gujarat High Court to be dismantled. Till now 42 temples have been demolished, and three Islamic “shrines” pulled down without any resistance. In most instances, the authorities try to find an amicable solution, in consultation with the local religious community, like shifting instead of demolition. Since neither solution worked in the case of the dargah in Baroda, demolition followed.
Protests by affected citizens (sometimes peaceful, at other times not) are permanent fixtures of Indian democracy. They mostly remain a local affair. But in this case, it is termed as a “communal riot,” and taken note of by the Central government. Sadly, it was quite different in the case of Mau. Those who have been talking in terms of “upholding the majesty of law” even at the cost of drawing karsevaks’ blood in Ayodhya, brazenly sided with the miscreants against a bedraggled administration acting under the instructions of the Gujarat high court.
How old is the dargah? The antiquity count began as 100 years, and during the last three years, the secularists have revised it to 300 years. The secularists also claim that it was visited both by Muslims and Hindus. Then why see this as a move to spite the Muslims? In fact, the common Muslims of Baroda had nothing to do with these violent protests. Like many other people, they are occupied with their day to day activities rather than indulging in mindless violence. It was the handiwork of a handful of miscreants who found ready support from out-of-job secularists out to malign the Modi government.
A “fact-finding” team of so-called human rights activists like Shabnam Hashmi of Anhad, Harsh Mander and Prasad Chacko that visited Baroda recently has called the incident “an extension of Hindutva politics.” After hibernating through Mau, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Aligarh and Doda, these people have found employment opportunity in Gujarat. Why did the same activists not show the same concern in the wake of the Doda massacre where the throats of 32 Hindus were slit by the jihadis?
The VHP had gently protested against the slated demolition of a temple under the same programme. Later, the VHP acquiesced and the temple was demolished. But how would have one relished the matter had the VHP attacked the police and the municipal corporation, dubbing the demolition as “Muslim conspiracy,” threatened the Muslims of the area as well? Surely it would have been unpalatable. For the “secularists,” majesty of law might prevail over the sensibilities of the people when it comes to Ram Janmabhoomi, Shankaracharya’s midnight arrest etc. But why is it not the case in Baroda as well?
The secular camp worked overtime to ensure that the three-bench apex court order on VHP-Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas’ shiladaan function of March 15, 2002 at Ayodhya was scrupulously implemented. Not only was it ensured that the token ceremony was held outside the acquired land, but as far from it as possible, which ultimately came to be two kilometres.
Will the majesty of law prevail only if the affected community were to suffer tamely, but not if it were to react violently? When a Haji Qureshi, a UP state minister, declares Rs 51 crores for the head of the Danish cartoonist, the government takes no notice in view of the “potential” threat to peace.
Will the state surrender four-square before the “potential” mischief makers? For once, it really looked that way in February last, when protests against the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed erupted and got tagged with anti-Bush rallies. Having tested the resolve of the Indian state, or rather the lack of it, this mobocracy can paralyse the state tomorrow on any issue.
Anger is not the monopoly of any single mind, and all communities can practically indulge in violence. But the state must ensure that rule of law is established. The administration’s job is not merely to quell the violence, but also to see that rule of law prevails. What will you say about those whose approach on these issues is guided by the religion and creed of those who break the law? A communalist? A secularist?
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re # 5:
that is nice pice of lie that is written by Mr. balbir. It is indeed selective reality that is hallmark of hidutva cadres. For these hate maniacs all blame is to be laid on muslims and hindus are the angels. Fact of the matter is that Gujarat under Modi is a terrorist state and Modi is the chief terrorist. If the central government had not moved in military we would have witnessed repeat of post-godhra riots.
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Dear Balbir K. Punj,
I can see you are really prepared with bunch of lies, bigotry and prejudice in your article, inspired by togadiya and company. By twisting the truth and mali
I myself live around 20 meters from that Demolished Dargah. The difference between you and other VHP terrorists, who killed thausands of muslims in Gujarat is that you can write english, well i will apreciate that any way.
LIES.
1. The dargah situated is situated not only Hindu majority but a complete Hindu one, where the muslims houses are something around 1 kilo meters away. It is impossible for the muslims to gather stone in their houses and as you said throwing from the roofs of the houses in the narrow lanes of the locality on squad from the municipal corporation.
There is no narrow lane as it is situated on the main road. They start throwing only after the bulldozers arrive on the place.
And for your kind information there is a temple not faar from that dargah, which is at Nava Baazar area where the temple of a cow still exist after all the orders given by the court and municipality, infact they already remove around 50 to 60 shops surrounding temple, but the “municipal squad” was never been able to remove it because the temple is situated in completely hindu area having same mentality as you Mr Balbir. Nava Bazar area is among very busiest in the city and to tackle the trafic problem they make it one way too.
2.Burnt down a bakery in Khanderao market ? it is a dominant hindu area and the bakery was burned was of a Muslim not a Hindu.
3. The Dargah is more than 200 years old and not only muslims but there used to many non-muslims used to visit for prayers”Dua”.
4.”The angry mob also attacked the local court and beat up the lawyers”, this is one of your white lie, first of all Nyay Mandir, the local court is situated in dominant hindu area and nearby very few number of muslims residing, they were attacked by big hindu mob and next day as usual portrayed by local media to hide their crimes that it was muslims who attacked the local court in order to protest the incident. These are your common tricks to hide bigots’(not good hindus) opression.
5. Two people killed were on the border area of Ajabdi Mil, it was attack on poor muslim area where muslims were defending and everybody knows they killed at the fighting going on from both sides but the police as usual sweep those criminal back-ground people in order to fill the numbers all of them muslims.
These explainations are nothing compare to what police, modi government and hindu brigades doing against the muslims in Gujarat.
Bajrang dal has policies going on their where they want to make villages muslims free, cities muslims free, institutions muslims free etc. You are too supporting that policy in one way or another, with your one sided comments and bias.