{"id":349726,"date":"2024-08-01T06:14:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T11:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=349726"},"modified":"2024-08-14T06:21:28","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T11:51:28","slug":"govt-mum-on-critical-issues-facing-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/govt-mum-on-critical-issues-facing-citizens\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt mum on critical issues facing citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While ignoring the ground realities, the rulers devise ways to add to the communally tense atmosphere, such as the latest sarkari order to display names of the owners of eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route by Humra\u00a0 Quraishi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is frustrating and more than disappointing is the fact the rulers of the day do not dwell on the ground realities. They do not wish to talk or dwell or focus on the current problems facing the citizens. Nah, they don\u2019t talk of the flooded cities and suburbs and the havoc hitting those sitting in the water-logged areas with basic infrastructures giving way. They don\u2019t dwell on the rising prices of everyday commodities \u2026rising to such an extent that it\u2019s getting difficult to run the kitchen. They don\u2019t talk of the unemployed. They do not even acknowledge the fact that corruption has corrupted the education sphere, affecting the future of hundreds and thousands of students. They don\u2019t talk of the rising crime graph. They don\u2019t seem bothered if hate crime and lynch killings are happening more than often, in the midst of the communal pollution spreading out all around as never before. They don\u2019t seem bothered if hundreds amongst us are rendered homeless after bulldozers destroyed home after home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It gets obvious that new ways are being put forth by the right-wing to add to the communally tense atmosphere. The latest, of course, was the sarkari order to display names of the owners and workers and sellers of the food eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route. That order was thankfully cancelled after the Court\u2019s intervention and ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today there could be hundreds and thousands of food bloggers and  foodies and food enthusiasts yet no one stood up and voiced their disgust at those name-display tactics to food sellers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can food and fruit sellers be spread from this Hindu-Muslim thing! I\u2019m reminded of what Sufi  Hazrat Nizamuddin had said \u2013 words along the strain:  when our  Creator  didn\u2019t  discriminate  between  countries and communities and castes and creeds whilst spreading out  His bounty –  sunshine and trees and fruits and rivers and the air we breathe \u2013 then who are we<\/a>, the  fragile  human  beings,  to interfere and  throw about don\u2019ts!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This right-wing\u2019s latest strategy of compelling food-sellers to display their names and surnames could be termed absolutely dangerous in every possible way… The list of Muslim haters and abusers in the Modi sarkar is long and unending. Not to overlook the comments churned by several politicians, who find time to sit through television programmes to come up with nothing better than go about commenting along the typical slanted and biased strain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither a watch-dog group nor a gutsy independent commission head that could order them to shut up just there and then, so that they can\u2019t get further \u2026so blatantly communal. Today, it\u2019s frightful how television debates take place; shrieks and counter screams, never really focusing on actual issues and genuine concerns of the citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those subtle and harmless taunts<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, distractions are on, along the Hindu-Muslim strain. Any crisis, big or small, then dragged along are those typical communal ploys to distract and hoodwink the masses. It\u2019s an utterly sad and painful situation. After all, Hindus and Muslims have lived together in this country for centuries. Mind you, they co-existed with a certain level of respect and love for each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Togetherness between communities was intact till about the 70s; where each community realized the differences and yet lived on par. Though several of my parents and grandparents\u2019 friends would not eat at our place but they would decline rather too subtly, “aaj  hamara  vrat  hai<\/em>\/ today we are fasting.”  In all probability, the non-vegetarian fare cooked in our homes came in the way but it was so gently put through that there was nothing hurtful about it. Refinement was still intact, to a great extent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back I wasn\u2019t particularly confident about my knowledge of\u00a0 my beliefs and though\u00a0 my\u00a0 parents had engaged a Maulvi Sahib, but there were\u00a0 few free-flowing meaningful discussions at home. In fact, I started\u00a0\u00a0 saying, \u2018As\u00a0 –\u00a0 Salaam –\u00a0 Alaikum\u2019 with a certain degree of confidence, only after\u00a0 Khushwant Singh insisted he would greet me with that greeting, after\u00a0 prefixing \u201cTum\u00a0 kaise\u00a0 Musalmaan\u00a0 ho \u2026 As\u00a0 Salaam\u00a0 Alai Kum\u00a0 nahin\u00a0 kahtee\u00a0 ho!<\/em>\u2026\u00a0 This greeting carries such a beautiful meaning \u2013 May peace on you\u2026.Now onwards just say As Salaam Alai Kum.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Let me also rather too sheepishly add that though Avadh cuisine was famous and food was centre stage in our home (my parents had always employed a khansamah\/cook and the dining table laden with at least three if not four dishes at every meal) but here again, I was somewhat  apologetic about the non-vegetarian fare tucked in my  tiffin. I  recall an incident from my early school days which relays how children react to off beats. It was during my father\u2019s posting in Jhansi, with younger my sister Habiba and I enrolled in the St. Francis convent, where  lunch  had to be  ferried from home and to be eaten in a common dining hall. When Habiba would excitedly  open the  huge tiffin  (got from home) and take out those  hugely rounded  rumaali rotis and kababs, I used to sit all too embarrassed, more so as I\u2019d  looked around and saw that tiffins of the  other kids stuffed with  the usual daal and sabzis and smaller rounded  rotis \/phulkas\u2026 I recall even pinching my sister\u2019s arms for over displaying the rumaali rotis and  inviting comments from the  school  kids,  \u201cNever seen these types of big, huge rotis  \u2026 you are different \u2026 eating  different  stuff! Why not our type of rotis\u2026 our phulkaas and daal. \u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All those subtle harmless taunts that one  heard  during the  schooling and college years, seem all too harmless and subtle as compared to the dangerous ongoing communal unleashes after the Babri Masjid demolition and the  killings of Muslims in the Gujarat  pogrom\u2026 Never before the biased role of the administration was so blatant. Those at the helm sat as spectators or as else as supporters, as though \u2018okaying\u2019 all those grave human tragedies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While ignoring the ground realities, the rulers devise ways to add to the communally tense atmosphere, such as the latest sarkari order to display names of the owners of eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route by Humra\u00a0 Quraishi What is frustrating and more than disappointing is the fact the rulers of the day do not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2205],"tags":[18443,17127,18398,18442],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349729,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349726\/revisions\/349729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/349728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}