We would wear the skull cap while passing from Muslim localities and shift to the Maharashtrian cap in Hindu areas. Religion was no more in our hearts. It was only in our caps.
During the tense days of Hindu-Muslim riots, we would keep two topis in our pockets. One would be a Maharashtrian cap and the other would be a skull cap. We would wear the skull cap while passing from Muslim localities and shift to the Maharashtrian cap in Hindu areas. Religion was no more in our hearts. It was only in our caps.
There once used to be Hindu paani and Muslim paani on railway platforms. This practiced was discontinued.
I thought those days wouldn’t last. But there is no changing the mind. There is a Hindu mind and there is a Muslim mind?
The young IT graduate Mohsin Sadiq Shaikh who was bludgeoned to death during the protests in Pune over the morphed pictures of Bal Thackeray and Chhatrapati Shivaji had nothing to do with them.
He was killed only because he was a Muslim.
And his killers belong to Hindu Rashtra Sangh led by Dhananjay Desai. He and his organization has been in existence for a decade. They may not have killed a Muslim but they have bullied them, have extorted money, resorted to blackmail and assaulted people.
This must stop!
Announcing Rs 5 lakh as compensation is not the end of the story. First, often it is just an announcement. Money doesn’t reach the victim. Second, this is public money that you’re giving to shift the focus from the failure of governance.
What are you doing to erase this pathetic hatred from the minds, from the Hindu minds and the Muslim minds, from the Sikh minds and the Christian minds?
Blending the good thoughts of all religions, Moghul Emperor Akbar started Din-E-Ilahi. It didn’t work. I’d have told him to banish wearing religion on the head, on the chest.
Your religion is your private commitment to the Almighty. There is no need to flaunt it. There is no need to use it as a pressure group, as a vote bank.
*****
by 
