IN THE TUNNEL

I am out of India, but feel compelled to put down a few lines after hearing about the shocking events in Udaipur where a Hindu man was beheaded by a Muslim and recorded by his friend because the victim reportedly supported a BJP’s spokespersons comments about the Prophet of Islam.

We have gone too far down the line of ramping up the pitch on the insult to the Prophet, something that I have long believed can only have bad consequences. We now have them. I left India on June 7 saying I would be off social media but my last tweet before I did so, stated the following:

“We need to put this matter triggered by a former BJP spokie to rest and not gloat over nations with poor human rights records raising the insult to The Prophet. The issue of blasphemy takes us into a tricky terrain and it’s better to avoid going there as a multicultural nation”.

Subsequently, I have remained off social media except to circulate statements made by press bodies against an FIR in which I am reportedly named.

But to return to the issue of why I feel compelled to break my silence is because I genuinely believe that the consequence of mobilisation solely over a religious issue or perceived insult as opposed to rights and entitlements, is also a very slippery slope for the nation’s Muslim minority.

I am a liberal, and am deeply uncomfortable with the chain of action and reaction that has followed the comments made on a TV show. I hope we can reclaim the middle ground but currently can see that remains unlikely.

Still, I am speaking out in order to try and find the middle ground as opposed to the binaries from which we operate when we function solely through social media. I have a view that is nuanced and not black and white. I am conflicted even on the issue of demanding arrest of the BJP spokesperson although it’s entirely up to the party if they wish to retain her services or not. She should currently get every protection from obviously valid death threats. There should be no mercy for any act of violence.

Years ago, in 1992 a late family friend professor Mushirul Hassan, then pro vice chancellor of Jamia Millia, was beaten up and not able to visit his own campus in Delhi when he said that in principal he opposed bans on books. The reference was to Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses being banned in India on the issue on insulting the Prophet. At the very beginning of my journalism career, therefore, I would learn that nuances have no meaning before bigots. I would also learn that some issues are best left untouched.

But the beheading in Udaipur will now go down in contemporary history as another abomination over a perceived insult to the Prophet, besides the 1989 fatwa against writer Salman Rushdie and the 2015 bloodbath in the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that had published a cartoon depiction of the Prophet.

The Udaipur incident has happened at a time when Indian Muslims have so many real problems confronting them, from institutional prejudice and political mobilisation against them, besides the economic challenges facing all Indians.

I am writing this down because we have entered a tunnel, I am deeply shaken and disturbed, and hope we can find a glimmer of  light at the other side.