If you don’t respect the sentiments, the festivals, the places of worship of the Majority community as you do for the Minorities - you can consider yourself Secular.
If you profess not to follow any Faith but are only critical of Hinduism, you can consider yourself an Atheist.
Outwardly symbols of Faith such as hijab, skullcap, turban, kara or the cross are considered liberal & emancipated.
But dare you wear a tilak, mangalsutra, bindi, sindoor, then you can only be of a regressive bent of mind.
The long & the short of this Idea of India is-
It flaunts Minorityism & for it to flourish it demands the Invisibility of the Majority.
Anybody with half a brain could have told you that this Idea was bound to fail sooner than later because it rests solely on the assumption that the Majority would forever be willing to make itself inconspicuous, lie low, even cower.
Well the moment is here to grasp & make it our own.
An idea whose time has come, not a day too late.
It never ceases to amaze how for decades we spawned, accepted as normal, political leaders who were nothing less than Mafia Dons.
We voted them to power, over & over again allowing them to steal, extort, loot, threaten us -
fearful to speak lest they took away our livelihood, our belongings, our lives even.
Pathetically believing all the while that we lived in a democracy because we cast our vote once every 5 years for the same Dons.
As we look around, it becomes more certain that till the old Dinosaurs don’t depart from the country’s political landscape we will struggle to loosen their vice like grip on our throats.
In the days when Letters To The Editor were the only way for commons citizens to convey their opinion on various subjects of governance, I often wrote to TOI & Indian Express.
More often it was the latter that published my letters, with name & address as was the norm.
In 1988, the Bofors scam had recently exploded, the vacation onboard INS Viraat was still in the news, the Baba Log as the term was then coined, in office & out were running amuck.
So most disheartened with the Rajiv Gandhi Govt I wrote how it was unforgivable that
he had betrayed the mandate of the people.
Mostly, a retired person’s pastime I had several regulars who corresponded with me via post with their own opinions & comments.
This particular letter however, seemed to have touched a chord with the young & old alike as my letterbox
With what face can those who stole,
plundered, deceived,
colonised, enslaved, annihilated cultures,
converted through coercion & torture,
justified abominable atrocities in the name of colour, race
even destroyed indigenous wildlife in a maniacal show of drunken power
have the nerve to lecture us on tolerance, democracy, inclusiveness ?
Wealth, they say, gives them power !
Ha!
Even that, is from the back, the toil, the blood of our ancestors. Their museums filled with our art & treasure.
Cloaked in 21stC sanctimoniousness this pillage & racism continues in their own inner cities, no go zones