Vande Mataram

Recently the fatwa (or a decree as it is called) issued by a body of 'Muslim' clergy making it somehow mandatory for the Muslims not to recite Vande Mataram has evoked mixed responses from all across.

Religious clerics as like politicians (the line gets blurred here as both these clans have so much in common irrespective of the group they belong to) love to brew such heady concoction which will ultimately lead to a national frenzy and result in the ultimate spot light shifting to them... These attention grabbers and seekers of cheap popularity forget that this could have been something which may have been a remote possibility in the 70s or 80s... But since then things have changed quite a lot in post liberalisation India... Now it is not the single message of the imam of a particular mosque (asking Muslim to vote for a particular party) which significantly sways the fortune of the party and ushers them in to power... The Muslim of present day have seen through the deceit and cunning game enough to be again lured in to such tactics...

Vande Mataram is a patriotic song which swung the nation in to patriotic fervour and led to the ultimate freedom of the Nation... It has its value in the history of the nation as much as the sacrifice of numerous patriotic Muslims who have laid down their lives for the sake of the motherland... Besides being a free and democratic country as ours, there is no compulsion or coercion on us to sing or not to sing a particular song.. For that matter we are so liberal that we are naturally not shocked at people who do not rise up on their feet for the national anthem too... (most of the time I have been laughed at for standing up for the national anthem even if it is on the T.V)...

However, the larger point here is : have the mullahs ( and it applies to all fundamentalists from all religions) ever issued a fatwa against pressing issues like health, education, livelihood, sanitation, housing and women empowerment.. I need not go on quoting statistics to underline the fact that one of the most backward group currently in this country are the Muslims...The major reason being the fact that these innocent people fall victim to the mullah.. starting from education to the type of health care they should seek out and the way they should live... Everything is dictated by the Mullahs in one form or the other...This very fact has been played to the hilt by our opportunistic politicians who are hand in gloves with these clergies and promise the earth to these poor Innocent people to romp all the way to power... All the promises fades to the background after the win and this section of the society is relegated to the background... The anger and frustration of poverty and helplessness of the people then becomes a favourable breeding ground for malice like anti social activities, crime and young men lured by vested interest in to activities of terrorism... Has any mullah taken cognisance of these facts and issued fatwa against them... How many Mullah have issued fatwa against Muslim household not sending their children for formal education, or marrying their daughter before the legal age or issued fatwa against household for not maintaining sanitation and hygiene...The answer is a resounding NO...

Muslim have been an integral part of the country since time unknown and have contributed to the process of nation building shoulder to shoulder with their fellow countrymen.. They are also a section which sadly lags behind others in term of overall development till date.. The time has come for the government to take cognisance of the fact that these issues can not be allowed to fester and left unaddressed.. Otherwise we may be troubled by problems which will be basically ghost of our past mistakes... Let us learn from the mistakes of mammoth proportion committed by the Big Brother in the West and neither take part nor be a silent spectator to the marginalisation and coercion of a community so much so that they fall easy prey to vested interest and go on a war which seeks to annihiliate the very humankind...

Muslim community simultaneously has to wake up and recognise the fact that the mullahs and vested interests wants anything but their welfare and decide that it is high time that they take the matter of their own development in to their own hand and walk quickly to be at par with the rapid stride of our nation with others...

Somebody aptly told me long time back a phrase which translates in to:

Islam was created by Allah but is deformed by Mullah (clergy)

Well this may not be the whole truth but then it is an indication of what the truth may be like...

Let my country awake....