Rahul Gandhi’s Wikileak

An article by an Indian columnist in WSJ on Rahul Gandhi’s comment in the Wikileak conspiracy got me a little riled up. You can read the article here to get the background on this. I have been holding my silence on this controversy for a few reasons. Firstly, I steer clear of religious remarks. They are too close to everyone’s hearts and I do not wish to be misunderstood. Secondly, I am neither a loyalist nor an opponent of Rahul Gandhi. I have more of a wait and watch attitude towards him.

So why did I get agitated with this article? Because of the definition of Hindu terrorism. First of all, in my eyes, there is no Hindu terrorism, Islamic terrorism, Sikh terrorism or the likes. There is just pure terrorism. And these people happen to belong to a particular religion thus we love to extrapolate their opinions to their entire society. Why I oppose this article is that Hindu terrorism is not limited to 2 bomb blasts in Andhra Pradesh 3 years back. The Babri Masjid fiasco and the entire Rath Yatra in my opinion was a form of terrorism. The Godhra riots which were supported by the political party (with a very fanatical Hindu agenda) were a form of terrorism. If the Mumbai bomb blasts were terrorism by the dons, then so was the inhuman backlash that happened in the form of state sponsored mass killing during Mumbai riots.

Terrorism is not dictated by religion. No. As much as you would like to blame a certain religion and say that their very holy book gives them the right to kill people of other religions, I ask you – have you read it? It is written in a certain Arabic script that has no direct translation and can only be deciphered as an indicative translation. Which means that one sentence can be translated by 10 scholars to mean 10 different things. While we’re on the subject, have you read any other holy book? Not a translation…the original? If one wishes, each religion can be distorted to suit the agenda of fanatics. It’s been done to Sikhism by Bindre Wala who is still revered in many countries. It has been done in the form of racism within Christianity by many like the Klu Klux Klan. It has been done to Islam, Hinduism and all religions that you can think of.

Let us not just bash the speaker for saying words that are not populist with the majority of our country’s population. Let us instead give him the benefit of doubt and accept as he said “"terrorism and communalism of all types are a threat to India”. Because they are. In any form. And unless we stop justifying one over the other, we will never be able to annihilate them.