Sikhs abused for highlighting abduction and religious conversion to Islam in Kashmir, fractures appear in ‘Sikh-Muslim unity’ project

Image Credit: Indian Express

Tensions are rife in Kashmir after two Sikh girls were allegedly kidnapped and converted to Islam recently. According to the claims of the Sikh community, at least one of them has been located and is mentally unstable. The girl was produced before the Court and her statement was allegedly recorded in absence of her family. The Court gave the verdict in favour of the man and she was allowed to go with his family.

The news was shared on Twitter by Amaan who is now being trolled on social media for highlighting the issue. One person said that Sikhs were behaving worse than ‘Sanghis’ after one incident.

https://twitter.com/Ishfaq_Nabi_Dar/status/1409116876223913989?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The same individual highlighted a crass comment by an apparently Sikh man to assert that no one is an ally for the Muslim community.

https://twitter.com/Ishfaq_Nabi_Dar/status/1409091104398405636?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Another user accused Amaan of “spreading hate” against the Kashmiri Muslim community while using abusive words for the Kashmiri Pandit community.

https://twitter.com/sam_samreena/status/1409054144892063744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The sentiment appears to be widespread among the Kashmiri Muslim community.

https://twitter.com/fazilsyed299/status/1409079162288041989?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Meanwhile, Amaan is urging Sikh youths to not ‘cross over to the saffron side’. He appears equally concerned about the ‘Sanghi ecosystem’ taking advantage of the incident as he is for the fate of the girls themselves.

https://twitter.com/amaanbali/status/1409109452754616322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

In recent times, there has been a concerted effort to stitch together a fictitious ‘Sikh-Muslim’ political unity. Towards that end, langars were organised for the Shaheen Bagh protesters in Delhi and subsequently, the farmer protests, with its distinct Khalistani undertones, have received significant support from Islamists as well.

However, that initiative appears to be going down the same route as ‘Dalit-Muslim’ unity. For the sake of such a unity, Dalit leaders often maintain a strategic silence committed by Islamists against people from the Dalit community. It has happened on several occasions that prominent Dalit leaders remained silent while Dalits continued to suffer the brunt of the Islamist attacks.

The ‘Sikh-Muslim unity’ project at least has not reached such disastrous proportions yet, or so it seems. Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who had called Hinduism ‘weak’ after Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh passed an anti-conversion law, now wants the same in Jammu & Kashmir.

Sirsa also lamented the fact that the Sikh community had supported the Muslim community during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act but no Muslim leader has come forward to support his community now.

Such developments once again proves that the ‘Sikh-Muslim unity’ project is based on a mountain of lies being crafted solely for the benefit of political leaders for their personal ambitions. Before long, if it suits their purpose, they will definitely be more than willing to throw Sikhs under the bus for personal political gains.

There is, of course, a history of persecution of the Sikh community by Islamic regimes. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, Sikhs are persecuted by the majority Muslim community, leading many of them to come over to India for a better future. However, it appears that certain Sikh political leaders, are ignoring centuries of history for short term political gains.

K Bhattacharjee: Black Coffee Enthusiast. Post Graduate in Psychology. Bengali.