Dictionary meaning of secularism is: indifference to or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious considerations. Except, in Indian left wing scenario, secularism means ‘inclusion of all religions’. Even that is fine if you see all religions equally. Except, in reality, some religions are more equal.
Only way the ‘liberals’ in India can portray themselves as ‘seculars’ if they put down Hinduism while hailing other religions. Which is why ‘Jai Shree Ram’ is being normalised as ‘Hindutva militant war cry’ while no one bats an eye on Allahu Akbar which Islamist terrorists shout before either beheading a ‘kafir’ or blowing themselves up.
The ‘liberals’ who like to claim they speak truth to power often demonise Hinduism because, well, other religions wouldn’t let them. Here is an example.
https://twitter.com/satishacharya/status/1402279196718735368?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwSo-called satirist Satish Acharya decided to mock Hindus over vaccine hesitancy in India. In a cartoon shared on Tuesday, Acharya showed a man asking the nurse what the ‘Gothra’ of the vaccine is since he would want to match it with his horoscope. Which is amusing because no one has ever heard of such a request from any Hindu while getting vaccinated.
However, there is a section of one community which has been showing vaccine hesitancy because of its formulation.
But Acharya would not mock this. Mocking worries of Muslim community over halal status of vaccines is, well, haram (forbidden), so to say.
And one need not even go this far.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday shared a snippet which read like a matrimonial ad.
https://twitter.com/ShashiTharoor/status/1402158286741282820?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwWhile the above image shared by Tharoor is not real and is created on an app, it talks about a Roman Catholic girl seeking alliance from a Roman Catholic boy. In the ad, the girl has mentioned how she is fully vaccinated with Covishield and seeks groom who also has had the same vaccine.
While it was satirical ad, when Acharya drew the cartoon about ‘gothra’ of vaccine, instead of mocking the Roman Catholics, he chose to mock Hindus. This is how the pressure of secularism works.
There is tremendous pressure to create a narrative of ‘Hindu Taliban’ and ‘Hindu terror’ to combat the very real Islamic terror guised as Islamophobia. Terrorism has no religion is a valid statement only if terrorists are Islamists. For crimes committed by people of other religion, make sure to demonise the entire community to keep your secular credentials going.
You see, Satish Acharya wouldn’t really want to be Charlie Hebdo’ed, right?