‘It was a Mistake’ – is what all it took for Journalist Saba Naqvi to get away with her casual exercise in Hinduphobia. Naqvi had shared an obnoxious meme stating it as a WhatsApp forward on Twitter. When the news of the Shivling being found in the disputed Gyanwapi structure came, India’s left intelligentsia got themselves an opportunity to ridicule the ‘false gods’ of the heathen Hindus.
For them, the only reality is the Mosque. That is the only truth they subscribe to. The only principle Islamic propagandists like Saba Naqvi adhere to is defending their religion and ideology, at all costs. And if reality serves a different picture, an engagement with the fact without ridicule, mockery, and denial doesn’t go far away. Earlier, Naqvi had tweeted an image comparing a Shivlinga with that of a reactor at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai.
Saba Naqvi, Islamists mock Hindu Gods after the discovery of Shivling at Gyanvapi structure
Mocking the development at the Gyanwapi site, Naqvi along with her ideological ilk mocked the presence of the Shiva icon at the disputed site. It is noteworthy, that the Shivlinga was found inside the Wuzukhana section of the present-day mosque, where worshippers wash their hands and feet with water before offering the prayers. The Kashi Vishvanath, who is one of the utmost sacred Gods in the Hindu cosmos, was left to be the victim of such unholy treatment from Islamist occupation over the centuries.
Saba Naqvi, with her tweet, did a no different thing. Her ridicule of Shiva was a testament to her entitlement as a practising Abrahamic, to whom the Hindu gods and their idols are false. Naqvi washed her hands of the Shiva, the way her (male) Islamic compatriots would do at the Wuzukhana – given that she would not be allowed to do so physically. However, when questions were raised on how one easily gets away after offending the belief of Hindus, she deleted the tweet with an excuse that it was a WhatsApp forward.
While Naqvi was surely not the only one to have suffered a meltdown, the Islamists, ‘secular’ intellectuals and journalists from the Left indulged in making casual Hinduphobic remarks and mocking Hindu deities in an attempt to discredit the recent discovery of the Shivling. While the other habitual offenders are yet to chart an apology, it was for Saba Naqvi to sit on a proverbial aisle and simply ascertain her mocking tweet as a mistake. The making up came as a given because she knew she could get away with it.
The willful ignorance, obfuscation of history and mockery of religion came bundled in the Hinduphobia, although the collective ‘liberal’ morality still continues to approve of it. The dangerous precedent of gaslighting especially when it came to coming to terms with the atrocities by Islamic invaders in India, was already laid down in the annals of history. The destruction of temples was justified by the middle-eastern coloniality as idolatry was haram in Islam. The present-day bigotry is hence, only an offshoot of what rulers from Qutb al-Din Aibak to Ahmed Shah Abdali did in the history with the idols of Hindu Gods and their hallowed abodes.
How Kishan Bharwad from Gujarat was shot dead by Islamists for sharing a message on Prophet Muhammad
Now if in this case, the tables are to be turned, and if the Islamic almighty has to be questioned with the slightest of rhetoric, it would account for blasphemy. The political conscience in India has half-forgotten the murder of 27-year-old Kishan Bharwad from Gujarat, yet another victim of gory Islamic violence. Bharwad was shot dead by radicals inspired by Islamic clerics who had instigated them to carry out the ‘Jihad’ of killing a man who had ‘blasphemed’.
Kishan had shared a video which showed an image of Prophet Muhammad. Muslims firmly believe that the visual depiction of Muhammad is forbidden. Islamists believe that such a visual depiction is blasphemy and an ‘insult’ to Muhammad, and the beheading of the one who blasphemed is the appropriate punishment. On 25th January 2022, days after he shared a video that depicted Prophet Muhammad, Dhandhuka youth Kishan Bharwad was shot dead by two bike-borne Islamists.
A similar fate befell the Hindu Samaj Party leader Kamlesh Tiwari, who was assassinated at his Lucknow office by Ashfaq and Moinuddin from Surat in 2019. Tiwari was murdered in broad daylight for his remarks on Prophet Muhammad, made more than 4 years ago and for which he was imprisoned for several months. Yet, the Islamists deemed that the criminal justice system of the country that had incarcerated Tiwari for months for his remarks against Prophet Muhammad was insufficient and the only way the affront could be avenged is by killing the said person.
Tiwari was killed for his remarks on Prophet Muhammad and Kishan was shot dead over a video message, but none of the prominent Muslim leaders condemned the violence or expressed solidarity with the family of the decedents who were targeted and killed over ‘blasphemy’. More recently, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, the chief abbot of the Dasna Devi Temple, attracted clarion calls of ‘Sar Tan see Juda’ for exhorting people to express their views on Prophet Muhammad just like the way they do for any other Hindu God. The Islamists, including Delhi AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, considered it an insult to Prophet Muhammad, prompting calls for the beheading of the Hindu priest.
For Islamists, having an open discussion of the teachings of Islam or the characteristics of the Prophet Muhammad is a strict no-go zone. Islamists and their allies in the form of left-leaning liberals have upheld Islam, and public scrutiny of the Islamic religious texts has attracted both—intellectual opposition as well as crude one—in the form of violence and intimidation.
Anyone who speaks against Islam or broaches the topic of Prophet Muhammad has to face severe backlash from the liberal intelligentsia, who are quick to ostracise such individuals and brand them as Islamophobic bigots. Their counterparts, in the form of Islamists, then dish out threats against them and some of them even go to the extent of killing the “offenders” so as to discourage others and instil fear among them to speak on Islam.
Insulting Hindus and Hindu Gods is par for the course while ridiculing other faiths is a forbidden act
While it is a strict no-go zone for people to mock Islam or scrutinise its religious texts and theological commandments, it is par for the course for them to mock, denigrate and vilify Hinduism and Hindu Gods. For a long time now, mocking Hindus, Hindu Gods and Goddesses and Hinduism has become a hallmark of the Indian Left. They leave no stone unturned to subject Hindus and their faith to contempt, all under the tenuous pretext of “Freedom of Expression”. This freedom, predictably, does not extend to criticising other faiths.
From raising the false bogey of “saffron terror” to concocting the imaginary construct of “rising intolerance”, liberals felt no qualms in painting Hindus as aggressors so that their objective of toppling the Modi government could be fulfilled. The hatred for Hindus has inevitably extended to their beliefs, Gods and traditions, underscoring the deep-seated and institutionalised antagonism harboured by the Left for the country’s majority. Those who blatantly indulge in Hinduphobic activities are not only celebrated but are also professionally rewarded, with many of them receiving affirmation from liberal ideologues and employment at sundry leftist organisations and online rags.
Today, many including Naqvi get validation from their ecosystem for mocking the Hindus. However, Kishan was no liberal icon. He was not the one to whom the tenets of Free Speech would apply. Abiding by the Jihadist cry ‘Gustakh-E-Rasul ki Ek hi saja, Sar tan se juda’, the murder of Kishan Bharwad was executed brutally, with an alleged link from Pakistan’s Tahrik-E-Labbaik.
The offender of one religion meets with a tragic end, while the other gets to walk the carpet, basking in the liberal sunlight. To expect that principles should be applied equally would be asking too much, especially when doorkeepers of the erstwhile establishment would stop not to insult the indigenous values. Unfortunately in India, the burden of upholding secularism rests solely on Hindus, who are expected to put up with their places of worship being defiled, desecrated and illegally occupied by adherents of other faiths, while others still continue to remain “secular” despite hurling insults, throwing barbs at Hindus and mocking their Gods.
