Barely weeks after Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor by profession, was beheaded in Rajasthan’s Udaipur by two Muslim men for merely supporting ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma who is getting death threats over allegations of blaspheming against Prophet Muhammad, Times of India has published a column which tries to portray how Muslim tailors in India are rather under threat because of their religious identity.

Kanhaiya Lal’s murderers had released a video where they wielded the butcher’s knives they used to behead him and gloated over how they they avenged the blasphemy. And now, Times of India provides platform to one Rituparna Chatterjee who romanticises Muslim men, tailors specifically, hiding their religious identity because ‘you know why’. Since Chatterjee did not explain ‘why’, one could assume it could be to cheat people? There have been times when Muslim men have hidden their religious identities and lured Hindu women into romantic relationships only to marry and force them to convert to Islam. Since the women are most obvious customers for ladies’ tailors, could ‘love jihad’ or grooming jihad as it is called, be one of the reasons, motivation for the same?

Now, let us go back to Kanhaiya Lal murder. The two men who killed him wore their religious identities on their sleeves. They kept the beard, wore the skull cap. They pretended to be his customers and when he was at his weakest moment, they beheaded him. The man who murdered Kamlesh Tiwari, who was also receiving death threats over allegations of blaspheming against Prophet Muhammad, Ashfaq, had befriended Tiwari by pretending to be ‘Rohit Solanki’ on Facebook. Tell me again why hiding religious identity is romanticised?

Chatterjee starts her column with vivid description of some garment she got fixed and some other blouse with beautiful work. When she saw the sequins work on it, she immediately told her tailor how the work was so good, he cannot be a Hindu. Eh? What kind of person’s first thought on seeing beautiful artwork is whether the person can or cannot be a Hindu! Who does she think constructed the Taj Mahal everyone seems to be in awe of. Islam came to India, the land of Sanatan Dharma, with invaders and if roots of Indian Muslims are traced, highly likely that their ancestors would be Hindus. So quite likely the tailor, who’s seemingly too good with his ‘work’ and ‘cannot be a Hindu’, has Hindu ancestors!

Chatterjee then says how Muslim tailors in India reveal their real religious identities only to those customers they trust. How does this not raise red flags. Chatterjee then moves on from tailors to maids and how many in Mumbai (the place she talked about) keep dual names, and rarely reveal their real religious identity: Muslim. Chatterjee then says how she spoke to many Muslim Uber drivers and they said that if the documentation was not necessary, they would not reveal their religious identity either. Considering how financial fraud accused Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub confessed in her writeup Gujarat Files that she obtained fake government issued i-card very easily for a ‘sting’, one might now start wondering if the documentation submitted by some might also be fraudulent.

Chatterjee then blames those who wish to have Hindu maids or Hindu cooks. Employer-employee relationship is largely based on trust. If, say the maids or cooks hide their religious identity, they are lying even before getting hired, how does one trust them and well, make sure they won’t behead them at some point.

More than Muslims hiding their religious identity, the fact that this does not concern the likes of Rituparna Chatterjee is what is more troubling. India is home to over 20 crore Muslims. These kind of stories where they are portrayed as ‘Dara hua’ only add to the long line of victimhood. In her bid to make Muslims in India come across as ‘victims of intolerance’, Chatterjee has ended making them appear malicious men and women who lie about their faith.

Because why else, at a time when Hindus are expected to keep their festival celebration subdued so as to not to ‘provoke’ Islamists to pelt stones at them or when judiciary starts speaking about sharia (Islamic law) over constitution, why would the Indian Muslims, who are asserting and wearing their religious identities on their sleeves, need to be shown as such. It is because of people like Chatterjee and the columns like hers that there is an element of distrust about Indian Muslims, who like any other Indian, likely just wants to make a living and survive.

This kind of romanticising of criminal behaviour only makes it worse for rest of the Indian Muslims as it increases the distrust level. ‘Liberals’ are the worst allies Indian Muslims have.

PS: The police administration as well as Home Ministry should take cue from Chatterjee’s article and crackdown on those who are hiding their religious identities and make sure there are no criminal precedence and that they are legitimate citizens of India and not here on fake Aadhaar.