What prompted me to write this article was not the knife attack on Salman Rushdie, a long pending task handed over to the faithful by the now departed Ayatollah Khomeini. Not just the Ayatollah, but many other religious leaders of various schools of thought have made it abundantly clear there is only one possible punishment for Rushdie’s crime. Their knowledge of scriptures is unfortunately not as good as that of left liberals.
The social media followers of such leaders have jumped on the bandwagon with their usual enthusiasm as numerous tweets and statements over the years show. In fact, what should surprise anyone is why it took this long.
So why am then I writing this?
I came across several articles, Op-Eds and news items in our fearless, independent media asking or wondering why BJP is not condemning the attack. While Hindu merely reports that BJP is silent, Indian express explains it as “once burned, twice shy”. Even Deccan Herald tries to explain BJP’s silence. ET was somewhat more neutral, declaring that barring a few Indian leaders were mum on the incident.
Of course, all other parties and leaders are exempt from much scrutiny in general, and only BJP has to explain. After all, these journalists “speak truth to power”, and BJP is now in power. If UPA is in power, then of course they will vigorously question the party or leader that seeks to replace them in power. That is fair too.
The point is, why should BJP open its mouth? They should keep quiet. Let me explain why.
We have been told by several leading liberal newspapers like NDTV, NYT, WaPo, etc. (that usually speak the truth in such matters), by the FBI itself and the woke uber-liberal Biden administration that the “motives of the attacker are unknown”. Which means it could be anything. Perhaps a pickpocket attempt that went bad or some personal reasons. Maybe Salman was trying to seduce the attacker’s girlfriend. There are a million possibilities. Giving it a communal colour is abominable.
FBI experts must have racked their brains trying to solve this motive puzzle. Pity them. The rooms in Hoover Building are so big, something that is 7 feet tall, dark grey and weighs 6 tons can sit in one corner unnoticed. They could not find it. That is why they wisely kept away from declaring the motives. What can BJP know that FBI doesn’t?
Under these circumstances, BJP making a statement assumes a motive and becomes gross interference in the internal affairs of a friendly power. BJP may be attacked for religious bias and bigotry if they rush to condemn. They are right to treat it as just another day in NY.
Furthermore, BJP cannot just condemn one random urban crime. That is unfair. If BJP must start condemning every mugging, gun crime and knife attack in Chicago, NYC and Washington, not to speak of upstate NY and other areas, all ruled efficiently by woke liberals that want to defund police, they may need an army of typists and secretaries just to issue such condemnations 24x7x365. It is practically impossible. JP Nadda’s arms will go numb signing condemnation statements.
Moreover, should BJP get involved in the internal affairs of the liberal ecosystem, especially when there is no political reward for itself? Clearly no.
The left liberals have made their stand very clear. While they cannot stand up and cheer the attacker (that would make Ford Foundation, Soros, Church groups and other potential donors to their NGOs and fundraisers cringe, although they could perhaps still write Op-eds in WaPo or NYT), they have done everything in their powers short of cheering.
Rana Ayyub who sets the standards for others to follow deleted her super-mild tweet wishing speedy recovery (as if Salman contacted COVID) for fear of offending the faithful. Such is the depth of her fearless liberalism.
Others kept quiet or issued boilerplate statements and quickly washed their hands of the matter, moving on to their usual lucrative business of attacking Hindus, BJP, Modi or patriarchy. Most of them tried to do an “equal-equal”, spending most of their precious 280 chars attacking Hindu rights and mentioning the Rushdie incident in passing.
Practically NONE of them blamed those who shall not be named, directly, clearly and strongly. After all, they have had plenty of practice. Similar incidents involving Kamlesh Tiwari or Kanhaiya and dozens of other incidents over years have given them lots of chances to perfect their obfuscation skills.
Our left liberal obedience to the narratives that made Rushdie’s neck come into accidental contact with a knife, is next only to their obedience to the narratives from Politburo mass rapist butchers, corrupt fascist dynasties, or the despot in Beijing. After all, when there is an all-weather, sweeter than honey partnership signed at the GHQ level, who dare cross the line?
No one that challenges the left liberals to condemn the alleged incident will escape an attack. They will be called trolls, Sanghis, fascists and whatnot. Given the sort of frenzy the liberals can trigger through their dog whistle, it is best not to question them. Just ask the near and dear of Kanhaiya Lal.
Given such a milieu, expecting BJP to condemn the attack is plain crazy.
BJP should stay clear of intra-liberal issues. Let them sort it out themselves. Any outside interference will only make the well-known Tamil proverb come true – a mridangam gets banged on both sides!
