By thwarting all mischief of the divisive forces, the inauguration of this year's Dussehra festival at the Chamundeshwari temple Mysore has been successfully accomplished through the dignified graceful presence of the Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq.
At first the Siddaramaiah-led Congress Government of Karnataka must be congratulated for taking such a brilliant initiative and also persisting with its decision of inviting Mushtaq by ignoring the ridiculous objections of the religious fundamentalists and without caring whether the "sentiments" of the Hindus "all around the country" would indeed get "assaulted" or not!
Thereafter arrived the enlightening verdict of the Supreme Court promptly dismissing the petition objecting the Karnataka Government's decision to invite her. Rightly has the highest judiciary opined that
State function and a secular government cannot be expected to discriminate against citizens on the basis of religious identity and thereby has accorded priority to a citizen's individual right over his/her religious identity.
And amidst the toxicity of communalism intolerance and hatred all around the Constitutionally secular diverse country in these times of "Good Days", Siddaramaiah's assertion arrive as a soothing balm in wounded heart and soul - - "Banu Mushtaq may be a Muslim woman by birth, but she is a human being first. Humans should love and respect each other and there should be no hate based on one's caste religion as it is not the characteristic of humanity. If we accept humanity, we should accept people belonging to any caste religion or class"!
And yes those who discriminate against the God's own children in terms of race language caste region sex or class do not deserve to claim themselves as human beings at first place.
Though the secular sane section of the country, proud of the inherent syncretic culture of India, have ensured demolition of all communal conspiracies, but there lies no scope of harboring any complacency. After all we must not forget that the narrow vision of a majoritarian republic holds much popular appeal in India, thereby providing boost to the merchants of hatred enabling them to enjoy lion's share of the political authority in this diverse country though it's Constitution vouch for Secularism.
So we must remain wide awake in a vigilante mode so that the hate-invoking Hindutva can never succeed over all-embracing Hinduism as professed and practiced by the Humanitarians like Ramakrishna Paramhansa Swami Vivekananda.
Ending with that day witnessed few years ago when all things Divine had indeed descended upon the "God's own country" ie Kerala where azan got sounded from the podium within a temple complex followed by breaking of Ramadan fast (with the authorities arranging dates, dry foods and snacks) amidst ringing of temple bells for evening aradhana! And all spontaneously, without any planning!
It was a daylong religious function organised at the Santhagiri Ashram in Kozhikode with the imam of the Palayam mosque (Thiruvananthapuram) and few other dignitaries following Islam in attendance. As the then Kerala Opposition leader VD Satheesan took the mike; he realised that for some of the guests, it was time for their evening prayers. Without any prodding from anybody, Satheesan vacates the podium after intimating that he would start his presidential address only after the imam and the others had broken their fast! This is called sensitivity and humanity at its divine best!
Soon after a Muslim gentleman takes the mike and sounds the azan, the audience (irrespective of religious faith) stands up in respect with coincidentally the temple bells starting ringing for evening aradhana! The ashram hurriedly arranges food and water enabling the imam and his co-religionists to break the fast with none other than Satheesan joining them!
This version of India must be retained and protected at any cost compelling the merchants of hatred escaping frantically through the nearest door possible.