In Tolerance

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

John Godfery Saxe, from his parable, The Blindmen and the Elephant.

What the hell is wrong with these guys? I am talking about the number of 'protests' that have taken place in the country over the past few weeks.

First it was the attack on the office of the Tamil newspaper, Dinakaran. The 'protesters' lobbed petrol bombs into the Madurai office of the Daily and three staffers were killed. It was in protest of an opinion poll published in the newspaper which claimed that Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's elder son MK Azhagiri is less popular than his younger sibling, MK Stalin. The casualty of the entire episode was that Dayanidhi Maran, the then Minister of Communications and Information Technology had to turn in his papers. And what happened to the families of those who lost their lives? Does anyone care? Damn politics. At least now after seeing that their 'leaders' don't care a fig for the lives of even their citizens, people in Tamil Nadu should realise that years of shuffling power between the DMK and the AIADMK has created monsters out of their cadres who don't care two hoots for the law. Or innocent lives.

"It is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others' religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly study of the world's religions is a sacred duty. " ~ M K Gandhi

Then of course the protests and demonstrations that spread all over Punjab earlier this week and spilled over into neighbouring Delhi and Haryana states. These protests were against a leader of a (previously) nondescript sect called Dera Sacha Sauda who allegedly appeared in the garb of the Tenth Guru of Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh. It lead to a major law and order situation in the state and even more so as the sect is believed to be a Congress sympathiser and the ruling alliance being between the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP. The violence was finally curbed by the administration of the respective districts that were affected as it was feared that it could turn into a carnage. Of course it was politically motivated. How would you otherwise explain hundreds of people out on the streets brandishing swords?

"All ... religions show the same disparity between belief and practice, and each is safe till it tries to exclude the rest. Test each sect by its best or its worst as you will, by its high-water mark of virtue or its low-water mark of vice. But falsehood begins when you measure the ebb of any other religion against the flood-tide of your own. There is a noble and a base side to every history." ~ Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Yesterday was a sad day in history of Hyderabad city, which is usually considered as an epitome of cultural potpourri and communal harmony. The city was rocked by a blast in one of India's oldest mosques, the Mecca Masjid located bang in the heart of the old city. What was appaling, was that after the blasts, a mob went into a frenzy pelting stones at cops even while the situation was tense and with bomb squads trying to locate and defuse more bombs inside the mosque. Were the cops responsible for the blasts? NO! Instead of rushing to hospitals to donate blood to the victims and providing a sense of security to the office goers returning from work by keeping the city calm and on its toes, they were rampaging on the streets. Now a 'bandh' (loosely translated as a forced general strike) has been called in Hyderabad. Has even one leader stood up and said, " Hyderabad will not kneel, we will not bend."?

“It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more 'manhood' to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind.” ~ Alex Karras

Contrast this with Bombay, which saw its second serial blasts in a span of 15 years, with seven bombs ripping through packed compartments of suburban trains at rush hour taking around 250 lives with them. But Bombay did not bend. No violence, no bandh. I travelled on the trains the very next day, to college, so did many others, in effect thumbing our noses at the terrorists(bunch of condemned cowards more appropriately). 'Fuck off'; 'Go prick yourself'; 'And lay off our cities'; is what we yelled when we protested in silence.

"Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world right in the eye." ~ Helen Keller

And this is power; this is a show of strength. Not burning public and private property. And spilling blood of your fellow countrymen. These incidents are more divisive if we let them divide us. When will we have a charismatic leader who can take charge and say, "Enough already!"? Maybe it is time to look inwards and find that leadership in ourselves.
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