Patriotism
You can trust the politicians and the religious heads to reliably generate controversies when there is no need for one. The Ulema and Deobandh could have done a lot better than upholding the fatwa against singing Vande Mataram in the same event in which the Home Minister was participating. The BJP, the self proclaimed guardians of the nation were not far behind and have proposed singing of the song as a test of patriotism. The Ulema would be doing a helluva good job for the faithful, if they concentrate more on urgent matters like lack of education, which seems to be the primary reason for the disproportionately wide spread poverty amongst the Muslim community, which in turn makes them to send their sons to the degrading working conditions in the middle eastern theocratic countries and thereby leaving them out of the economic prosperity that the middle class of other religions are experiencing. Then there is the perception part, in which to be a Muslim in today’s world is to be branded a backward, artifact of the feudal past and a terrorist sympathizer.
All said and done, the Ulema are religious scholars and they are within their rights to pass any decree for the faithful much like the leaders of Singur or Kanchi matt. You can always trust the BJP to enforce conditions which are not part of the constitution like ban on Valentine’s day celebrations, branding girls with boyfriends as prostitutes, creating a new test of patriotism etc. This is the same party which doesn’t consider orchestrating genocides, proved spineless in the face of Kandahar crisis, caught napping while Pakistan was sending mercenaries across LoC and had coalition with a party whose minister was getting kick backs in the coffins used for bringing the dead soldiers of Kargil War!
There is more to patriotism than singing anthems and song or supporting cricket teams. If the objective of patriotism is to strengthen the country, then patriotism is paying taxes, law abiding, promoting social harmony, following the Constitution and correcting it when necessary. Silly stuff will never come into the picture.
The BJP would do well to provide a decent alternative to the Congress – which lot of people like me support by virtue of being the lesser evil and the Communists by providing meaningful solution for the naxal problem, help integrate minorities – not just religious but regional (north east), reform public educational institutions, reduce energy dependency etc.
The Ulema would be more respected if they move on with the times and embrace the fact that this is the land that gave the opportunity to their forefathers and has the potential to do so to their descendants if they adapt rather than resisting modernization.
