Premeditated protests they are all!

No one should make offensive remarks against any religious leader and if someone does that, one has an absolute right to protest. But at the same time, no one has the right to indulge in arson and violence as India witnessed on Friday.

It was unfortunate to see children being put in harm's way in Kanpur and Ahmedabad where small children were seen protesting with placards. Question is who is trying to involve children in such an unlawful activity. The nation should not suffer for promoting political interests of some groups or parties.

It is also a clear case of failure of intelligence. The police should have anticipated such incidents. They have been caught on wrong foot. Violent protests took place in 30 locations and the police cannot say they did not know. It is being said that there were about 700-odd BOT accounts mobilised and most handles and hashtags were from Pakistan. If that were true, the law enforcement authorities need to act on this kind of activities. In fact, it is time the government takes a serious view of the unlawful activities on social media and comes up with stringent measures to check violations.

Some Muslim intellectuals during debates on national TV channels referred to the Gyanvapi controversy. Such analyses would result in fanning religious fundamentalism which again cannot be accepted at any cost. Many comments on the Gyanvapi were made from the other side as well. But does that mean those who believe there was a Shiv Ling should protest violently? That really makes no sense. If anyone thinks on those lines, stringent action should be taken against them. The big question is should people go in for pan India protests under the guise of sentiments getting affected? Certainly not, because that is no way to resolve an issue.

Everyone knew there was anger and certain groups wanted greater action against former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. All that is fine, but this kind of arson two weeks after she made certain objectionable comments for which the BJP had already suspended her and the police filed an FIR cannot be justified. Some even claim that her comments were taken out of context. If it is so, that also needs to be probed. We know in certain cases, particularly if they belong to ruling party anywhere, law takes its own course a bit slowly. There are any number of examples which can be quoted but this is not the time for such discussion.

While it is debatable whether the government had acted properly or not, no one has the right to take law into one's hands. What is more disturbing is that when the violence took place after the Friday prayers, no religious leaders, or Imams issued statements condemning the violence. A couple of them only said that they had nothing to do with the violence and that they do not recognise those who indulged in violence.

It is high time the law enforcing agencies found out the genesis of the violence that took place on Friday across many parts of the country. This certainly cannot be called as a spontaneous outburst of anger. If it was spontaneous, then one would not have seen posters saying, 'Behead Nupur Sharma.' If it was spontaneous, one would not have witnessed such heavy stone pelting, arson, burning of vehicles, injuries to policemen and there would not have been simultaneous protests and violence in so many places.

Let's see what Prayagraj SP had to say about the violence. "Under the Khuldabad police station, namaz had been completed peacefully. Everyone had returned home. It was 2 pm. Some youngsters then came into lanes. We tried to make them understand. Some of them threw stones and bricks. For a while, we tried to make them understand in presence of several officials, including the DM. Even after trying to make them understand, they didn't listen. There were many minors among them. We used light force to disperse them. They returned home. Even after that because this is a majority area of a community, people kept coming in lanes and raising slogans. We used loudspeakers to make them understand. Our force was very patient. Some minor injuries have been sustained by the force. The situation is under control, but we are keeping a close watch." This certainly cannot be called spontaneous outburst of anger. It was pre-planned and well-orchestrated one.

We have seen that in India no violence takes place unless certain political forces jump into action and back the protests and lumpen elements make use of the situation. We have seen that even communal violence takes place mostly when political parties get involved actively. The common citizens of the country, irrespective of their religion, are peace loving persons. They go to their respective places of worship, not to indulge in violence but to pray for their personal growth and wellbeing of the family.

Lip sympathy by intellectuals, whether it be the Hindus or the Muslims, does not mean anything. It is time the people of this great country, no matter what religion they belong to, rise in one voice and tell the political parties – don't mess up our lives for your narrow political gains. No party or religious group has any right to intimidate anyone like this.

India being a religiously diverse country, it is all the more necessary for all political parties to unite people. But our politicians are experts in giving long unending speeches from public platforms on the need for keeping politics and religion separate but it is they who mix it purely for political reasons. All political parties cannot resist or desist from keeping religion out of elections. They cannot give up practice of using religion to flare up violence. They are not bothered even if it weakens the country or hinders its growth.

Recently, Supreme Court Judge Lavu Nageswara Rao, addressing law students, said that in a secular country like India, religion should be kept apart from politics. He elaborated on the historical perspective of religion and politics, flipping through the pages of history. Justice Rao said that from fundamental rights in the Indian Constitution to the third president of the US Thomas Jefferson, and the wall of separation between the church and the State had to be stressed upon. "Religion has been playing a key role in politics since ages. Political governance and religious practices are two different aspects, which should not be mixed together," he stated.

Let us hope that the political parties at least now will learn a lesson that it is high time not to further pollute the political atmosphere of the country and resort to appeasement policy whichever group, caste or religion it might be. While all political parties accuse BJP of being a Hindutva vadi, they, too, don't keep away from the policy of appeasement in the name of secularism. It is time they give up such policies and tailor-made freebies in the name of welfare schemes. Why can't the country have welfare schemes for all the poor and downtrodden, not on the basis of caste or religion?

This is the most important revolution that the country needs not a new constitution as suggested by the Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao or a new group of parties coming to power in next elections just for the sake of satisfying some power-hungry political leaders.