Readers’ comments: Nusrat Jahan and Mamata Banerjee’s secularism is a political gimmick

Tax (over) burden

I will tell you where they will come from (To become a $5 trillion economy India needs investments. But where will they come from?). They will come from ordinary people and their small savings: through taxing the common man higher and higher. For example, what is the actual cost of petrol and diesel? I will play on a hunch here – the actual cost of petrol will be around Rs 30 to Rs 40 per litre and the rest is all tax that raises it to around Rs 80, or so.

First, make the nation great internally, then do so externally. Make the people of the nation happy by working with them against their problems. If people are happy then the nation is happy and will prosper. – Robert Torne

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Trust me, it’s really getting tougher and tougher day by day to survive under the tax load imposed by this government. Help us find ways to throw these people out of the system. – Raj R Agrawal

The secular paradox

I was reading your article on the honourable Member of Parliament Nusrat Jahan Jain (Why is Nusrat’s Rath Yatra visit viewed as secular but Mamata’s iftar party as minority appeasement?). Your author has called her a Muslim Member of Parliament. Are your author and editor educated? In India we call our MP as MP. There is no religion attached to it such as Sikh MP or Muslim MP. When you write about the honourable West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, write the full story not half baked or selective stuff. – Jithendra KS

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We, as Hindus, have always been tolerant and have had great respect for other religions. As far as Nusrat Jahan is concerned, she is doing majority appeasement along with Bengal’s chief minister, and nothing else.

What we are witnessing is a system imbalance because a sizable population of various communities exist. If you can’t put an end to this, then you will see, in the coming 25 years to 30 years, India will become another Syria. – Rakesh Kumar Neelam

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Proof of Mamata Banerjee’s Muslim appeasement is not only limited to the iftar party. All politicians and political parties do such things, but they do not get labelled pro-Muslim. During the Congress-era, Delhi would see dozens of iftars, organised by non-Muslims. But all of them were not given the Muslim appeasement label. Why?

The question is why then only Mamata Banerjee gets the Muslim appeasement label? Why? It is not due to iftar alone. We must see the overall picture. For example, let us take the case of the government’s dole to imams. Please explain why Banerjee gave government pay-outs only to imams and not Hindu temple priests.

It is not a question of a single act or one step. By her own inexplicable acts, she has ensured that her pro-Muslim appeasement stance is cemented in public perception. The public has given her a befitting reply at the recently concluded election. Minority appeasement will not be tolerated by the general public. – Dr Ranjan Mukherjee

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The article written by Shoaib Daniyal is impressive but is largely trying to defend minority appeasement policies of Mamta Banerjee. There is a vast difference between the acts of Nusrat Jahan and Mamta Banerjee. While Nusrat has shown respect for Hinduism, her husband’s or in-laws faith, Banerjee on the other hand, has tried to give Islam an upper hand over Hinduism in West Bengal.

She thought of joining the Rath Yatra this year only after realising that majority Hindus are getting alienated from her. Her trick worked in previous elections but failed drastically this time as the Bharatiya Janata party worked on the same formula to unite 65% Hindu voters. Though BJP could achieve only 40% this time, this is going to surge towards 65% in the next round of elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put on the headgears of different cultures of India but refused a skull cap associated with Islam. He refused to deviate from his own faith by wear the Muslim religious skull cap simply for votes. Nusrat has deviated and is walking ahead with two faiths. That’s a new concept in new India. – Raj Kumar Chandak

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One needs to understand the situation of the political personality here. One is married into a different faith hence she respects the rituals of that faith. Vande mataram is a Sanskrit word meaning the worshipping of your motherland so there is nothing unusual in chanting and paying obeisance to your nation first.

The other is different because she is a seasoned political leader and head of state. She is responsible for every citizen that lives in that state and has to make policies for the good of every citizen of that state. Has she been equitable in her thought and action as far as her policies are concerned? This needs to come out in the article. Perception is personal and this is where one feels that this comparison is forced. – Arjun Mukherjee

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Nusrat Jahan is a famous personality, which is why some people are talking big about secularism. So many Hindu girls have ruined there lives by marrying into another faith. Those are untold stories. – Sunil Singh

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Kindly answer two questions: Why did Didi prevent Durga Poojas? Why are ardent Muslims not asking for Muslim criminal law as described in the holy Quran, practised in every Muslim country and by every true Muslim? Do not spread falsities against a majority community which remains magnanimous despite the arrogant minority which is approaching majority status through a population explosion. Can you guarantee the same privileges to the future minority community which is the current majority? – Sivasubramaniyan Viswanathan

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First of all, I would like to say that you are totally biased. Media like you has changed the definition of secularism. If something happens to a non-Hindu it is unsecular but if something happens to a Hindu you people don’t even take note of it. Just like many political parties you people are spreading fake news without going into the depths of it and supporting Muslim appeasement politics.

An individual quarrel between two persons belonging to two different communities is given communal colour, just like what happened in the Hauz Qazi case in Chandani Chowk.

Similarly, Nusrat Jahan’s visit to the Rath Yatra is given communal colour. You people don’t write what Banerjee’s gundas are doing to Hindus. Show guts to reveal the truth about Banerjee in an unbiased manner. Don’t always criticise the government. Don’t spread bad things about our country. Don’t try to disturb the social and cultural fabric of our country. Your negativity will drown all of you. – Amar Bahadur Singh

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Both are appeasement. Only that one is enough to elect Mamata Banerjee to the designation of chief minister. The second is just learning. They will fool both Hindus and Muslims alike. – PD Amarnath

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ISKCON is not a Hindu organisation. People of all faiths are welcome to join ISCKON. Thus participation of Nusrat is being taken out of proportion. – Brijesh Barthwal

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Your views don’t democratically represent the masses. This is pseudo-minority talk about secularism and not about Hinduism, which is a great way of life. Please stop talking about these terms. All are welcome here but where are Hindus welcomed or embraced? They are forced to remain refugees, persecuted in their own country by a minority even though they are in the majority. – MC Rastogi

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The writer this article, Shoiab Daniyal, seems confused. People like me say a few people indulge in minority appeasement and people like him call the same secularism. We never called Nusrat’s action secular. Its people like Daniyal who are calling it secularism. Yet the article presents it as we are discriminating between the actions of Jahan and Didi.

I don’t know about others, but for me, secularism is not about Muslims praying to Krishna. It’s about my right to pray to Krishna or Shiva being respected. Minority appeasement is about giving grants to Muslim religious leaders, but not to Hindus. It is about granting protection to other religious institution from political interference or control but making Hindusim vulnerable.

Its is hypocrisy like Mahua Moitra’s parliament speech on fascism despite the presence of all her signs in West Bengal. See, we don’t make a Hadiya a Lakshmi, but we are attacked when we ask for protection from people who make a Lakshmi a Hadiya. – Pranav Patki

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Nusrat Jahan’s visit is not a secular thing at all. It is completely political. The Rath Yatra is not happening for the first time. Neither is Nusrat a celebrity for the first time. Then why hasn’t she attended the yatra earlier? Even Mimi Chakraborty won for the first time – why wasn’t she seen or invited along with her? Even Dev was a first time MP in 2014 – why hasn’t he attended the Rath Yatra since 2014?

Nusrat Jahan came to the Rath Yatra as she is married to a Hindu and she says she respects her husband’s faith as well. But what brings Mamata Banerjee to Red Road? Is she married to a Muslim? How many times has Mamata has gone to a gurudwara during Guruparb or to Jain temples on Mahaveer Jayanti? She has gone to church only twice, that too on Derek O’ Brian’s request. She hasn’t done all of this because they are tiny minorities and count for less than 1% of the vote, as compared to Muslims, who are a third of Bengal’s population. Thus, her secular credentials are only for voting numbers. – Amit Basu

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I think for humankind to survive peacefully, religion has to die.

What they are doing is going from one religion to another to show secularism. But deep within it all, religion is terrorism. Take any religion – superficially all looks okay. Looks like no harm in performing rituals, but then it doesn’t end there. People tend to be drawn into it, comparisons start and it all takes an ugly turn.

I know atheism is not the answer – though I am atheist – because then humans will find out some other matter like land, money or power to fight each other on. This is an animal instinct and we are animals. Closely related to donkeys, I think, as we are clearly working without thinking at all. – Vyankatesh Bolegave

A satellite named Ravana

King Ravana is Tamil and he’s a devotee of god Shiva (Why Sri Lanka named its first-ever satellite after Ravan). That’s what he received powers to fight against Lord Rama. He’s not Buddhist. – Anush Meera

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As we are Indians, we oppose the name Ravana. But, India is Buddha’s country despite which people talk about the imaginary character Ram. Today I am happy to see that Sri Lanka has launched their first satellite by the name Ravana. He was a great king and did not touch Sita as he did not have her permission. The storytelling is very beautiful and Buddha’s country doesn’t like it. Wish you loads of success. – Vijay Kisanrao Ingle

Single by Choice

An excellent description of single womanhood (‘Aching loneliness is different from solitary calm’: Sharda Ugra on being single by choice). Anyone would feel proud to belong to [this grouping]. Congratulations on managing life beautifully. – RN Varma

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I couldn’t help but relate to Sharda Ugra’s book excerpt from Single By Choice. – Manali Rohinesh

Miscellaneous musings

Please stop publishing such sensational issues (Two FIRs filed against Subramanian Swamy for allegedly saying Rahul Gandhi consumes cocaine). These stories neither do any good to society nor prove a point. It’s simply engaging some truly idle brains storming together to create irritation. – Manotosh Kumar Datta

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It is probably scant consolation to him )Alan Turing: How the world’s most famous codebreaker unlocked the secrets of nature’s beauty). Especially after the inadvertent disclosure that he was gay – England was still in the dark ages then – he was summarily dismissed, stripped of his security clearance, banned from scientific conferences and chemically castrated which led him to commit suicide. – Dave in LV

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That is what the grand old – now too old to survive – party had been doing for well over sixty years of its rule at the centre (The big news: Congress accuses BJP of engineering defections in Karnataka, and 9 other top stories). It is now being paid back in its own currency which it is reluctant to accept! – Varadarajan Rangachari

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I am a diabetic from Mumbai, though I am relatively well off (As diabetes spreads among India’s urban poor, it could be pushing them over the edge). The article is very well written and very accurately depicts the huge problem of diabetes amongst the poor. – Sharad Shinde

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Have you checked all the reviews on Google Play for the PhonePe app? (While Paytm’s reach stagnates, Walmart’s PhonePe is fast catching up). They have grabbed millions of rupees from innocent subscribers with no intention, at all, of returning it. You should not be biased and write articles like these paid ones. You must write on the other darker side of the PhonePe looters-and-cheaters’ gang with a figure of how much they have grabbed by manipulation. Be transparent. – Vijay Desai

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It’s very difficult to understand how the same people who are not interested in allowing Muslims to pray on juma-day in open spaces are complaining about a Muslim woman’s right to practice religion – and approaching courts for the establishment of those rights (‘Let a Muslim woman come’: SC dismisses Hindu Mahasabha’s plea to allow women to enter mosques).

As far as a Muslim woman’s entry into a masjid is concerned, there is no one rule followed through the nation. It varies with regions and between sects. I know of many mosques where women offer their prayer according to the established shariah way. There are also mosques which don’t allow women’s entry but those are based on the safety of women and fear of violation of shariah-like intermixing.

So if petitioners are so concerned about Muslim women’s rights they should come forward with a plan to help build new compounds in existing mosques that don’t allow women’s entry due to space constraints and safety concerns. I thank the honourable judges of both the Kerala High Court and the Supreme Court who dismissed the petition which was only intended for cheap publicity. – Rehan Ansar

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I really appreciate the initiative (How WhatsApp messages from Bhutan are saving lives in Assam). Being next-door neighbours we should have better communication and understanding with each other, keeping in mind the age-old relationships that we have inherited. Friendship is always preferable over conflict. Sino-Indian friendship is the need of the day. – Biswajit Datta

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The former two-time Vice President Hamid Ansari has been accused by former RAW officials of inaction and sabotage during his tenure as the Ambassador of Iran in the early ’90s (Narendra Modi’s remarks at my farewell function were seen as a departure from the norm: Hamid Ansari). This was the exact reason he was called back and suspended. But later he went on to become the vice president of our country, twice.

I would very much like for Scroll.in to gather information and report on this. If there’s even a bit of truth to this, it could easily be one of the biggest blunders of Indian politics. – Harshavardhan Gangavathi

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It is very unfortunate that voters cast their vote taking into consideration the names of political parties over the representative they are electing (The Daily Fix: Congress-JD(S) alliance’s crude bargaining shows their contempt for governance). If after this, those lawmakers shift their loyalty to other political parties, the act could be termed as cheating and fraud. Criminal cases should be filed against them by their constituency’s voters.

Further, an amendment to the act should be proposed by the Chief Election Commissioner allowing for a provision that, if any elected lawmaker resigns or opts to shift their loyalty, they could be banned from contesting any election in the future. If this provision is adopted no lawmaker will think of leaving the party from which he or she is elected. The election commission will also save a lot of the money they are forced to spend to conduct re-elections in constituencies of defecting leaders.

This will also be a check on corruption as money is involved in horse-trading. – Narendra Agarwal

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It is a known fact that the present government always shows reluctance in accepting their own faux pas (Shabana Azmi says it is necessary to point out the flaws of one’s country for its betterment). Instead, they slam their critics’ addresses as anti-national. The latest example is Shabana Azmi. The cyber attacks on her are shameful. In the current scenario of increased attacks against minorities and constant calls for a Hindu Rashtra – while we don’t have an Opposition party – I think we need many more so-called anti-nationals. – Jeevan K Raj