Communal riots are also a form of terrorism
Communal riots are a constant issue that the country as a whole faces. While the issue is not as magnified in Goa as it is in other cities in the country, it still has to be addressed
09 Aug, 2015, 12:50AM IST
By Soter D’Souza
The selective exploitation and application of constitutional provisions and laws seems to be fast becoming the legal weapon for communal targeting in this country. Whether it be the lynch mob defending the ‘death penalty’ for convicts from certain communities or the employing of the CBI to hound a human rights activist defending victims of the Gujarat riots, the State’s disguised communal terrorism is so very glaring. The constitutional provisions when selectively exploited to ban cow slaughter while ignoring similar provisions for banning alcohol, only seems to betray the hidden communal agenda of the State. Not even the highest office of the State has been spared from such communal bias when a Governor brazenly professed that all those, besides the family, who attended the funeral of Yakub Memon are ‘potential terrorists’. And after all the butchering in the name of Hindutva, there is a shameless attempt to resist the label of ‘Hindu Terror’ by claiming that terrorism has no religion. Anyone who seems to deviate from this Hindutva thought pattern gets mocked as being anti-Hindu and anti-national.
This national refrain of right-wing intolerance and selective targeting gets manifested even in Goa when some MLAs spat venom against the parents from diocesan schools who were agitating for legal safeguards guarantying government grants to English medium primary schools. Even the Chief Minister could not resist revealing his sectarian mindset when he saw terrorist tendencies amongst these protesting parents. Another MLA went to the extent of accusing the parents of setting a bad example for their children by staging a ‘rasta roko’ and roared that ‘all Hindu MLAs have come together to stop diocesan monopoly in education’. As a victim of ‘convenient amnesia’ which is seen to have afflicted the right-wing politicians, these MLAs probably failed to recollect how right-wing MLAs blocked the national highway in 2011 on the very same issue. Such double standards are adopted by right-wing groups even when it comes to the Mumbai riots and Mumbai blasts.
In order to prevent people from looking at terror within the country, attention is being diverted to the global phenomena of ISIS terror. The terrorism from across the borders gets hyped up to drown the concerns over growing in-house Hindutva terror and corruption. Is there any difference between terror of guns and bombs and the terror unleashed by swords, lathis, mobs and fire? How can those from one religion who plan and execute riots targeting other religious communities be considered different from terrorists? A terror strike takes lives, generates panic and disrupts peace. Is this not what communal riots also do? We may choose to play down the presence of communalism and portray to the world that Goa is a place of religious harmony. However, there comes a time when one just cannot deny the fact that communalism is destroying Goa.
It is high time good spirited citizens cutting across religion and caste come forward and curb this fast rising communal demon in Goa. Let us not allow terror agendas to be forwarded in the garb of protection to religion, mother tongue, culture, environment or special status. Selective application of laws and mob force to suppress rights or isolate certain communities is also one form of terrorism.
(Soter D’Souza is a Social Activist and Writer)
http://www.heraldgoa.in/details.php?n_id=92168
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