I had shut out this world of blogging for the past one month.Underwent some highs and lows in the bygone one month, hence words were hard to flow.Desperately wanted to write but found my thoughts incarcerated amidst a haze of confusion and was fumbling for an articulate manifestation of ideas to write on an issue.Thanks to my Orkut well wisher and my teacher that i finally managed to pull up my socks and get back to the groove ! This article is for him and his encouragements.
When i look back at the month gone by,many issues found front page space in many newspapers.Chandrayaan's abrupt end,the infighting within the BJP,the ghost of Jinnah and Partition,swine flu,YSR's untimely death and many such issues of national and international importance.But one issue kept on troubling me, eversince it was reported in the media - Shahrukh Khan's detention at Newak airport in New Jersey in USA.At the very outset let me put the facts straight across the table-I am not a big fan of Shahrukh Khan,but yes he is my fav hero ! So i have no bad blood with him that i would be spitting venom against him through my blog ! I understand the mental agony that he underwent at the airport and the subsequent bold and brave face he kept after the incident, where no harsh words errupted from his side.Truly appreciate his composure and gentlemanly attitude to handle the issue.
However my concern is with regard to the hypocrisy and the double standard that the media and some sections of the so called progressive and enlightened individuals exhibited.If we recall the day this incident happened it was our Independence day.And since the evening (Aug 15) the web was innundated with articles,blogs and tweets on the SRK issue and the gross injustice meted out to him. There is no denying the fact that it was an injustice and also comdemnable.But my question is,when just a week earlier,Emraan Haashmi was denied a flat accommodation in Mumbai on grounds of his religion,where was this outburst ? Where were these shouts of injustice then ? Or for that matter how many from the Bollywood fraternity took the initiative to look into the matter as to what had really happened to Haashmi ? There was a clear fault line between a famous Muslim and a not so famous Muslim. King Khan himself said after the Haashmi incident that he has never faced such discrimination in India !! How can he ?? Come on...he is KING KHAN !! And in India he is really the undisputed King ! Which fool will dare to raise an objection on his religion in India ? But i guess King Khan got his answer some weeks later.Thats what i call 'Divine Justice'! Nobody will ever understand the pain and agony of someone else unless he/she undergoes the same pain.
The question is not of Shahrukh Khan or Emraan Haashmi,there is a larger issue to it.It is heartening to know that almost more than 50 years after Tagore wrote the famous lines 'Where the mind is withou fear...', the world is still 'broken into narrow domestic walls' and the mind is still 'not without fear' and the head is still to be held high ! If such discrimination is what our celebrities face then can we just gauge the depth of the discrimination which an ordinary Muslim faces in India and elsewhere ? May be, we wont be able to fathom out the trauma that they undergo,because we have not yet suffered their anguish.Be honest to yourself and ask how many times have all of us raised our eye brows seeing a bearded man wearing a cap ! That sense of 'WE and THEY' is getting so entrenched that it is as if it will take centuries to come out of this dangerous maze of polarization.That is an ominous sign for the health of our polity.Incidences involving hi profile celebrities are reported in the media but stories of the ordinary masses are lost to time.The stories of discrimination of 'no ones' are too trivial to be reported by someone.
I do not know what is the conclusion of the WAR ON TERROR but we have certainly lost the WAR AGAINST HATRED.And the tragic irony is that we have lost it badly.Osama Bin Laden might be hiding in some mountainous caves in Pakistan/Afghanistan and might have lost the War on Terror,but he has won the psychological war against America and against us.