SHILLONG: ICARE has noted with sadness and concern the unchecked trend of violence and intimidation against minority sections of society that is currently sweeping across the country.
With a sense of urgency we wish to draw the attention of our country men to the fact that this rising intolerance to persons of different faiths, ideologies or lifestyles will have no other outcome other than weakening India’s integrity as a nation.
The arrogance of intolerance has chosen to contemptuously ignore caution and advice even from the highest office of the country, the President and the Vice President of India.
This is unprecedented in Independent India; it has never happened before; the signs do not bode well for the future of this nation.
History has a habit of repeating itself but is there need for Secular India to repeat the folly of Mohammed Ali Jinnah? Religious nationhood is a flawed political concept and what better example of this than Pakistan? So why attempt to follow suit?
Of course it’s a different matter if the intention is to make India another failed state.
Many of us from the NE are not Hindus, but does that make us less Indian? Our personal beliefs have never influenced our identity as Indians nor the fact that we are citizens of India.
So lets debunk the concept and idea that Indian integrity can only be strengthened through compatibility and mainstreaming of culture and religion.
Its total communal hogwash.
Diversity is actually India’s strength and in a globalised context, should be the bonding factor for an emerging, resilient super power of the 21st century.
No citizen of the country should feel discriminated against and all Indians should feel secure.
What is happening today is more than a law and order problem of individual states. It is a vicious attack from within on the multi facetted fabric of democratic India. It must be stopped, nipped in the bud and condemned by all right thinking Indians
ICARE therefore notes with considerable concern the reluctance of the political leadership of the country to come to grips with the problem.
As citizens of a free country there is a sense of shocked betrayal when the Central Government attempts to glibly dismiss genuine concerns of the common man as ‘manufactured dissent’.
Its rubbing salt on the nation’s wounds.
The redeeming factor has been the protests from the President and the Vice President, from leading lights of civil society, the RBI Governor, intellectuals, writers, film makers, the arts and from enlightened individuals who have not hesitated to raise their voices.
