One fatwa and three seculars

As Arundhati Roy says 'Crisis is a fast food commodity'. It has to be bought, packaged and sold quickly and you must move on. The media doesn't run after stories. They run after crisis.

The latest flavour seems to be the word Imrana. Those who came in late, Imrana a poor muslim wife was raped by her father-in-law. The rapist is now languishing in jail while the Diobandh Muslim Law Board has slapped a fatwa on Imrana. Since she has been 'had' by a man other than her husband, Imrana has become 'haraam', that's unclean so she has become unfit to be a wife. Now if that's not worse, since she has been 'had' by her the husband's father, she should treat him as her 'son'.

No, please don't laugh and it's not a joke. Now Imrana can't live with her husband and because of the controvery and community pressure she has decided to accept the fatwa and now is on the streets with her three kids because her new 'husband' is in jail. A woman will be able to fathom the enormity of the torture than I. But I guess I'm sensitive enough to be agitated by this.

BJP made the noise first, which was understandable. As the secular media put it, 'The muslim law boards and ulemas are 'giving' the Sangh-Parivar a stick by these announcements'. Well you need to read it carefully. The Ulemas' mistake is not slapping the 'fatwa' but 'giving' a stick to BJP. That's a bigger mistake.

And where are the other 'secularists'? Mulayam Singh Yadav, one of the secular torch-bearers, who proudly calls himself 'Mulla Mulayam', has already endorsed the fatwa. He feels 'sad' for the woman but adhering to the religious principles is more important than, than what? Well, than anything. And the next torch-bearer, Lalu Yadav whom intellectuals like Vinod Mehta supports because he is 'secular', is conspicously silent on the issue.

And, and, the biggest secularists of them all, the Congress party is acting as if such an event has never happened. Grija Vyas, the spokesperson simply refused to comment in front of the camera. As if 'No Comments' is some sort of protest against that religious atrocity.

Secularism has long since come to mean Hindu-bashing. Any atrocity of Islamic institution has to be endorsed and even given an official seal such as in the Shah Banu case. It can harm economy such as family planning, it can endorse male-chauvinism, such as Sha Banu or Imrana, or it can promote terrorism such as scrapping POTA. However, any lame request by BJP has to be termed as 'communal' and brand them 'untouchables'.

Some months back, when I wrote a small piece stating I voted for BJP because they are less hypocrites than Congress. I was ripped apart by the self-professed seculars around me. May all those secularists please come out of their closet and explain the congress stand on Imrana?