Salman Khurshid is a well educated and liberal politician and to have him say that Hinduism is akin to ISIS is preposterous.
Politicians and controversy go hand in hand and the former leaves no stones unturned to stoke controversy. If the politician happens to be of a particular community and makes some controversial statement about another community, it is a sure shot formula to get into the prime news were scores of supposedly knowledgeable experts start to split the semantic hair and dominate prime time. The latest in this phenomenon is Salman Khurshid.
Salman Khurshid is a well educated and liberal politician and to have him say that Hinduism is akin to ISIS is preposterous. This statement, coming from an educated person like Salman Khurshid is regrettable.
Hindu vs Hindutva Debate
A debate is raging about the correct definition of Hindu and Hindutva. The word Hindutva was first coined by Veer Savarkar who himself was an atheist. This by itself makes it amply clear that Hindutva is a way of life and has nothing to do with religion. Having said that, it is too farfetched to say that Hindutva and ISIS are akin to one another.
Salman Khurshid may be right when he says that BJP gets its ideological inspiration from RSS. But that does not qualify to equate the BJP, RSS to ISIS. Every social organization like the RSS, Khalsa, Akali Dal, Jamat, Christian Missionaries, have their umbilical cord connected to its patronizing religion. The mixing of religion and politics is inevitable. Therefore these organizations do not qualify to be equated with ISIS.
Ignorance or Cheap Gimmick for publicity
Salman Khurshid is not a Hindu and his ignorance of Hindu religion, Hindutva or Hinduism can be explained. However, his lack of knowledge about ISIS is really astonishing. Does Hinduism preach death for adherents of other faith? Does Hinduism justify people from other faith to be considered slaves? ISIS has committed atrocities on other faiths but it has killed adherents of Islam in far greater numbers. It considers most of the Muslim nations as kafirs.
Statements of Salman once again drive Hindus to BJP fold
Stoking controversy is nothing new under the sun and Khurshid has done it once again. However what he has achieved is sending back the Hindus to the BJP fold, Hindus who are thoroughly disillusioned by the Modi government and its follies. It would have been better if Khurshid had talked about the failures of this government, failures which could have been prevented.
Any debate between differing views is a healthy thing. However, throwing arguments just to stoke controversy and division is a myopic and foolhardy proposition. Debates must be based on solid facts and logic ad Salman Khurshid’s views falls poorly short of it.
Feature Image: By Ministry of Corporate Affairs (GODL-India), GODL-India, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71679742
