No communal hatred in Punjab. Why is faith under attack?
If there's any larger aversion in Punjab, it's not among communities but towards absolute power.
So, if there's no wave of communal hatred, how is it then that sacred texts are coming under attack?
Last year, a sleepy village of Bargari in the Kot Kapura Tehsil of Faridkot district erupted into protests after unknown troublemakers desecrated Guru Granth Sahib.
Within days, copycat defilements occurred in several other parts of Punjab, fuelling anger on the streets.
The state government responded to protests with use of deadly force.
And when slammed for its handling of the unrest, the Badal administration pointed an accusing finger at "foreign hand," an apparent reference to its perennial opponents in the Sikh diaspora overseas.
I was in the US that time. From New York to New Jersey to Washington DC, the Sikhs I met were furious about the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib right in the cradle of Sikhism.
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| What has emerged out of Malerkotla are allegations and counter-allegations of political mischief. (PTI) |
Moderates and hardliners alike, almost all of them frowned at the Akali government for what they saw were its attempts to settle scores with influential critics abroad by implicating them in heinous acts of sacrilege.
Almost eight months later, similar defilement is repeated. This time, it happened in Malerkotla, Punjab's only Muslim-majority town. And the target was the holy Quran.
Protests were quick and so was police action.
But the assault on the sacred writings exploded on national media only after an Aam Aadmi Party MLA was named as a suspect, igniting an inflammable AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal into a burst of press-friendly accusations against the Akali-BJP government.
I am glad national TV gave air time to a profound religious profanity in the state of Punjab.
It didn't as much unfortunately during the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in October last year.
In neither case, hate was the apparent underlying trigger.
What has emerged out of Malerkotla are allegations and counter-allegations of political mischief.
They got to be taken seriously because, as I say again, if there's some collective aversion in Punjab, it's toward a single family governing Chandigarh and Amritsar and which is sharing power in Delhi.
That doesn't make the Badals a suspect of authoring sacrilege. Nor does it exonerate them.
Neither does it clear the AAP, which is a bit too desperate to retain its momentum as a front-runner in the triangular race to Chandigarh on the back of strong anti-Badal sentiments.
You just can't then have Punjab's police or a district magistrate inquire into dangerous acts of sacrilege if accusations crop up about political involvement.
As a matter of principle, no state government should itself become an investigator into attacks on religion or religious scriptures.
Such acts have a potential to canker an entire social structure.
Malerkotla, therefore, must be investigated independently by a sitting judge of a high court at least.
It can be lethal if political charges in such instances from either side are ignored as mere rhetoric.
Remember, you can't downplay religion in India. You have to deal with it before a love jihad catchphrase flares up into a Muzaffarnagar.