Tuesday, November 3, 2009

New development at the national front?? Nah!!!

It is time for us to repeat this story for the seven hundredth time..Nothing really changes, except the actors and victims.


Now the Jamait-e-Ulema Hind or the JEU has asked...nay forbidden...people believing in Islam to not sing the Vande Mataram. Well. I do know some people who do not sing it. They have their reasons and i shall respect them even if i do not agree. But that does not mean that the JEU will prohibit people from singing a song they wish to.


In 2006 Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh noted that it was not binding on citizens to sing the song.


All India Sunni Ulema Board on Sept 6, 2006, issued a fatwa that the Muslims can sing the first two verses of the song. The Board president Moulana Mufti Syed Shah Badruddin Qadri Aljeelani said that "If you bow at the feet of your mother with respect, it is not shirk but only respect."


The song was written not to diminish anyone in the country or society but just to show respect to one's motherland. Do we not stand up when we hear any other country's national anthem? We may not feel a part of it, we may not feel any connection but we still respect it since we respect the people who believe in it.


That is something the JEU should learn. What they are doing will not deter people from feeling patriotic if they had to, just as singing wouldn't have made us a true Indian. The only thing the are managing to do now is to plant more seedlings of alienation of one part of the society and poison the minds of a generation which could forget.