JNU meat incident: Why this growing intolerance reeks of Talibanisation

India is a vast country of different cultures, religions, sects, languages and practices. It has remained so for time immemorial and this unity in diversity is what makes us unique and beautiful.

When noted poet Iqbal wrote these lines – Kuch baat hai ki hasti mit-ti nahi hamari sadiyon raha hai dushman daur-e-zamana hamara – he was exactly referring to this core strength of our beautiful country where people of different beliefs can co-exist without animosity.

However, slowly but consistently this seems to be changing. A handful of people have forgotten about the existence of a document called Indian constitution and have made it their birthright to dictate terms.

They want to dictate you about how to dress and what to eat and where to buy your good from and what movies to watch and so on and so forth. Independence, for which our forefathers so vehemently fought and achieved, seems like a bygone idea to these individuals. But as someone who has been born and brought up in a secular country, this slow and consistent ‘Talibanisation’ of my beloved country scares me.

It astonishes me when I see visuals of a saffron clad individual issuing rape threat to women in brought day light and people around him hailing him with slogans of a God’s name. It disturbs me when a fruit vendor is thrashed and his supplies are thrown away on the floor just for trying to sell his products outside the worship place of a different religion.

And now this meat incident where students belonging to two different ideologies got into ruckus inside the topmost university of the country and what happens to be at the core of it is the eating habit.

I mean how can someone else’s eating habit be a concern of you unless it’s leading to any hygiene related issues in your close proximity. Wasn’t the idea of freedom all about having free choices about thoughts, taste and practices?

Moreover, the irony is that while some students got beaten for eating meat, another senior minister in the central cabinet got away with hosting a luncheon with meat dishes at his Lutyens home in Delhi, during navratra days. So it’s just that our rulers want to have and enjoy all the freedom while slowly taking it away bit by bit from us the commoners.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are author’s personal.