BY AGA BASIT ALI KHAN
agabasitalikhan29@gmail.com
Can anybody name any religious school which does not place humanity and justice first? No! There isn’t. Since we Shia people derive our ethics from the divinity of the Quran, it is pertinent for us, in general, to be the models of ethics and justice.
And as far as those are concerned who are at representative levels, and people call them clerics, they ought to be altogether brilliant as stars. Their light should enlighten those who they see in darkness.
So their priority ought to be humanity and justice. They ought not to talk in a way that will wreak confusion and chaos, or miscreants will take the opportunity to enter the crevices and spoil the atmosphere.
Mr Imran Ansari walked out or was made to does not matter at all. What matters is his approach to the matters of his faith and their execution in a land where a wolf can enter the herd of lambs disguised. What matters is his narrowness, being a politician, concerning events of different natures.
How Mr Ansari made a comparison between Amarnath Yatra and Muharram Mourning? Both events are religious, no doubt! But Amarnath Yatra is altogether a different event because Amarnath Yatra people are pilgrims. They come from different parts of the country.
They are our guests. Their care-taking is not just the duty of LG only, but ours as well. It is Mr Ansari’s duty first, then LG’s. It is the duty of every Kashmiri first! Looking at religious events through political goggles is an ethical deficit.
Instead of opening a complaint and making the audience think of a biased angle, Mr Ansari should have told the Administration that, being the hosts of Amarnath Yatra pilgrims, they could call off the procession if in case it would bother our guests or the administration caretaking them. But he didn’t do so.
Making it public that administration humiliated him is Mr Ansari’s theatrics. Had he been impactful in the meeting under his intelligence and high ethical values, Mr Ansari would have won the hearts and persuaded the minds. He should have weighable talks to tell to his family, friends, and people. But there is nothing like that, unfortunately. He has a fake gloomy face to hide his underperformance!
Are things concealed? Or are they concealable? Does the administration take steps to let the procession pan out smoothly and peacefully, or is it oblivious? Isn’t it true that in the last thirty years, even Mr Ansari’s ministerial tenure, no govt allowed the procession to eventuate? Even in the worst turmoil periods in the valley, Amarnath Yatra kept going.
But Muharram processions were not allowed. It simply means that Muharram’s procession is socially and locally more sensitive than Amarnath Yatra. Thus, given the sensitivity concerning the socio-political situation, the administration’s first and foremost obligatory task is to analyze the pros and cons before plunging into an action involving the masses where peace is yet to plant its roots firm.
If any religio-political cleric does not understand such basics, he jeopardizes peace; he endangers his people.
A simple question arises here: Did Mr Ansari, by his political might, make the LG administration call for the meeting? Or, out of their goodwill gesture, they convened it and invited you to support them in their administrative venture.
When such is a case that it is they who convened the meeting and invited us and, that too after more than thirty years, we are supposed to observe the procession, you talk in a non-secular way. Your crying that they humiliated you is a false accusation under which you conceal your inability. The fact is that you humiliated your community. Please stop crying. It is irritating!
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the view of GK.