Finally, a Pakistani singer Adnan Sami was granted Indian citizenship. No doubt, it is good initiative by BJP led NDA government, but still it has raised the eyebrows of many politics specialists. The first blow has come from its old ally Shiv Sena leader Manisha Kayande who questioned BJPs decision to make Adnan Sami an Indian citizen. So many questions have been raised on it. Such as, if Adnan Sami can be granted Indian Citizenship, why not Rahat Fateh Ali Khan? Even Shiv Sena boycotted Ghulam Aliโs concert in the month of October in the last year. In addition to this, it can be said that BJP previously opposed giving citizenship to Adnan Sami. Then what has made them take a 360 degree u-turn on this matter? Letโs put some light on it with a little bit of analytical work:
Letโs start with what Intolerant gentlemen have to say in this regard. According to them, now-a-day India has been witnessing a series of incidents from which it has been evident that India is slowly moving towards a new trend of Intolerance, such as a handful of intelligentsias were being killed and threatened for speaking up the truth through their writings, which is the deviation from the traditional trend of intolerance since time immemorial. It has made India no better than Bangladesh which has been encouraging the killings of secular bloggers. Human rights activists expressed their deepest discontents on governmentโs ignorance to the recent trends of intolerance.
But this initiative of the government has forced a many people to keep their mouth shut and hence it has been proved that this wind of intolerance has been fake. Itโs nothing just a profit and loss game in politics. Those who want to gain something by criticizing government under compulsion have played a major role in it. Oppositions do not miss this golden chance to tarnish the image of this government. The stories do not end here. Afsheen Murtaza , an Karachi resident, also gets Indian citizenship after 21 years of struggle which has paved the way for her to get united with her Indian husband Murtaza Khan. Out of joy, she thanked our PM Modi and Rajnath Singh ji for making her 21 years dream come true. This is a feeling of new belonging.
So has it not been evident that India has been tolerant? On the basis of some separate incidents, it is not wise India to tag as intolerant country. Go to any places in the world, and you will not be seeing such level of tolerance. Many people from different religious backgrounds have been living in this country since time immemorial and India has embraced them without any hesitation and prejudices. Even Hindus are considered as good and tolerant neighbours by most of the religious groups in the world. You will see a many places in India where various people profess different religious practices, live peacefully.
Hence it has been proved that the so-called white collar secular who live in ivory tower, only criticises for the sake of criticism. India has always been a tolerant nation. Otherwise, Adnan Sami and Afsheen Murtaza would not have expressed their joy for being the Indian citizen. I hope that the so-called seculars who has been alleging our country as Intolerant one, can receive a lesson from this. Criticism should conform to scholarly and reasonably standards. Negative criticism should not be encouraged.