So our jolly, playfully positive and fun-loving Lord Ganesh finds himself embroiled in the ideological war ofhindutva [idéologie fondamentaliste défendant l’idée d’une suprématie et d’une nation hindoues]. After Rama, it’s his turn [en avril, la fête hindoue qui célèbre la naissance de Rama a été marquée par des violences contre les musulmans]. It would be more accurate to say that the lord is used as a screen. Behind him are forked tongues who know that they still cannot say outright that they wish to seize land and property from Muslims.
Why can’t they declare it and do it openly? Even if these people are today almost everywhere at the controls [le BJP, parti nationaliste hindou de Narendra Modi, est au pouvoir en Inde depuis 2014] and that the police and other state institutions will invent reasons to justify their actions? This can be explained, among other things, by the fact that the judiciary is not yet completely dead. The notion of justice has not completely disappeared, as we saw on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi [fête de Ganesh, célébrée cette année le 2 septembre].
On August 30, three judges of the Supreme Court sat in extraordinary session until late in the evening. And this because the government of Karnataka [lui aussi dirigé par le BJP] wanted to allow the pandal [des constructions éphémères] of Ganesh at the site of Idgah, in Bangalore, traditionally used by Muslims for prayers during particular festivals.
The Idgah committee first appealed to the Karnataka High Court to stop the government from doing so. The site is owned by Muslims and only Muslim festivals have been held here for the past two centuries. A single member of the Karnataka High Court handling the case had refused to allow the state government to hold the event at the venue. The Karnataka authorities therefore appealed this decision.
In the name of which fraternity?
An outside observer could only wonder what is the interest of the government of Karnataka in this matter. Why is he so keen on using this specific site for the Ganesh festival? Of course, anyone who has followed India for eight years will not be surprised. This is completely in line with the behavior of the government of Karnataka: not so long ago [en février]he has