Ram Navami organisers asked to change routes outside mosques: How courts are legitimising ‘Muslim area’ argument instead of fighting street veto

The Bombay HC on April 15 seemingly legitimised the existence of minority ghettos in the nation, where the mere existence of Hindus exercising their right to worship is a potential trigger for violence and an affront to the Muslim community. The Calcutta HC also granted ‘conditional permission’ for the Ram Navami procession in the ‘sensitive’ Howrah region, which saw large-scale violence last year when a raft of Islamists attacked Hindu devotees participating in the Ram Navami Shobha Yatra. The fact that Hindus have to seek permission from courts to carry out processions on their festivals lest they face attacks from the members of the barbaric cult bent on destroying the idolators and the courts offering “conditional permission” for the same encapsulates the sorry state of ‘secularism’ in the country, where the burden of maintaining the secular fabric of the country is solely the responsibility of Hindus while the other side can continue to indulge in street violence. From Vadodara in Gujarat to Howrah in West Bengal, from Mumbai to Sambhaji Nagar, cities and towns across the length and breadth of the country were smouldering with the fire of religious zealotry last year as Islamists attacked Ram Navami processions while they were traversing through Muslim-majority regions or it has been referred to as ‘Muslim areas’. More than 75 years later, the left-leaning intellectual class and, worryingly, the courts Instead of humouring Islamists, which will only whet their appetite for coming up with another set of unreasonable demands and push the envelope further, the courts must order the police to ensure law and order are maintained in whichever areas the Ram Navami procession chooses to travel, rather than applying the responsibility on the victims and blaming them for the ensuing violence and rioting.