Yes Burka Kills and Trishul Doesn’t - II

Irena Akbar in the rejoinder article “Illiberals Sadly” on 24 March writes “Yes, the burka is not a Trishul. Like a phone is not a fridge. An object is best defined by its use. A burka is to be worn; its appearance might cause contempt, or even fear, among some but it doesn’t kill. A Trishul, like all weapons, is designed to kill, to intimidate the enemy, and was used by Hindu deities to defeat evil forces. In times of hyper-Hindutva, the Trishul is used by grassroots BJP workers to exert Hindu dominance over the Muslim enemy. Which is why there is frequent news of motorcycle-borne youth with tilaks on their foreheads and saffron flags in their hands brandishing trishuls in Muslim-majority areas of small towns of the country.”

I agree with her line “An object is best defined by its use”. And I decided to look at the use of Burka. Following is a small sample of what I found on a quick search on the web

• Burqa-clad Taliban suicide bomber targets Nato in Afghanistan, Georgian soldier and two Afghan civilians killed after suicide bomber dressed as woman rams motorbike into a convoy

• A man disguised as a woman wearing burqa kills 15 in Chad capital bomb attack.

And there are hundreds of reports about both men and women committing theft wearing a burka. No wonder several countries have banned the burka.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali says “Expecting half of humanity to go around covered in black sacks is just evil sexism. The burqa that covers the face... that is just like the ISIS flag.”

So fair and square it is settled that apart from being a symbol of slavery, burka helps in theft and yes, it does kill.

Now let’s look at Trishul. As per the author “Trishul was used by Hindu deities to defeat evil forces. In times of hyper-Hindutva, the Trishul is used by grassroots BJP workers to exert Hindu dominance over the Muslim enemy. Which is why there is frequent news of motorcycle-borne youth with tilaks on their foreheads and saffron flags in their hands brandishing trishuls in Muslim-majority areas of small towns of the country”

Irena Akbar has not been able to sight a single instance of killing by Trishul. (but who has heard of editorial standards at Indian Express?) Neither when Muslim painter M F Hussain painted derogatory images of Hindu gods and goddesses, nor when Muslim film artist like Amir Khan show a caricature of Lord Shiva with Trishul in his hand, Trishul was used to kill anyone.

Trishul was not used even when innocent Sri Jayendra Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi was illegally arrested on the Dipawali night, while burka-clad women pelting stone on security forces and saving terrorists is a regular sight in India.

Trishul was not used even when there was a bomb blast in Sankat Mochan Mandir nor is it used when scores of Hindu girls are raped and murdered in the disguise of love jihad.

Irena Akbar advocates for women wearing a burka, such are the liberals of India and liberal standards of Indian Express. While women in Islamic countries are discarding burka.

Irena Akbar also claims that Muslims are denied flat in Mumbai. Again a web check gave me this “A Woman Claimed She Did Not Get A House Because She Was A Muslim. Turned Out To Be A Lie!

By the way, lying is not limited to India. The web search resulted in a lot of news about Muslims women lying. Following is an example of the same:

An 18-year-old Muslim woman who claimed that three men attacked her on a Manhattan subway this month and tried to pull off her hijab was charged on Wednesday with filing a false report, the police said. Ms Seweid, of New Hyde Park on Long Island, had told the police that three white men screaming “Donald Trump!” attacked her on Dec. 1 on an uptown No. 6 train at East 23rd Street. Police said had made it up to get attention.

I could not find a single example of “frequent news of motorcycle-borne youth with tilaks on their foreheads and saffron flags in their hands brandishing trishuls in Muslim-majority areas of small towns of the country.”

What’s sad is authors with Hindu sounding names didn’t write a single line of objection against the demonization of Trishul without a shred of evidence. The comparison was started by a so-called historian and other historian objected to the fact that comparison of burka, symbol of slavery with Trishul, object of worship was being unfair to the burka. Thus making Trishul look smaller in front of the burka.

This sad state of affair of Hindu leadership is reflected in all walks of life. Mani Shankar Aiyer in his process of lynching Guha highlights how useless Hindu political leaders in Congress are. He writes “the very top echelon of the Congress High Command sparkles with Muslim leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel, Christians like AK Antony and Oscar Fernandes, and the Sikh in the party's diadem, Dr Manmohan Singh. The only Congress leader to actually win a state assembly election on his own in recent times has been another Sikh, Amarinder Singh.”

Ramachandra Guha calls himself a historian and does not know even know the significance of his name. Lord Rama was a Shiva worshipper, and Trishul is identified with Shiva. No wonder he has been killed by a burka, intellectually. And yes, burka does kill.