This needs to be said, and no one seems to be saying it.
Imagine a bad Indian Muslim. A really bad one.
He is illiterate, has multiple wives and many children, keeps a beard, and wears a skull cap and short trousers that expose his ankles. He looks up to all things Arab for lineage, which even he knows is fake, but he imitates and aspires for it anyway.
More? OK.
He earns his livelihood doing dodgy menial labour (and probably petty crimes). He is unwashed, unlettered, uncultured. He sends his children to the madrasa, and keeps the womenfolk in burqa, the misogynist that he is.
Even more? Fine.
He encroaches on public property, hates Hindus, does not trust authority, abuses the police, games the system, supports communal politicians, believes that Islam and Islamic teachings and the Ummah are bigger and higher priority than Indians and the Constitution, reads and believes only Urdu news and religious leaders, forces his religion and religious views on others, and is anti-science.
Enough? No? OK.
He uses secularism as a shield to hide behind, hankers for reservations while believing that his ancestors once ruled these dirty-smelling Hindus, holds Aurangzeb as a hero, and takes pride that the Khans rule Bollywood, or when a Muslim cricketer plays well.
Worse? Let’s see.
How about he’s a secessionist and wants Kashmir to secede because, Muslims? He sees Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants as his kin. He wants to find a Hindu woman to love so he can convert her to Islam and make her pregnant. He secretly longs to visit Pakistan. He celebrates the knife attack on Salman Rushdie.
Now, take this Muslim. This horrible specimen of humankind. This undeserving ward of Mother India. This man who can only be despised. And know something: HE IS STILL AN INDIAN. HE HAS A RIGHT TO EVERY PROMISE MADE BY THE PREAMBLE. HE CAN CLAIM OWNERSHIP OF EVERY RESOURCE AVAILABLE TO ANY INDIAN. HE DESERVES EVERY PROTECTION THE CONSTITUTION OFFERS HIM AS A CITIZEN. JUST LIKE YOU.
We need to stop being polite to Right-Wing bigots and fall for the dichotomy of there being ‘good Muslims’ who deserve their Indianness since they have earned it, and ‘bad Muslims’ who need to prove they deserve to be called Indian. It’s a fallacy to believe that Muslims must qualify for citizenship using criteria applicable only for them (which is indeed the root of my opposition to the CAA).
Think about it. If a horrible Hindu man, even someone who rapes & kills kids in temples, someone who uses the tricolour to welcome rapists on parole, someone who is caught spying for Pakistan because he wanted to see bobs and vagene online, someone who wishes death to our democracy, someone who dreams of the Parliament being dissolved and a Hindu King being anointed, someone who demands that we invade other countries and amalgamate their lands and people into ours to create ‘Akhand Bharat’, someone who is involved in bombing civilians, someone who started and participated in riots and was proud to have cut open pregnant women’s wombs and killed foetuses, someone who, as a Chief Minister, sat quietly and allowed the killings to continue, someone who killed the Mahatma, no less, or the sitting Prime Minister in full public view can all be considered Indians and have the right to the full protection of the law and the Constitution of India, why cannot a horrible Muslim man? Or do we hate him purely for being Muslim and not really for all the reasons we seem to ascribe to justify our irrational fear?
Remember, we may not like him. And justifiably so. But likeability is not a criteria for Indian citizenship. Yet. And we have no right to take away his right to be Indian. Just like we have no right to take away the rights of a horrible Hindu, a horrible Sikh, a horrible Jain, a horrible Christian, a horrible Buddhist, a horrible Parsi, or a horrible atheist, regardless of how despicable their personalities, utterances, or actions. A bad Indian is still an Indian.
The law may prosecute them, punish them, even hang them till death for their (proven) crimes. But we must understand that the law that we would use to do so flows from the Indian Constitution, over which they have an equal right as the most righteous of Indians.
If you do not understand this intuitively, you need to question your understanding of a nation-state, citizenship, democracy, and indeed the very idea of India.
