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Respond Intelligently

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A lot of words like ‘Land Jihad’, ‘Love Jihad’, and now ‘Spit Jihad’ are being bandied about in Uttarakhand these days by politicians of the ruling party and street level ‘activists’. Promises are being made about bringing in ‘strict’ laws to curb these malpractices. Unfortunately, even as a uniform civil code, to be ‘implemented soon’, promises to grant the same rights to all citizens of the state, the ‘corrective’ measures for all the jihads may prove to be discriminatory. How much this approach matches with the vision of a future developed Uttarakhand becomes questionable.

The visuals that have emerged recently of people spitting or otherwise contaminating food at street vends and in restaurants are definitely disturbing. It is being suggested that these are not acts undertaken on an individual basis because of personal motivations, but are part of a larger, organised strategy. Muslims are being blamed as a community for this anti-social behaviour. Thus far, a distinction is being made between ‘locals’ and ‘outsiders’ and the identified perpetrators do seem to be bearing out this belief, but there has been no evidence, thus far, that it is part of some larger conspiracy. Unfortunately, all these accusations of jihad will impact adversely on the businesses and livelihoods of Muslims.

Till society works out ways to get around such issues, and economics plays its role, it becomes the responsibility of the government to ensure that the regulations being devised are intelligently formulated and properly implemented. At the present, the highest priority should be given to ensuring absolutely nobody takes the law into his or her hands. Anybody with a grievance should immediately bring it to the notice of the administration and police, even before the natural impulse to post it on social media. And, of course, the response of the authorities concerned should be prompt and effective.

Some of the remedies being suggested for keeping the food stalls and restaurant kitchens ‘kosher’ should have been in place long ago, but others are likely to push a number of people functioning at the basic level out of business. Food may become unavailable or too expensive for the common person to purchase, particularly daily wagers and such like. This will push up the cost of living overall and nobody, particularly the voters, will remember how it came about. The politicians should be wary of the consequences of what they may believe are popular decisions.