Comparisons are odious. They are dangerous too. What Congress leader Salman Khurshid did in his new book ‘Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationalism In Our Times’ is no exception. He compared the Hindutva radicals with ISIS and Boko Haram. It was a sure recipe for disaster. And that is exactly what happened when a gang of hooligans reached his house at Nainital in Uttarakhand, fired at the structure and tried to burn it down. Fortunately, nobody was in the house. Otherwise, anything could have happened. The point to be noted is that the arsonists have proved Khurshid's own theory.
Khurshid is no ordinary person. He is a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court and has held the post of minister of state for external affairs. Yet, that could not save his house from saffron flag-wielding criminals. As mentioned, few would agree with his comparison. There are some fringe elements in the Sangh Parivar against whom charges of having organised terrorist attacks on mosques and trains exist but that does not entitle Khurshid to compare Boko Haram and the IS with the constituents of the Sangh Parivar. They are as distinct as chalk and cheese, though they may have the same colour.
As the title of the book ‘Sunrise over Ayodhya’ suggests, Khurshid welcomes the Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya, not because it represents a correct interpretation of the facts presented to the court but because it is pragmatic. He is the one who does not fight shy of visiting a Shankaracharya to seek his blessings. He believes in multiculturalism which is the real strength of the country. To put it differently, he does not see Hinduism and Hindutva as two sides of the same coin. While the one is all-inclusive, the other is all-exclusive.
It is not necessary to let an author or a writer get away with his questionable theories and conclusions. He needs to be challenged in the form of articles, essays, debates and books. Those who believe in Hindutva should be able to pick holes in Khurshid’s book and expose the hollowness of his arguments. But to incite the bigoted to go to his house and fire indiscriminately at it is to behave like hotheads. The might of the law of the land is demonstrated when those who take the law into their own hands are punished and sent to jail.
