Ajay Maken - Iftar at Narela with
Buta Singh Ji organised by the local @DelhiPCC workers - Spirit of togetherness
& brotherhood!
Ajay Maken - Thanks
@ArvindKejriwal for your Iftar invite! Unable to make it because of prefixed
Iftar with Congressmen in Narela.
Derek O'Brien - Always an honour
to represent @MamataOfficial My first Iftar outside Kolkata. Gracious host
@ArvindKejriwal
Aam Aadmi Party retweeted - High
profile iftar party hosted by Delhi CM Kejriwal. Pak HC, vice president, LG
Jung JDU and TMC.
These tweets are yet another
example of how politics and religion have become so entangled in our country.
A devout Muslim breaks his daily
fast in the holy month of Ramadan (Ramzan) at every sunset and Iftar has been a
social event ever since the beginning. At
every evening, in every locality, Muslims come together, sit together and break
their religious observance of the day. And it has been a common sight ever
since childhood. And it happens so, in every childhood, in every generation.
In India, where politics took
religious overtures very early, the social event has been turned into yet another
spectacle of political appeasement.
Every political party has been
doing it, including the Bhartiya Janata Party. In a country where politics
draws its sanctity heavily from religion, caste and their appeasement, politicians
and political parties in every part of the country organize special Iftar
parties to show how politically involved they are with the community. And
leaders and opinion leaders of Muslims do the same.
And since it is the season again,
as Eid is expected to be July 18 (or based on Moon sighting), they are on the
job again. Yes, elections do carry politicised, contextualized and localized calculations
and as Bihar polls are just two months away, everyone is busy promoting
political credentials on their 'self conceived and self-propaganda' lines.
So, even if the regular stuff in
this Eid is on, like the daily festivities related to the daily Iftar parties,
those shops in Muslim localities selling food items to satisfy appetites after
a tough day of fast, and Salman Khan's annual movie release on Eid, political
parties are competing each other in attending and organizing Iftar parties to
lure voters.
And after 'mainstreaming' of the
Aam Aadmi Party, it too has joined the bandwagon. Though the party claimed to
be a party with a difference, unlike any, it ultimately, and within three years
only, joined similar ranks. These tweets and many of its acts after forming the
government again in this February confirm this.
Arvind Kejriwal today hosted an
Iftar party which was attended by many political heavyweights including Najeeb
Jung, Delhi's Lieutenant-Governor , with whom Kejriwal is engaged in bitter
power struggle and Pakistan's High Commissioner Abdul Basit. It was logical to
expect Ajay Maken's and the BJP's leadership's absence there. Kejriwal's deputy
Manish Sisodia was seen attending Iftar party of J&K chief minister Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed where no central BJP leader was present.
Sonia Gandhi is hosting Congress'
Iftar party tomorrow and big political names, including many chief ministers
(especially of non-BJP states), trying to send out an impression that Congress
leads the anti-BJP front (or the secular front). But Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu
Prasad Yadav and Mamata Banarjee are not going to be there. Also, Lalu is holding
his own Iftar party tomorrow, in Patna, whereas Nitish Kumar, Bihar's chief
minister and Lalu's alliance member, is flying to Delhi to attend Sonia's.
And while the BJP has denied that
Narendra Modi will hold an Iftar party in Srinagar during Eid, the party has
organized Iftar parties at state levels - like it did in West Bengal. This is
in addition to the Iftar parties held by its allies in the National Democratic
Alliance.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
