As the two strong men of the Indian politics-Narendra Modi and Amit Shah set about the uncharted path of correcting the historical mistakes one by one, some closet Islamists are having a hard time reconciling with this new reality. The abrogation of Article 370, enactment of CAA and the imminent implementation of NRC and NPR have forced many left-liberal ‘intellectuals’ to drop their veneer of secularism and reveal their subterranean communalism.
Shehla Rashid, the freelance protestor-turned-politician-turned-armed chair critic had had a delirious breakdown on Twitter after several people rubbished the predominantly Muslim overtones of the anti-CAA protests.
In a series of tweets, Shehla had exposed the meticulously cultivated pretence floated by the liberals that the anti-CAA protest was a mass movement, and not just a Muslim-centric agitation. Shehla asserted that the anti-CAA protests were led and sustained by Muslims and the Muslims paid with blood for that.
In line with her assertions, Shehla posted another tweet stating that if liberals want to be an ally of Muslims then they should dump the charade of Dalit-Muslim unity and start demanding a cut in SC reservations for Dalit Muslims. Shehla alleged that the deprivation of Muslims from the reservations under SC category is “faith-based discrimination against Muslims by the Indian state”.
You want to be an ally? Sure!
Please start by demanding that Dalit Muslims get reservation under the SC category – an instance of faith-based discrimination against Muslims by the Indian state.
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) December 30, 2019
With this demand, it appears that Shehla Rashid has delivered the final nail in the coffin for the Dalit-Muslim Unity Project. She is now advocating for the invasion of Muslims into benefits reserved for the Dalit community. She claims ‘Dalit Muslims’ should be granted the opportunity to receive benefits under reservations for the Dalit Community.”
In reality, there is nothing called Dalit Muslims. As ‘Eminent Historians’ keep telling us, Caste is intrinsic to only the Hindu faith and the egalitarian nature of Islam is what forced many to convert in order to escape the oppressive caste system. Therefore, people cannot turn around now and claim that caste is a feature of the Muslim community too, nor can they feign victimhood accusing the Indian state of faith-based discrimination.
In essence, Shehla Rashid’s demands mean that Dalits will now have to sacrifice their share of reservations and accommodate Muslims in order to achieve Dalit-Muslim Unity. It also means that Shehla had realised that the drawbacks of promoting the Dalit-Muslim Unity project has far outweighed the theoretical benefits it may have yielded. It has dawned upon Shehla that Modi and Shah cannot be stopped by continuing the same banal rhetoric of Dalit-Muslim unity. It is, perhaps, this sobering realisation that has made Shehla to effectively put to rest the farce of Dalit-Muslim unity and demand a share into the privileges currently reserved for Dalits only.
