Zaheer Zaidi
“Cleanliness is next to Godliness” is an age old adage. Cleanliness is a sine qua non in Islam. We are not permitted to offer prayers (Namaz), 5 times a day, without cleaning ourselves first (Wuzoo). Also, after every act of urination, water is used to clean ourselves. This perhaps has no parallel in any other religion.
Gandhiji was a great protagonist of cleanliness and an ardent follower himself. He used to clean his toilet himself and wanted others to do the same, instead of taking the services of a sweeper. To him, sweepers were human being are like others. Interestingly, Holy Quran Says that no one is superior by virtue of his birth in a particular tribe, community or clan (Hujarat:13). In fact, Gandhi ji believed in equal rights to every Indian, irrespective of his caste creed & religion. It may be appreciated that Schedule castes are untouchables in Hindu Dharam so much so that In South India, they were forced to move with a bell round their necks, like animals, because the Brahmins did not want to look even at their shadows on the earth. Further, there are different strata among Scheduled castes themselves with the sweepers at the lowest. Gandhiji exhorted sweepers not to feel inferior to others. He called them “Harijans” meaning “people of God”.
It is a very prudent decision and commendable too that Narendra Modi has launched the cleanliness drive on 2nd Oct, coinciding with the birth day of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi, besides his penchant for cleanliness, is considered veritably an icon of Non-violence too. Followers of Gandhiji have to adopt his principle of Non-violence and honestly in letter and spirit. Gandhi ji spread the message of peace, fraternity and equal rights for every citizen of India. There was no discrimination on the basis of caste, community and religion in his ideology. Unfortunately, “Sangh Parivar” was formed just to oppose Gandhiji’s ideology. Maha Sabha was formed immediately after his arrival at Mumbai in 1915. RSS followed the suit. Both RSS and Maha Sabha had common agenda i.e. to oppose the liberal policies of Mahatma Gandhi. They preferred partition to sharing power with the Muslim and supported the British against Bapu. A number of infructuous attempts were made on his life before 1947 before he was finally assassinated. RSS rejoiced and distributed sweets over this most unfortunate event of our country. Sardar Patel got Golwakar arrested and banned the RSS. Golwakar was released after he tendered written apologies and an assurance of not disturbing peace. Ironically, RSS is still pursuing the policy of dividing Indians in the name religion and Doordarshan was permitted to live-telecast the speech of Dr. Mohan Bhagwat, RSS chief.
Taking cue from Gandhiji, Modi has adopted cleanliness as National agenda. However, to do a Gandhi, he has to emulate him in entirety in respect of Gandhiji’s other traits and characteristics including Non-violence. Ideology of RSS, is to spread hatred and divide Indians in the name of religion. Modi should not ride two boats sailing in opposite directions. He is committed for development. Nation can prosper and progress if we stand united. Sangh Pariwar is to be reined tightly. Modi is competent enough to do it. Sangh Parivar cannot take the credit of 2014 victory. In fact Congress has given almost a walk over. They were not able to face Voters. Also Communalism has proved counter productive, in recent by elections.
During freedom movement we were Indian first, Hindu or Muslim afterwards. Muslim participated in freedom movement and have proved their loyalty by offering sacrifices with life to the Nation time and again. Islam enjoins sacrifice. Lesson of sacrifice may be taken from Eidul Zoha, the festival, we celebrated recently. It reminds us of the great and unparallel sacrifice of two Prophets, Hazrat Ibrahim and his son Hazrat Ismail.

I would reiterate that loyalty to the Nation is part of our faith. We are proud of our Indian Nationality. We took equal part in freedom movement (RSS did otherwise and supported the British!). While Buddhists living in any part of World visit Bodh Gaya, Sarnath etc and the Hindus living in any part of World are welcome to take holy dip in Ganga or to visit any other holy shrine, why should the Muslims not crave to visit holy shrines in Saudi Arab, Iraq or any other part of World? Medina, Mecca, Najaf, Karbala etc are our important holy places. No one should raise objection if we visit our holy shrines. None can doubt our National ethos and values if we visit our holy shrines located out of India. Both are different and mutually exclusive.
“Hindi hain hum, watan hai Hindostan Hamara”

Hastakshep