“Is nothing sacred anymore?” asked an exasperated Salman Rushdie on seeing Muslim fanatics burning copies of his allegedly blasphemous novel The Satanic Verses on the streets of Birmingham and Manchester all those years ago. Today, as a wave of sectarian culture wars sweep India it is pertinent to pose the same question to their cheerleaders who believe that anything is a legitimate weapon in an obsessive pursuit of communal politics. Even human tragedies are seen as fair game.
In recent weeks, attempts have been made to communalise the gruesome murder of Shraddha Walkar allegedly by her Muslim live-in partner, Aftab Amin Poonawala; and the shocking suicide by TV actor Tunisha Sharma after her relationship with her Muslim co-actor and boyfriend, Sheezan Khan broke down.
