Mixing faith and abuse

Celebrating the Hindu festival of Ram Navami, teenage girls in disturbingly deep maroon lipstick shake their unbound hair and still-developing bodies frenetically to disco beats and provocative lyrics, Bharat mein jo desh drohi hain, unki ma ka *********.

- ANUJA CHAUHAN

They triumphantly justify this lyrics by saying it is abusive only for traitors—and if Muslims are offended by it, then QED, they are traitors! It is bhakt math at its finest, and seems to completely miss the rather major point that chanting such abuses—especially on the day marking Lord Ram’s birth, before his idol, while waving a sacred saffron flag—is not just crude, but deeply disrespectful, even blasphemous.

Having said that, they are in powerful company. Donald Trump, recently, deployed expletives on a religious note of his own—“Open the f***ing strait, you crazy b****rds. Praise be to Allah.” I guess he was hoping to sound frightening, masterful and tough, but I am not very sure that landed.