By Sushil Kutty
Lt. Gen (Rted.) Zamir-Uddin Shah, who was Deputy Army Chief and after retiring from the Army, Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University from 2011 to 2017, wants Indian Muslims to build a steely resolve to fight to survive in Modi & Yogi’s India. And quite like the Yogi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS ‘Sarsanghchalak’ Mohan Bhagwat, all of whom have urged Hindus to stick together, Lt. Gen Shah has asked Muslims to forge “unity” and not let “Kauf” take hold. “We’re in a 1857-like situation. Drive the fear away from your heart,” he told a gathering of Muslims at Aligarh Muslim University on the birth anniversary of AMU founder Sir Syed Ahmed on October 19.
Lt. Gen Shah is a veteran of many conflicts and his last army rank was that of ‘Deputy Army Chief’. “Kauf’ must have been the last thing to take hold of Gen Shah. But he wasn’t so sure of the ordinary Muslim’s courage. “Agar aap kaufzada rehenge, toh log aapke upar chad jayenge (if you remain fearful, people will climb all over you),” he told the gathering of Muslims. “Don’t let your fear show. Don’t fear anything. How do you make steel? By heating iron in the boiler. You will feel the heat, Inshallah, ‘quom joh hai steel banegi, majboot banegi’.”
Gen. Shah asked Muslims to learn from the Sikhs. “Learn from the ‘Sardars’, don’t get divided in sects, if one ‘sardar’ is attacked, all Sikhs come to his help. What is needed is ‘ilmaur unity’. Then, see what happens? Take the fear out of your heart, ‘jo kaufzada hai, wo pitega’. Get strong, mentally and these last few years of difficulties will be gone. Inshallah, our ‘quom’ and our ‘mulk’ will progress.”
Lt. Gen Shah did not miss the opportunity to fly off the handle at the RSS while asking Muslims to keep talking to the government. There are people who say Gen Shah, who is actor Naseeruddin Shah’s brother, shouldn’t have spoken as if he was exhorting troops to get ready for war. Naseeruddin Shah had allowed his “fear show” a few years ago, complaining about the “fearful atmosphere” in the country. Gen Shah on October 19 sounded like Naseeruddin Shah.
Blame it on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. General Shah had filed an intervention application in the Supreme Court on the “bulldozer action petition” filed by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, following which the top court had directed the states to put a stop to the indiscriminate use of the bulldozer against criminals while praising Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for following the law on encroachments on government land.
Latest events in Bahraich, however, show people haven’t read the Supreme Court order correctly. ‘Bulldozer Baba Yogi Adityanath’ wasn’t about to put on hold ‘bulldozer action’. Luckily, for the “killers” of Ram Gopal Mishra, the Allahabad High Court stayed the Bahraich administration’s order to remove encroachments in the Maharajganj locality of Bahraich where Mishra was lynched.
But even this hasn’t softened the blow for Lt. Gen Zamir-Uddin Shah, who is convinced that a 1857-like situation prevails in the India of Modi & Yogi. Lt. Gen Shah is neither riffraff nor rabble-rouser. He is ‘military’. He has led fighting men. Disciplined and ordered troops and officers. Soldiers accustomed to take orders and follow orders. Gen. Shah knows the workings of the Indian Army and is steeped in the knowledge of India’s armed forces. Lt. Gen Shah was an “officer and a gentleman” in the Army in which he commanded troops of all religions.
And here he’s asking “his quom” to develop fighting qualities and abilities to tackle a 1857-like situation. He’s asking fellow Muslims to forge unity like forging steel from iron. And he was addressing a gathering of Muslims in the campus of the university of which he was Vice Chancellor!
Those who have watched John Travolta’s ‘Saturday Night Fever’ will remember emerging from cinema halls and every one of them “stepping” like Travolta in the movie. Similarly, those emerging from AMU on October 19 after Gen Shah’s pep-talk must have felt like Sylvester Stallone in the movie ‘Rambo’. Gen Shah’s words were electrifying for all Muslims who saw and heard him speaking at AMU and those who looked at the You-Tube clip.
Gen Shah sounded like he was in the Battle of Panipat, 1526. Gen Shah mentioned “1857, India’s First War of Independence” and he forgot that ‘1857’ was fought by both Hindu rulers and the Mughal Emperor against the common enemy ‘East India Company’.
Naseeruddin is an actor and actors are prone to improvise, which is the last thing generals would do. The years after 2014 didn’t see Armageddon. Lynching yes, of Muslims, but also of the odd Hindu. And India got the moniker ‘Lynchistan’, too. But if Gen. Zamir-Uddin Shah says “it is 1857”, he has forgotten 1947 and the train loads of corpses, people caught in the worst ever massacres in human history. Gen Shah also forgot ‘Direct Action Day’. Lastly, since when did Gen Zamir-Uddin Shah (VSM, Sena Medal, PVSM) become a General in the Mughal army? (IPA Service)
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