By Fahad Hashmi and Iquebal Hussain for TwoCircles.net,
Professor Azmat Hussain Khan is secretary of Inter Faith Forum at Bodh Gaya and has been active in promoting understanding among different religions. IFF is a common platform of people representing Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism.
After the recent incident of, he is busy day in day out in restoring peace and normalcy there. Prof Khan spoke with Fahad Hashmi and Iquebal Hussain, Excerpts:
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Professor Azmat Hussain Khan
Attacking religious places and pilgrimages have become ‘favourite’ targets of terrorists. Akshardham temple, Ajmer Sharif, several churches and scores of other such places have been attacked in India in the recent past. It is really sad that terrorists attacked Mahabodhi Temple this time. How do you see this?
The members of ‘Inter Faith Forum’ belonging to different religions and faiths feel this attack as unfortunate and shocking. It is a deliberate attempt to destroy integrity, harmony and sacredness of this place. We condemn this terrorist attack, and see it an attack on humanity. It is our belief that the sole purpose is to create an environment to gain political objectives and defame a particular community. Terrorists do not belong to any religion.
Some people are trying to link this serial blast as a repercussion of treatments meted out to Rohingya Muslims recently in Myanmar. Your thoughts.
It is wrong to say so. There is no need to jump on the conclusion as NIA team has already arrived here. Please let this investigating agency come up with its findings.
We live in Gaya, and have found the milieu pretty well for people of different religious persuasion. There is a mosque, a Muslim graveyard and temples around Mahabodhi Temple. In a sense this place quintessentially epitomises a multicultural environment where people from different religions live harmoniously. Is this blast going to cause any harm to this harmony?
It is a fact that Mahabodhi Mahavihara is the holy place of Buddhists. However, it is equally respected and being revered by people of all religions. We regularly conduct inter-religious discussions, and conferences are also being held. Over the time such endeavours have helped in adding peace, harmony and compassions to this place. Muslim graveyard, mosque, Jagganath temple, Matth and Samanwaya Ashram are dotted just adjacent to this temple. This unfortunate blast will not cause any major harm to serenity and harmony of the place as people will use their own discretion. It has been my observation about this place that the understanding residents have strong will to maintain harmony and live peacefully on this land of Buddha. Therefore love, compassion and fraternity will prevail, and people will not get carried away by incendiary speeches of politicians.
Such incidents creates chasm between communities, and has the potential of tearing social fabric apart of any particular place. What is your observation on this?
These incidents create confusion, misunderstanding and mistrust between communities. As a consequence such attacks has the potential to trigger off inter community clash. To my mind this attack was meant to destroy peace here.
News has it that some Hindu priests are relentlessly trying to infiltrate this sanctum sanctorum in order to place Hindu idols. And there has also been a thrust to appropriate Buddha as a Hindu god and hence Bodhi Temple as a Hindu temple. What is the solution? Would you like to seek government’s help in settling this constructed dispute?
As per statutory provision and government Act, it is managed by nine members. Four members belong to the Buddhist community and remaining five are from the Hindu community including the District Magistrate. In case the D.M is a non-Hindu then any senior member of the community will act as the chairperson of the B.T.M.C. However there are some disputes regarding the governing body. Buddhists are struggling legal battle to get a full control of the management of B.T.M.C while a particular segment of the Hindu community consider Buddha as the ninth avatar of Vishnu. I am not in a position to comment on this issue of Bodhi temple as Hindu temple as it will fetch confusion, misunderstanding and dispute.
There is news in the media that Intelligence Bureau had some information beforehand regarding this blast. Your thoughts on this negligence on the part of IB.
It is true that IB got information related to the blast in advance, and the information was passed to the government of Bihar and managing committee of B.T.M.C. Some additional internal security arrangements were also made. However, because of administrative lapses and poorly trained security personnel, terrorists were successful in planting bombs on the hallowed precincts of the Temple. We cannot blame IB as this unfortunate incident was a result of inadequate security arrangement.
Parliamentary election 2014 is round the corner and political parties have started cashing in on this incident. What’s your reaction?
Seeing the parliamentary election 2014, opposition parties have started exploiting the situation. Some parties are also trying to give it a communal angle to mobilise communities for their political benefits which is disgusting, unfair and morally untenable. To add to this, it is a sad commentary on our politicians’ discretion.
Against this backdrop, can we have your message for the people of Bodh Gaya and Gaya in particular, and for the International community in general?
We are human beings first and compassion is the essence of all religions. So we should not let this compassion turned into hatred against any community. It is time to be aware of religio-political thugs who are always in search of such incidents to unleash hatred and squeeze benefits out of it. On behalf of the Inter Faith Forum, it is my humble plea not to lose patience as well as compassion. We need to stand together in this time of crisis.
(Fahad Hashmi is pursuing MPhil from DSE, University of Delhi, and Iquebal Hussain teaches in a government school in Delhi.)