<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every year the pattern returns like clockwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hindu festivals approach and the atmosphere changes overnight.
Suddenly noise limits are taken very seriously.
Permissions become harder to get.
Police deployment increases.
Television debates begin counting decibels as if the nation\u2019s survival depends on it.
Newspapers fill with editorials about \u201crestraint,\u201d \u201csensitivity,\u201d and \u201cresponsible celebration.\u201d
Processions are treated as potential flashpoints.
Any small incident is magnified into a national crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now look at other festivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same urgency is often missing.
Loudspeakers run late into the night with far less outrage.
Processions occupy roads and the response is softer.
The moral lectures decrease.
The administrative pressure eases.
The same voices that demand silence from one side fall unusually quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not a coincidence.
This is a repeated, visible double standard that has gone on for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diwali and the Annual Lectures<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Take Diwali. Yet the same intensity is rarely seen when other celebrations involve equal or greater noise, smoke, and public occupation of space. The selective memory is obvious. The lectures arrive on schedule only for one community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holi Under Supervision<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Holi brings its own set of instructions. The festival of colour is placed under cultural watch. People are told how to celebrate correctly, how much is too much, and when they should stop. The tone is not guidance. It is supervision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Processions Treated as Problems<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti processions are frequently framed as law and order problems before they even begin. When clashes happen, the procession itself is quickly blamed as \u201cprovocative.\u201d The assumption is ready: the Hindu procession must have caused the trouble. The other side\u2019s role is softened or explained away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ganesh Chaturthi immersions face the same management style. Routes are controlled, timings are fixed, and the coverage remains cautious and often critical. The festival is treated as something that must be carefully contained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Soft Handling of Others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now compare this with the handling of other religious events in many of the same cities. One set of festivals is treated as something that must be carefully managed and morally supervised. Loudspeakers, road occupation, and large gatherings that would attract immediate criticism during a Hindu festival often receive milder reactions when they belong to someone else. The rules exist. Their application does not remain equal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This Is Not Neutrality<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not equal application of rules. The justification is always ready and always the same. But sensitivity that travels mostly in one direction stops being sensitivity. It becomes a political arrangement. The majority community is expected to keep adjusting, keep reducing, keep apologising for its own joy. Others are given more room to assert themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This arrangement has been normalised for so long that many no longer even notice it. They have started treating the extra scrutiny on Hindu festivals as natural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Message People Receive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the years this creates a clear and damaging message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hindu festivals require extra justification. People are not blind. The resentment that grows from this is not sudden. It is the result of years of watching the same imbalance repeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Hierarchy of Festivals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A society cannot run indefinitely on this imbalance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If noise rules exist, they must apply to every festival without exception. What we have instead is a hierarchy of festivals. The language of secularism is used to defend this arrangement, but the outcome is not neutrality. The outcome is managed restraint of the majority. One community is asked to keep making itself smaller so that the peace can be maintained on unequal terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why the Resentment Keeps Growing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why the resentment keeps growing and will continue to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not because Hindus refuse to share public space. Festivals are not minor private events. They are the living breath of a culture. They are how a civilisation remembers itself in public. When one culture\u2019s celebrations are repeatedly treated as inconvenient, noisy, or potentially dangerous while others are protected and accommodated, the civilisation receives the message clearly. It is being asked to make itself smaller year after year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A people can accept this for some time. The Only Fair Demand<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A confident society does not accept this arrangement as permanent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Equal rules. Anything less is not fairness. And more people have stopped pretending not to notice. Every year the pattern returns like clockwork. Hindu festivals approach and the atmosphere changes overnight.Suddenly noise limits are taken very seriously.Permissions become harder to get.Police deployment increases.Television debates begin counting decibels as if the nation\u2019s survival depends on it.Newspapers fill with editorials about \u201crestraint,\u201d \u201csensitivity,\u201d and \u201cresponsible celebration.\u201dProcessions are treated as potential flashpoints.Any small incident […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amareshrai.com\/bharat-sandesh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amareshrai.com\/bharat-sandesh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amareshrai.com\/bharat-sandesh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amareshrai.com\/bharat-sandesh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amareshrai.com\/bharat-sandesh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amareshrai.com\/bharat-sandesh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250,"href":"https:\/\/amareshrai.com\/bharat-sandesh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amareshrai.com\/bharat-sandesh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amareshrai.com\/bharat-sandesh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amareshrai.com\/bharat-sandesh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
For weeks beforehand the air fills with warnings about pollution, animal safety, health hazards, and \u201cconscious celebration.\u201d Crackers become a moral crime. People are told to cut short their joy for the greater good. Children are made to feel guilty for lighting a sparkler. The festival of lights is placed under permanent supervision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Water wastage.
\u201cForced\u201d colour.
Public nuisance.
Women\u2019s safety concerns that somehow become louder only around this festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Routes are restricted.
Permissions are delayed or loaded with conditions.
Heavy police arrangements are made as if a riot is expected.
Media coverage often carries an undercurrent of suspicion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The difference in tone, urgency, and administrative pressure is difficult to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another set is treated as normal public life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is selective scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSensitivity of the area.\u201d
\u201cPast incidents.\u201d
\u201cNeed to maintain harmony.\u201d
\u201cComposite culture.\u201d
\u201cAvoiding tension.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They need to prove in advance that they will remain orderly.
They must accept tighter controls as normal.
Other celebrations are given the benefit of normalcy and the benefit of doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They see which festivals attract moral lectures and which ones do not.
They see which processions are treated as potential problems and which ones are accommodated with less friction.
They see which community is told to be careful with its joy and which community\u2019s joy is treated as natural and protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If processions need regulation, the standard should be the same for everyone.
If public space is shared, no community should feel it has permanent priority while another feels it is under permanent watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One side is placed under special observation and moral pressure.
The other side receives lighter handling and greater room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is not because they want to dominate.
It is because they are tired of being the only ones asked to keep reducing their presence, their volume, and their visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They cannot accept it forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Equal scrutiny.
Equal dignity.
Equal right to celebrate without special suspicion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a comfortable system of selective pressure that has gone on far too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They are done accepting that their festivals must always come with extra conditions while others do not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"