Is BJP raking up Hindu-Muslim debate to avoid talking about farmers, jobs, rapes?

The BJP will definitely not like to be cornered by the Opposition, so beforehand it has once again "invented" the Hindu-Muslim debate.

New Delhi, July 17: Call it tragedy or mockery of secular and democratic ethos of the country, instead of addressing the woes of the people, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre is busy attacking the main opposition party, the Congress, over its stand on the Muslim community.

While the nation is reeling under various problems, the ruling BJP government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have enough time to rake up the dreaded Hindu-Muslim debate ahead of the all-important monsoon session of Parliament which is all set to start from Wednesday (July 18).

After an Urdu daily reported that Congress president Rahul Gandhi, during his recent meeting with Muslim intellectuals, called the Congress a "Muslim party", since then the BJP has been attacking its main rival.

From Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman to PM Modi, all are demanding answers from the Congress chief on his party's stand on the Muslims. The BJP top leadership has also accused the Congress of polarising the country on religious grounds ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, scheduled in April/May next year.

The 'liberals' believe that the BJP, infamous for its Hindutva agenda, is actually practicing divisive politics by repeatedly criticising the Congress on religious grounds.

There are also many who believe that the BJP is targetting the Congress over religious issues to divert people's attention from real issues. A tweet by popular music director and singer Vishal Dadlani exposes the BJP and its sinister designs.

"What we shd be discussing: 1. Farmers 2. Jobs 3. Demonetisation & GST 4. Legalisation of illegal & anonymous political funding. 5. Dilution of RTI 6. Subversion of Democracy 7. Contempt of SC orders. 8. Add your own. What we are discussing: Mandir. Masjid. Hindu. Muslim. Wow," tweeted Dadlani.

The few days old tweet by the music director and singer is actually true. At a time when the youth are waiting for jobs, farmers are killing themselves, women and girls are getting raped every day, demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) have left the economy in shambles and the independent institutions are facing threats from political and religious groups (to name a few problems), all that the ruling government wants is to talk about Hindus and Muslims.

Many political observers believe that the monsoon session of Parliament is likely to be a stormy one as the ruling BJP government will try its best to avoid talking about real issues of the people of the country.

The opposition parties want to raise several questions in Parliament on controversial issues like mob lynching, atrocities on Dalits and women, rising unemployment, woes of farmers and backwards, and reservation in higher education institutions.

The BJP will definitely not like to be cornered by the Opposition, so beforehand it has once again "invented" the Hindu-Muslim debate.

Recently, cricketer Harbhajan Singh also tweeted against the Hindu-Muslim narrative before the FIFA World Cup final in Russia.

His tweet in Hindi, which translated to English, reads: "Croatia, with a population of about 50 lakh will be playing the final. And we (India) with a population of 135 crore is 'playing Hindu-Muslim'. Change your thinking to change your country for the better."

As usual, BJP supporters have attacked Singh for his tweet which is clearly against the communal agenda of political parties.