Pala Bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt has created a storm in a teacup by coining a new term - "Narcotics Jihad", while delivering a sermon at Pala St. Mary’s Church on Thursday 09th September 2021. Kerala and India are quite familiar with another term known as "Love Jihad", which alluded to non-Muslim girls being entrapped by false pretensions of love, religious conversion, and marriage, in most cases clandestinely. These have been routinely happening for the past several decades in Kerala, but what caused consternation was the explosive revelation that many of these girls had ended up in conflict zones in Afghanistan and Syria and had joined dreaded terror organizations.

Of late, Kerala has been witnessing massive seizures of drugs - especially Ganja and Ecstasy (MDMA). On an everyday basis, the newspapers carry reports of drug seizures by Police, Excise, and Customs. It also came to light that rave parties were regular happenings in remote resorts located in Munnar and Wayanad. The commercial capital of Kerala – Kochi, reported rave parties in flats occurring particularly on weekends. From the media reports, it was gathered that the purveyors of narcotic drugs were Muslims and the consumers were non-Muslim girls. That large numbers of girls were getting addicted to drugs raised another speculation: were they inveigled into drug consumption? If so, by whom and why? 

It was also a logical conclusion that drug consumption by girls would automatically climax in sexual exploitation. This was buttressed by a barrage of reports of allegations of rapes, compromising naked photographs being clicked and circulated, or threats used to circulate it on social media. Salacious reports were in the constant limelight about sex laced with drugs, blackmail, and religious conversion going on in different parts of Kerala.

Another phenomenon that cannot escape notice is the massive seizures of gold taking place almost every day at the State’s three international airports at Trivandrum, Kochi, and Calicut. Further, the involvement of young girls, who switch their identities from Hindus to Muslims, appear in burqas, constantly fly to Dubai, to ply gold smuggling, cast serious doubts as to what was happening in the state of Kerala.

To add further fuel to the fire, the outgoing DGP of Kerala Police, made a startling disclosure on the day of his retirement in June 2021, that Kerala is a recruiting ground for various international terror outfits. This was like the proverbial last straw that breaks the camel's back. All hell broke loose and all the dots were linked. Political parties, journalists, and the general public were trading a volley of allegations and counter-allegations, about the abysmal state of affairs of internal security, law and order, and security of women.

Yet, another cause of alarm was the rising Muslim population and proliferation of new groups with fundamentalist leanings. Traditional Hindu and Christian belts were getting transformed into Muslim colonies. The mushrooming of mosques, madrassas, and usage of Arabic language in public name boards of many Muslim establishments stoked fears of Islamization of Kerala.

The Muslim presence in the commercial sector became increasingly prominent as seen by the setting up of new shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, and educational institutions. The traditional players felt threatened and, in many places, wound up, unable to withstand the new competition.

The political party, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) is the most powerful player in Kerala’s highly surcharged casteist and communal vote bank politics. Whether Left government or Right government, neither faction desires to earn the displeasure of IUML. The rising Muslim presence in the number of MLA’s and MP’s, indicative of their increasing population, is another factor making other communities very uneasy. This apart, a sizeable section of Christians are working as nurses and medical professionals in Europe. Scary reports of Europe being swamped by waves of Islamic migrants are doing the rounds in media. Many reports warn of an imminent Muslim takeover of Europe. All these add up to the feelings of a threatened future and scary visions of Samuel Huntington’s "Clash of Civilizations".    

The above factors, coupled with government apathy, created a climate of suspicion in the minds of people. Their unexpressed fears came out in the open when the Bishop of Pala made public his apprehensions about "Love Jihad" and the new discovery of ‘Narcotics Jihad’. Kerala is on the boil right now and how it will cool down remains to be seen.

This writer feels that the time has come to review the suitability of the Constitution in the wake of fast-paced changes occurring in the political, internal security, and law and order, frontiers. Many unfortunate developments in the international arena like terrorism, narco-terrorism, money laundering, illegal migrations, refugee crisis, are casting their long shadows in the internal affairs of many countries, India included. We are trying to deal with these complex issues by treating them as law-and-order problems, whereby States have their exclusive jurisdiction to tackle them. But what happens when there is laxity, connivance, and apathy in tackling the issues sternly? 

The Bishop of Pala was only giving vent to the fears of the common man when he expressed concern about ‘Love Jihad’ and ‘Narcotics Jihad’. Is there any blueprint as to how to tackle these new pernicious evils? Are our laws adequate and strong to face these threats? Will these laws suffice, or do we need new laws to supplement the existing ones? Are our enforcement agencies empowered and independent in countering these new forces? Can the judiciary deliver quick justice to the offenders? So many questions plague not only the minds of experts but also that of the common man. These are turbulent times that call for brilliant statesmanship, foresight, and practical commonsense not only on the part of politicians but also on the part of the judiciary and bureaucracy. Young, budding management professionals have a whole new range of topics to conduct research and introspect and come up with path-breaking solutions.

Image Credits: Pixabay

 

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