IT IS NOT EVEN DAWN AND THERE I AM BEING PULLED OUT OF SLEEP TO PRAY AGAIN

IT IS NOT EVEN DAWN AND THERE I AM BEING PULLED OUT OF SLEEP TO PRAY AGAIN

It is 4.55 a.m. and the loudspeaker is blaring away, calling us to pray. What right does anybody have to break people's sleep before even the break of dawn every day in the name of a particular religion? And why does the Government of West Bengal allow it? Is this the practice of secularism that prompts it or is it downright appeasement of the major minority community to secure electoral advantage? Does not the Government feel ashamed to thus offend people's rights to rest merely to gain its own selfish electoral end? Is this India or some other land? Where are we living? Or, has India sold her age-old identity to adopt alien affiliation thus? Shameful ! Disgusting ! Abhorrent !

Written by Sugata Bose