For nine years he remained the Unquestioned Leader. Then he met Sabrina at the White House.

“There are many human rights groups who say your government has discriminated against religious minorities and sought to silence its critics… As you stand here in the East Room of the White House, where so many world leaders have made commitments to protecting democracy, what steps are you and your government willing to take to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in your country and to uphold free speech?”

This was the question that rattled the Unshaken (so far), Unquestioned (until that moment) Leader and his followers. But the latter couldn’t wait to ‘jump the gun’ to initiate their version of damage control, further exposing the tattered shape of free speech and democracy in the country. At this juncture the author presumes that the reader knows well who the Unquestioned Leader was, or what was the response he offered for that question; and therefore the author’s analysis will cover the events that took place afterwards and continued almost for a week that followed.

Since his inception as the ruler of this vast nation, which used to be ‘democratic’ and ‘secular’ once upon a time, he maintained a private army of vigilant youths over the social media platforms, which acted as the ‘ever-bubbling vibrant public conscience’ to teach and guide people about the New Order, which the ruler termed as Amrit Kaal for his country. No questions were asked, and he answered none. Instead he went on ruling the country and reviving the ‘Sanatana’ as he wished, hunting in the mythical past to find solutions for the progressive future. His vigilant army decided upon which food was to be taken, which clothes were to be worn, and which words were to be spoken. Men and women were flogged and even killed in public for disobeying their orders, and yet ‘questions’ remained an element of fiction in his Amrit-Bhoomi, and everything moved liked that, for nine years since he ascended the throne.

But everything changed, as he visited the great White Mansion of the West and met Sabrina Siddiqui for the first time in his career. (Even if they had met before at some instances of their long and short lives respectively, such a turmoil never did erupt at those junctures)

Sabrina Siddiqui, can be identified as a ‘Western’ journalist from the Wall Street Journal, (which is also, unfortunately a ‘Western’ newspaper),

She asks questions, but again that’s her profession actually and unfortunately again,

She is a woman,

       By faith she follows Islam,

  She wears western clothes and yes,

She dared to ask a question to the Unquestioned Leader of the East

There were so many elements or should one say reasons to hate her, threat her and publicly vilify her if possible – and the followers of the leader did just that with impunity after her brief sojourn with the Unquestioned Leader at the White House. Sabrina Siddiqui was targeted over the social media platforms for her faith, for her ‘Islamist’ and ‘Pro-Pakistani’ views, for daring to ask a ‘fabricated’, ‘toolkit-prepared’, ‘propaganda-driven’ question to the Unquestioned Leader and the matter went so far actually, that the representatives of the White House had to intervene in this context. John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, USA and Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary since May, 2022 – both of them separately but distinctly condemned the attacks on Sabrina Siddiqui over the online platforms carried out by the followers of the Unquestioned Leader. Sabrina had shared an image of her, where she could be seen as cheering for the country of the Unquestioned Leader, during a cricket match twelve years ago – to portray her unbiased love towards it, but the followers of the leader were relentless in their pursuit.

In his ‘imaginary’ land of unitary belief now, the Unquestioned Leader maintains that everything should be seen as the ‘one and only’ and must be implemented likewise for all the citizens throughout the country at the earliest. There should be only one nation, one religion, one faith, one leader, one God (though he is yet to decide upon that the author presumes, as his own faith offers three hundred and thirty million alternatives), and everything should come under this absurd oneness or perish otherwise. This doctrine has sealed the fate of pluralism in his vision of Amrit-Bhoomi, and therefore questioning about minority rights or the other half of the population comes as a grievous offense today. More and more as the nation approaches towards the Amrit-Kaal as being described by the Unquestioned Leader, talks are ongoing about the implementation of UCC or the Uniform Civil Code throughout the land to further establish the doctrine of Unitary Puritanism, and destroying the growingly meek future of ‘Vividha’ or plural elements in the same.

Undoubtedly, Sabrina is now facing the wrath for disobeying all these sacred commandments. Instead of accepting the establishment of homogeneity in silence she preferred otherwise, and dared to question the Unquestioned being a representative of the ‘other faith’ as well as the ‘other gender’ - this has further enraged the leader’s followers and the people of the great White Mansion of the West too, had to shift on their thrones and take cognizance of what actually happens in the country of the Unquestioned when unpopular questions are raised uninvited.

Where this event of asking questions will eventually lead to, that question too remains unanswered at this point of time. The Unquestioned Leader is now back in his country and his followers are yet to stop questioning Sabrina, for asking a question to the Unquestioned – where Karine Jean-Pierre had categorically mentioned (twice) in her comments that, questions were asked and a conference to ask questions specifically was organized for the Unquestioned Leader, as because ‘asking questions’ highlights and upholds the right for liberty, the right for free speech and the concept of democracy in today’s world of plural people (of whom she is also a proud member as her credentials describe – and the author dares to send a separate salutation in her direction as well, apart from Sabrina’s in that context).

And here, the author would like to conclude his parable of ‘questioning the Unquestioned’, with one famous quote from one famous scientist of the millenniums, (who, unfortunately was also a member of the minorities during his times) – as the great man, Albert Einstein had said,

“The important thing is not to stop questioning” – but indeed,

He never had the honor to meet the Unquestioned Leader, or maybe he could have stopped too.

Who could say? The question (read, argument) rests here.

Writer : Essayist, Short Story Writer

Picture : Collected