My Letter Series – Dear Reader, The Curious Case Of Real Estate. Yours, Mine & Ours

While we sit in our living rooms watching whatever shows we like on TV, at least one Hindu family is going through the situation described in this story.

Kumar Sridhar

July 22, 2021

While we sit in our living rooms watching whatever shows we like on TV, at least one Hindu family is going through the situation described in this story.

Dear Reader, Hindus need to unite and fight

Kashi Vishwanath, an engineer by education and profession, had bought a site about 60 years ago. Not a huge piece of land, about 2400 sq ft of land. The man had saved every penny he could and had finally bought it. Soon he had a house built on that land. He had all the documents to prove his ownership and was proud of this house. His son and daughter were happy to call this their home. He, then, performed his daughter’s marriage and later that year, his son’s marriage. Things were looking really good; he was about to retire and his son was working. He could relax and sit back.

However, things were about to turn bad..really, really bad. One morning, he was looking at his mail and saw a letter from the Wakf Board. “Why me? I’m not even a Muslim!!” he thought. He thought it was a mistake and was about to throw it when his curiosity got the better of him, and he opened the letter. It was about 5 pages long and he was not sure what it was all about. However, it looked like a legal notice about his property. He called his son who immediately came from his room, along with his daughter-in-law. Kashi handed the letter to him and asked him if he could read this to him as he was unable to understand the legalese in the letter. The son, Karthik, looked at the document and read it. Once he was done, he re-read the document. “It looks like this house is built on land owned by the Wakf Board”, he thought. Even though he didn’t want to tell this to his dad, who had recently gone through a cardiac procedure, there was no way of sugar-coating this. He finally told his father about what the document was all about. The color faded from Kashi’s face. He got up and went to his room and came back with the original sale deed and other documents to prove his legal ownership. The land previously belonged to his colleague, Janmejaya Srinivas, who had inherited it from his father.

Srinivas then said something that made Kashi’s world crumble around him. “Get yourself a good lawyer, because you’re being scammed out of your home!

He called Srinivas on the phone and got his wife. It had been a few years since he had talked to Srinivas or his wife. After the usual courtesies, Kashi asked if Srinivas was available. He was told that Srinivas had gone to visit their daughter and would be back that evening. “Could I get his cell phone number?” he politely asked. Srinivas’s wife gave him the number. After hanging up, he called the number. Srinivas picked up the phone after a few rings. After the usual “How are things”, Kashi told him the reason for his call. He heard an eerie silence from the other side and thought Srinivas had dropped the call. However, he was happy when Srinivas said, “Kashi, I’m here”. Srinivas then said something that made Kashi’s world crumble around him. “Get yourself a good lawyer, because you’re being scammed out of your home!”

His son-in-law was a lawyer and so, Kashi called him. When his son saw him struggling to create a coherent sentence, he took the phone and spoke. Kashi couldn’t understand what his son was saying as his mind was in a swirl. All he could think of was the only piece of land he owned was now being taken away from him. Finally, his son hung up and told him softly, “Jeeju is coming over now”. It seemed like hours, but in a half-hour, his daughter and son-in-law came over. Once they came inside, they saw Kashi sitting in his room with the documents and the dreadful letter. The son-in-law sat next to him and reassured him that nothing would happen to his house. He read the letter and kept it down. He then called someone on his phone and talked to the person. It, again, seemed like hours but he finally hung up and said, “my classmate is a lawyer who deals with these kinds of cases and has agreed to take this case up.” Kashi was hoping for a miracle but this now seemed like it had to go through the courts. He had heard of how it could take years for cases to be resolved. He innocently contemplated selling the house but his son-in-law told him this would be a premature move, along with the fact that this was now being legally challenged.

I am not going to run you thro’ the years spent in the legal haggling, nor am I going to give you a “Bollywood” finish with Kashi winning.

Whether, or not, this case rings a bell in your mind is secondary. The fact remains that, after the Government of India and the respective state governments, the entity that owns the most land in Bharat is the WAKF Board. Before we question the legitimacy of the WAKF Board, we should ask ourselves the one question: Who gave the Wakf Board this kind of power? Unfortunately, and I know I will get a lot of hate mail for this, the people responsible for this are the Indian National Congress (INC). When a government, in an effort to “buy” votes, decides to play up to a particular section of the “minority” base, it creates a dangerous situation for the people of the country. The legal system is burdened with not only administering justice but, also ensuring the minorities are not undermined. The unfortunate reality, at least until the Ram Janma Bhoomi case a couple of years ago, was that the legal system was forced to side with the Wakf Board. I say “Forced” because political pressure was used to ensure that the ordinary Hindu was never going to win! The few that did win, had to see their victories being marred by violence and terror. Terror is not necessarily terrorist attacks but also includes intimidating late-night phone calls, windows being broken and women being harassed.

Is there a solution to this problem? You bet, all though it is a far-fetched one, given the current situation. Hindus need to unite and fight. Does that seem possible? Unfortunately, No. While we sit in our living rooms watching whatever shows we like on TV, at least one Hindu family is going through the situation described above. The fact that we rarely show any kind of emotion to another person’s pain doesn’t bode well for Hindus as a community. What will it take to get the quiescent Hindu community to wake up? Is it not enough that our people are being targeted? Do we only wake up when something similar happens to us? What right do we then have to ask for other Hindus to help us? It’s up to us to make a decision: fight back or look upon our ruins. So, what’s it going to be?

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.