This post is being written out of anger and frustration. If you don't like what's being said, feel free to stop reading and close the window. Don't come back with your two cents please.
A few days ago, a chap called Zeeshan applied in a diamond trading company, and he got rejected because the company did not want a 'Muslim Candidate'. The guy shared screenshots of the rejection mail and as I'm sure he expected it to, it went viral. Our media, which is eternally starved for newspieces that espouse the victim card went with their OB vans to the guy and took endless interviews, making the issue a headline event which hasn't yet completed its 15 minutes of fame.
So here is point 1 - The candidate hasn't been rejected because he is a Muslim, like our idiots have made it appear like. They simply said they hire only Non-Muslim candidates, and therein lies a world of difference.
The firm the chap applied in is a private organization, and they aren't defined by our sick reservation protocols (yet). Yes, the grounds for rejection is quite sad in today's world. But by the term 'private' they reserve the right to do whatever they want! It isn't against the law to say that they will employ only people of a certain religion in their firm. Its their wish! We don't like it, nothing we can do about it. If we don't like the philosophy, the best we can do is to stop buying their products - like certain 'intellectuals' do when they come across Tirupur garments, Sivakasi fireworks, Bangladeshi hoisery, and Chinese electronics. Whether it makes a difference to that firm or not is none of our business.
The Hindu (which is the most misnamed publication on planet Earth), carried an article here - http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/top-company-rejects-muslim-candidate/article7228666.ece. This publication, and the dozens of nonsense news channels we have been cursed with, have gone flying to take the 'opinion' of the fresher who got this unlucky letter, and made him an instant celebrity. The guy is now telling companies how to recruit and how to reject candidates based on his 'experience'. To a company which was in the news for giving hundreds of their employees flats and cars as bonuses, and has unheard-of employee loyalty. Ok, we don't like a policy they have. So apply somewhere else! There are millions of companies in the world. And while they may not give flats and foreign trips as annual bonuses, they have equal recruitment policies!
This article isn't just to outrage about a company who couldn't hire a more diplomatic HR recruiter, or about a kid freshly out of college, who's enjoying his time in the media glare. It is about the way we encourage folks in our society to play the victim card.
Being a victim is very much in vogue. Being a Woman, Being a Man, Being Rich, Being Poor, Being Educated, Being Uneducated, Being from Urban India, Being from Rural India, Being Strong, Being Weak, Being Young, Being Old, there are a thousand combinations that, depending on the circumstances, allow us to flash our cards and play victim. And our society loves them all! Cinema reveres them, NGOs live off them, Politicians feed off them, and TV thrives on them. Subtly, we've all been trained to directly jump to the victim card - irrespective of whether we are helpless or not. Even superstars with the best lawyers money can buy had to play victim - in spite of having committed a crime that the whole world has known for decades. Shame on us.
Push people into a corner, and they rebel. Women used Section 498A so liberally, that they've taken the teeth off the act now. Caste card has been played so often, that we've made the next generation either caste-fanatics, or as atheists. No middle ground. A generation is watching us. They are observant. They notice everything - well beyond their age. And what they're seeing is that playing victim will get them what they want. So that is what they'll do! Ordinary folks have learnt to communicate in a language that makes strengths out of irrelevant qualities. They've learnt to wear a mask of being a David and the whole world comes to their rescue to slay the Goliath.
All, while this projected Goliath was just going about his life like he as always been. It is these folks that are made to be Goliaths that are actually paying our taxes and taking care of the world. Those who have fallen prey to the victim image are parasites and they just leech off the goodness of the world. There is already precious little of it left. Suck that away and we are doomed. An abyss of misery awaits us.
Zeeshan will get a job, no doubt. The poor HR who wrote that reply has probably already been fired. The jewelry firm will get booed for a while, and then be cheered when they announce even larger Diwali bonuses this year. They will all still go on with their lives. But we have given in to low tendencies yet again - from both sides of this issue, and have made our world slightly worse for ourselves.
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