It’s the season for controversial statements, actions, claims and counter-reactions, all over the country and religion is the toast of the season.The ISIS linkupAfter the recent spotlight on the possibility of a growth of Indian terrorism in the wake of the arrest of a Bangalore-based alleged ISIS-supporter, Mehdi Masroor Biswas, a poster has surfaced in Tamil Nadu.The poster put up by the Hindu Munnani in Erode, promises to provide Rs. one crore cash award to anyone willing to identify local Muslim women being sent abroad to satisfy the sexual needs of ISIS terrorists. While the Hindu Munnani was unavailable for comment, the Touheed Jamat said that it was approaching the police to file a complaint agains the organisation for the poster. The Mahatma, Godse and Afzal GuruIt all blew up out of proportion when BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj called Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse a ‘patriot’. Soon after, the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha announced its intention of requesting land from the Centre in order to erect a statute of Godse in New Delhi. Following this, the ABHM allegedly even performed a ceremony in Meerut for the construction of a temple dedicated to Godse. In Tamil Nadu, too the group decided to approach the State government to allow for allocation of land in order to erect busts of Godse. Reacting to this development, the Indian National League, a fringe Muslim-based political party has put up posters across Tamil Nadu.The posters say that the party headed by its president Abdul Raheem will erect memorials of Afzal Guru, convicted and executed for his role in the December 2001 Indian Parliament terrorist attack. Tada J Abdul Rahim who spoke to The News Minute said that Godse, a criminal who had confessed to killing Mahatma Gandhi, was being praised. He also said that neither the State nor the Central government was paying heed to the possibility that Godse’s statues could be set up in Tamil Nadu. “If they erect statues of Godse, we will construct construct a memorial for Afzal Guru,” said Rahim. …If the talks about busts and temples were not enough, last week there was the controversy of 'sterotyping'.The Gujarat Chief Minster Anandiben Patel recently apologised for a ‘mistake’ her state police had committed during an anti-terror mock drill. During the drill conducted by the Surat police of which videos are available, dummy terrorists were made to wear skull caps. Soon after surfaced another video of the drills showing the mock terrorists shouting Islamic slogans.What happened after this? There was furore and dissent over the stereotypical representation. Then someone pointed out that the exercise happened even during UPA regime and the nud slinging became worse.However, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) chief Assaduddin Owaisi made some eyebrow-raising statements taking strong objections to the mock depictions.“Every person who enters this world is Muslim. But circumstances and parents mould him into other faiths. You (Sangh Parivar) are free to disagree as Islam denounces the use of force,” said Owaisi. This was not all. The Ghar wapsi wave has swept across the country. While BJP national president Amit Shah called this “reconversion” launched by a section of the RSS not “a government programme”, the Kerala party state vice-president MT Ramesh said that “if conversion was legitimate, re-conversion is also lawful”.RSS regional head, Rajeshward Singh had even said that it spent Rs 50 lakh each month for converting an average of 1000 families. Claiming that the RSS had taken control of as many as 60 churches in UP where no Christians worship now, he had said “Ek din in girijagharo ki deewarein bhi gir jayengi aur hamara desh sirf hinduon ka hoga (one day these churches will crumble and our country will belong to the Hindus alone)”Owaisi however, on Saturday made light of pamphlets distributed by an RSS offshoot that said that it would cost Rs. 2 lakh to convert a Chirstian and Rs. 5 lakh to convert a Muslim. The pamphlets proposed a fund for a grand “ghar vapsi” of both people from both religions which are becoming a problem in the country, said a Times of India report. "Only Rs 5 lakh? What a joke! Prophet Muhammad said that a breeze is blowing from India. We are Indians by birth and by choice. We will not leave our faith even if the world were thrown at our feet!,” he said. There just seems to be no end. TweetFollow @thenewsminute