[nukkad] Psecs sacked

[zaverirm <>]

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I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood. -Clarence Darrow, lawyer 
and author (1857-1938)
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Read this as it  is coming from none other than Rafiq Zakaria
Rohit Zaveri.
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Will not Rafiq Zakaria retrench them from politics?
http://www.newindpress.com/Column.asp?ID=IEH20021229103941&P=old
S Gurumurthy

`Indian Muslims must try and become an integral part of the mainstream';
`get out of their ghetto
mentality'; `do some introspection'. If asked `whether they have genuinely
tried to contribute to
the strengthening of Hindu-Muslim relations since Partition', the `answer
will be no.'

``They must open their eyes to the ground reality that an increasing number
of Hindus have begun to
hate them...it has infected the rich as much as the poor; men as much as
women; the young as much as
the old. Even children are no longer free from it.''

``Instead of coming out openly against Pakistan and taking a strong stand
against the jihadis, the
so-called guardians of Indian Muslims spend most of their time in running
their own political shops
to buttress their communal leadership.''

``Muslims are multiplying fast, much more than Hindus. The Census figures,
decade after decade,
confirm it. Muslims have not taken to family planning `as seriously as the
Hindus'; this has to be
corrected. ``Indian Muslims must disown the bigotism which has made Muslims
pariahs everywhere. They
must give to non-Muslims the assurance that their religion stands for `live
and let live.' ``Instead
of talking it over with Hindus, `confrontation was adopted' by Muslims on
the Babri masjid issue,
giving `rise to more hatred against the Muslims.' ``There is meaningless
'controversy' about Muslims
singing Vande Mataram. Muslims `must stand up when it is sung as a mark of
respect to an anthem,'
which has a hoary past.'' These are not extracts from a resolution of the
VHP. Not a Togadia
bursting out as he often does. Not the slogans of the Bajrang Dal. This is
what Rafiq Zakaria, a
renowned Muslim intellectual, says in his latest book `Communal Rage in
Secular India'. Zakaria says
that even secularism is inadequate to protect the interests of the Muslims.
Zakaria even recalls
Sardar Patel's words to him in a personal meeting on May 19, 1950, ``that
the goodwill of the
majority is best safeguard of the minority.''

It is the only an honest introspection by a well-known Muslim leader in
post-independent India. Had
something like this come earlier, immediately after the Partition, the
post-independence history of
India would have been very different. Partition had hurt the Hindu psyche.
Hurt the Hindu-Muslim
relations almost irreparably. Yet there was hardly a trace of introspection,
of any remorse in the
post-independence Muslim leadership. The Muslim League continued to function
in secular India, even
got certificates from seculars as a secular party.

Why? Why did Indian Muslims not feel the need to introspect in Independent
India? The answer is the
vote bank politics, the secularist distortion of national polity. This
obviated the Muslims from
introspecting after Partition. The result of this secular distortion is what
Zakaria now diagnoses
as the principal distortions in the Muslim community. That is: Indian
Muslims are not part of the
mainstream; live in ghettos; are bigoted; not contribute to Hindu-Muslim
amity; not coming out
openly against Pakistan and Jihadis; not adopting family planning, multiply
more than Hindus; not
assuring the fellow Hindus that Islam means `live and let live'; not
respecting Hindu sentiments on
Ram Temple; not respecting the greatly respected Vade Mataram. The list goes
on. Zakaria's
introspection amounts to a confession that the secular polity was never
religion-neutral. It was
mere cover to turn the minorities into ballot papers.

But, why this delayed introspection now? Not earlier? The answer is obvious.
The Muslim
introspection that the secular polity prevented for fifty years the rise of
Hindutva seems to have
achieved. That is, the politics of Hindutva seems to be a corrective to the
post-independent
distortions in national poliy. Not, as the seculars campaign, a distortion
in itself.

What Rafiq Zakaria has said can set right the Hindu-Muslim relations
forever. If he succeeds will he
not retrench the seculars from politics altogether?




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