Mind the politics

The Jamia Nagar episode that left two alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorists dead is being investigated, as it must be, after persistently voiced concern that it was stage-managed. But it is also feeding an extremely fraught and dangerous communal politics by opposition leaders as well as, more damagingly, the ruling Congress itself. Certainly, it is up to the government to provide the blunt, unvarnished truth, and account for every action taken in the name of fighting terror. But by allowing the discourse to be muddied by a mindless “Muslims vs the rest” narrative which does not let ordinary Indian Muslims dissociate themselves from the radicalised few, the Congress sorely undermines itself and the nation by mixing up terror investigations with petty vote-bank considerations.

The Jamia incident was touted as the UPA administration’s big breakthrough in the investigations until the rumour mill started buzzing, and these politicians suddenly woke up to the potential electoral damage. Suddenly, the entire episode has been bathed in a lurid light, as these politicians publicly mutter about the stated facts of the case. Amar Singh certainly can’t be blamed for amplifying these fears and threatening to withdraw support to the UPA in an attempt to pander to a perceived vote-bank, if the Congress can’t control its own people from taking their own politic escape routes.

The Congress is trying to avoid Muslim alienation as well as skirt the BJP’s “minority appeasement” charge. The only way to overcome that bind is to take responsibility for its actions and emphatically reject the conventional framing. The narrow band of extreme opinion on either side, whether angry minorities or the aggrieved majority has already condemned the government — the vote is lost anyway. Smearing the Jamia incident is a high-stakes business; it terminally discredits the security apparatus and the government, and nobody in the Congress can escape the severe repercussions. To dither and wonder aloud whether the boys were indeed innocent does not soothe any community, it only underscores the shaky foundations and dissembling of those in power. It is not going to endear them to those questioning the veracity of police claims. Parties in the opposition and even those in the ruling alliance, smelling blood, are bound to savage the doubters and the rest of the Congress, if they allow this cloud of suspicion to endure. While these individual politicians might imagine that they are protecting their own electoral turf, they are damaging the entire edifice of their party and the democratic exchange to follow.