Shadow over the subcontinent

Once again Islamabad is indulging in wild charges. Once again it is interfering in the affairs of a sovereign country. What right does Pakistan have to do this when one of its federal ministers supervised the dismantling of Hindu temples in the wake of the Babri mosque demolition? quot;Hate Indiaquot; is the ethos of Pakistan. It is not surprising that its spokesman should continue to delude his countrymen so as to divert their attention from the state which has nearly failed in the eyes of the world.

Indian Muslims are India8217;s concern. There is enough of strength in the country8217;s secular opinion to take the government to task, as was evident after the demolition of Babri mosque. In fact, such instances have strengthened the Muslim community8217;s trust in the sense of accommodation and tolerance that the country has nourished over the centuries. By exaggerating the travails of Muslims, Pakistan is playing the Islamic card to foment trouble, which the ISI is already doing through its agents.

Persistent propaganda against India has conditioned the minds of most Pakistanis to such an extent that India is seen as an embodiment of evil. Information has been shut out with school history books being particularly bad. The textbook for class VIII attributes the partition of Bengal to a peculiar reason. It mentions Kali Puja as having become very popular and human sacrifice having become the order of the day: quot;a method of slaughtering the Muslims and presenting them at the altar of the Goddessquot;.

Pakistan8217;s armed forces have an Urdu fortnightly, Al Hilal, which spits poison. In a recent issue, it harps on the same theme: quot;Hindus have not accepted Pakistan. Nor will they ever do so. Therefore, we have to fight for the protection of Pakistan as steadfastly as we did for its attainment.quot; In support, the fortnightly quotes the octogenarian Hindu Mahasabha leader, Balraj Madhok, as having said that quot;if the British could divide the Indian subcontinent, New Delhi can also re-establish its rule over what the country was before partitionquot;. Even the lunatic fringe in India has stopped saying this. But the Pakistan government has not abandoned this line because it adds to its people8217;s feeling of insecurity.

That the Organisation of the Islamic Conference OIC should back Pakistan to the hilt is surprising because the bee of liberalism has stung even some leading Muslim nations. Dictatorships and the army-supported regimes cannot always be stuck by the glue provided by fundamentalism. They exist because of the inhuman methods they use against dissenters.

Unfortunately, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference of Kashmir has tried to hitch its wagon to such regimes. Banning the travel of Hurriyat leaders to Teheran, where the OIC meeting took place, would be an infringement of the constitutional right to free movement. But by opting for the OIC, the Hurriyat leaders have once again shown that their demand has come to acquire a religious tinge.

The Lok Sabha election gives the Hurriyat a chance to prove its credentials. It should put up its candidates and try to enter Parliament to address the larger Indian audiences, whose support is essential for any proposal of autonomy to get accepted. The Election Commission will see to it that fair and independent elections are conducted in the state. But the Hurriyat can pick up five or six Indians, in whom they have confidence, to supervise the polls. Were it to make this demand conditional for participation in elections, New Delhi would be forced to accept it.

Coming back to Indian Muslims, I must admit that they are not getting their due. Their population is 12 to 15 per cent in the country but their share in employment, business and industry is not even a fraction of that. True, the improvement in their lives is crucially dependent on the pace of economic progress in the country. But why should they be at the end of queue? They are the last to be hired and the first to be fired. The deteriorating law-and-order situation is only making their situation worse.

Lack of action against those who instigate communal riots is a sad commentary on the authorities. They are slack and unaccountable. The result is that the guilty have not been punished. This is true as much of riots in Moradabad 1980 or Nelli1983 as the massacre of Muslims in Maligam-Meerut 1987. Cases of killings following the demolition of the Babri mosque are either at the inquiry stage or are stuck in the lower courts even after five years. Then there is no government proposal to give compensation to the families of riot victims. This is lop-sided justice. Members of other committees 8212; for example, the Sikhs who suffered in the 1984 8212; are compensated. But Muslims are generally left out.

Muslim fundamentalists have rightly been blamed for starting the recent Coimbatore riots, when a few of them murdered a traffic constable. But the violence which Hindu fundamentalists and police unleashed in retaliation against the Muslim community was indiscriminate and inhuman and the government was party to it.

I shudder to think what will happen during or after the elections if the parties peddling fundamentalism are not restrained now. It is a pity that Home Minister Inderjit Gupta, whose secular credentials are impeccable, has done little to bring communal police officers to book. Probably, he could not do anything about the communalised police forces in the various states, but he should have initiated some steps to cleanse the BSF and CRPF, which are under the Home Ministry, of this virus.