Opinion Theological opportunism

It would be funny if it was not so predictably tragic

January 15, 2012 03:09 AM IST First published on: Jan 15, 2012 at 03:09 AM IST

It would be funny if it was not so predictably tragic. As soon as an election comes to town,where there are Muslim votes at stake,reason and good sense take a distinct low place. Constitutional proprieties are forgotten and an almost medieval celebration of murderously divisive identities starts.

Darul Uloom which blotted its copybook not so long ago by appointing,and then sacking a modernising moderate Muslim scholar as the head of its faculty,revived one of the old canards of Salman Rushdie and The Satanic Verses. It asked for Rushdie to be denied entry to India by being refused a visa. But it is one thing to browbeat poor Taslima Nasreen. She is Bangladeshi and a woman. Even the Left joined in the burning of Taslima and her human rights. She may be a Muslim but not one of our kind of Muslims. You see,being a Secular Socialist Republic,we only approve of Muslims certified by the mullahs.

So they tried again with Rushdie. Alas,he proved to be too clever for them. The blighter is actually born in India,would you believe it? And carries a PIO card which means he does not need a visa. How low can you sink? What we now need is for BJP/RSS to question a Muslims right to be described as PIO and that too a Muslim? You must be joking. Neither the Darul Uloom nor the RSS would certify Rushdie as fit to be called a person of Indian origin. A wrong kind of Muslim for one and a wrong kind of Indian for another.

Mind you,carrying an Indian passport does not really help if you are a Muslim in bad odour with one or another of Indias political pillars. Maqbool Fida Husain was afforded no protection of his rights as an Indian citizen even by a secular UPA because a few Bajrang Dal people created fuss. Boldly,the UPA retreated and the poor man died in exile. If you are a Muslim in India,you need good conduct certificate from every side of the fanatical fraternity.

But the smell of a Muslim vote bank as UP elections near is as irresistible as,can I say,bacon frying. So not to be outdone by the Darul Uloom,the Congress has reopened the Batla House case. This is another perennial of the Grab the Muslim vote strategy. We have been through the full rounds of this. The case was discussed,decided. The judiciary even threw out a PIL,telling the litigant in polite terms that he needed his head examined if he thought that the police conspired to shoot one of its own officers just to spite the Muslims. Yet,here is Digvijay Singh trying to stir up that dead (murdered?) issue.

Why is it that the living standards of Muslims,their educational achievements,their womens rights,their income prospects in good well paying private sector areas never command any attention from the so-called friends of the Muslims,the secular dadas? It is only theological hares being run,quotas being offered decades too late on the eve of the election where the Congress is beginning to stare a loss in its face. Of course,the EC having

told the UPA-II to suspend the quota till after the voting is done,you can see that the whole matter will be shelved after the results. What is the point of offering quotas once the UP elections are over and the Muslim vote bank has been emptied?

Muslims exist not for their own sake. Not to lead fruitful creative lives. They merely exist so that Congress and its fellow travelling secularists can feel virtuous .They exist as a stick to beat the BJP with. They should not try to shed their Muslim identity and become like other Indian citizens. That would be awful. When,and if,an election comes around where the Congress so badly needs their vote that it may actually have to improve their economic and social position,perhaps even dust off the Sachar Report and search in it for some easily doable policy action,then Muslims may get a crumb of the top table. See you at the next Iftar party.