Secular as communal

Submitted by rkm on Mon, 08/04/2008 - 20:21.

Even as India was reeling under the impact of
relentless terror attacks in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Surat last week,
I was startled by a news report from Iran. Last Sunday, the Iranian
regime executed a whopping 29 convicts at a jail on the outskirts of
Teheran, bringing the number of executions this year to 369. This
figure, the report pointed out, was only next to the number executed in
China in the first seven months of 2008.

There
may be divergent views on capital punishment. Most liberals contend
that it is barbaric to retain this on statute books in the 21st Century
when the rights of the individual are being steadily enshrined in legal
frameworks across the globe. Then, of course, there is the fundamental
question whether man has the right to take a life since he cannot give
it. Irrespective of that, the query which must be posed is whether
heinous crimes against humanity -- such as terror killings -- can be
dealt by routine penal provisions of the law.

In
citing the examples of Iran and China, draconian societies both, it is
not my case that their approach to crime needs to be emulated by India.
Nevertheless, we must apply our mind to the question of creating an
appropriate structure of investigation and deterrence against terrorist
depredations - of which Bangalore and Ahmedabad were not the first and,
unfortunately, will not be the last. Complicating matters further, the
grim reality is that terrorist activities in India are very largely
community specific.

Although
its victims cut across religion and other identities, the blunt truth
is that the overwhelming number of terrorist masterminds, operatives
and suspects are invariably followers of the Islamic faith. Sadly but
not unexpectedly, this leads many people to conclude that Muslims per
se are not trustworthy, that their allegiance to Indian nationhood is
suspect and that nothing but their emaciation will lower the danger
that terrorism poses to this country.

This
is a highly dangerous and counter-productive argument. In fact the more
that Muslims feel shunned and suspect, the greater the possibility of
their getting sucked into the web of fundamentalism from which it is
often a short hop to jihadi terrorism. Having said that, one
also needs to realise that unless the Muslims themselves do more to
rectify this perception, attitudes are unlikely to change. But the
corrective measures cannot be fashioned by some self-styled community
leaders. For example, the ink on the supposed fatwa against terrorism, issued at a highly publicised gathering of Muslim ulema
and endorsed by the respected Deoband School of theology, had barely
dried before last weekend's bomb blasts happened. This clearly exposed
the Muslim clergy's dwindling command over that section of the
community's youth that has been indoctrinated by the philosophy of
revenge and hatred.

Unfortunately, many madrasas that are often rightly described as jihad factories are run by the same ulema. It is the doctrinaire and intolerant section of madrasa
teachers, who virulently resist all attempts at modernisation of their
institutions, which has emerged as the ideological promoter of jihadism. The leadership of the ulema,
if it is serious about assisting the nation in combating the spread of
terrorist ideas, must intervene effectively in the appointment and
training of madrasa teachers.

As
Pakistan's example suggests, this is easier said than done. The tragic
absence of a sizeable Muslim middle class with stakes in the economy
and society makes the generation of articulate public opinion in the
community that much more difficult.

However,
it is the nature of the Indian polity and the national media that is
guilty of fostering Muslim separatism more than the community's own
leaders. Sustained and frenzied attempts by pseudo-secular parties to
convert Muslims into a water-tight vote bank and exploit their
insecurities has, predictably, generated a backlash especially among
educated urban Hindus. The incumbent Government at the Centre is
particularly responsible for that. Tragically, the real issue - Muslim
economic backwardness and educational disadvantage - is not addressed.
Cosmetic measures including setting up a ministry of minority affairs,
separate financial institutions for minorities, presenting stern
anti-terror laws, like POTA, as anti-Muslim, only reinforce the
perception of minority appeasement without concretely benefiting the
minorities.

By
pandering to similar sentiment, the English-language media, both print
and electronic, end up provoking Hindu opinion. Take for instance, the
recent coverage of the Ahmedabad bomb blasts. Certain TV channels
focused almost exclusively on how Muslim-dominated localities too had
been targeted. While that was factually correct, the undue importance
given to this made it appear as if the targeting of innocent people
irrespective of community was not a major issue and only Muslim
victimhood was. Secular fundamentalists, usually Hindu even if
nominally so, queer the pitch further. Recently when a court ruled in
favour of the adoptive Hindu parents in a custody battle over a lost
Muslim child brought up by them for four years, Teesta Setalvad
threatened to file a petition challenging the judicial order. This
despite the testimony of the boy, now six years old, that he preferred
to stay with his adoptive family, not biological mother. Although the
media, by and large, extolled this as a fine example of secularism in
action, hardliners were unreconciled. This kind of reaction prompts
retorts that, had the verdict gone the other way secularists would have
exulted.

Mere
statement of facts on the issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigration
leads to people being branded closet communalists. Guwahati High Court
Judge MK Sharma is currently being targeted for commenting in his
judgment that illegal immigrants are threatening to become "kingmakers"
in Assam because their numbers have multiplied in geometric proportion
over the last couple of decades. Although Justice Sharma specifically
referred to the threat this poses to the "indigenous population both
Hindu and Muslim" a section of the media loudly wondered whether the
judge was penning a BJP pamphlet rather than a judgment. Such
despicable biases trigger Hindu resentment and a growing feeling that
nobody can afford to speak the truth lest it be denounced as
politically incorrect.

The
manner in which the fierce outrage in Jammu against the revocation of
land allotted to the Amarnath Shrine Board has been treated both by the
Government and most of the media is yet another instance of
majority-bashing. So much so that former State Governor General SK
Sinha, has also been charged with possessing a "communal agenda". The
reality is that the land was given in pursuance of an Assembly
resolution and implemented by ministers belonging to Mufti Mohammad
Sayeed's PDP - the party that has been loudest in demanding (and
obtaining) cancellation of the allocation.

The
unfair branding of the entire Muslim community as suspect and soft on
terrorists takes place in this background. Its erasure cannot be
achieved by reform within the Muslim community alone for they are not
entirely responsible for this. Unless the secularists drop their
communal agenda, Hindu-Muslim mistrust will deepen and long-term
solution to homegrown jihadi terrorism continue to elude India.

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