Indian Muslims constitute 13 percent of the total population making them the largest minority community. If one goes by the Constitution of India, all are Indian citizens and supposed to enjoy all the privileges and rights that the document ensures. They can always exercise their fundamental right to vote and contest in elections and are technically eligible to hold any position in the government. It is true that Muslims have been nominated president of the Republic of India. Now this is the end of the rosy picture.
The ground realities are much different. Since the independence of India, Muslims have been duped many times in the name of secularism. The demolition of the Babri Mosque is a blot in the history of secular India. True, the Saffron brigade was responsible for that tragedy but what did the then government do? The grand old secular party was at the helm. Its lukewarm response and perhaps deliberate inaction led to the unthinkable act in a country always ready to trumpet its secular credentials. It was the delay in action on part of the then government that led to the construction of a makeshift temple on the site of the mosque. The Congress-led government did nothing to remove that temple.
The Congress government subsequently issued a white paper declaring its commitment to secularism and ignored this subterfuge while pledging to build the mosque.
The BJP too published its white Paper, which is nothing but a communal document calculated to gather the so-called Hindu faithful and incite hatred against the Muslims.
The two parties are once again employing these tactics to win elections. Perhaps it is a never-ending game. — Mohammad Amjad Ali, Jeddah
Babri Mosque and Indian secularism
