Dr. Md. Khalil Memon for BeyondHeadlines
Pandit Jawaharalal Nehru is often portrayed as a secular face of congress. After the demise of Nehru, Congress desperately needed to maintain its secular face. The Muslim community fall victim to the strategy of Congress to protect their mask of secularism.
If truth be told, the successive policies of Congress meant to appease the Muslim community, has only estranged the community so far. Here, the role of Muslim clerics also cannot be overlooked; they rather acted as an agent of the Congress. Since six decades, Congress has kept Muslim under delusion of being their acquaintance, but the veracity is otherwise and sinister. This community has been constantly used by Congress as a scapegoat to safeguard their false cloak of secularism. As Lok Shaba election for 2014 is nearing, the community would once again be lured by Congress to meet their selfish purpose and to be lead to despair.
At the time of partition Mahatma Gandhi and Pt. Nehru proclaimed themselves to be the custodian of Muslims residing in India and promised them the rights equal to the other citizens of the country. Despite the promises they made, they failed the community. And today, the state of the community is grim; the community is still struggling to become the part of mainstream. The harsh truth is that they are treated as a second class citizen and looked upon as a foreign invader. This is despite the fact that the majority of Muslims in India is reverted and residing here since ages. Only there were few who came from Arab countries and settled. The community has suffered the formation of Pakistan. It is very irony that time and again the community has to prove their loyalty for the country. It grieves, when the term “Indian Muslims” are used for the community, there are no such terms to label Hindus, Christian and Sikh residing the country. The fact is that Muslims love the country as much as Hindus, Christians and Sikhs do.
The vote Bank policy adopted by Congress has worsened the situation even further. They have created a fear of saffron terror in the minds of Indian Muslims and of Islamic terror in the minds of Indian Hindus. It has created a rift between Hindus and Muslims, who once used to live in harmony and peace. All the political parties use the rifts between the two largest communities of India for their personal gains. Both the communities lack the sense of maturity and responsibility, and easily becomes the victims of the ill tactics of the political parties.
The religious leaders of Muslim community are also required to change their stance. Instead of acting as brokers of those self claimed secular political parties, they should honestly work for the upliftment of the community and contribute in the growth of the country.
