To
The Editor,
The Indian Express,
New Delhi
Dear Sir,
Subject:
Response To Hamid Ansari’s Interaction With The All India-Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIM-e-M)
We are sorry to say that your lead editorial in today’s (September 2) Delhi edition has carried what we strongly feel an incorrect projection of the honourable Vice President’s interaction with the AIM-e-M. Sir, lest the enlightened readers of your esteemed daily go away with such wrong perception, we are sending (attached) here with what we have reported on this, primarily basing on the front page report on this in your journal of yesterday.
We request a simple reading of that mail with its enclosures. That will clarify and convince you that “such wise and significant intervention” by the Vice President was actually couched in a manner looking innocent.
What do you, Sir, you make out of
the VP’s statement (quoted from your journal):
· Muslims were “made to carry, unfairly, the burden of political events and compromises that resulted in the Partition. The process of recovery from that trauma has been gradual and uneven, and at times painful. They have hesitatingly sought to tend to their wounds, face the challenges and seek to develop response patterns. Success has been achieved in some measure; much more, however, needs to be done.”
· “Equally relevant is the autonomous effort by the community itself in regard to its identified shortcomings. What has it done to redress the backwardness and poverty arising out of socio-economic and educational under-development? How adequate is the response in relation to the challenge?”
· He said the Mushawarat had a critical role to play. “As a grouping of leading and most respected minds of the community, it should go beyond looking at questions of identity and dignity in a defensive mode and explore how both can be furthered in a changing India and a changing world. It should widen its ambit to hitherto unexplored or inadequately explored requirements of all segments of the community particularly women, youth, and non-elite sections who together constitute the overwhelming majority.”
Yes, it has been an “intelligent” intervention. But, Sir, do you not feel that such “intelligent interventions” can easily motivate the so-called Muslim minority community to maintain and uphold a false sense of superiority, thus nullifying Prime Minister’s efforts to integrate the minority Muslim community with the mainstream Indian civilisational and cultural ethos?
Seeing the ground realities like highly objectionable public statements being made by same eminent Muslim leaders in the country that could easily attract the provisions of treason against the country and fomenting communal tension, we are seriously apprehensive of the repercussions of the “barbed” encouragement by the Vice President of the country.
Sir, you may, therefore consider presenting this side of the picture also in order that the learned readers are not misled for no fault of theirs.
Thanking you,
D.C. Nath
(Former Spl. Director, IB)
(President, Patriots’ Forum)
