ASUAF SAID VASFI registers his resentment on increasing Israeli interference in our internal affairs, especially Kashmir visit of its military delegation, which may harm the efforts for peaceful settlement of Kashmir problem.
The Congress-led UPA Government is a strange sort of pro-minorities Government which has, during its 3-year rule, failed to show any remarkable sensitivity to matters pertaining to the minorities.
The only bright spot in its report-card is the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee Report. But there are no signs of its implementation. It appears as if it had been brought into existence for cosmetic reasons only. For similar cosmetic reasons, the Srikrishna Commission had earlier been brought into existence. But there is no indication at all that its recommendations would be implemented. The Manmohan Singh Government could take several positive steps to expose and punish the Model Hindutva Chief Minister of Gujarat. But it chose to remain quiet.
It chose to remain quiet when several respectable Muslim professionals were, without any plausible reason, arrested and humiliated by the Intelligence agencies in the very Congress-ruled states.
It is however, nice to see the verdicts of the TADA court, which thoroughly went into the Bombay blasts. Are such visible and concrete judgments by Special Courts possible in other riots also?
Rightly or wrongly, an impression has got currency among the minorities, particularly the major minority of the country, that the UPA dispensation is not much different from the NDA Government. At that time there were grounds for patience as the NDA was being led by the RSS. Now the Left is the UPA’s main ally. But things are not what they ought to have been.
INDIA: US
In the foreign affairs sphere, the Muslim segment of plural Bharat as well as other independently thinking people have their own views on the too-much proximity of New Delhi to Washington, which to them is an imperialist octopus. Those who have suffered at the hands of the US, and they are Muslims everywhere, consider it a rogue state, concentrating single-mindedly on the subjugation of Muslims and colonisation of the Muslim world’s natural resources particularly oil. Muslim is a thorn in the soft belly of the United States To quote Ms Seema Mustafa: “The large Muslim population of India has been a key factor in the United States decision to establish a “global partnership” with India as one of the important strategic diplomatic initiatives undertaken by this (Bush) Administration”. This is the view of the “committee of conference” of the US Congress that reconciled the two bills on these subject into the final legislation.
ANOTHER QUOTE
In another quote from her reportage, carefully note the language through which the US exploited Bharat “The conference committee has described India as a “valued partner” in countering the rise of extremism following the US assessment that it could work together with New Delhi to promote pluralism, tolerance and democratic freedoms. The democratic traditions of India and the fact that it was a country with “ the worlds second largest Muslim population” made it stand out as an example of “multi-religious and multi-cultural democracy in an otherwise volatile region” that could work with the US to promote stability in the region, the conferees said.
She adds: Muslim leaders in New Delhi said that many of them had been “approached” by the US officials in the past to learn about the functioning of their organizations and get a “feel” of their views on international policy and domestic issues. The one question that several leaders said that they had been asked by the US academics and officials was “why has the Indian Muslim not resorted to terrorism?” Senior US officials have held exclusive meetings with Muslim leaders, facilitated here by the Manmohan Singh government. Senior academics, political leaders and others attended these meetings that focused on Muslim responses to world issues including India-US relations” (The Asian Age, December 14, 2006).
How simple minded is Dr. Manmohan Singh! That is perhaps the charitablest-possible response to Dr. Singh obtuseness. How we wish he had seen through the game, aimed at ultimately turning Bharat into another Afghanistan or another Iraq or another Pakistan, where the US is reputedly now in search of Mr. Musharraf’s successor.
The considered Muslim view is the current closeness of India to the US is against our national interest. We should distance ourselves from the octopus.
BHARAT: ISRAEL
Another irritant for Muslims is India’s ever-growing defence ties with Israel, which to them, is another anti-Muslim and anti-Islam aberration. That Israel is a rogue and terrorist state, perhaps needs no instances to substantiate the claim.
Unlike the United States, which cultivated corporates and intellectuals only, Israel is concentrating on a particular community. Not long ago Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger was in New Delhi. He, in February last, signed a protocol to “spread Global Peace and Harmony” at a Hindu-Jewish Summit” in New Delhi.
What is the between-the-lines meaning of this Hindu-Jewish bonhomie is not difficult to understand. It is and was in fact, a particular section of our majority community brethren who motivatedly cooperated with the unpleasant guest.
Postponing a discussion on what respect and position the Hindus enjoyed during the 800-year Muslim rule in India, we incidentally recall the highest patronage the Jews enjoyed for 14 centuries in the Muslim countries when they were being persecuted relentlessly throughout Europe. It was the Muslim world that gave them refuge. According to their own pre-Israel Confessions, the Jews held the highest position under Muslims in Egypt, Syria and Spain. A lot of brazenness is needed to deny that the good treatment meted out to Jews by the Muslims. But the truth is the Zionists have that necessary brazenness.
TAINT & DENT
All of us had, during our boyhood, been warned by our affectionate parents: A man is known by the company he keeps! So is true of the states and their governments. Whose company are we keeping – of a thankless crook, of a shameless encroacher, of a brazen thug, of a callous genocider? This bad company is causing taint and dent in our moral stature. It is at cross purposes with commonsense, our diplomatic dignity and national stature. The Congress – forget the Saffron as it has an axe to grind – seems to have deliberately ignored Mahatma Gandhi’s concerted view on the subject: “Palestine belongs to the Palestinians as Germany belong to the Germans!
REVIEW FOREIGN POLICY
Our foreign policy needs course correction so feels the Muslim leadership and the Muslim community. It is long over due. When New Delhi officially recognised Israel, the argument was: Bharat cannot afford to be a greater Muslim than Arabs. Correct! But Arabs do, and are doing some good things also, besides submitting meekly before that rough-neck. Do we as a State emulate any Arab example?
What is particularly disturbing for Muslims and the country’s sober, thinking, feeling sections is that now military experts of Israel are being allowed into Jammu & Kashmir, one of our problem states. This decision, we are afraid, is bound to cost dearly to New Delhi. Dr. Manmohan Singh has obviously set a bad precedent. One does not know whether he understands the ramification of this “deliberate faux pas” or not. The PDP and National Conference, besides various separatist parties and groups, strongly opposed recent visit of the top-level Israeli team.
While the PDP and NC said, the visit is “unwarranted” and will “vitiate” the atmosphere at a stage when efforts are underway to seek a peaceful settlement of the issues faced in and on Kashmir, the separatists have charged the Centre of pursuing policies similar to those under practice by Israel in Palestine and other occupied lands and that the visit confirms the “nexus” between the two countries “to cause harm to the Muslims.
QUITE LOGICAL
After secretive purchase of sophisticated weaponry, open-ended cooperation between our Intelligence agencies and the MOSSAD was inevitable. But was the Israeli terrorists’ guidance also inevitable in how to deal with our own homemade and foreign terrorists?
Are our Security advisers in the Home and Defence Ministry as well as the state Chief Minister and his advisors, and above all, our Military Commanders, stationed in the insurgency infested areas not capable to take a decision on troop reduction and stopping infiltration from across the LOC. Did our top brass not feel insulted, rather humiliated, in the presence of the Israeli Deputy Chief of General Staff, Mr. Moshe Kaplinsky?
Was this utterly unacceptable Israeli visit inevitable, essential, a “must”?
Is Bharat up for the Israeli grabs?