At a time when there is a long chain of detaining, arresting, torturing and thus ruining the lives of innocent Muslim youth after implicating them in baseless, concocted cases, our Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, during a meeting of chief ministers on Apr 16, termed the protests lodged by ‘some people’ as a “cause of worry” and a “dangerous trend”. Though our Home Minister preferred to call such protestors ‘some people’ instead of directly naming them, every person who keeps an eye on the developments knows for certain that it is the Muslims who have been protesting against the sections of police and security agencies who love to implicate Muslim youths.
Can the Muslims in India, who are the bona-fide citizens of this country and who have contributed a lot to the progress and development as well as the independence of the country, ask the Home Minister whether it is not a dangerous trend and a cause of worry for him and the others who wield power at the Centre and in the States that attempts are being made to put the entire community, the members of which follow a particular religion, in the dock by letting its state machinery to target innocent Muslim youth?
Let us reiterate that no Muslim individual or organisation supports terrorism as it is against the very spirit of Islam. But it does not mean Muslims would remain mute spectators to whatsoever happens to their youth. This is no question of support but a vital question of right to live with dignity. After all, lodging a protest is one of the rights of Indian citizens. Our Home Minister’s said statement is tantamount to denying the Muslims this right to protest, or, to put it in other words, to silencing the voice of reason.
The Home Minister should have instead apprised the chief ministers of impending danger to national security by the ever growing influence on the Indian polity of the United States and Israel, the two countries that have created havoc in many parts of the world, and that have been growing relations with us with their ulterior motives. It is high time we read their between-the-lines motives and save our country from the danger of falling into a major crisis of national sovereignty and security. It would be in the fitness of things to break all relations with Israel and initiate measures to get all the terror cases tried in fast track courts so that the reality may come to limelight. The Government has seen the result of turning deaf ears to the genuine grievances of the second largest majority in the country in the recent Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and in the MCD polls in Delhi. We hope at least now good sense would prevail upon the powers-that-be.