Mohammad Salim Engineer, Secretary General Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, while presiding over a symposium on Democracy and Communal Amity under Threat in India organised by Media Department Jamaat-e-Islami Delhi and Haryana at JIH headquarters on 23 October, said Democracy is not only about territory and people but it is also about the prevailing spirit of the Constitution and its values.
The Jamaat leader further said, gradual shrinking of space for dissent and difference of opinion is the biggest threat to democracy and communal amity. It is the responsibility of religious leaders to ensure that religion is not misused to create hate campaign or incite animosity within communities. He also categorically said that an individual who follows religion in true perspective will fear what wrong he is doing because he has always in the mind that he is answerable to Almighty even if he is not held guilty under the rule of the law.
Krishnakant of Network 18 said that if democracy is under threat then it should be presumed that every institution, peace and communal amity is shaking. According to him, the biggest threat democracy is facing or may face in the future is religion because the fanaticism behind the killings and attack by gau rakshaks on the face value may not appear to be an act of religion but the source of this madness is derived from the religion.
Gautam Navlakha, a renowned journalist and human rights activist, while addressing the gathering, said threat for democracy will always be there but it is far more important that how much people are conscious and what they are doing to safeguard it. According to him, things have now reached to such an extent that either democracy will prevail or fascism will come. The people of India had once kept the RSS on the lowest point and it is the fault of the people if RSS has gained enormous strength now.
Manisha Bhalla of Outlook said that all those concerned about freedom of Muslim women and reform of Muslim personal laws must see the state of affairs of Hindu women first because their freedom is even worse than others.
Ziya Us Salam, a senior journalist, associated with the Frontline magazine, said that controversies are being orchestrated on routine basis to divert the attention of the people from the real issues. He emphasised that all those talking of reforms in Muslim personal laws should first do reforms in their own Hindu personal laws. He also cited examples of Goa and Pondicherry to substantiate his claim.