With an apparent relief the Union Home Minister Chidambaram has stated that he was not present when Jamiat-e-Ulama Hind passed the resolution endorsing earlier fatwa declaring the national song un-Islamic. If he implied, thereby, that if he was around he would have stopped the resolution from being adopted, he has given no such indication. The session of the Jamaat was a planned affair. The Home Minister’s presence was scheduled. Surely the resolution of such a controversial import was on the agenda. The Minister has not pleaded even ignorance of such a resolution on the agenda. Nor has he expressed even a mild disapproval of the resolution. The Congress party, on the contrary, has stated that the matter is a sensitive one involving religious sentiments and no controversy should be raked up over it. It is strange that the Congress party failed to state that the matter was settled way back in 1937 and no controversy should have been raked over it.
Dr. Mookhi Amir Ali
Mumbai, Maharashtra