Union home minister P. Chidambaram might be a better and dynamic captain of the ship at the North Block compared to his dour and uninspiring predecessors, but I am sure even he would agree that the back-to-back strikes — bomb blast in Pune and the Maoist destruction of a security force camp in West Bengal’s Paschim Mednipur district, have some connection. It would do the country much good if he views these issues as connected — planned together as part of a larger conspiracy to destroy India.
Jammu and Kashmir: A tale of two flags
The contrast between the agitators in Jammu, holding the Tricolour and shouting "Bharat Mata ki jai," and the separatists in Kashmir Valley, marching across the LoC to Pakistan, with the Pakistani flag, sums up the crisis in a way which will remain in the nation’s consciousness for years to come. The clash is not between two regions, but two value systems. The character of the two groups of agitators is defined by their respective flags: The Tricolour represents the spirit of India — respect for diversity in all its multitudes, be it faith or language; The Pakistani flag denotes an exclusivist character devoid of the right to dissent in all avenues of life.
Madrasas: A two-school theory
The Muslim community in India has rejected the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s proposal to have a centralised madrasa board to oversee the education of Muslims through these religious schools.
The government is keen to give official recognition to madrasa education and accept madrasa certificates as equivalent to the secondary board certificates. It is now waiting for a suitable law draft from the community. By giving a veneer of science and general knowledge to the religious education that is imparted to poor Muslim students in these so-called schools, is it possible to get the community to progress?
It’s by now a settled fact that the UPA government, at the instance of the Rajindar Sachar committee, tried to seek a Muslim headcount in the armed forces. The unprecedented opposition though has the government resorting to speaking with a forked tongue now. On the one hand, it denies the entire move while on the other it rationalises the exercise in the name of "secularism".
The idea of ‘dividing’ the armed forces on communal lines was inspired by a book, Khaki and Ethnic Violence in India by Omar Khalidi, a professor of Hyderabadi origin who teaches architectural history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Excerpts from the book were part of IUML president G.M. Banatwala’s memorandum to the Sachar committee. Khalidi had also advocated, in an interview with The Times of India, a reorganisation of the districts in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam to create "compact Muslim zones" where their culture and rights could be "safeguarded". In other words, he’s playing ‘Pied Piper’ Allama Iqbal to a future Jinnah (ironically, he even has a Muslim League president by his side). It’s no surprise then that he suggests increasing the Muslim presence in the forces—it stems from the same mindset of Islamist consolidation.
