(The Muslim) community, in the eyes of a section of Hindus, is permanently in the dock for some real, and mostly imagined, sins of the Muslim rulers of medieval India. This despite the fact that the bulk of these Muslims are of indigenous origin. The community becomes particularly suspect during Indo-Pak armed conflicts, perhaps because Muslims are thought to be responsible for partition. This presumption of guilt got manifested rather crudely during the 1965 Indo-Pak war ... During the Kargil conflict, in spite of the fact that all Muslim forums expressed visible solidarity with the jawans, Dilip Kumar and Maulana Ali Mian's Nadva School were targetted for their supposed lack of loyalty to the country.
The other loyalty test which Muslims supposedly fail, lies in their assumed fondness for Pakistani radio and TV programmes ..
The banning of PTV at the peak of the Kargil conflict by the BJP government under the specious ground of apprehension of inter-group clashes raises two issues. One relating to people's right to information. The other to the right of members of minority communities to be presumed innocent.
The implication is that Muslims will watch and believe the PTV versions, while the Hindus will put reliance on DD; thereafter that the Muslims will ventilate their pro-Pakistan feelings in public which will disturb public tranquillity. This ban then presumes that Muslims are pro-Pakistan ...
There is a need for the government to operationalise Section 153 B which was specially introduced in the IPC to protect certain class of citizens from allegations of disloyalty by virtue of their membership of any religious or other community. Equally, there is a need for the media, the artists and academics to present Muslims as normal Indians in the light of empirical studies.
Any ... study would reveal that even Muslims of Indian origin living in the West and the Gulf do not identify themselves with their Pakistani counterparts. On issues of non-religio-cultural domain such as politics, especially Indo-Pak relations. (Source: The Times of India, 23 July, 1999)
BJP Leader Vinay Katiyar's Fulmination
The Muslim Personal Law Board on Sunday condemned the recent statement of Bajrang Dal chief Vinay Katiyar about the Holy Quran and asked the Government to take action against him.
Mr. Katiyar had reportedly said that as long as the Quran existed on earth, there could be no truce between India and Pakistan ....
BJP President Thakre's Assurance
The BJP president, Kushabhau Thakre, today gave an assurance to the Muslim community to "consider" its demand for action against the BJP leader, Vinay Katiyar, for his statement on the Quran.
