Nothing can be more bizarre than a political party distancing itself from the public utterances of its senior office-bearers and Ministers, thereby seeking to wash its hands of both accountability and responsibility. Yet that’s exactly what we have been witnessing this past week with the Congress fobbing off journalists wanting to know the party’s position on Mr Salman Khurshid’s promise to Muslims of Uttar Pradesh and Mr Digvijay Singh’s uninhibited slander of a police officer who died fighting terrorists, by describing those statements as no more than “personal views” which do not have political sanction.
Mr Khurshid, who is Minister for Law and Justice in the UPA Government and a star campaigner of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, has let it be known that Muslims would be the beneficiaries of an enhanced nine per cent quota if they were to come out on polling day and push the button next to the ‘Hand’. He has since been served with a notice by the Election Commission, to which he has responded without betraying either remorse or regret. Mr Singh, who lives to be embraced by Muslim fanatics as one of their own, has once again lent his voice to the absurd claim that “innocent boys” were killed by Delhi Police personnel at Batla House and accused the Prime Minister and the Home Minister of blocking a judicial inquiry into the incident. His purpose was to mollify closet sympathisers and members of the Indian Mujahideen in the ghettos of Azamgarh.
By promising to enhance what’s officially described as “minority quota” but in reality is Muslim quota from 4.5 per cent to nine per cent, Mr Khurshid has sought to rope in the support of those Muslims who have been demanding 10 per cent reservation in Government jobs and educational institutions. What is also implied, if not explicitly stated, is that the Congress plans to expand the ambit of Muslim quota by including those who are not listed as ‘Other Backward Classes’, a restrictive clause at present. In other words, the fig leaf of ‘caste’ will be cast aside and a communal quota will be legitimised; given the reluctance of other political parties, barring the BJP, to be seen as not being sufficiently ‘secular’, as and when the move is initiated it will secure both cross-party approval and pass legislative muster because the Constitution would need to be amended. It’s not just mischief that is afoot, a sinister assault on what remains of our secular Republic is being plotted. Lest it cause an uproar and lead to a majoritarian backlash by way of Hindus voting against the Congress, the party has found it expedient to disown the promise and distance itself from Mr Khurshid’s pledge. A serpent speaks with a forked tongue, so does the Congress. A snake in the grass strikes those who are unaware of its evil intention, so does the Congress. To take the party’s denial and disapproval on face value could prove to be disastrous — for the people, for the nation. Experience bears witness to this fact.
As for Mr Singh, who infamously endorsed the mind-boggling claim that the Pakistan-sponsored carnage in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, was the result of a Hindu-Jewish conspiracy even before the body count had been completed, and later went on to allege that the RSS had a hand in the bloodbath, especially the death of Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, he has been persistent with his denigration of Hindus ever since he got the boot in Madhya Pradesh from where he had to exit in sackcloth and ashes. He now spends every waking moment of his life heaping either abuse on Hindus or praise on Muslims. When it comes to Hindus, he is neither discerning nor finicky: Babas are charlatans; faith is superstition; activism is harlotry; and, being born a Hindu in this country is a crime and a Hindu practising his or her faith a crime twice over. But when it comes to Muslims, he exercises greater choice, electing to be seen to be standing by the malcontent who do far greater disservice to faith and community than those hostile to Islam. Nothing else explains why he should be so obsessed with Azamgarh whose ghettos have produced, and continue to produce, rabid fanatics who wear treachery as a badge of honour and believe deliverance lies in the slaughter of innocent men, women and children.
Mr Singh fashions himself after Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Public memory in this wondrous land of ours is notoriously short. Given this reality, he thinks it’s a clever ploy to repeat a lie, again and again, till it begins to stick as the truth. Vile demagoguery and offensive hate speech have combined to form the bulk of what he says, and says with the confidence of a cynical politican who knows his party will not discipline him, leave alone discard him. Mr Singh is not just a general secretary of the Congress, he is the mentor-tutor of the scion of the party’s first family and guides the Prince through the Byzantine lanes of politics. In the Queen’s court, he is the primus inter pares among courtiers who are privileged to be granted audience without having to stand in a queue. Hence, when he speaks, we must take it for granted that he amplifies the thoughts — such as they are — of the Palace.
The Congress, therefore, cannot wave aside the shocking slur on the memory of Mohan Chand Sharma, the Delhi Police Inspector who was killed by Indian Mujahideen members at Batla House in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar on September 19, 2008, and is now shamingly accused by Mr Singh of executing a ‘fake encounter’. The police had specific information that Atif Amin, Mohammed Sajid, Mohammed Saif, Zeeshan and Ariz Khan, all with Azamgarh connections and involved with plotting and executing the serial bombings in the national capital on September 13, 2008, in which at least 30 people were killed and over 100 grievously injured, were hiding at Batla House. In the police raid on their hideout, Amin and Sajid were killed, Saif and Zeeshan were arrested, while Khan escaped. Sharma, who led the charge, was fatally shot by the terrorists. He died an honourable death, making the supreme sacrifice for his country. A police officer’s valour is now being besmirched by the Congress (yes, Mr Singh speaks for the party, not for himself) in the most dishonourable and despicable manner. In the process, grave injustice is being done to India’s Muslims.
Ironically, the Indian Mujahideen is not impressed by Mr Singh’s exertions. Or else the Prince wouldn’t have been pitilessly jeered and rebuked at Azamgarh last Wednesday.
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