Letters: Versions of secularism

Though I largely agree with Hasan Suroor's observations in his article "Modi, faux Secularists and Muslims" (September 23), his certificate of authentic secularism to the Congress has to be taken with a pinch of salt. The Congress version of secularism has been distorted ever since Mahatma Gandhi undertook the Khilafat Movement in the fond hope of luring Muslims to the Indian independence movement. Avoiding the Uniform Civil Code on the flimsy pretext that demand should come from the minority community itself when the Hindu Marriage Act and other Acts aimed at reforming Hindu society were slammed down their throat despite vociferous opposition again exposes the Congress' double standards on secularism. The craven attempt to appease Hindus by allowing Shilanyas at the Ram janmabhoomi in the late eighties and the balancing act to pacify Muslims by way of reversing the court's judgment in the Shah Bano case are further cases in point.

However, the author rightly points out that "the Muslim right has been Muslims' own worst enemy". The images of Yasin Malik sharing the stage with 26/11 perpetrator Hafiz Saeed; the overenthusiastic response of Hurriyat leaders towards the Pakistan high commissioner's invitation for talks and so on do vitiate public perception.

Ajay Tyagi Mumbai

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