Letter to BS: Uttar Pradesh interfaith couple passport controversy

Refusing passport to an inter-faith couple in Uttar Pradesh is a sign of the times. India’s tragedy is that the poison of religious hatred has come to permeate all levels of society. At the same time, India’s strength is that most Indians, irrespective of their faiths, are still staunchly secular. Without secularism, India, a multi-faith land, cannot hold itself together. Even so, it has to be conceded that the passport officer who harassed the couple and made rude gestures at them was just a specimen of an increasing number of religious bigots. It was sheer religious zealotry on his part