The colour of persecution

Invoking the past to justify the present is the last resort of the rogue, but to do it with narrow sectarian lenses is worse

The idea of nationhood is being dragged through some nasty bends in the road. In an impassioned speech in Parliament, the home minister declared that India would never turn her face away from persecuted minorities in neighbouring countries. 

For minority, read Hindu, for his solicitous concern is limited to the three Muslim-majority nations in the region. Many in the opposition raised objections to his careful selection, but the minister was quick to call them out. To read duplicity in his intentions would be malicious, he said, because it is not him who had imbued the humanitarian act with religious colour; his