Is it wise to underestimate more than 15% of the Indian population—Muslims?
By Muddassir Ahmad Qasmi
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is nothing but Muslimophobia. This proposed law is the brainchild of those afraid people, who think that Muslims will dominate India in the next few decades; therefore, they are leaving no stone unturned to exploit Muslims in India out of unknown fear.
At the outset, they tried to deport lakhs of Muslims in the name of Bangladeshis from India through National Register of Citizens (NRC), but they failed on a large scale in their vested interest. Interestingly, more non-Muslims than Muslims excluded from NRC list.
The National Register of Citizenship, which took ten years, employed 52,000 government employees and cost the Government of India a whopping Rs 1,220 crore, is now being considered as a fruitless exercise by the very same people who sought it. (https://www.firstpost.com)
From the abovementioned facts, it became clear crystal that targeted Muslims in Assam were not illegal citizens of India. Yes, NRC proved that a large number of non-Muslim migrants are living in India without proper documents.
Now after failure in Assam, in one hand power, drunken people are trying to exclude Muslims from India as much as possible by NRC and on the other hand, they are going to make every possible effort to include non-Muslim foreigners in Indian citizen’s list through CAB. Is it not biasness?
The main point to be noted here is that if Modi-led government’s plan of NRC is implemented across India, surely, they are going to waste a huge amount of nation’s treasure once more without any gain. As it is clear from the context that the desired number of people, especially Muslims, will not be found illegal citizens, although, they will suffer a lot of problems in the process. Thus, anti-Muslim elements will not be successful in decreasing the number of Muslims from India and Muslimophobia will remain intact.
Here is, also, it should be clear that Muslims are not against NRC or NPR (The National Population Register) if applied and undertaken properly without any kind of prejudice for the safety and security of the country.
Thus, those who see an increasing number of the Muslim population in India as an approaching danger should remember well that Muslims are not going to leave their motherland—India ever, if they would have desired to do so, they would have gone Pakistan at the time of partition.
Notably, Indian Muslims never feel ashamed of their decision not to leave India in 1947 and this was because the Indian constitution confers on them full rights to enjoy their freedom of religion. But alas! A handful of communal minded people in India have always been trying to shatter the concept of one nation theory.
Hence, it is wise not to squander again a huge amount of nation’s money only to weaken Muslims in India. They should remember that Muslims are integral part of India, if they are weak and unsafe; ultimately country is weak and unsafe. Is it rational to underestimate more than 15% of Indian population—Muslims?
Thus, the only way out is to go ahead together hand in hand for the prosperity of the country and democracy. Yet, if a section of people thinks that they have all right to rule India, again, for this purpose too they should try their best to win minorities’ heart and provide them with facility and security.
The author is an Islamic scholar, Assistant Editor of Eastern Crescent, Mumbai and a graduate of Darul Uloom Deoband (largest Islamic seminary in the world).
