HVK Archives: Re: Question Time
Re: Question Time - After Noon
Posted By NARMADACEM.MD@SM7.sprintrpg.ems.vsnl.net.in (NARMADACEM.MD@SM7.sprintrpg.ems.vsnl.net.in)
22 Aug 96 12:38 GMT+0500
Title: Re: Question Time
BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY
RESPONSE TO:
QUESTION TIME - FOR A FEW SILLY QUESTIONS
1 After reading this article, it would be quite clear
to any unbiased reader that he/she should seriously ques-
tion the intellectualism of Shri M J Akbar. Alternative-
ly, perhaps one could say that the practice of secularism
demands that perversion of issues taken up by the BJP
should be the norm.
2 Whenever the BJP takes up the issue of illegal in-
filtration from Bangladesh, in the past the practice was
that there would be a complete denial of the same having
taken place. One pseudo-secular after another would try
and outshout the other, because this, they think, is the
best way to establish their alleged secular credential.
Suddenly, one finds a master of pseudo-secularism, Shri M
J Akbar, openly admitting that the infiltration has taken
place. However, the pseudo-secularist clan should not
lose heart over the matter - he has his own perverted
explanation of the whole phenomenon, and he seems to be
quite satisfied that he has been able to think of all
this. All that is needed is to label the infiltration as
migration, and presto the problem is solved.
3 Before dwelling on the question of illegal infiltra-
tion, let us take up the issue of the Hindu refugees in
India. From about 21% in 1941, the Hindu population in
Pakistan had come down to 17% immediately after the par-
tition, and is now less than 1.5%. The corresponding
figures for Bangladesh are 30%, 25% and less than 10%.
(One just needs to read Lajja by Smt Taslima Nasreen to
get a glimpse of the treatment meted out to Hindus, as
Hindus, in Bangladesh starting from the massacre at Naok-
hali.) On the obverse, the percentage of Muslim popula-
tion in India has increased, even though it may be a
small percentage. It does not take an expert demographer
to recognise that had there not been the question of Hin-
du refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh, the percentage
increase of Muslim population would have shown to be
quite significant. This is a clear sign that the migra-
tion of Muslims from India to Pakistan in the post-parti-
tion period is very small indeed.
4 The Hindus have left Pakistan and Bangladesh without
having any political godfathers in this country. In
fact, most of the political leaders, and many of the so-
called intellectuals, would like them to be swept under
the carpet. Hindus do not form a part of a vote bank,
and therefore they need be no concern to this group of
people.
5 The infiltration of Muslims from Bangladesh is being
encouraged by the very political parties whom Shri Akbar
would label secular. They have been given ration cards
by their political godfathers, and subsequently their
names have been enrolled in the voters list. It is the
tax payer of this country that is paying for non-citi-
zens, and these non-citizens determine the election re-
sults, at least in some of the constituencies. One is
amazed that there can be any possible justification for
such infiltration. However, perversion can lead to any
extreme.
6 No country in the world accepts economic reason as
sufficient for permitting migration into its own bound-
aries. The manner in which the USA turns back such peo-
ple coming from Mexico or China has been shown on the TV
many a times. When the boat people left Vietnam, coun-
tries like Malaysia did not allow them to land, knowing
fully well that they will not be able to survive the hos-
tile seas. Hong Kong had kept the boat people in sepa-
rate camps, and is conducting a programme of forced repa-
triation. Bangladesh refused to take in the Rohingan
Muslims who fled Mayanmar due to persecution there.
7 Yet India is expected to turn a blind eye to the
illegal infiltration from Bangladesh. If they have come
here for economic reasons, then obviously they are creat-
ing a huge burden on the economy, an economy whose desti-
ny was being guided by the very people whom Shri Akbar
would define as secular. However, there is an even more
amazing explanation that Shri Akbar would like to offer.
8 He would like the people of this country to think
that the Muslims from Bangladesh have come here because
they feel safer in a land with a Hindu majority, than
amongst their own brethren. At the same time, he tries
to push aside other pseudo-secularist to get a recogni-
tion to his own theory that Indian Muslims are alienated
and unsafe in a Hindu majority land. What should one
make of this paradox, except that it comes out of a mind
set which has perfected the art of perversion?
9 To understand his intellectual bankruptcy, it might
be worthwhile to remind Shri Akbar what he wrote in his
book India - The Siege Within in 1985: "It needs to be
pointed out that India remains a secular state, not be-
cause one-fifths of the population is Muslim, Sikh or
Christian, and, therefore, obviously has a vested inter-
est in secular constitution, but because nine out of ten
Hindus do not believe in violence against the minorities.
If all the Hindus had been zealots, no law-and-order ma-
chinery in the world could have prevented the massacre of
Muslims who are scattered in villages and towns all
across the country." (p 24.)
August 96
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