By Ghulam Muhammed
Al-Jazeerah, August 30, 2004
This is the measure of the secular commitment of Sonia Congress that when its top senior foreign affairs adviser, J. N. Dixit, visits France, it takes up the cause of 20 million Sikhs of India’s concern for the 5000 French Sikh citizens, who have been deeply affected by the recent French legislations banning wearing of Hijab, Sikh headgear, Jewish skullcaps or large crosses, while attending state educational and other institutions. Dixit was reportedly able to get assurances from the French authorities that some via media will be found by the administration to address the religious sensitivities of the Sikhs.
It is deplorable that the same Dixit did not think of sensitivities of the 150 million Indian Muslims, whose votes have been keeping the Congress in saddle for the first 40 years and had played a key role in its comeback to Central rule, and they would have liked their government representative to register its reservation on the French political measure of banning Muslim girls to wear head-scarves or Hijab. Indian Muslims should probably thank their stars, that the secular Indian governments have not taken any measure to ban the scarves in India.
Unless Indian Muslims get out of their demoralised state of despondency and force the government to acknowledge the existence and relevance of their presence in their country, such routine slights by hard-headed bureaucrats, raised in the traditions of Congress’s official malign neglect of their Muslim citizens will continue to work against the spirit of secularism, communal harmony and rebuilding of the composite national identity.
GHULAM MUHAMMED, Mumbai –India