Secularism's Coaching Class

The questions, which every "pseudo-secularist" Congressman has to confront—Why do Indian Muslims burst crackers when Pakistan wins a cricket match? Why should the government finance the Haj? Do the 1984 anti-Sikh riots leave the Congress with the moral authority to question what happened in Gujarat? Why is the population of Muslims growing at a faster pace than that of Hindus? How is G.M. Banatwala’s Muslim League different from Jinnah’s? Why shouldn’t Article 370 be scrapped?—is proof enough of the Sangh’s dubious success.

Around 1,000 Congressmen attended this ‘council of war’ and bombarded their leaders with questions. The latter struggled hard to come up with answers which would not only convince the converted but also the large multitudes infected by the germ of Hindutva. Help was, of course, forthcoming from some non-Congress, anti-communal intellectuals attending the meet. Historian Mushirul Hasan, academic Arjun Dev, activists Madhu Kishwar and Shabnam Hashmi, and Prof Imtiaz Ahmed of JNU were there to assist the Congress veterans with their criticisms.