A different encounter

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Shekhar Gupta Tags : Posted: Saturday , Oct 11, 2008 at 0120 hrs

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Similarities with the decades of trouble in Punjab should chasten anybody halfway complacent. Then, too, the political class had slunk back into silence, some out of cynical calculation, some fear, and some for lack of conviction; and for nearly a decade the Indian state talked to the people — Sikhs in this case — through the police. India, Punjab, Sikhs and Hindus all suffered as a result. The consequences of the political class leaving the Muslims to the same fate will be disastrous. Good, sincere politics must fill that dangerous vacuum.

sg@expressindia.com

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A different encounterBy: Girish | 12-Oct-2008 Reply | Forward Sensible Article Mr Gupta. Just one addition it falls on the aam admi and non politicians also to fill the vacuum if the politicians do not.

Kahan Se layen aisa HIndustan By: Ashok Joshi | 12-Oct-2008 Reply | Forward Dear ShekharThe Muslim community is not as isolated and frustrated as their leaders and patronising friends are. Its' people like Prof Mushirul Hasan, Shabnam Hashmi, Sabah Naqvi, MJ Akbar, Mahesh Bhatt, Arjun Singh and Amar Singh. When even Shabana Azami says that Indian Muslim have got a raw deal in India, there there is no hope. Its' the Muslim intellectuals who are really sowing the seeds of discontent among their youth.They want everything to offered to them on platter. They want a perfact society free from all kinds of discrimination and a govt free from all corruption and police that is polite and respectful of citizens. And if it is not there, they claim, they must have a right to unleash jehad. Kahan se layen aapke liay hindustan jahan koi bhooka nanga na ho?

Bringing them all togetherBy: Jojo | 11-Oct-2008 Reply | Forward I really wonder who is happy. Muslims feel alienated, Christians feel threatened, others feel betrayed, SC/ST feel that they are down trodden, upper castes feel robbed, higher class feels unsafe, middle class feels victimized and lower class feels bullied. Minorities feel they are not properly represented, and majority feels that they are over represented. Really, who is happy in all this? Except for a few thick skinned politicians like Arjun Singh and Lalu? I think what will really bring everyone close together is - low level small scale community programs. Nothing binds people together like when they are in the same boat. Give them a chance to do something together, all the problems will take care of themselves.

Counter encounterBy: Ashutosh Kaul | 11-Oct-2008 Reply | Forward Although Shekhar is right to find parallels with Sikh extremism ; Islamic terrorism is in its core fundamentally divergent from it. Sikhs never ever wavered in their faith in the land. Muslims in India unfortunately are ambivalent about her at best. Their sense of alienation has been sharpened by their supposed dethronement ;from being the 'Shah's of Hindustan' to being ordinary citizens. This plays in their mind always. Victors will not equate themselves with the vanquished people. This is the reason we had to partition India, this is is why Kashmiri muslims want to secede and this thought is behind the sometimes silent, sometimes vocal support a terrorist receives from the Muslim community in general. Somehow they can't feel Indian enough. We keep ignoring it and hiding it in meaningless words but honestly only Muslims themselves can decide to end this alienation or not . No amount of cajoling or guidance from outside will help. We can only fit our response ; if we have one!

Good Politics!By: SG | 11-Oct-2008 Reply | Forward Do you Believe there is Good sincere politics in India? Yes the Congress instead of talking to them raised stupid demands like ban the Bajrang Dal and VHP, but what will any political party say (or convince if that's what u want) to them? No one can reason anything with them, they have to come out of their own insecure mindsets and show that all of them are not from the same mould.

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