Few would deny that the bomb blasts that shredded the peace in our towns in recent times are a crime against humanity, and events should compel us to think hard about solutions. While there have been no dearth of debates, remonstrances and pontifications through the media, it is painful that though we have been suggested solutions by the bushel, none have really served to address the roots of the problem. The Muslim community has been insular and has been struggling with hidebound approaches to the problem; the truth is that only they can rescue themselves.

I do not claim that a Muslim identity always helps make things smoother. In 2002, when the riots were searing Gujarat, I was joint director of the Gujarat police academy. A mob of around a thousand people stopped my official car, and someone in the crowd noticed the nameplate on my chest, and shouted. My driver, a Hindu, was quickwitted enough to somehow race the car through roadblocks to safety. At another point, in 1992, I was deputy commissioner of police in Ahmedabad and was told that Chief Minister Chimanbhai Patel wanted a Muslim police officer to manage the post-Babri Masjid demolition troubles in Surat. I replied: “When I put on the uniform, I am not a Muslim police officer. I am just an officer, and my caste and creed stay at home.” I was not asked again.

Yet, all that cannot obfuscate the real malaise, which is within.

Many years ago, the late Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had aptly, metaphorically, depicted his agony when he addressed a Friday congregation at the Jama Masjid in Delhi: “Do you remember that when I hailed you , you cut off my tongue; I picked up my pen and you severed my hand; I wanted to move forward and you cut off my legs; I tried to turn over and you injured my back.”

... contd.