When godless Marxists and religious Islamists got together to hate America

Of all the objections to the nuclear deal the most mystifying and intriguing is that the Prime Minister should desist from going ahead with it because it offends Indian Muslims. First information of this came from of all people a supposedly godless Communist MP by the name of M K Pandhe. Commissar Karat was quick to disown his comrade's comment, but by then it had been picked up by other people, including the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and the Indian Union Muslim League whose representative in Dr Manmohan Singh's government is E Ahamed, Minister of State in the External Affairs ministry.

This newspaper quoted one of his party colleagues as saying, "The Muslim community is worried about the deal. The IUML would ask the Congress to consider the community's concerns while going ahead with the deal". If you surf the net, as I did to research Muslim sentiments on nuclear matters, you will come upon various Islamic organisations who state that they do not approve of the deal. This has nothing to do with some ancient injunction in the Quran or the hadith, thereby above the realm of debate, but to do with the more modern phenomenon of anti-Americanism.

The world's Muslims hate America, the argument goes, because the American government has been killing Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, for the Indian Government to get close to America in civilian, military or strategic terms would be seen as a direct affront to Indian Muslims. The Muslim organisations who take this view appear not to have noticed that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan are Muslim countries and all very close to the United States. How do they explain this? They do not. Just as Commissar Karat does not feel the need to explain why he hates America so much that he was ready to blow the only chance the Communists have ever had or will have to control a government in Delhi.

... contd.

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