Open letter to Azam Khan: Your silence will help Muslims - Hindustan Times
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Open letter to Azam Khan: Your silence will help Muslims

Hindustan Times | ByVinod Sharma
Oct 07, 2015 07:09 PM IST

Open letter to Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan.

Dear Mr Azam Khan,

Azam Khan(HT File Photo)
Azam Khan(HT File Photo)

I presume you are a great defender of the rights of your community. I too am one, though I wasn’t born in your faith. I am an accidental yet proud Hindu. I consider it my duty to speak for the minorities. And when I say minorities, I mean all numerical minorities in our country.

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For years now, I’ve watched with dismay as you have gone around as a self-appointed spokesperson of Muslims--- spinning crooked lines with a straight face.

I must admit that I’m envious of your proficiency of the Urdu language. But coming from you, it seldom sounds like the language in which Ghalib wrote:

“Na tha kuch tou khuda tha, Kuch na hota tou khuda hota,

Duboyaa mujh ko hone ne, Na hota main tou kya hota...”

(When there was nothing, then God existed; if nothing existed, then God would exist.

‘Being’ drowned me; if I did not exist, then what would I be?)

I’m sure you aren’t unaware of it. But tell you I must that your bluster does not help our Muslim brethren. It legitimizes, in fact, the forces of polarisation you pretend to fight; weakening saner voices in our society. I’m protesting because mine is one such voice.

Read: Will take Dadri lynching case to UN despite criticism: Azam Khan

The collateral damage is similar when terrorists strike. Pacifists then are on the run, chased and hooted by war mongers.

Take for instance the latest Eureka moment that had you writing to the UN Secretary General on the ghastly Dadri incident in UP. Now tell me, Mr Azam, whether it isn’t a vote of no confidence in India or the state government in which you are a minister?

Aren’t you as much disappointed with the Samajwadi Party and the way it has protected the lives and property of UP Muslims since the Muzaffarnagar violence in the run-up to the 2014 polls? If yes, you haven’t told us. If no, then why bring in the UN?

Be that as it may, what made you think the UN could be a better bet for Indian Muslims than your party and your leader Mulayam Singh Yadav? You may be having problems with Mulayam who lately came in for praise by our prime minister. But what about the ubiquitous Indian secularist, the torch-bearer of the idea that’s under attack?

You have the liberty to chart your way. I, for one, believe you would have served your community’s cause better by seeking UN intervention for repatriation of Dawood Ibrahim to India. Or for expeditious trial in Pakistan of the 26/11 case accused.

I’m convinced without an iota of doubt that you would have empowered your community, yourself and a whole lot of Indians like me by invoking the UN in these matters as part of its global war on terrorism. But that would have meant you thinking straight without a hidden agenda, Mr Azam. No?

I beseech you before signing off that let non-Muslim India take care of our minorities. That wouldn’t require any effort on your part. All that you need to do is to keep quiet. We’d do the rest!

Vinod Sharma

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