Condemned!

Press Statement
New Delhi 11 August 2007

Triply condemned – for attacking a woman, a refuge-seeker and a writer

[Text of Press Statement issued by Dr John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council, Government of India and President of the All India Catholic Union.]

The Andhra Pradesh legislators of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) have not covered themselves or their party with glory by attacking Bangladeshi woman writer Taslima Nasreen, now in living in exile in India, at the Hyderabad Press Club where she was launching a new book. The attack on a woman would have been contemptible in itself, the religious bigotry and political opportunism shown by Legislators Moazzam Khan, Pasha Qadri and Afsar Khan reduces it to a level where even their own co-religionists, howsoever orthodox, would find it difficult to defend, whatever the real or perceived provocation.

Law Commission member Prof Tahir Mahmood has done right to point out that it is not persons of religion but political workers who have assaulted the writer. The fact that the party, which is confined to a pocket of the ancient city, is unrepentant explains more than any words can do the depth of its political vested interest.

But a very thin line divides religious fundamentalism and the politicians and politics that feed off it. Whether it is the MIM of Hyderabad clinging to a narrow ledge of power in the black depths of our political system, or the Sangh Parivar more sonorous in its might, or for that matter extreme and sometimes violent elements of other faiths, mother tongues and ethnicities, each one of them stands condemned in the civilised modern nation which Nehru dreamt of 60 years ago.

I congratulate Professor Zoya Hasan, member of the National Minorities Commission and like Prof Mahmood, an author herself whose family has seen intolerance of her own community, that while each one of us has the right to expression and free speech, it can be practiced only if each one of us extends it to others. It will be recalled that the protest against Da Vinci Code in Mumbai remained peaceful, and merely verbal.

Faith itself remains beyond challenge, but religious practices are open to reform. Europe’s burning of heretics and blasphemers at the stake has been buried with the Dark ages. Modern religion surely can do without an intolerance that goes counter to God’s expressed love for his Creation. And therefore violence is inexcusable and must be condemned whenever and wherever it takes place, and whosoever is its author. Ms Barkha Dutt, hugely talented Television anchorperson does Civil society grave injustice is trying to insinuate that activists criticise only Hindus. Activists never criticise Hindus. They criticise the bullies and killers of the Sangh Parivar to whom the Constitution of India, the Indian Penal Code and the teachings of India’s own saints hold no meaning, as they criticise and condemn the bullies of the MIM.

The State cannot differentiate, nor can it discriminate. Above all, it cannot dither. The rule of law must prevail at all times. And the protection of the Law must be available to everyone in India, even if they are Bangladeshi women writers in exile in this great and otherwise haven of Democracy where the Mind is still free and the heart still warm.

Dr. John Dayal

Member: National Integration Council
Government of India

National President: All India Catholic Union (Founded 1919)
Secretary General: All India Christian Council (Founded 1999)
President: United Christian Action, Delhi (Founded 1992)

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