Mr Khurshid is indeed right when he admits that the Congress has bloody hands. It’s time the Muslims saw through the game in which they are used and thrown by the Congress at will.
Congress leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid deserves to be complimented for his candid confession at a recent event in Aligarh university that his party’s hands are soiled with the blood of Muslims. Though the party has been wooing the Muslim vote bank with tokenisms, it has, in fact, been quite detestful of the community in reality. In private, many leaders of the party spew venom on the community. It has always used and manipulated Muslims to grab and remain in power.
The December 1992 and January 1993 communal riot in Mumbai, in which hundreds were killed and property worth thousands of crores was destroyed, is a glaring case in point.
There was an intense intra-party power struggle taking place within the Maharashtra unit of the Congress. A faction got a puppet in the form of Sudhakar Naik installed as the chief minister even as its leader was eyeing the Prime Minister’s post. Quick to sense the threat, the then PM P.V. Narasimha Rao deftly won over Naik to his side. And with a view to breaking the back of this faction, Rao got Naik to order a crackdown on the Kalani and Thakur gangs which were backing the leader coveting PMship. The gang leaders were beaten up in police custody which prompted Mr Ambitious to personally call up Mr Naik and beg him to instruct the cops not to torture the goons!!
My submission is that had Mr Naik been removed post the December ’92 riots, the January’93 riots and the subsequent March ’93 serial bomb blasts would not have taken place.
When the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, riots broke out spontaneously in Mumbai. They were essentially anti-government in character and had not taken a communal character. Over 200 persons were killed in police firing. By now anti-Naik faction headed by Mr Ambitious thought that Mr Rao had no choice but change the CM. But Mr Rao saw through the game and persisted with Mr Naik.
Hugely disappointed, Mr Ambitious then allegedly dialed his close friend Dawood Ibrahim in Dubai and asked him to start riots in Mumbai. The December 1992 violence was quelled by the police and the city was limping back to normalcy. That’s when the stabbing of innocent Hindus by the D Gang started in Bhendi Bazar, Dongri etc.
The communal temperature was rising. The burning down of an entire Hindu family in Radhabai Chawl in Jogeshwari was the proverbial last straw. Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who was under pressure from his restless cadres, decided to step in. He ordered Shiv Sainiks to retaliate and they did that with ferocity. And this is precisely what Mr Ambitious wanted; furious communal riots marking the total breakdown of law and order which would force Mr Rao to ease out Mr Naik.
My submission is that had Mr Naik been removed post the December ’92 riots, the January’93 riots and the subsequent March ’93 serial bomb blasts would not have taken place.
Mumbai paid a heavy price in blood because of the intra-party feuds of the Congress. Mr Khurshid is indeed right when he admits that the Congress has bloody hands. It’s time the Muslims saw through the game in which they are used and thrown by the Congress at will. The need is for the emergence of a new and progressive leadership among the Muslims which will dovetail the aspirations of the community with that of the nation.
Note:
1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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I thought Ahmed Patel was quite powerful as was Khurshid himself. The muslims themselves need to change the narrative they believe in. There may be good reasons why many are despised..uncontrolled population growth, poor literacy and complying with and enforcing upon others uncivilised illogical Sharia laws.