Irresponsible Antics

In the run up to the polls in Bihar the media gave a fair amount of coverage to a bizarre spectacle. On his campaign trail Ram Vilas Paswan tagged along an Osama bin Laden look-alike who evoked, as he was meant to, much mirth and enthusiasm, especially in constituencies with a substantial Muslim population. Unused to all this attention, the poor fellow, picked up from the backwaters of the benighted state, appeared to be somewhat bewildered.His mentor however left no one in doubt that he was pleased as Punch with the success of his gimmick.
Paswan should have known better. As a long-serving member of Parliament and a minister in several Union governments, he was surely aware of Osama bin Laden''s murderous activities conducted under the banner of Islam. Here was a man who buttressed the dreaded Taliban regime in Afghanistan. His Al Qaida network has sown terror around the world. He is known to have masterminded the 9/11 attacks in the United States which changed, and continue to change, the contours of the post-Cold War international order.
Indeed Pakistan-based terrorist outfits linked to bin Laden have been responsible for heinous acts of violence on Indian soil. Whether it is in Jammu & Kashmir or in Gujarat or in Delhi, the various ''armies'' of Islam have been on a killing spree to settle scores with the ''infidels''. In their eyes, the Saudi billionaire is the paramount avenger of past and present humiliations heaped on Muslims and who, by that token, has to be obeyed with unquestioning loyalty.
Some of that loyalty echoes through the publications and speeches of the Pakistani jehadis. Their rants against Christians, Jews, Hindus, Ahmadis and the Aghakhanis are vicious beyond belief. Within Pakistan itself, and in Muslim communities elsewhere, they cause embarrassment and anger. But none of all this seemed to matter to Paswan when he paraded his ''catch'' to entice the Muslim vote.
Paswan''s self-serving gimmick exposes to broad daylight the shallow commitments of some of our politicians to the cause of secularism. As it is, one found it hard to stomach the sight of these champions of social justice hosting iftar parties with much fanfare during the month of Ramzan. (The list also included the BJP leaders when they were in office.) If they had genuinely wished to advertise their secular credentials, they could have desisted from associating themselves with the rituals of a particular religious community. Failing that, they could have celebrated India''s religious pluralism with a bash for Diwali, Christmas, Buddha Jayanti, Mahavira Jayanti, Guru Nanak''s birthday, the Parsi New Year and so forth. But they have done nothing of the sort thus inviting the charge that their selective secularism is but a ruse to exploit the Muslim vote-bank.
On this latter count, the systematic refusal of the secular leaders to reach out to progressive elements in the Muslim fold is even more irksome. They prefer to fraternise with illiterate mullahs, reactionary Imams and leaders of sundry organisations claiming to advance the interests of the community. In actual fact, as moderate Muslims assert more and more pointedly, none of these guardians of the true faith are prepared to allow their co-religionists to practice Islam even as they subscribe to such values as gender equality, individual freedoms and the celebration of our cultural diversity.
Until now criticism of this nature directed at the secular leaders emanated from the ranks of the sangh parivar. Had our liberals taken the initiative to debunk the double-speak of those swearing by secularism they would have been better placed to counter the votaries of Hindu communalism. But the liberals have been lax on this score. That is why Ram Vilas Paswan got away without an editorial reprimand for his irresponsible antics.