New Delhi, Oct. 8 (The Telegraph): A former PMO official has written to Narendra Modi asking whether his long silence on the Dadri lynching should be seen as “tacit approval” of the current “anti-Muslim and anti-Christian atmosphere” in the country.
“This heinous act (lynching) received unequivocal condemnation across the nation and the globe. But you chose to remain silent on this even though you kept on tweeting on various other issues,” Zafar Mahmood, who worked in the PMO from 2005 to 2009 under Manmohan Singh, wrote.
“How should we, the people of India, interpret your conspicuous silence, Mr Prime Minister? Should we take this as your tacit approval of anti-Muslim and anti-Christian political atmosphere now looming large in our country…?”
Mahmood, a former Indian Revenue Service official who took voluntary retirement in 2009, now heads India’s largest Muslim charity, the Zakat Foundation of India, and lives in Delhi.
He said he had emailed the letter to Modi last night. He has also posted a tweet with a link to the letter, http://canaranews.com/uploaded on Zakat’s Facebook page.
In Singh’s PMO, Mahmood was the main interface between the Prime Minister and the Sachar committee, appointed to examine Muslims’ socio-economic conditions and make recommendations.
Ahead of last year’s general election, Mahmood had posed sharp questions to Modi on his party’s attitude towards Muslims during a conclave organised by an NGO in Gandhinagar as part of Modi’s outreach to the minorities.
His letter cites the presentation he had made at the June 2013 conclave, highlighting Muslims’ problems and the 2002 riots.
Modi, the letter says, had assured Mahmood he would look into the minorities’ problems if his party formed the government at the Centre.
“We are yet to notice any ground-level affirmative action,” the letter says. “On the other hand, the anti-Muslim and anti-Christian utterances and happenings during these 17 months have vitiated the atmosphere in the country.”
The letter mentions last year’s attacks on churches as well as Mohammed Akhlaque’s lynching, on the suspicion of storing and eating beef, near Dadri in western Uttar Pradesh on September 28.
Mahmood told The Telegraph he had written to Modi also in July last year, congratulating him on the election victory. He had cited Muslims’ grievances in general as well as their expectations from his government.
“But I did not get any reply from the Prime Minister,” he said.
His letter cites how, as one of about 50 Muslim invitees to the 2013 conclave, he had asked Modi about certain “anti-Muslim articles” featured on the BJP’s website.
“We are pleased that, after my Ahmedabad presentation, you got deleted from the BJP website the three hateful anti-Muslim articles that purportedly reflected the party’s philosophy,” the letter says.
It goes on to ask: “How does your silence mesh with our constitutional pledge to uphold the dignity of the individual? How does your silence square up to Article 25 which says that all people are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practise and propagate religion?”
It continues: “How does it mesh with the basic truth that all persons have the right to practise their faith (in whichever manner) they choose and to do so free of persecution, fear and discrimination?”
Mahmood, a PhD in public administration from Aligarh Muslim University, had been posted for a while as first secretary to the Indian consulate in Saudi Arabia.
