While profiling of any community is bad, it should equally be imprudent to profile one for being a permanent victim. In the business of democratic, secular, one-law-for-all system of governance, all citizens and communities must be equal and innocent unless proven otherwise. Or let me put it even more simply: just because you cannot simply presume a person to be a terrorist because he belongs to a particular community, you cannot presume a suspect to be innocent just because he happens to come from %u2018a%u2019 particular community. The question the prime minister needs to ask/answer is, has his government %u2014 and, even more precisely, the political formulation that keeps it in power %u2014 been true to this test?
IT is a cruel question to ask a government which has a record of complete, total, %u2018spotless%u2019 failure in cracking any of the major terrorist attacks that have taken place on its watch in three full years. Not in one single case %u2014 most significant of which, of course, is the Mumbai train bombings %u2014 has this government been able to catch any suspects and charge them. Even by the usually dismal standards of Indian policing, this record is remarkable. Terror attacks in Malegaon, Jama Masjid in Delhi, Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, Ayodhya, Samjhauta Express, Sankat Mochan Mandir in Varanasi, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Sarojini Nagar in New Delhi have all gone fully unreso
The fact is, the Congress knows there is no problem with Patil%u2019s secularism. It is just that it has now painted itself into a corner where the secular commitment of anybody is now to be certified by the Left. And what applies to individuals applies to policies as well. Those of us who had stuck our necks out and underlined the dangers of communalising our foreign policy can now draw some perverse I-told-you-so joy. Unfortunately, the same communalisation that distorted our foreign policy is now beginning to damage our internal security policy. It is a matter of time before it begins to blight our economic policy as well. The prime minister is much too wise not to figure that. But even someone as patient and skilful as he is may find it tough to cut through this ideological fog shrouding his party and government now. This continuing failure on internal security and reverse-communalisation of the entire UPA political discourse will strengthen Hindu communal forces, and any gain in Muslim votes, if at all, won%u2019t come to the Congress, which now faces the old predicament of na khuda hi mila, na visal-e sanam.
