The UPA?s worries over increasing Muslim alienation in the backdrop of recent terror attacks in the country refuses to go away as the Congress and its allies grapple with the political dilemma of standing up to their conventional vote bases without succumbing to charges of being soft on terror.
Facing sharp criticism from opposition BJP and Left parties in the wake of the recent serial blasts in the Capital as well as other parts of the country, the UPA had decided to project a tough image?showing that it was capable of tackling terror with firmness. However, the crackdown by police and investigating agencies and arrests of members belonging to minority community with alleged links to organisations like SIMI and Indian Mujahideen (IM) clearly has not gone down well amongst them.
They are angry that the tough stand of the government, instead of dispelling the stereotype about the community, is only reinforcing Sangh Parivar propaganda of alleged Muslim involvement in all terror acts. So much so, that the community is threatening to distance itself from the Congress in coming assembly and general elections.
The anxiety in the ruling alliance over such developments was manifest when sections of Delhi Congressmen called on chief minister Shiela Dikshit and other party leaders to raise doubts over the Jamianagar encounter, in which a senior Delhi Police officer was also killed in the shootout. They are also likely to call on Union home minister Shivraj Patil on the issue. The move clearly gives away the unease in the ruling coalition over the delicate balancing act which the government is trying to do without much success.
Senior ministers and party leaders on Wednesday, while conceding to the contradictory positions, maintained that they would try and reach out to Muslim leaders and opinion makers after Id to explain the tough stand of the government on terror. They agree that the impression that the ruling coalition was not standing up for the minority community also got reinforced when Jammu agitationists were treated with kid gloves during the Amarnath land controversy and protesters from the valley were not spared.
??It is difficult to take a political stand as of now on the Jamianagar case. But yes, questions are being raised in some sections of the party?? AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh said on Wednesday. ?
?However, we are not in favour of any strong law. We think that better policing is sufficient to tackle the terror problem?? he added.
On the issue of Muslim alienation, Singh pointed out that the UPA government had been formed to keep the communal forces out and that the Manmohan Singh government had set up the Sachar committee to go into socio economic conditions of minorities.