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Accusing the Congress of adopting a “flexible policy” on politics based on religion during its rule, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani on Wednesday said the party would not have been “ousted from power” had it taken a stand against communalism after Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated.
“The flexible policy adopted by the Congress toward politics of hatred based on religion caused severe damage to both the country and the Constitution… the manner in which the Constitution and democratic values are being openly trampled upon is something that even our leaders of the freedom movement could not have imagined,” said Madani, who is also the vice president of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
Pointing out that communal forces were behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Madani said had communalism been crushed at that very time, the country could have been saved from devastation.
“Communal forces were treated with leniency, and strict legal action against them, as required by the Constitution and law, was avoided. As a result, communal forces were given ample opportunity to grow and strengthen,” he said in a statement.
“After Partition, when anti-Muslim riots erupted across the country, Mahatma Gandhi went on a fast to stop them. This did not sit well with communal forces, and even with some senior leaders within the Congress. They turned against him, and ultimately he was assassinated,” Madani said.
“Had the Constitution been implemented honestly and fully along the very lines on which the foundations of free India were laid, we would not be witnessing these days today,” Madani added.
Madani said it is an unfortunate truth that Congress leaders, perhaps out of some fear, adopted a soft and flexible stance against religiously driven politics of hatred from the very beginning.
“In our view, the killing of a great personality like Mahatma Gandhi was the killing of the country’s secularism itself. Sadly, what the Congress leadership should have done at that time, it failed to do,” Madani said.
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The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind is an organisation of Islamic scholars belonging to the Deobandi school of thought in India.
