Digvijaya Singh’s ISIS sympathy among Muslim comment proves he must be gagged right now

"Continuous persecution and injustice to Muslims will make Pakistan's wish to create unrest in India attractive. They have to be given a sense of belonging and confidence that everyone is equal," said Digvijaya Singh

By: Somi Das |
March 9, 2017 2:13 pm

Congress senior leader Digvijaya Singh played a very dirty political game. Just as reports are doing the rounds that the plotter of the Ujjain train blast was an ISIS sympathiser, the Congress veteran jumped into conclusion that ‘injustice towards Muslims’ was driving them towards the dreaded terrorist organisation. He said: “Continuous persecution and injustice to Muslims will make Pakistan’s wish to create unrest in India attractive. They have to be given a sense of belonging and confidence that everyone is equal.” Although Congress has distanced itself from the comment, there hasn’t been any condemnation. The fact that a political leader was so quick to connect the terror attack with alleged Muslim disgruntlement shows how irresponsible he is of its larger ramification.

Digvijaya Singh is a habitual offender. He makes such communal statements on and off. Earlier, he had courted controversy by comparing Madrassa and Saraswati Sishu Mandir run by RSS saying both spew venom against the other religion. However, by instantly connecting the terrorist attack with Muslim disgruntlement, he has tried to vitiate an issue that was best left to the security authorities to unravel. Being terror apologist is no answer to fighting discrimination based on religion. The policy against terror must be one—ruthless crackdown and good intelligence. There can be no other way of dealing with terrorism.

By making it an ‘injustice against Muslim’ issue, he is also insulting the sagacity of the community. The father of the Ujjain train blast accused Saifullah, who was gunned down in an encounter in UP, and refused to take back his son’s body calling him ‘traitor’. It is stupid for Mr Digvijaya to assume that Muslims will automatically gravitate towards IS or any other terror organisation for that matter if faced with injustice. It’s not to say that discrimination based on religion doesn’t exist or it must be pushed under the carpet. Absolutely not. Discrimination must be punished and Congress party and people like Digvijaya can perhaps play a constructive role in highlighting such discrimination in the Parliament and on the streets. Making baseless communal statement will do no one any good—neither the community he claims to be defending in this case and not the diminishing importance of his party and its dipping electoral fortunes.