Different opinion :.. platform denied..

It was quite a disappointment that HINDUSTAN TIMES / N Delhi ignored the rejoinder to Rakshanda Jalil’s “My father did not take the train” (HT Delhi, Jan 06, 2007/page no.14) & let the contemptuous reference to the beleaguered Kashmiri Pandit community living in exile now, go unchallenged. The rejoinder was mailed to HT on 11-1-2007; 22-1-2007& 13.2.07.
It is strange that while the readers continue to be bombarded with the often explicit pro extremist content week after week in the edit pages of the national dallies by the self proclaimed liberals & even by extremists themselves posing as self styled representatives of Kashmiris, the other voice - that of the victims of more than sixteen years of continued Pan Islamic violence in Kashmir has to struggle for a tiny space in the ‘letter to the editor ‘columns.
One wonders if being powerful or having Oxford background or mainstream or separatist political affiliations are the must qualifications to deserve a platform in national dallies.
Given a chance- the stifled voice could actually make a difference in the log run. Following is the text of what HT Delhi ignored:

To
The Editor
Hindustan Times
New Delhi

Subject: Request to consider this for Rejoinder column

Apropos of Rakshanda Jalil’s article "My father did not take the train"(HT Delhi, Jan 06, 2007/page no.14). It sounds preposterous particularly on the part of the educated & self-proclaimed liberals to continue to bemoan over their decision to have adopted India over Pakistan. Sixty years since partition - a reasonably long period of time, but the Muslims haven’t stopped lamenting about their perceived plight in India.
There has never been any dispute over the fact that MA Jinha propounding the two nation theory, mobilised the Muslims of the subcontinent in the name of Islam for the creation of Pakistan & that the Congress exhibited total political immaturity by readily agreeing to the partition purportedly to avoid a civil war & bloodshed. It is also a historical fact that the vivisection of India resulted in the massacre of thousands & caused the largest migration of civilians ever recorded. The vicious cycle
of violence that was initiated by the Muslim League with their provocative ‘Direct Action Plan’ leading to the partition took an unprecedented toll of life & property on Hindus, Muslims & Sikhs alike. The aftermath of the partition continues to haunt the subcontinent what with the Pakistan’s never-ending belligerence towards India to justify its own ‘two nation theory’ based existence & the uneasy relations that have the potential of flaring up at the slightest pretext between Hindus & Muslims in India, not to talk about the plight of minority Hindus who have to be contended with their status of second class citizens in the Islamic Pakistan & Bangladesh.
Unlike the common perception India did not become a secular state just because it rightly adopted a secular constitution but it is because the majority of the Indians who happen to be Hindus & who have been practicing the principal of co -existence from times immemorial, did not find any conflict of interests when a vast majority of Muslims refused to migrate in spite of the so called ‘offers of inducements’ even while the bogeys of dead Hindus & Sikhs kept arriving from Pakistan. In any case most of those who did ‘take the train’ to the "Land of the Pure" are yet to get over the stigma of being labelled ‘Mohajirs’ ever since their arrival there.
Therefore, the Muslims must stop exaggerating their decision to have stayed put in whatever was left of India, since they did so voluntarily. It is unreasonable of them to blame others for all their grievances- genuine or imaginary. They must shed the baggage of the past, look inwards & take inspiration from Dr. Kalam, Azim Premjee, and scores of film stars, cricket & other sports heroes who have availed of the equal opportunities available & have made India proud. It is important to come out of the ‘self pitying’ mode & join the main stream whole heartedly as simply Indians instead of continuing to "grapple with twin identities of Indian Muslim & Muslim Indian" as complained by the author. It does not help the process of reconciliation to endorse on the one hand Muslim league’s demand for proportionate representation in legislature as a "long felt need to recognise Muslims as a distinct religious & political unit" & on the other accuse the Congress of the "sins of omission & commission" & denounce across the board Jan Sangh & BJP as "unruly" & "vociferous" respectively.
It is just not sufficient to claim to be a liberal. History is witness to the fact that the most known liberal amongst the Muslims in the first half of the last century MA Jinha finally fought for & became the father of the Islamic Pakistan. And the role of one of the greatest Urdu poets ever- Iqbal who gave us ‘sare jahan se acha Hindustan hamara’, in the creation of Pakistan is best described as the ‘two nation theory ideologue’ by Khushwant Singh in his regular “with malice toward one & all..” column in the same issue of HT (HT Delhi, Jan 06, 2007). Keeping up with her typical ‘liberal’ mind set the author while expressing pain over Ayuodhya & Gujarat has conveniently ignored the persecution of minority Hindu Pandits at the hands of Kashmiri Muslim separatists leading to their mass exodus from the valley & rendering them refugees in their own country. Stoic silence on the pan Islamic terrorist violence that has engulfed Kashmir for the past eighteen years & is now spreading in the rest of India puts a question mark on the credibility of Muslims particularly the liberal lot who intriguingly adopt ostrich type attitude towards the growing pan Islamic extremism.
Author’s deliberate attempt to pick on the ‘Kashmiri Pandit’ ethnic background of just one boy out of all her eight year old classmates who teased her, smacks of prejudice against the community. Anyway, the fact that Kashmiri Pandits driven out of their homeland by her militant coreligionists are now living in oblivion, should give her solace.
It is shameful if her daughters are facing any kind of harassment in the school on account of their faith even today as alleged by her. This school must be identified & awarded exemplary punishment lest we have more of disgruntled Rakshanda Jalils growing amongst us. What hurts its children must be seen hurting India. Emerging India cannot afford it.