Congress' flexible policy on religion-based politics damaged country, Constitution: Jamiat chief

New Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI) Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani on Wednesday accused the Congress of adopting a "flexible policy" during its rule towards politics based on religion and claimed that the party would not have been ousted from power had it taken a strict stand against communalism 77 years ago.

Madani, who heads one of the two factions of the prominent Muslim organisation, also said that the country could have been saved from "destruction" had the head of communalism been crushed firmly 77 years ago.

The Congress would not have been ousted from power and "the country would not have reached the brink of destruction" if the party had taken the same strict stand against communalism 77 years ago that it claims to be taking now, the Jamiat chief said.

"The flexible policy adopted by the Congress during its rule toward politics of hatred, based on religion, caused severe damage to both the country and the Constitution. Seventy-seven years after independence, 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," Madani said in a post on X.

"If the Constitution had 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," he said.

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.

"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 alleged.

Noting 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.

"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.

"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," he said.

The leadership of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind repeatedly demanded that the Congress leadership put an end to this madness of communalism, but regrettably, this demand was not taken seriously, which further emboldened communal elements, Madani claimed.

"Today's generation is unaware of this history that even before independence, the senior leaders of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind had obtained a written assurance from Congress leaders that after independence, the country's Constitution would be secular and would guarantee complete religious freedom to all religious minorities," he said.

However, after Independence and the partition of the country, a significant section of Congress leaders joined those who argued that since a separate country had been created for Muslims in the name of religion, India's Constitution should no longer be secular, Madani alleged.

"At that moment, the leadership of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind firmly held the Congress leaders accountable and told them that if the country had been divided, it was they, not us, who had signed that document, and therefore they must fulfill their promise," he said.

Consequently, a secular Constitution was framed, but the roots of communalism continued to grow silently and deeply, he claimed.

"Despite persistent insistence by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, no effective restraint was placed on it, even though the Congress was in power at the Centre and in all the provinces at that time. Had it wished, it could have enacted strict laws against communalism. But due to the flexible policy it adopted, communal forces kept becoming stronger," he said. PTI ASK ASK KSS KSS