The Times off India, December 24, 2003
'BMAC, VHP two sides of same coin'
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2003 01:46:35 AM ]
LUCKNOW: The very credentials of Muslim Personal Law Board and Babri Masjid Action Committee in resolving issues pertaining to Muslims or the Ayodhya imbroglio was on Tuesday questioned by Muslims for Secular Democracy (MSD), an organisation opposed to religious fundamentalism and communalism and one which seeks to make no distinction between majority and minority communalism.
Addressing a joint press conference noted script writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar and editor of Combat Communalism Javed Anand questioned the very authority of the Board in deciding matters pertaining to Muslims. They sought to know whether the Board was an elected body and if it was an ad hoc one, then who vested it with the power to speak or take decisions on behalf of the vast majority of Muslims.
Reacting to a pointed query on the Ayodhya issue and the role of Babri Masjid Action Committee, Javed Akhtar stated that the MSD firmly believed that Ayodhya was not a religious issue and it was for the court to take a final decision on it. He added that both the action committee and the VHP were not a solution to the vexed problem but were the problem themselves.
Akhtar dismissed all talks of a uniform civil code by the BJP as an election gimmick and said if the party was genuinely interested in such a code it should place its blueprint before society so that a discussion could be held. The script writer maintained that the MSD was not opposed to such a code, provided a blue print of it was made available to it. He added that laws of all communities were unjust towards women.
He also stated that the amendment of the Constitution in the Shah Bano case was wrong and that the government had bowed before the fundamentalists on that count.
Denying that the MSD had any political leanings or was affiliated to any political party, Akhtar said as a national forum of secular and democratic-minded Muslims the MSD is aimed at being in the forefront of the ideological battle against fundamentalist and communal Muslim politics. The organisation was also in agreement with all secular-democratic groups in the sub-continent that the fascist terror in the name of Hindutva posed the greatest threat to democracy and the religious minorities in India, just as fanaticism and terrorism in the garb of Islam were the greatest threat to democracy and religious minorities in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Earlier, MSD members including Akhtar interacted with students at the philosophy department of Lucknow University.
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