By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
Now it should be seen as confirmed that Muslims in India, like political parties, are vertically divided on the Indo-US nuclear deal. Political parties, national and regional alike, have different views on the deal. So have Muslims, be it religious leaders, intellectuals or ordinary people.
This last story, of the series that tried to capture Muslims’s opinions on the deal, is devoted to the views of Muslim intellectuals on the issue that most probably will end the Congress-led central government on July 22, 2008.
First question TwoCircles.net put before a panel of three Muslim scholars was: Should Muslims oppose the Indo-US nuclear deal as a religious community? They unanimously responded in negative.
“I personally feel there is nothing communal or Hindu-Muslim angle in the deal,” said Dr. Nadeem Hasnain, Professor of Social-Cultural Anthropology at Lucknow University. He is against the communal presentation of the deal. “Why are Muslims being dragged into this issue? Why is it said that Muslims are angry when the masses don’t know about the deal, even the educated people don’t know about the political and technological implications of the deal? He asks.
He, however, admits that as the entire Muslim World is angry with the U.S. for its aggressions in the Middle East and Afghanistan, any close collaboration with the country may invite displeasure from Muslims.
Prominent author and Editor of Future Islam, Rashid Shaz said “It is wrong to attach the deal with religion.”
“The deal has nothing to do with religion. If or not it is in the national interests, it will affect the entire population of India, irrespective of religion, caste and creed,” opined Dr. A.R.M. Saleem Kidwai, Assistant Professor at Centre for Canadian, US and Latin American Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Prof. Kidwai comes down heavily on political parties which have tried to communalize the deal saying it will anger Muslims. “Who has given them the right to speak on behalf of Indian Muslims? They are self-styled spokespersons of the Muslim community,” he says.
Asked whether the deal is in the interests of India, the views of the panelists were pole apart.
Prof. Saleem Kidwai gives a louder Yes in response to the question. “It will end our isolation that we have been suffering for a long time. We are going to get energy,” says he refuting the argument that India will become subservient to the United States. He says India is itself a big country and it can’t be camp followers of big powers.
Editor Rashid Shaz says: “No, rather the deal will affect India’s strategic alliance in South Asia and will influence its independent foreign policies.”
Dr. Hasnain is not as much enthusiastic about the deal as Kidwai is. “I am not sure how much it is going to resolve energy problem of the country. If it does so and does not affect India’s foreign policy then it is welcome,” he says.
The biggest “side-effect” of the deal echoed everywhere from city street to Parliament street is the likely U.S. influence on India’s foreign policy. Is the apprehension real? asked TwoCircles.net to the guests.
“Yes, it will damage India’s sovereign foreign policy and the world will become more unipolar, said Shaz. While India has already come much closer to the U.S. and Israel after the fall of Soviet Union, the deal will put it in the basket of the U.S., he argued.
Similar was the view of Dr. Hasnain: “After the disintegration of Soviet Union, the world has become unipolar. During the last eight years, starting from the BJP-led NDA regime, our foreign policy has been influenced with the U.S. foreign policy. There is apprehension in non-aligned people in the world and in a section of Indian intelligentsia that India’s sovereignty is gradually being mortgaged.”
But Prof Kidwai denies it. “The essence of the NAM-era foreign policy was independence of actions in foreign policy. And India is going to retain that even after this deal,” he says. He does not think the deal will harm India’s relations with its neighbours in South Asia. “I don’t think India’s close relations with the U.S. are going to affect India’s relations with Pakistan or China,” he says.