PC plays it safe on maiden Deoband visit

Union home minister P Chidambaram's much-hyped visit to the country's most prominent Islamic seminary — Darul Uloom — in Deoband on Tuesday was a damp squib.

Contrary to expectation, Chidambaram made no concrete proposal to address the concerns raised by the Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) in its 25 resolutions, which was passed during the Islamic body's 30th general session. Instead, the home minister (ostensibly carrying the message of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi) stuck to the UPA government's line of condemning communal violence.

In his 15-minute address at the JUH's 30th general session, Chidambaram condemned “any manifestation of violence, especially communal”, but made no direct mention of principal adversary, the BJP, even while making a fleeting reference to the Babri Masjid demolition. “All manifestations of violence, especially communal violence, must be condemned in unequivocal terms. The Babri Masjid demolition is a manifestation of extreme communal prejudice,” Chidambaram said.

But the minister’s platitudes failed to impress many in the JUH. A senior official of the Jamiat said, “What he (Chidambaram) said was nothing new. It was largely like an election speech, full of assurances of an equal status for Muslims in their own country, and did not dwell on any of the issues raised in the resolutions.”