Click to play videoNew Delhi: Allahabad High Court on Thursday kicked off a storm just two days ahead of UP Assembly elections by ruling that Muslims in the state cannot be treated as minority. The ruling invited the ire of parties from across political spectrum and also upset intellectuals and scholars.
"On the face of it appears to be severe and it will be contested in the higher courts," said Teesta Setalvad of Citizens for Justice, an NGO working with the Gujarat riots victims.
Agreed Kamal Farooqi of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, "As far as UP is concerned, we really fail to understand, we are aghast as to how a population of 17-18 per cent cannot be treated as a minority. Then who is a minority?”
It is a question that everyone is still trying to find an answer to.
"Minority is also a philosophical term in a sense. It’s a term of empowerment," said journalist Javed Naqvi.
But the judgment does cause a lot of confusion and - as experts say - breeds a sense of insecurity.
Coming as it does over the BJP raking up old issues like Babri demolition and Gujarat carnage in a CD, the judgment has the potential to incite people.
And that is what these intellectuals are cautioning against. in new delhi arijit sen
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