Everybody is writing and talking about growing intolerance in the country. There are strong opinions on either side of the political divide and very strong emotions have been aroused. In this article, I am not going to dwell on this ‘burning topic’. This is because many of my friends feel very strongly that the issue has become politicised and I certainly do not want to take the side of any political party. Talking about my friends, most of them are Hindus - 80% in proportion to their numbers in the country’s population. I have many Christian friends too of course, many of them close relatives. Because of inter-faith marriages in my own family and even otherwise, I have many Parsi friends, though the percentage of Parsi friends far exceeds their proportion in our population. I have many Muslim friends too, but unfortunately, not in proportion to their strength. All my Christian, Parsi and Muslim friends are understandably wary of what is happening on the communal front today. They feel that the India they knew is no longer the same after the present NDA government came to power. There was no such feeling when Atal Bihari Vajpayee had become the Prime Minister. They are diffident now, despite assurances from senior ministers and even the Prime Minister himself at regular intervals. I am not surprised that the minorities are concerned about their status and future as citizens. Such fears abound in all parts of the world where there are minorities. In China, the Hans are the overwhelmingly dominant ethnic group at 92% of the total population. Only 4% are Uighur, who are Muslims. Yet, this 4% and the much smaller percentage of Tibetans can cause headaches for the powerful Chinese Communist party which has ruled the country for the past 60 years or more. Japan does not even have a minority. If it does, it is miniscule. In Romania, where I served as Ambassador for four full years, there is an 8% Hungarian minority living mainly in the Transylvanian region. Four of the 40 districts in Romania are populated by Hungarian-speaking people. They demand the use of the Hungarian language in the administration of these four districts. This would include not only the civil and police administration, corresponding to our District Magistrates and Superintendents of police, but also the Judiciary. Wherever there are minorities, there are some such demands. Minorities are concerned about their cultural and religious identity. They do not want this identity to be obliterated or submerged. Every country is judged by the way in which it treats its minorities. If they are treated as equals with respect and dignity, social equilibrium is maintained and there is peace. But if they are denied respect and told to go to settle in another country because they are voicing their concerns, there is bound to be turbulence. If the minority misbehaves, makes preposterous demands or resorts to terrorism, they can be easily dealt with by the might of the State. The Sikh separatists in the Punjab were checked within a decade or two. But if the majority resorts to violent ways to demonstrate its own power, the State will find it more difficult to control bad situations. If majority groups go berserk, the State, which has a preponderance of representatives of that group in its security apparatus, will find a disinclination or reluctance from within this apparatus itself to deal with home-grown mobs. This was noticed in the city of Mumbai for instance whenever the Shiv Sena went on a rampage. It is a happy commentary on the liberalism of Hindu thought and philosophy that a great number of educated Hindus disapprove of minority bashing of the type that is being so frequently reported these days. In fact, there is no need at all for the majority to feel threatened when some extremist elements in minority communities disturb the peace. These elements can be easily subdued, as I said earlier, by the might of the State. Human rights activists often term the use of this might as ‘State Terrorism’, but not even the most human rights sensitive countries can afford not to use the State machinery to suppress lawless elements. Violence and its most extreme form, terrorism, is a product of weakness. When disgruntled minorities are unable to secure what they feel is their right and resort to terrorism, they have fallen back on a cowardly manner of trying to frighten the State to submit to their wishes. But that is no justification for majority communities to go on a rampage. There is no need for that. India is a majority Hindu country. 80% of the population or a little more, are born into the Hindu religion and culture. Even the remaining 20% has imbibed that culture to a greater or lesser extent. We should leave it at that. Everyone should be invited to participate in development and progress and everyone should take pride in being Indian. Some years ago, my IPS batch-mate, DS “Vasant” Soman asked me to attend a dinner in honour of KS Sudarshan, then the RSS Sarsanghchalak, at the home of a common friend. The RSS chief kept talking about the plight of 85% of the population, meaning the Hindu population, including perhaps the Sikhs. When he repeated this more than thrice, I intervened and requested him to include the remaining 15% also, as we were ready to embark on the journey together! And that is how it should be.

The author is the former commissioner of police, Mumbai and ex-DGP, Punjab