Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Tuesday sent out a warning: what happened in Bangladesh can very well happen here, despite all outward appearances of normalcy. Addressing a gathering at the launch of Mujibur Rehman's book, *Shikwa-e-Hind: The Political Future of Indian Muslims*, he remarked, "Though everything may seem fine at the superficial level in Kashmir and elsewhere in India, visible symptoms of malaise are there.".
While India might appear stable and celebrant, especially after some of the recent victories, there are deeper and troubling elements at work, according to Khurshid. The dynamics that happened in Bangladesh could play out in India, although present conditions are such that these spurts of violence cannot be so acute.
Bangladesh has been witnessing intense anti-government protests since mid-July, which forced Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country.
In the same programme, MP of the Rashtriya Janata Dal Manoj Jha spoke about the Shaheen Bagh protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens, stating that its effectiveness could not be measured by the size of the movement. Jha praised the grassroots nature of the movement which was led by women in Southeast Delhi and lasted almost 100 days, igniting similar protests throughout India.
While Jha termed the Shaheen Bagh protests a success, Khurshid was a trifle more critical. "Many protesters are still in jail. Can one really do this again? The repression and hurt are very much there," he said.
AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi expressed disappointment at the lack of Muslim representation in the legislative bodies and wondered if things would have changed for Muslims with an alternate government at the Centre. He said Muslims never voted for the right-wing earlier and were unlikely to make any difference in case of a non-BJP government.
Owaisi equated present-time leaders with historical figures, saying that the feelings of intolerance were already there in society and were not created by present-time leaders. He also slammed the perception of past leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee as liberal, stating that they too contributed to the present climate.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor went down memory lane to the first time he had gone to Shaheen Bagh protesters. He recounted that there were people of different faiths in the agitation. "At the heart of it was a nationalistic spirit," Tharoor said.
TMC MP Jawahar Sircar cited the list of his party's Muslim representation and how Yusuf Pathan trounced Congress' Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in Baharampore. Sircar also took a dig at Owaisi, saying his presence would have only helped the BJP.
Owaisi responded to say that Muslims vote out of compulsion and not out of choice for political parties. He lambasted the political establishment for not having done enough to address the Muslims' problems. He added that it was the failure of the political process that the Muslims were voting like this, and in turn, an alternate that works will change everything.
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