The role of Aam Aadmi Party leader Tahir Hussain in the brutal murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) employee Ankit Sharma and also inciting riots in the Delhi has now been under scanner. Day after Sharma’s family alleged his role in the riots and his murder, many crates of petrol bombs and stones have been found on the rooftop of the AAP leader. Petrol bombs, stones and bricks were stored on Hussain’s terrace raising questions about his role in the riots.
However, ’eminent intellectual’ Javed Akhtar believes that the religious identity of Tahir Hussain may be a factor in the police crackdown against him. According to him, the reason why Tahir Hussain’s house has been sealed and the police are on the lookout for him is that he is Muslim.
Javed Akhtar said on Twitter on Thursday, “So many killed , so many injured , so many house burned , so many shops looted so many people turned destitutes but police has sealed only one house and looking for his owner . Incidentally his name is Tahir . Hats off to the consistency of the Delhi police .” (punctuation as it was in the tweet)
Read: Delhi riots: Petrol Bombs, crates of stones found stored on AAP councillor Tahir Hussain’s rooftop
The implication of the tweet appears to be that Tahir Hussain is being persecuted due to his religion and that the serious accusations levelled against him are of minor consequence. The insinuation in the tweet appears to be that Tahir Hussain should be held to a different standard than other citizens of the country by virtue of his religion. It is the crassest form of minority entitlement that is at display in Javed Akhtar’s words.
Earlier, rabid Islamists had defended Tahir Hussain and claimed that the petrol bombs and stones discovered on Tahir Hussain’s rooftop were for self-defence. If a person of any other religion found himself in similar circumstances, it can be said for certain that the Islamists would not have found that line of argument credible at all. And yet, we are expected to believe that this incredible claim is entirely valid.
With things crawling towards normalcy, it appears that certain individuals of Javed Akhtar’s ideological bent want communal disharmony to persist. When attempts are being made to heal the communal divide, Javed Akhtar is making bizarre arguments to paint the action against Tahir Hussain in communal light.
