Muslims Discriminated in Mumbai?

The prominent Muslims especially those from Bollywood are complaining about the discrimination of non Muslims in renting out to selling their property to Muslims merely on the grounds of religion. Earlier Shabana Azmi and Emran Hashmi have complained the same. This kind of discrimination should end immediately.

The Times of India writes (4 August 2009)


The waters have been muddied further in the Emraan Hashmi imbroglio. The actor has been in the limelight for filing a complaint with the State
Minorities Commission regarding his difficulties in purchasing a flat in Mumbai. Allegedly, this has been because of an anti-Muslim bias on the part of the cooperative housing society involved. However, BJP worker Sanjay Bedia has now filed a complaint against Hashmi and director Mahesh Bhatt for making statements along communal lines. And not unexpectedly, various other celebrities have chimed in as well, some castigating Hashmi, others backing him. It is par for the course when such issues are raised in the public sphere in this country. But that does not make the general approach to the debate any less disappointing.

It is unclear whether there actually was religious prejudice as Hashmi alleged or not. In a sense, it is also irrelevant. The matter is being looked into and the truth ought to be ascertained at some point. More important than this specific instance of discrimination or not, as the case may be is the reactions it has evoked in a larger context. The problem of religious bias cannot be wished away. What is needed is a constructive, mutually respectful public dialogue.

The reality of what happens when such issues are brought up, unfortunately, is quite different as evidenced by Bedia's complaint. It is an unjustified, wholly unnecessary attempt to stifle free speech. Hashmi has spoken out for what he perceives to be an infringement on his constitutional rights. How this can be interpreted to be communal in nature is difficult to comprehend.

Bedia's gambit is a pointer towards the dominant trend in Indian public discourse. Hot-button topics such as religion and caste invite knee-jerk reactions characterised by shrill demagoguery and unbridled aggression. Such conflicts are waged at two levels inflammatory protests on the streets, often with little understanding of the issues at stake, and a war of sound bites and pithy putdowns waged via the media. Neither approach is particularly conducive to arriving at a lasting solution. Whatever the truth of the complaint lodged by Hashmi, he deserves to be heard.