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There’s nothing like immigration issues to grab everybody’s attention. Especially when you’re the ruling government of Britain and you need something, anything, to divert attention away from disastrous subjects like Northern Rock. Yet another set of ‘we’re no pushover, we mean business’ measures were announced last week by the Home minister and Gordon Brown. This one’s got something to do with immigrants being made to ‘earn’ citizenship, and generally guaranteed to be so complex that this country will need more immigration lawyers than plumbers very soon. Usually, I don’t even try to follow the continuous changes, visitors visas, English, fingerprinting that the Home Office announces (and re-announces, each time with a hike in fees) every other week as Britain edges closer to general elections. Mostly, I ignore it because they either make me seriously mad; or want to fall off my chair laughing. To cut a very long story short, Britons are fed up of having their ‘country’ taken over by those Johnny foreigners. The essence of the debate is old – there’s too much immigration, it is putting pressure on the free schooling, healthcare and benefit system, and locals feel afraid of losing their ‘British’ identity. What almost every announcement tends to tidily skip around is that UK is a part face of the fact that the biggest influx is from East Europe, and nobody has quite figured out how to handle that one. But that’s not what I want to talk about this time. Last week’s measures, along with some weird things, have a gem of an idea. There’s to be some kind of migration tax, i.e., migrants will have to contribute towards a fund to defray the costs of the pressures that public health, benefits, and communities have to host them. I always thought that’s what we paid national insurance contributions and council taxes for, but apparently not. It also says that immigrants will have to notch up ‘community service’ such as coaching local football teams or whatever to qualify for points. The idea is that nobody should be allowed to settle unless they contribute to the society, economy, and the welfare of this country. Now that is the one that made me sit up and go, wow. What a brilliant idea – if we implement it in India. Ask all foreign workers living and working in India to contribute to the larger welfare of the host [...]

The ulama of the Dar al-ulum at Deoband were the symbols of political radicalism during the anti -colonial struggle in the subcontinent. Most of them were aligned with the Indian National Congress and rejected the two- nation theory. Today, however, the ‘loyalty’ of the same institution is in doubt. In the eyes of its detractors, the seminary at Deobandis supposed to train jehadis or terrorists. Last week, the turbaned men with flowing gowns gathered in Deoband to dispel such false impressions. They put up an impressive show. Their message was loud and clear; first, Islam is unequivocally opposed to the indiscriminate use of violence; second Muslim institutions had no links whatsoever with terrorist groups; finally, Muslims were fully behind the Indian state in its fight against terror. The ulama have done well to take an unequivocal stand, particularly because they have been targeted in the print and electronic media for nurturing the monster of terrorism. It must be pointed out, however, that they have reaffirmed what has been an article of faith with them for decades. Our vibrant Republic is over six decades old. Why, then, is it necessary to express one’s allegiance to the Indian state? Why should Muslims take the lead in raising their voice against terrorism? Others should also do so. As citizens of India all of us, Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, distance ourselves from the perpetrators of violence. Nobody has implicated any Muslim institution in an act of terror in India. If the poet Ghalib had been alive, he would have said, phirye hungama ai khuda kya hai (Why, then, is there all this commotion?). On the contrary, there is sufficient documentary evidence of RSS and Arya Samaj schools and colleges spreading venomous propaganda against the Muslims and Christians. Should their mentors sit back and allow this to happen? One watched the congregation at Deoband with some anguish. It’s encouraging the ulama of different ‘schools’ had joined hands over vital issues, but distressing that they had done so under pressure from civil society. They should eschew such public demonstrations and concentrate their energies on the rebuilding and modernization of their institutions, secular and religious.  

New Delhi has done well to indicate to Pakistan that executing Sarabjit Singh – on death row for his alleged involvement in the 1990 bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan – is not the best way to deal with the issue. Reports suggest that India has also sought consular access to Mr. Singh who has been languishing in prison for the last 17 years, and appears almost certain to be executed in April.   His family denies he was a spy as claimed by Pakistan and insists he accidentally strayed into Pakistani territory. When Pakistan’s Supreme Court rejected his plea for clemency in March 2006, Mr. Singh apparently sent a mercy petition to President Pervez Musharraf, seeking release on the grounds that he was innocent and wrongly implicated. Indeed, from all accounts, it does seem he was just a poor farmer who strayed from his border village into Pakistan and became a victim of mistaken identity. It appears a reprieve for Mr. Singh, even at this eleventh hour, could be possible if the Indian government got involved and appealed to Pakistan. This makes sense for more than one reason. It is inarguable that as an Indian citizen, Mr. Singh is no less dispensable to the government than any other and, therefore, no effort should be spared to seek his release. Even if it’s a question of prisoner swap, it will be worth it, given the government’s moral duty to redeem its citizens, whatever it takes. After all, even a State like Israel- that has a no-compromise policy on hostage takers – does sometimes exchange prisoners for kidnapped soldiers. This shows how much it values the lives of its citizens. There’s no harm in India taking a leaf from this, unless it is too embarrassed by its own system of trying prisoners, which is so flawed that the award of capital punishment – however seldom – hardly justifies the long trial preceding it.   In any case, there should be no place in civilized societies for capital punishment as a means of meting out justice or deterring crime. It will be sad if, despite many new-thinking clerics in Islamabad, Pakistan chooses to remain closer to extreme methods of punishment such as the death sentence (that unfortunately, India too has yet to do away with), than the promise of new freedoms.