General Bakshi calls out insult to Indian Muslims in a strong FB post
Just back From Kolkata. The state government and police denied that they had refused permission to have a seminar on J&K and Balochistan in the city.
The Calcutta Club has implied they were pressured to cancel the event on the premise that any criticism of Pakistan could lead to a law and order situation in the city - insinuating thereby that the minority community would react violently to any criticism of Pakistan.
This is, to my mind, the worst insult to the patriotic Muslims of India - people like CQMH Abdul Hamid who got the Param Vir Chakra fighting Pakistan in 1965 and Brig Usman who got the Maha Vir Chakra posthumously in J&K and so many others.
I'm not prepared to accept this insulting premise. We are all INDIANS FIRST and Hindus, Muslims or anything else later. I understand the organisers are taking Calcutta Club to court for violation of the fundamental rights of free speech.
The fact that we can't hold a seminar on J&K and Balochistan cannot be accepted on the sovereign soil of India. This cannot just end tamely here.
(A version of this post first appeared on the writer's Facebook page.)