In India secularism has become a slave of religious lobbies

In India secularism has become a slave of religious lobbies: "Eighteen years after the Bombay riots, if I still remember the face of the Hindu woman who wanted me to walk with her in the streets that were fast getting deserted on that December 6, then it certainly means the scars have not faded. On any other occasion we could have swapped clothes and stories, but on that day she was a Hindu and I a Muslim.

I did not tell her; it was my secret, my cranny identity. She told me, with fear of ‘them’ in her quivering voice. I wanted to laugh through my unwept tears. The burden of proving wounds was on the prey. Years later it is the same. The strategy has changed, though. In the forward-looking India, secularism has become a slave of religious lobbies. To bait Muslims and demand progressive thinking is part of an agenda."