Sir —This refers to the news report, “Nitish embraces calculated risk to woo Muslim voters” (June 17).
Wooing minority voters has been and continues to be the most stable ingredient of Indian politics. Howsoever sad it may be, the fact is that the entire politics of this country revolves around the Muslim vote, and that too with great success. It was because of certain historical reasons coupled with the fact that a large number of Muslims chose to stay in India after Partition, that a process of treating them as a distinctive class, even amongst the other minorities, was initiated.
The move has, however, only resulted in keeping the Muslims away from the mainstream while all the other numerically small minorities have got totally integrated in the society. But the political class doesn’t seem to be bothered about correcting this anomaly and has only pursued vote-bank politics. Apparently for some politicians, it is the gains of today that matter over the perils of future. This is creating a serious divide in society.