Prof. Manzoor Ahmad insisted that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, Justice S.H. Kapadia had in 2011 directed the Union government to file its reply regarding the Presidential order for reservation based on religion on three counts. The reply was hanging fire since then as no reply to the query of the Supreme Court had yet been made. “We were vigorously pursuing the matter, but to no avail and now there remained no hope for it”, he remarked. Commenting on conversions, he said that only Muslims and Christians were being targeted by RSS fringe groups. While Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh had banned conversions from one religion to the other, the task was difficult to accomplish in states like Nagaland, Mizoram, Goa, etc., which had a Christian Majority population. That was the reason why votaries of Hindutva were clamouring for a blanket ban on conversions through a Central law. As the situation stood now, no hue and cry would be made if a Muslim was converted to Hinduism, but if a Hindu embraced Islam, a fuss would be created by Hindutva protagonists, he observed.

Prof. Ahmad said that law conferred the right on Muslims to profess their religion without fetters, but in practice, it was just the reverse. The practice today ran counter to religious freedom. He observed that certain schools imparted education that preached hatred against certain communities and felt the need for cleansing schools of such type of education. Referring to the cow slaughter, he said the word “cow slaughter” had been cleverly replaced with “cattle slaughter” to include buffalo. This appeared to deprive the weaker sections, which included Dalits in the south, besides Muslims, Christians, Phizos, Nagas, Parsis, etc of their natural food.

For these sections, this was the only source of Animal protein. While admitting that an all-India ban on cattle slaughter was not possible, the law banning slaughter of animals for meat would be challenged in the court. He opined that denying a big population of its eating preference was a fascist practice. He called for pressing for a Central law on cow slaughter, but confidently said that the government would not embark on such a measure for fear of social and economic repercussions. Referring to the proposed introduction of the Gita in schools, he said that the book had several versions. He held that the Gita encouraged war-mongering.

Prof. Manzoor Ahmad expressed the grudge that no attempt was being spared to keep the Muslims backward. Citing an illustration in this context, he said that the Aligarh Muslim University was a minority institution, but the court did not recognise it as such, despite its creation by an Act of Parliament. Calling upon the Muslim leadership and the intelligentsia to enlighten Muslim masses on the real issues, he said that if the Muslims wanted to continue as a distinct cultural and religious entity, they would have to focus on education; particularly secondary education. He cautioned the community against the clouds of desperation looming large over it and said the threat was real. Fighting for the survival of cultural identity was the only option, he concluded.