New Delhi: The growing discontent among the Muslims over the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government's official response to the train bombings in Mumbai has the Congress worried.
The Muslim MPs met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier this month and later conveyed their fears to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
According to the sources, they specifically told Manmohan Singh that statements purportedly from National Security Advisor MK Narayanan were "disturbing".
"A few months back when an Indian was beheaded by the Taliban, the NSA told the media that Indian Muslims had not reacted to the tragedy. He is also said to have remarked that the terrorist groups had been recruiting people from the Haj groups," said a Muslim MP on the condition of anonymity.
However, sources in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said Narayanan had denied making any such remarks.
Narayanan reportedly said what he had meant was that there was an attempt by terrorist outfits to recruit some Haj pilgrims.
But political sources confirmed that Sonia and Manmohan Singh were "disturbed" over the reported remarks of the NSA.
"The party leadership is concerned about the increasing unhappiness among the Muslims," said a senior Congress leader.
"We cannot afford to hurt the Muslim community," the leader said, referring to upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. "The Congress is secular and cannot afford an anti-Muslim image," he added.
The Muslim leaders pointed out that the Congress-led government in Maharashtra and the state police had "communalised" the July 11 Mumbai bombings that killed nearly 200 people and given a religious colour to the terrorist act.
The attempts by a section of central and Maharashtra state government functionaries to isolate the community could have grave "social and political consequences", they said.
"They sought to blame the entire Muslim community as supporters and collaborators of anti-national elements and tried to portray the areas inhabited by Muslims as havens of Islamic terrorists," one of the MPs said.
He said the Mumbai Police had arrested several "innocent, poor Muslims" and treated them "inhumanly" in custody during the hunt for those who masterminded the string of bombings in Mumbai trains and railway stations.
The MPs reportedly raised the issue at a dinner that the Prime Minister hosted for UPA MPs at his residence last week.
The Prime Minister has assured the Muslim MPs that innocent people would not be allowed to be harassed at any cost.
"He said he would talk to (Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao) Deshmukh about the targeting of Muslims," the Muslim leader said.
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