Puneet Nicholas Yadav. Deoband (UP)

Union home minister P Chidambaram's much-hyped visit to the country's most prominent Islamic seminary -- Darul Uloom -- in Deoband on Tuesday was a damp squib.
Contrary to expectation, Chidambaram made no concrete proposal to address the concerns raised by the Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) in its 25 resolutions, which was passed during the Islamic body's 30th general session. Instead, the home minister (ostensibly carrying the message of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi) stuck to the UPA government's line of condemning communal violence.
In his 15-minute address at the JUH's 30th general session, Chidambaram condemned "any manifestation of violence, especially communal", but he made no direct mention of principal adversary, the BJP, even while making a fleeting reference to the Babri Masjid demolition. "All manifestations of violence, especially communal violence, must be condemned in unequivocal terms… The Babri Masjid demolition is a manifestation of extreme communal prejudice," Chidambaram said.
The home minister also lauded the Darul Uloom for issuing a fatwa against terrorism in October 2008 and said, "I regard that decree as a call to duty to not only Muslims but to all right-thinking people. I would urge that more voices be raised, loudly and clearly, against terrorism and all forms of violence."
But the minister's 'political platitudes' failed to impress many in the JUH. A senior official of the Jamiat said, "What he (Chidambaram) said was nothing new. It was largely like an election speech, full of assurances of an equal status for Muslims in their own country, and did not dwell on any of the issues raised in the resolutions that were passed on Tuesday following a two-day deliberation by nearly 10,000 Ulemas and clerics"
The Centre's proposal to set up a central madrassa board was also debated upon by Islamic clerics, who unanimously "condemned government interference in Muslim education". The session pledged to fight terrorism (a reiteration of the 2008 Darul Uloom fatwa); demanded expeditious implementation of the recommendations of the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee and Ranganath Misra Commission reports and also urged the government to check encroachment on Waqf properties.
The resolutions also condemned the recent Delhi high court judgment legalising homosexuality and called the proposal of 33% reservation for women "unnecessary and unacceptable". A potentially-controversial resolution also upheld the Darul Uloom's 2006 fatwa against recitation of the Vande Mataram by Muslims saying that it "violates our faith in monotheism."
The resolutions were presented to Chidambaram, calling upon the UPA government to take action on them rather than making "lucrative promises". However, the clerics failed to get any assurance from the minister.
Possibly carried away by the crowd of over two-lakh Muslims, Chidambaram made all attempts to reach out to them by making statements about how the community belonged here in India. "This is the land of your forbears, this is the land of your birth and this is where you will live and work. It is a matter of pride for us that all major religions of the world, including Islam, exist and thrive in India," he said.