All I wanted to know from him was the Muslim response to the Bombay blasts. He parked his taxi near the kerb, looked at me with piercing eyes. He then smiled and introduced himself as Hanif (name changed) and shared with me a truth as he would with a long lost-friend. ‘It had to be done,’ he said. Slowly, this calm man began to explode. ‘They pulled down the mosque—they began to beat Muslims, burnt their houses in Jhansi, Pratapgarh, Bhopal, Kanpur. As if that was not enough—they started it in Mumbai. Sharad Pawar was defence minister. Why didn’t he send in the troops? Because he wished to
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