A seemingly innocuous query by the Rajendra Sachar Committee appointed by the Prime Minister's Office to find out the number of Muslims in the armed forces has snowballed into a major controversy.
The opposition has charged the government with 'communalising' the armed forces stating that such steps will create divisions among them.
However, the Congress has supported the government's move saying, "It is not army specific, but a general fact finding exercise." It accused the opposition of deliberately raising a storm in a teacup when 'no such teacup or storm existed.'
Meanwhile, Chief of Army Staff J J Singh has made it clear that the Army is and will remain an apolitical, secular and professional force. "We do not look at where you come from, what language you speak or what religion you are in the Army," Singh said.
Image: Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee with Chief of Army Staff General J J Singh.
Photograph: Raveendran/AFP/Getty Images
Army census: Good or bad? Tell Us
'We are an apolitical and secular force'