Mystery surrounds an American agency carrying out a survey in different parts of India to know the Muslim opinion on some sensitive issues like placing Sharia over the Indian laws, Islam's role in mainstram Indian politics, and whether Islam is under any serious threat.

The agency quietly conducted the survey in 54 cities and towns, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad and it would have gone unnoticed but for some in a Muslim locality of Thiruvananthapuram becoming suspicious in March.

They nabbed and handed over to police five surveyors going around with a 93-page questionnaire and paying Rs 30 to a respondent who was agreeing to reply.

The Kerala high court has now ordered an investigation to nail the people behind the mischievous survey after the union home ministry and intelligence bureau (IB) pleaded clueless about the exercise going on in the country for the past six months.

The survey was being conducted by TNS (Taylor Nelson Sofres) India, a research company claiming a network in over 75 countries. It has claimed that the survey was undertaken at the instance of Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRA), a US think tank specialising in socio-political research.

It sought to wriggle out of teh controversy stating that only around 590 out of 6000 persons interviewed across the country, that is less than 12 per cent, were Muslims. It insisted that there is no communal angle to the survey, and it was basically meant to learn and understand attitudes, opinions and values of people around the world. The survey is being conducted in more than 20 countries, it said.

Kerala Police chief Jacob Punnose says the survey had communal overtones and hence a case has been filed against TNS India for asking communally sensitive questions. "We have decided to file a case of 153(a) under Indian Penal Code (IPC) which relates to the charge of promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion and race.

There are some questions that are US-centric like whether American ways of doing business are good, whether American efforts to spread democracy around the world are bad and to what extent people agree or disagree that United States is anti-Muslim.

If one answers in affirmative that US is anti-Muslim, the questionnaire goes on to ask why such a view is being supported. Is it because US kills Muslims or carries out war on terror and war in Iraq and Afghanistan, or because it is trying to control and dominate the Muslim world, or it works against Muslim interests, disrespects Islam and supports Israel.There are also questions like which country offers the best model for governing a Muslim country and listed among them are Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey or any other, in that order. The survey goes on to ask which countries offer the next best model for governing a Muslim country, running the same list of the countries.

Yet another question seeks opinion on some of the top Islamic leaders including Osama bin Laden, Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari, Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina,  Saudi king Abdullah and Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.