The Hindu : Minorities urged to unite to `defeat communal forces'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Belgaum

Minorities urged to unite to `defeat communal forces'

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM, MARCH 27. "There is no need to be apprehensive about communal forces as they can be kept at bay if the minorities make a common cause and exercise their franchise with care," John Dayal, general secretary of the All India Christian Council and All India Catholic Union, has said.

Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, he said the minorities could make a difference to the election outcome. "All Christians, Muslims, and Dalits should vote in the morning to ensure that their votes are not cast by somebody else," he said.

The council had drawn the attention of the Election Commission to its apprehensions about political parties and candidates "influencing polling officials to misguide illiterate voters in using the electronic voting machines (EVMs)." Though the Election Commission had claimed that EVMs were foolproof, there was no guarantee that all polling officers would be fair, he said. Mr. Dayal criticised the Centre over the "India Shining" campaign and said the claim that the country had foreign exchange worth one billion US dollars was a myth.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation's (FAO) 2003 report on food security indicated that over one-fifth of the country's population suffered from chronic hunger, he said.

The Green Revolution in Punjab had run into crisis.

Paddy production in the country, which had increased by 3.48 per cent in the Eighties, fell to 1.87 per cent in the Nineties. There was no increase in the per capita cereal production from 1990-91 to 2000-01, he said.

But the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance Government at the Centre was keen on handing over food marketing to private traders, he said.

The FAO had warned of a "food crisis" in India if the trend continued, though the country had a good stock of foodgrains.

Mr. Dayal said the number of unemployed people in the country had increased to 35 million by 2002.

Another 20 million people were likely to loose their jobs in the next four years, and the figure was expected to rise to 40 million by the end of 2007, he added.

Quoting a report prepared by the Planning Commission, he said that of the 212 million young adults (aged between 14 to 24 years) in the country, only 107 million had jobs. Though the private sector had grown in some areas, it had also started downsizing its workforce, he said.

R. Vijay Kumar, member of the State Executive Committee of the Communist Party of India, said the NDA government could be credited only on two fronts — the Golden Quadrilateral Project and the manufacturing units to be established through foreign direct investment.

Taking mobile phones to rural areas was another of its achievements.

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Minorities urged to unite to `defeat communal forces'