Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005
Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005 |
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Kerala
By A Correspondent
NEDUMBASSERY, FEB. 15. Tarlochan Singh, Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, today said the latest Census showed no variation in the population of Christians that suggested mass conversions. This had proved that the issue of conversions was blown out of proportion, he added. He told presspersons at the airport today that Christians should make the majority communities realise this, and prove that the allegation of mass conversions was baseless. He asked leaders of the Christian community to visit the North-East, where complaints of mass conversions were prevalent, to ensure that nothing was being done out of the way to woo people in the region into its fold. Mr. Tarlochan Singh appealed to the Muslim community to give more importance to education and modernise madrassas. Before complaining about fewer employment opportunities, Muslims should realise that illiteracy was holding them back. Madrassas needed modernisation, and mainstream schooling should be given equal priority. Regarding the attacks on Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, Mr. Tarlochan Singh said it was in everyone's interest to conduct a proper investigation of the whole incident. Asked if the recently submitted U.C. Banerjee report was the final word on the Godhra train carnage, he said that it was worth waiting for conclusive reports. He expressed confidence that the truth about the Gujarat incidents would come out as the Supreme Court, the National Human Rights Commission and the media were trying to dig it out.
Attacks on Sikhs
However, he expressed dissatisfaction over the manner in which investigation of the attacks on Sikhs in 1984 was being conducted. No commission has done justice to the case, in which thousands of Sikhs were massacred, he added. Alleging that the police were in league with the culprits in spreading terror against the community following the assassination of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, he said that no one had been punished and no proper compensation paid to the affected people. He had lost hope that justice would ever be done in this case. He said the commission often came across complaints about minority status not being conferred to educational institutions run by such communities. The panel had helped them out. He recalled the intervention of the commission to reinstate the holiday on Good Friday in a State when the Government declared it a working day. Similarly, the commission intervened to get the central school board roll back the examination schedule which did way with the Christmas vacation.
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