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"Committed to implementing Sachar report"

Special Correspondent

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday reiterated his government's commitment to implement the Sachar Committee report as a strategy towards "removing backwardness of minorities."

Dr. Singh lamented that "the use of religion for dividing people and getting electoral benefit is a bane of our age," and said this needed "to be curbed." He was speaking at a function after releasing a collection of parliamentary speeches by Maulana Syed Asad Madani of the Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind here.

Praising Syed Asad Madani as "a modern mind, a patriotic and nationalist mind," Dr. Singh noted that the Maulana had relentlessly struggled "in defence of our composite nationalism." And, "it is this composite vision which defined the identity of our nationhood and which remains central to our approach to nation-building."

Describing the Maulana as "a stanch advocate of pluralism and secularism," the Prime Minister noted with approval his view that "true secularism in the country could prevail only if every section of society is provided with an equal opportunity for progress." This view was very relevant "in our combined quest for a life of dignity, peace and prosperity for all sections of societies, including religious minorities."

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