The Hindu : Centre charged with failing to uphold Constitution

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 18, 2003

National

National

Centre charged with failing to uphold Constitution

By Garimella Subramaniam

Chennai May 17. The president of the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK),

M.H. Jawahirullah, has made a case for the appointment of a Special Rapporteur to India by the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

Speaking at the 9th Session of the United Nations Working Group on Minorities in Geneva, he alleged "grave threat to the life, honour, dignity and religious freedom of the minorities in India",

during the past decade, despite the various guarantees in the Constitution. In his intervention, he referred to many forms of violation of the rights of minorities — by legislation, socially

engineered violence and the denial of equal protection under the law. Prominent among the instances cited was the enactment of anti-conversion laws by the Tamil Nadu and Gujarat Governments.

Mr. Jawahirullah said that purporting to prevent "forced" conversions, these laws denied religious minorities, such as Christians and Muslims, the right to propagate their religion and the citizens of India the freedom to adopt the religion of one's choice. He also cited the provision in the Tamil Nadu law, which requires information about conversions to be intimated to the district magistrate and the more drastic clause under the Gujarat law wherein obtaining his prior permission is obligatory.

Mr. Jawahirullah alleged that one of the 56 accused in the torching of the train compartment in Godhra in February 2002 had died in custody under mysterious circumstances. In contrast, the

Government of Gujarat had acted in a `partisan' manner by failing to investigate the `retaliatory atrocities' committed against the Muslims. Similarly, while human rights activists and lawyers

fighting for justice for the victims of the carnage were subjected to intimidation, the Muslims were being socially and economically boycotted by the RSS, VHP and the Bajrang Dal.

Elsewhere in the country, Mr. Jawahirullah has stated in his submission, the VHP was taunting the Dalits and other minorities by issuing open threats and distributing trishuls (tridents) among members of the majority religious community with a call for "self-defence" against the minorities.

He deplored the attitude of the Government of India, which, he said, had done little to infuse a sense of security and confidence among the minorities.

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