TwoCircles.net: Aligarh: Wednesday,
April 23, 2014.
Mr. Wajahat Habib Ullah delivering the IVth KP Sing Memorial Lecture at AMU. |
The former
Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, Mr. Wajahat Habibullah,
today expressed his concern on incidents of “targeted communal violence” in the
country in which the police force had reportedly played a dubious role.
Delivering
the fourth K. P. Singh Memorial Lecture on “India’s Emergence as a Nation: Its
Triumphs and Tragedies” at the Aligarh Muslim University today, Habibullah made
a scathing attack on the partiality of the police force saying, “Disturbingly,
all cases of communal violence investigated by the National Commission for
Minorities followed a trend of police complicity, wherein the police had
colluded not only with the dominant community but also with aggressive groups
to perpetrate violence”.
Elaborating
the short comings in the justice delivery system, which presently prevails as
far as victims of communal riots are concerned, Habibullah, who is also a
former Secretary to the Government of India, said, “Existing provisions of the
Indian Penal Code (IPC) have proved inadequate in addressing targeted violence in
the country”.
Habibullah
said that in the year 1986, the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi had himself
taken the initiative in investigating the role of the police in the communal
violence in Hashimpura in district Meerut, following the custodial death of 40
Muslim youth. He pointed out that despite the then Prime Minister’s
intervention, “this case still lingers in the session courts and all accused
policemen continued in regular service and many of them retired with honours”.
Habibullah
regretted that the country lost an opportunity of containing such targeted
violence when the “Communal and Targeted Violence Prevention Bill” was
torpedoed in the last session of the Parliament. Habibullah said, “The most
remarkable of the proposed legislation was that it held public servants
accountable for their negligence or willful failure in controlling riots. This
bill would have also given the right to the victims to be heard during the
procedure of trial and made more victim friendly including the provision of victim
protection”.
Expressing
his dismay over the manner in which this important piece of legislation was
shot down by certain vested interest, Habibullah said, “The Draft Bill which
failed to get approval of the Parliament, was attacked by right-wing groups for
being ‘anti-Hindu’, though Hindu minorities too, were covered under the bill in
states where they form a minority population”.
Habibullah
lamented, “The government and civil society at large overlooked the need to
address the discrimination, exclusionary practices and insecurities faced by
the Muslim community on a daily basis. The Muslim community is clueless with
how to deal with an open and certain discrimination”.
Referring to
the economic plight of the Muslims, despite the advent of a number of poverty
alleviation programmes meant for their economic emancipation, Habibullah said,
“Compared to the SCs and STs and other social and religious groups, while urban
poverty in 2011 was the highest among Muslims, rural poverty among Muslims was
also higher than that of other religious groups and of other Backward castes
(OBCs). Besides, as will be evident from statistics, the rate of decline in
poverty has also been the slowest in the Muslim community even when compared to
the SCs and STs”.
Referring to
a recent official report on urban literacy, Habibullah said, “If we compare the
rate of increases in literacy among Muslims with other social and religious
groups including the SCs, it is once again the lowest”.
Quoting from
the Justice Ranganath Mishra Report on Religious and Linguistic Minorities,
Habibullah said, “The condition of Muslims in general are lower than Hindu OBCs
who have the benefit of reservation and recent attempts by the central
government to introduce 4.5 reservation to Muslim OBCs within the OBC quota
have met with resistance”.
Quoting again
from the Ranganathan Mishra Committee Report, Habibullah said, “Muslims have
been denied of equal participation in the development process”.
Referring to
the impact of the follow up measures, following the recommendations of the
Justice Sachar Committee Report, Habibullah said that there was no denying that
various flagship programmes for minority development had been initiated by the
central government with the objective of alleviating the miserable economic
condition of the Muslims. These remedial measures may have led to a limited
amelioration in the economic condition of the Muslims, but tardy implementation
was a big hurdle in getting the desired results.
Citing the
findings of a recent report based on a study by the Centre For Equity Studies
on the Impact of the Sachar Committee Follow Up measures, Habibullah said, “The
study which covers three districts in the states of West Bengal, Bihar and
Haryana indicates that despite focus on minority districts, Muslim communities
were not benefitting much because officials were often under orders to avoid
Muslim villages”.
Habibullah
said, “Instead of spending funds to upgrade schools in Muslim villages, these
funds were spent on neighbouring non-Muslim villages”.
Referring to
the political impact of this harsh reality of exclusion felt by the Muslim
community, Habibullah said, “There is now a growing political consciousness in
the Muslim community which has made a decisive use of its franchise in
election”.
Habibullah
said that in a democracy no group should feel excluded because this could only
lead to the weakening of the nation as a whole. “Europe had to pay a heavy
price for cleaving to a narrow concept of nationhood and the European had to
ultimately undertake fitful step towards building a multi-nationality state”.
He called
upon every section of Indian society to take upon the Right to Information Act
for ensuring accountability and transparency in governance. This Act, he said,
was among the world’s strongest weapons for ensuring justice to all sections of
the people.
In his
presidential remarks on Habibullah’s address, the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh
Muslim University, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Zameer Uddin Shah said that the challenges
facing the Muslim community could only be fully addressed if the community
itself was prepared to play its due role in poverty elimination. Shah said,
“The major thrust of the Muslim community has to be on education and this
objective could largely be achieved by reforming and improving the quality of
education of Muslim Madrasas all over the country”. He said that AMU has
started a Bridge Course for Madrasa pass outs to enable them join the
mainstream courses in the University.
Shah said
that as far as discrimination was concerned, “Muslims do not need just riot
free society but more so they need a discrimination-free society”.
Earlier, Dr.
Tariq Islam, Coordinator, K. P. Singh Memorial Lecture welcomed the guests.
Prof. Wasi
Haider highlighted the works and contributions of Prof. K. P. Singh. He said
that K. P. Singh was a great soldier of secularism. He had a liberal and left
values. He donated his body to the J. N. Medical College Hospital of the
University for academic purposes.
AMU Pro-Vice
Chancellor, Brigadier (Retd.) Syed Ahmad Ali graced the lecture. On this
occasion, Prof. K. P. Singh’s family was also present in the lecture.