BOMBAY, 26 August 2006 — Leveling allegations against the Bombay police of targeting innocent Muslims for the July train bomb blasts, two Congress Muslim ministers Anees Ahmed and Baba Siddiqui raised the issue of police harassment of the Muslim community with state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Prabha Rau at a closed door meeting on Thursday evening.
The Congress ministers in the Democratic Front government in Maharashtra pointed out to Deshmukh and Rau that the harassment of the members of their community by the police for the past one month has been highlighted by several Muslim organizations and the government has not taken any note of their complaints.
Raising their ire against Home Minister R.R.Patil, the ministers said that Patil under whose ministry the police department falls, had failed to take corrective steps in this matter. Anees and Siddiqui were critical of the police, and asked the chief minister to ensure that necessary instructions were sent across to the police to stop targeting innocent Muslims under the guise of investigating them on their possible role in the blasts. Chief Minister Deshmukh after patiently hearing the complaints from his ministers said, “So far I have not received complaints about Muslims being targeted by the police, but if there are still complaints, I will personally look into it.”
In another political development, Raj Thackeray, president of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) floated a trade union wing of his party. Forming the new trade union – Maharashtra Navnirman Kamgar Sena, at Vile Parle, in Bombay suburb on Thursday — Raj stated that the sons of the soil will be given top priority in employment and there would be no compromise on this issue.
“Today’s employees are no fools and neither are they illiterate. I won’t tolerate anybody doing anything to suppress the workers voice,” Raj added and told the officebearers of his new labor union that the domicile certificate requirement will start with the leadership of the MNS.
According to political analysts, the MNS trade union would turn out to be a direct threat to the Shiv Sena-led Bharatiya Kamgar Sena, which is already under attack from Narayan Rane, once the blue-eyed boy of Sena chief Bal Thackeray, and now a prominent Congress minister in the DF government in Maharashtra.
