PUNE, 30 December 2006 – The ongoing controversy between the Maharashtra Jewelers Federation (MJF) and the Muslim community raging for the past two days over the demand by the MJF to ban Muslim veiled women from entering the jewelry shops unless they revealed their faces came to an end with the jewelers tendering an unconditional apology to the Muslims.
Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil made a statement warning the jewelers that any such move by them would hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community.
The president of the MJF and Pune Jewelers Association, Fatehchand Ranka said, "Our statements were wrongly misconstrued and sent wrong signals to the Muslims community. We apologize in case it has hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community.” Ranka offered the apology after he led a protest march of 1,000 jewelers to the office of the district collector and city police commissioner. "We honor the statement made by the home minister. Hence there is no point in continuing with our demand,” he added.
Ranka further stated that the jewelers had only sought the Maharashtra government's permission after a spate of thefts by veiled robbers. "There are other means to put security in place. We will consult Muslim women on the measures to be taken for checking them before entering jewelry shop.”
Ashok Meinwala, the president of All Indian Gems and Jewelry Federation, who was also a member of a delegation to the police commissioner said, "We reiterate that it was not our intention to hurt any community's sentiments. We were only focusing on security and certainly not on veiled Muslim women. We did not intend to hurt the Muslims, as we have high regards for the community and its culture.”
The jewelers also come under severe criticism from the Pune Police Commissioner Dhananjay Jadhav who also agreed that the jewelers had sent a wrong signal to the Muslim community by their decision to ban entry of veil-clad Muslim women from entering their shops.
"We have asked the jewelers to immediately open a dialogue with the Muslim community. The jewelers could have directly approached us instead of unilaterally taking the decision to ban Muslim women wearing veils from entering the jewelry shops. There are several other options before them which they can utilize," the police commissioner said. The police commissioner said that he had met the delegation of the jewelers twice, but did not speak to them on the veil issue.
Speaking to the media on the issue, Jadhav said that the jewelers had sought a “no objection certificate” from the police department for displaying boards banning the entry of Muslim women wearing veils. But, it was not approved. "The police department cannot issue such NOC's to jewelry shops since they are private premises.”
Meanwhile a delegation of the minorities wing of the Republican Party of India (RPI-Athavale) held a meeting with Jadhav and demanded that a case of criminal offense be registered against the members of the Pune Jewelers Association for creating communal tension in the society.
