NEW DELHI, 23 October 2007 — The Markazi Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM) of the All-India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) has noted with “deep regret and disappointment” that the Mishra Commission Report was not tabled in the Parliament during its recent monsoon session.
“The Parliament did not hold a discussion on measures for the uplift of the Muslim Community in the light of the Sachar and the Mishra Reports, nor has any central mechanism been put into place to monitor the progress of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s revised 15-point program in various states and ministries,” Syed Shahbuddin, former Parliament member, said in a statement yesterday. The MMM has also noted that so far there has been no progress toward effective implementation even of the decisions taken by the Cabinet in May 2007 and placed before the Parliament in August in the follow-up report by the minister of minority affairs.
“The MMM considers that the pace has been slowed down or reduced to token action by the threat of a ‘Hindu backlash’ which has paralyzed the government and feels that at this pace no substantial gain will reach the community in the near future and that this will hurt the credibility of the government in the next general election,” said Shahabuddin, who also heads AIMMM.
The MMM, therefore, calls upon the central organizations, state and local Muslim organizations and institutions to step up the mobilization campaign, with the help of secular forces, at all levels, in order to force the government to table the Mishra Report in the winter session of the Parliament and to report on the progress of implementation of agreed measures.
The MMM has also taken a “serious note” of the fact that from Malegaon to Ajmer the police and intelligence authorities have been “systematically and deliberately pointing at Muslim involvement in acts of terrorism in religious places, detained and tortured many Muslim youth to extract confession and virtually put Muslim localities under siege,” the veteran leader said.
This has further aggravated the situation and the feeling of alienation in the community, diminished it in the eyes of the country and generated distrust and hatred against it. “The mass media and anonymous spokespersons of the authorities are trying to rationalize their accusation by highlighting long-standing but minor points of theological differences among various Muslim sects and attributing terrorism to their mutual hostility, thus trying to divide the Muslim community,” Shahabuddin said.
The MMM appeals to the government that the intelligence and police authorities be directed to desist from playing this game; first to complete the investigation expeditiously from all possible angles including the role of Hindutva terrorism and then name the culprits responsible.
