UPA To Push For Passing Bill Punishing Rioters, Protecting Minorities
New Delhi: The UPA will make all efforts to get a law to deter communal violence passed in Parliament and give protection to the minorities. The government will also seek the active participation of the majority community in the implementation of the recommendations of the Sachar committee for welfare of Muslims. My ministry will make all efforts to ensure that the communal violence bill, which has been pending since the last government, is passed, minority affairs minister Salman Khursheed said.
The bill, aimed at giving protection to the minorities, provides punitive measures for perpetrators of riots, and has been pending with the UPA after the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) drafted it. The bill has been under inter-ministerial consultation and dialogue. We will definitely make efforts to see that it is passed by this government. We are going to have detailed discussions with all the ministries concerned on the issue as it requires a combined effort, Khursheed said.
Khursheed said a cautious approach has to be adopted while dealing with communal problems as hyperbole is not the best way to handle social conflicts. After all people have to live together, he said.
He added that active participation of the majority community will be needed in the implementation of the recommendations of the Sachar committee, which examined the social and economic status of the Muslims and suggested remedial measures. Minority welfare has to be part of the national effort. It cannot be an exclusive minority thing. The majority must be stakeholders in what is being done for the minorities, the minister said.
Asked about his ministrys stand on the vexed issue of reservation for Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims on the lines of the SCs, Khursheed said his ministry will certainly examine the issue. Reservation is not the only answer to social welfare although it is definitely a time-tested and popular answer for welfare and empowerment, he said.
The ministry, he said, is looking at empowerment in totality and felt a genuine effort made by the software sector through technical education for the underprivileged could have much more success in that direction. Underlining that the UPA and the Congress were committed to giving attention to the minorities, he said the Sachar committee was a major step as far as the Muslims were concerned and its implementation would be the highest priority this time.