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New Delhi: All India Milli Council (AIMC) issued a White Paper on March 26. The council has contradicted and questioned many claims of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his NDA government. Vajpayee's claim that during the six years of NDA rule there was a marked decrease in the number of communal riots in the country has been proved wrong by the statistics given in the White Paper. According to it, there were 731 communal riots during the period 1998-2002 in which 1570 people were killed and 4908 injured. These figures are in no way less than those under previous governments. 

The prime minister, while campaigning for BJP candidate Shah Nawaz Husain in Kishan Ganj, promised Muslims that after returning to power his government would appoint two crore [20 million] Urdu teachers all over the country. Vajpayee’s claim has been disputed by the fact that even the total number of Hindi teachers in the country is less than this figure. 

The White Paper says that according to the 1991 census, there are approximately 4.5 crore [45m] Urdu-speaking people and roughly 15 lakh government primary schools in the country. It is therefore beyond comprehension, how and where these two crore Urdu teachers will be appointed!

Another statement made by Vajpayee in the Minorities Development Conference at Delhi's Talkatora Stadium last February that his government spent Rs 100 crore on the modernisation of madrasahs and provided employment to 10,000 madrasah graduates appears to be highly exaggerated, the White Paper said.

Regarding Gujarat riots, both Vajpayee and LK Advani are now saying that such incidents should not have taken place but it was with the blessings of these same people that Narendra Modi continued to be the chief minister after riots. Advani had even patted him on his back and described him as the best chief minister. Besides these, Sangh Parivar and BJP are unanimous in their view that the criminals of Gujarat pogrom should be protected from being tried and punished. 

—MG News Desk  

Read the full text of the White paper in 
Muslim India, April-May 2004 (www.muslimindia.net)