2002: Indian Muslim Statements, The Milli Gazette

2002: Indian Muslim Statements
For Latest Indian Muslim Statements click here
Indian Muslim Statements during 2001 click here
Archive of Indian Muslim Statements click here

JOINT MEMORANDUM BY MUSLIM NOTABLES

TO HON’BLE SHRI K.R. NARAYANAN, PRESIDENT OF INDIA

ON THE GUJARAT SITUATION

New Delhi

29 April, 2002

Respected Rashtrapatiji,

Full 2 months after the genocidal fury began devouring human beings, men, women and children, their dwellings and means of livelihood, life in Gujarat has not returned to normal. Terrorized the target community in a state of daze. Nearly 150,000 people are still in refugee camps uncared for by an apathetic administration and most of them have no place to go back to. The rehabilitation programme, announced by the Prime Minister is yet to take off.

FIRS are yet to be registered, investigation yet to begin, even in the major incidents, and prosecution yet to be initiated. No SIT’s have been formed. The CBI has not been inducted. No Special Prosecutors have been appointed. The so-called Shah Commission of Inquiry is but a sham. The universal demand for a Commission of Inquiry headed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court and two sitting judges of the High Court, with appropriate terms of reference has not been heeded.

No place of worship or religious significance, destroyed, damaged or occupied has been reconstructed, repaired and restored.

No wonder, the affected people are apprehensive about facing more violence if they step out of the camps or try to go back to their localities or villages.

The displaced are being maintained at subsistence level by the NGOs with government showing little interest in their survival. The injured who are hospitalized have not received proper care.

Muslim Students have largely boycotted the secondary and higher secondary examinations.

The sceptre of insecurity is still at large.

This insecurity arises primarily from the fact that the same faces which organized the massacres are around; the identified killers are roaming freely and the authorities, whom the victims hold responsible for their sufferings, directly or indirectly, from the policeman to the Chief Minister, are still in power.

The recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) have been largely ignored.

Rashtrapatiji, we have come to place before you our considered conclusion that there can be no return to normalcy in Gujarat, no restoration of confidence in the target community, unless there is a change in the power structure and in the administrative machinery.

Rashtrapatiji, we appreciate and realize the limits of your constitutional authority. But, on many occasions, you have spoken out your mind and given expression to your anguish and compassion.

So, we have come to request you to exercise your power under Article 78 of the Constitution to call for status reports and examine the reason for delay in restoration of normalcy from all angles and advise the Prime Minister that the confidence of the target community will not be restored and normalcy will not return, unless the Governor and the Chief Minister are changed, and the State is placed under Central rule, with a new Governor assisted by competent advisors of national eminence, who are charged, specially, with finalizing, announcing and implementing the relief and rehabilitation package based on the recommendations of the NHRC and the NCM, with special provisions for the aged, the widows and the orphans who have no one to look after them, inducting the CBI, forming Special Investigation Teams, appointing Special Prosecutors and establishing Special Courts and above all, replacing the Shah Commission with a 3-Member Commission of Inquiry, as mentioned above.

Rashtrapatiji, We have every hope that your personal interest and considered advice to your Government shall inject a new sense of urgency in the corridors of power in dealing with this enormous human problem, and realise their constitutional, moral and national responsibility towards the suffering people.

With respectful regards,

Yours sincerely,

Syed Shahabuddin, President, All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat

Saiyid Hamid, Chancellor, Hamdard University & President, Movement for the Empowerment of Muslim Indians

S.M.H. Burney, Former Governor

Khurshid Alam Khan, Former Governor

Syed Shahid Mehdi, Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia

Mohd. Hamid Ansari, Former Ambassador and Former VC, AMU

Mohd. Yahya, Amir, Jamaat Ahl-e-Hadith

Syed Jalaluddin Umri, Naib Ameer, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind

Mohd. Salim Qasmi, Vice-President, All India Muslim Personal Law Board

Asrarul Haq Qasmi, Assistant Secretary General, All India Milli Council

_________________________________________________________