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 ALL INDIA MUSLIM
MAJLIS-e-MUSHAWARAT
Text of the Resolutions taken at the meeting of the National Working Committee, New Delhi,
20 November, 2004
New Delhi, 20 November, 2004:
Text of the Resolutions
Resolutions of Markazi
Majlis-e-Amla, 20, November, 2004
I- Condolence Resolution
The MMA expresses its deep sense of sorrow at the demise of Janab Ghulam
Sarwar, former Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly and the pioneer
of the Urdu Movement in Bihar.
The MMA also condolences the death of the eminent parliamentarian Mr. Syed
Ahmad Mehdi and the well-known poets Bismil Shahjahanpuri and Aziz
Bagharvi.
The MMA offers its condolences to the bereaved families and prays to Allah
for the Maghferat of the departed souls.
II - Resolution on Review of the Performance of 6 Month of UPA Government
The MMA felicitates the UPA Government, headed by Dr. Manmohan Singh as
Prime Minister which has, despite parliamentary obstruction and
astrological predictions, successfully completed 6 months in power and has
changed the political, social and economic atmosphere of the country in
this brief period.
The MMA realizes that though there has been all-round progress on many
front it is not possible to clear all the cobwebs of the last 6 years
overnight but the people, particularly the deprived and the oppressed
expected CHANGE, a reaffirmation of Dignity and Hope with the change of
government. The Muslim community has felt liberated and is beginning to
come forward and frankly articulation matters of concern. Several matters
of utmost concern to the Muslim community have, however, remained
unattended.
The MMA lists a few such matters for priority attention by the Ministries
concerned (in alphabetical order) :
1.
Prime Minister’s Office: 1) Establishment of a Ministry of
Minority Affairs and a joint Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of the
Minorities.
2) Revival of PM’s 15-Point Programme for Minorities.
2. Culture: 1) Withdrawal of the ASI Notification on Kamal
Maula Masjid in Dhar, MP.
2) Proper care and maintenance of Protected Masjids and Monuments by the
ASI
3) Implementation of 1984 Agreement on Performance of Namaz in Protected
Masjids on a selective basis.
3. Education: 1) Revival of the Three Language Formula in
high school curriculum to enable students from linguistic minorities to
acquire proficiency in their Mother Tongue.
2) Crash programme to open primary schools in Muslim concentration and
other deprived areas in accordance with the national norms and with Mother
Tongue as the medium of primary education.
3) Reconstitution of the National Council for the Promotion of Urdu
4) Review of the Place of Urdu in Curriculum of the CBSE.
4. External Affairs: 1) Reconstitution of the Haj Committee.
2) Active Support to the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood.
5. Home: 1) Review of POTA cases and Retrospective repeal of
POTA.
2) Enactment of a Comprehensive Law on Social Violence, providing for
equal compensation, special courts, punitive fines, fixation of
responsibility, judicial inquiry and due representation of the target
communities in police force and magistracy.
3) Reconstitution of National Integration Council.
4) Further Empowerment of National Commission of Human Rights.
5) Due Representation to Muslim in Central Para-military Forces.
6) Legislation against Hate Crimes.
7) Review of Progress of Relief and Rehabilitation of Victims of Gujarat
Violence.
6. Information and 1) Duration of Urdu Broadcasting and
Telecasts in Government
Broadcasting: Electronic media.
2) Creation of National Urdu Channel as Door Darshan.
7. Law: 1) Appointment of Muslims as Judges in the Supreme
Court and the High Courts and as Members of the Law Commission.
2) Review of Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986.
3) Elimination of Under-representation of the Muslims in Legislatures.
8. Social Justice: 1) Withdrawal of the Order of
Trifurcation of the Punjab Wakf Board.
2) Reservation for Muslims in Public Employment on Kerala and Karnataka
model.
3) Reconstitution of the National Commission for Minorities, the National
Minorities Finance and Development Corporation, the Central Wakf Council,
Maulana Azad Education Foundation and Regular Discussion on their Reports
to the Parliament.
4) Discussion on the Reports of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities
in Parliament.
The MMA requests the Ministers concerned in the UPA Government to
expedite action on the above mentioned matters.
The MMA would also like to point out, in particular, that to the dismay of
the Muslim community, the hangers-on of the NDA regime and its nominees
continue to ‘adorn’ several official and semi-official bodies and
feels that it is necessary to purge Muslim appointees of the NDA
government in the Government bodies in order to reinforce the impression
of change in the eyes of the Muslim community.
III - Resolution on Establishment of National Commission for Minority
Educational InstitutionS
The MMA has taken note of the promulgation by the UPA Government of the
Ordinance for the establishment of the proposed National Commission for
Minority Educational Institution which was promised in its MCP.
While the MMA appreciates the expeditious action taken, it regrets that in
adopting the Ordinance the Muslim community was not taken into confidence
nor were Muslim educationists consulted. Consequently the Ordinance
appears to be inadequate to the situation and will fail to remove the
difficulties faced by the Muslims in enjoying the benefits of Article
30(1) and (2) of the Constitution in full measure.
The main difficulties relate to:
1. Non-recognition of MEI’s as MEI’s on
one pretext or the other.
2. Non-affiliation of MEI’s with the Secondary Boards and Universities
in various States.
3. Non-sanction of grants-in-aid to MEI’s by the State authorities.
4. Non-issue of No Objection Certificates for Professional Colleges,
sought to be established.
5. Non-recognition of professional colleges, established by the Muslims
by the statutory bodies like the Medical Council of India or the All
India Council for Technical Education.
Neither the Commission has any overriding
powers nor any authority to advise the Boards and Universities and the
Councils to remove the difficulties faced by the MEI’s and facilitate
expeditious clearance.
The Ordinance instead of facilitating the recognition and affiliation of
the MEI’s by State Boards/Universities or even by all Central
Universities limits alternative affiliation to 5 specified Universities of
which only Delhi University is centrally located and of some benefit.
The Ordinance does not empower the Commission to intervene effectively
when grant-in-aid is delayed or refused.
The MMA feels that the proposed Commission would merely re-enact the
ineffective role played by the National Commission for Minorities.
The MMA knows that the UPA Government is sincerely desirous to promote the
education of minorities and, therefore, requests that the Bill to
replace the Ordinance should be re-drafted, in consultation with the
community, with the object of removing all the obstacles which stand in
the way of enjoying full benefit of Article 30.
IV - Resolution on Kashmir Question
The MMA appreciates the initiatives taken by the UPA Government on the
Kashmir Question, moving towards meaningful negotiations with Pakistan, on
one hand, and reaching out to the people of the State, on the other.
However, the MMA regrets the conditional response of the APHC to the
unconditional invitation for talks extended by the Prime Minister and its
refusal to meet him during his just concluded visit to Srinagar on the
ground that they shall see the Prime Minister only after a visit to
Pakistan. The MMA fails to comprehend the logic of the APHC whose leaders
had, during the NDA regime, called on the then Deputy Prime Minister in
New Delhi,
The MMA expresses the hope that the pace of negotiations on this and other
outstanding questions at all levels shall gather momentum as political,
cultural, economic and social exchanges between the two countries
increase.
The MMA realizes that the progress towards
the final settlement is bound to be very slow and appeals to all concerned
to facilitate the process by abjuring rigidity and discarding old
thinking.
The MMA, particularly, appreciates the courageous decision to reduce the
armed forces in the State and feels that it would make an immense
psychological impact on the people if the army and paramilitary profile in
cities and towns of the State was lowered.
The MMA also takes this opportunity to request the State Government to
investigate the massive phenomenon of missing persons and the allegations
of custodial killings and to respect and implement the recommendations of
the State Human Rights Commission.
V - Resolution on Review of CBSE Curriculum on Languages
The Markazi Majlis-e-Amla (MMA) has taken note of the longstanding
grievance of the Urdu-speaking community about virtual exile of Urdu from
the curriculum of the Central Board of Secondary Education for Secondary
Examination. The curriculum limits the choice of languages to two only and
thus effectively exiles the Mother Tongue of the Urdu-Hindi speaking
students and bars them from gaining due proficiency in their Mother
Tongue, which should be one of the primary objectives of school education.
Since Urdu is not the Principal Language of any state, the Urdu-speaking
students are the worst sufferers all over the country.
The CBSE is an important institution whose curriculum is followed not only
by private schools affiliated to it, in India and abroad, but by the
Central Schools, the Navodaya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Vidyalayas.
The MMA proposes for the consideration of the Union Government that the
CBSE should revise its curriculum to introduce the nationally accepted
Three Language Formula in its original form which would enable every
student to gain proficiency in his/her Mother Tongue, in the following
manner:
1. First Language : Mother Tongue
(Compulsory)
Second Language : Hindi for non-Hindi students or Regional Language of the
State (Compulsory)
Third Language : English or a Classical Language (Sanskrit, Arabic or
Persian) or a Foreign Language; other than English or Hindi for those who
have not offered Hindu as First or Second Language.
2. No language should be bracketted with a
non-language subject
3. The Three Language Formula should be applied from Class VI.
The MMA appeals to the UPA Government and particularly to the Prime
Minister and the Minister of Human Resource Development, to consider this
basic suggestion for the survival and development of Urdu in the land of
its birth, and for the progress of all other M.I.L’s which are
minority languages in all States other than their home-states.
VI - Resolution on Situation in Iraq
The MMA has noted the fall of Fallujah to the US forces and its enormous
human cost in terms of death and destruction and massive displacement of
the civil population. But the fall of Fallujah has sparked popular
resistance all over Iraq and exposed the real face of the Allawi regime as
an American puppet.
The MMA deems it unlikely that a free and fair election can now be held as
scheduled and considers that the real objective of the USA is not to bring
peace and democracy to Iraq as it claims but to plunge it into a civil war
and divide it along ethnic and sectarian lines into small states which are
more amenable to US dominance.
Considering that all human beings have a right to life and cannot be
deprived of this right except in accordance with law and, therefore, the
MMM cautions the Resistance groups against targeting non-combatants or
committing brutalities and atrocities against innocent persons.
The MMA appeals to the people of the world not to be misled by US
propaganda or forget the long-suffering people of Iraq, but to maintain
pressure on the USA to stop its continuing aggression and to quit Iraq.
VII - Resolution on Situation in
Palestine
The MMA shares with the Palestinian people their sorrow and sense of loss
at the demise of Yasser Arafat who, upto his last breath, remained the
unquestioned symbol of the struggle of the Palestinian people for Freedom
and Peace. A revolutionary to the core, Arafat was realistic enough to
accept the idea of Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace, even
though all his advances towards a final settlement were repeatedly
rebuffed by Israel in order to maintain its physical presence and military
control of the occupied territory.
The MMA is convinced that the Palestinian people shall close ranks behind
a democratically elected leader with the mandate to follow in the
footsteps of Arafat to realize their inalienable right to Statehood
with the vacation of all occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and a
reasonable settlement on the right of the Palestinian refugees.
VIII - Resolution on Situation in Thailand
The MMA considers the continued oppression and terrorization of the Muslim
community in South Thailand by the Government of Thailand as not only in
violation of their human rights but an exercise in tyranny. It regrets
that the Government of Thailand has neither expressed any
regret over the death by suffocation of 80 Muslim youth piled like
lifeless legs in military trucks on 28 October, 2004 nor
offered any ex-gratia relief to the next-of-kin nor punished
or prosecuted the culprits nor even established a judicial
Commission of inquiry.
The MMA feels that state violence and the apathy of the Thai civil society
may combine to re-ignite the embers of rebellion in this region which has
remained economically backward and has not shared the prosperity of
Thailand.
The MMA appeals to the Thai Government to adopt a humane approach,
restrain its armed forces, establish a dialogue with the leaders of the
Muslim community and prepare plans for the development of the region.
Sd/- Syed Shahabuddin
ALL INDIA MUSLIM
MAJLIS-e-MUSHAWARAT
N-44, Abul Fazal Enclave, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi - 110 025 Phone: 2632
6780 Fax: 2632 7346 Email:
muslim@del3.vsnl.net.in q
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