By RINA International Service
New Delhi: Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind says the package announced by the union government for the victims of anti-Muslim in Gujarat is insufficient. Therefore, the organization has reiterated its demand for the prime minister to compensate the victims of these riots at par with the victims of anti-Sikh riots and to rehabilitate them.
Reacting over the package exceeding Rupees Seventy Crore, general secretary of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Maulana Syed Mahmood Madani said the way the state government has procrastinated at each step of rehabilitation of the riot victims clearly shows that the state government is not sincere at all in providing relief to Muslims and rehabilitating them. Member of Rajya Sabha, Maulana Madani said it is obvious that the Modi government in Gujarat is totally disinterested in rehabilitation of Muslims and its evidence comes from the fact that out of Rs. 155 crore that the center had given it in 2002 for relief and rehabilitation of riots-affected, the state government utilized only Rs. 136 crore and returned Rs. 19 crore to the center.
He demanded that if the Congress-led union government is really sincere in rehabilitation of Muslims and other riots-affected, it should devise such a mechanism under which Muslims could be rehabilitated directly under center’s supervision without the participation of the state government.
Maulana Madani has drawn government’s attention toward a report of a voluntary organization that says Muslims are again being targeted with violence in order to heat up communal atmosphere before assembly elections in Gujarat. The report also says police are colluding with the workers of BJP and Hindu organizations in a way that is reminiscent of their behaviour during the riots that erupted after Godhara incident in 2002.
On September 10th, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind gave ultimatum, in a letter addressed to the prime minister, to start ‘Save the Country and the Millat’ movement to lay emphasis on its demands. The movement will start if the organization did not receive some positive response by union government about its demands by October 10th. Demands raised by Jamiat Ulama-i- Hind include the demand that those affected in anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat should be compensated for in the same way as the victims of anti-Sikh riots were compensated at Delhi High Court’s orders.