By Md.Ali, TwoCircles.net
Mumbai: In the context of very low representation of Muslims in Maharashtra Police, and the inaction of the state administration in this regard in spite of several government announcements, Teesta Seetalwad and other social activist of the state met the Home Minister of Maharashtra R.R.Patil on August 22, 2008.
They demanded from him to take the necessary steps to make the police more representative of the state population..
Pointing out the ratio of the number of appointments in the police and the number of Muslims appointed in the department to the Home Minister, Teesta Setalwad said that it seems that the local elements influence the percentage of Muslims selected in Police.
According to this ratio, Sholapur had the maximum number number of Muslims selected in the state police.
A Memorandum containing several demands, was presented to Mr.Patil on behalf of the NGOs, Muslim for Peace and Justice, Muslim Vikas Parishad,Muslims for Secular Democracy and Moulana Azad Vichar Manch.
The Memorandum says that “next filling up of vacancies will take place on August 27,2008. So before that a circular should be issued to all the district headquarters and all the centers where the filling of the vacancies will take place.”
In the Circular the government must instruct them to keep Prime Minister’s Fifteen Points Programme for the Minorities while filling the Police vacancies and ensure at any cost that the deserving Muslim candidates are selected as It will go a long way in making Police sensitive to the feelings of Muslims, says the Memorandum.
Describing the widening gap in the selection of Muslim in police in various states , the Memorandum says that “the reason for such kind of gap can only be attributed to either the partiality of the Police officers at the time of selection or the decrease in the number of Muslim applicants itself.”
The Memorandum says that “if at all partiality is the reason behind this gap, then it is a very serious issue.It must be ensured that there is no partiality.For this a Muslim officers should also be the part of the selection panel because this is the instruction present in the Prime Minister’s Fifteen Points Programme for the minorities.However this instruction has not yet been followed.
The Memorandum further says that the government must take necessary steps to provide training to Muslim youths so that they become competent enough to clear the selection process.
It demanded from the government that this kind of training centers for Muslim youths should be opened in every district.
Teesta Seetalwad informed that the data about the number of Muslims selected in Police was collected by her and the editor of “Elaan” newspaper Mr.Mueen Hafiz together.
TwoCircles.net talked to Dr.Azimuddin,president of Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ) in this regard.
He pointed out that “the number of Muslim police personals in Maharashtra police is so low that you will find a large number of the police stations don’t have even a single Muslim policemen, which is very shocking.”
He said that “the reason behind the low representation of Muslims in the state police is not only the ignorance of the state government but also the lack of awareness in the community.”
He informed that he has been talking to various police Commissioners of the state and they often complain that there is lack of trained youths who will be eligible for the job of a police man in the community.
Dr.Azimuddin informed in order to create awareness in the community, and to make the youth of the community competent and deserving for the job his organization, Movement for Peace and Justice has been organizing training camps for them since last three months.
He said that at the time of sensitive issues, the absence of Muslim police personals leads to some times clashes and at times disasters.
It also prevents the police from handling the Muslim specific issues in a sensitive way.