By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: Amidst the communal violence fast engulfing the country, Muslims blaming the government for singling them out for all bombings and terrorism and call for ban on Hindutva extremist organizations getting stronger, the meeting of the National Integration Council (NIC) called by the Government of India tomorrow is likely to be stormy.
Started from the attack on Christians in Orissa, the communal violence hitting the Christian and Muslim community has spread in several states including Karnataka, Assam, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and now Andhra Pradesh. The developments have made these communities feel insecure.
This is in addition to the witch-hunting of Muslims, as the community leaders and common people say, going on in the garb of the highly biased ‘war on terror’ in the country. The community says the involvement of Hindtva organizations in terrorist activities and bomb making as well as their open participation in communal riot are being ignored by the government agencies. So, the demand for ban on some Hindutva organizations including Bajrang Dal and Vishwa hindu Parishad has grown in the last few days. Some political parties including Samajwadi Party, RJD, LJP and communist parties have demanded the ban. Some of them have even demanded judicial enquiry into the Jamia Nagar encounter on September 19 in which two Muslim youths, suspected to be terrorists, and a police officer were killed.
On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party has blamed the government of being weak in tackling the menace of terrorism. The party is against any ban on these organizations. In that context the NIC meeting will be stormy and noisy.
“The government was under tremendous pressure due to the communal violence in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. So the NIC meeting was called,” NIC member Navaid Hamid told TwoCircles.net.
The meeting will be held on October 13. This is the second meeting in the UPA government. Last meeting was held on 31st August 2004. In all this is the fifth meeting of the NIC.
The seven-point agenda of the meeting has issues which the NDA regime never discussed or tried to solve, said Hamid. The NDA regime never called an NIC meeting.
Giving the details of the agenda of the meeting, Hamid said the NIC will discuss social rift, equitable development and removal of regional imbalances, promotion of feeling of security among minorities and other vulnerable sections and promotion of education among minorities, STs, SCs.
The fresh agenda the government issued and Hamid received today has also included extremism.
The BJP has reportedly accused the government of not taking terrorism seriously and not including it in the agenda of the NIC meeting.
Asked if Jamia Nagar encounter is part of the agenda, Navaid Hamid said the issue has not been included. Some politicians including Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh has said he will raise the issue. He has demanded judicial probe into the encounter.
NIC is a big body that includes more than one hundred people as members.
In the meeting tomorrow, 30 chief ministers, 12 ministers, 5 chairmen of national commissions including National Commission for Minorities, National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, two representatives from the labour organizations, 75 other dignitaries including former prime ministers, and 5 women representatives, will take part.
Besides Navaid Hamid, former Chief Justice of India Justice A M Ahmadi, Musa Raza, Syed Shahabuddin and Shabana Azmi have been invited in the meeting.