“Gujarat Muslims still live in fear,” says the UN Human Rights Council in its latest report, slamming India for denial of justice to the victims of the communal violence in 2002. “A large number of criminal cases relating to the communal violence in 2002 remain un-investigated or have been closed by the Gujarat Police and the miserable plight of those internally displaced from their homes continues,” the UN report said. “While discussing the events with the victims, the special rapporteur could see the continuing fear which was exacerbated by the distress that justice continues to evade the victims,” the report stated.
The Congress was quick to use the report as a stick to beat the Gujarat government with. If, as the Congress says, the Gujarat government is a “dark blot on India”, the Central Government’s Ministry of Minority Affair is a worse blot. Abdul Rahman Antulay owes it to the Muslims to answer what he has been doing all these years. How did he allow such a situation to prevail in Gujarat for so many years without trying to remedy it? Was he blind to the plight and privations of Muslims of Gujarat; something which was so visible to the UN Special Rapporteur? Why did the UPA government create the Ministry of Minority Affairs? What did this Ministry do if it failed to address the most burning predicament of a minority community?
Dr. Mookhi Amir Ali
Mumbai, Maharashtra