MINORITIES - 2002 - Indian Social Institute

THE first reverberations of the BSP-BJP marriage of convenience are sounding in Uttar Pradesh. Amidst
protests by Muslim leaders, renowned cleric Kalbe Jawad has urged all MPs, MLAs and MLCs belonging
to the community to quit the BSP. They will be ex-communicated if they fail to do so. Kalbe Jawad has
warned, Many other community leaders including All-India Muslim Personal Law Board coordinator
Zaffaryab Jilani, Kalbe Sadiq, chairman of All-India Muslim Samaj MA Halim and Kun-war Sallauddin
Khan of the Deva Sharrif Trust have also expressed surprise over the decision of a "secular party" like
BSP to join hands with BJP, whose Chief Minister Narendra Modi is blamed for the killing of hundreds of
Muslims in Gujarat. (Indian Exp 27.4.02)
28 th April
U.K. Gujaratis want UN fact-finding team to probe riots (7)
LONDON: Leading members of the British Gujarati community have asked the government to support
their demand for a UN fact-finding team to travel to their violence-scarred home in the same way as
United Nations experts are being sent to Jenin in the Palestinian Territorities.
The demand was publicly raised by Lord Adam Patel, a Gujarati peer from Bharuch, who is one of British
foreign secretary Jack Straw's oldest and closest friends, at a 400-strong meeting attended by leading
Gujarati Hindus and Muslims in Straw's Lancashire constituency of Blackburn. Lord Patel, who declined to
reveal Straw's response to his demand when he originally raised it some time ago, said, "the British
foreign secretary's relations with the Gujarati community are good and his relations with India are good. All
we are asking that a crime against humanity be investigated, something the Indian government itself
should have done". (Times of India 28.4.02)
28 th April
Activists want ouster of BJP-led government (7)
New Delhi, April 27: "A large number of intellectuals, human rights activists and civil society group
leaders-under the banner of Akhil Bharat Rachnatamak Samaj have sought an immediate replacement of
the BJP-led coalition at the Centre by a secular, democratic and liberal administration in accordance with
the constitutional provisions. They have appealed to all the MPs with secular credentials and secular
democratic political parties to join hands and evolve such an alternative at the earliest in the interest of the
nation and the people at large.
A statement was collectively issued here by Mr Rabi Ray, Mr Kuldip Nayar, Mr Pali S. Nari-man, Justice
Rajinder Sachar, Rev. Valson Thampu, Prof. Muchkund Dubey, Prof. Amrik Singh, Prof. PM Bhargava, Mr
D Bandyopadhyay, Ms Razia Ismail Abbasi, Mr Sumit Chakravarty, Swami Agnivesh and Ms Nirmala
Desh-pande. (Asian Age 28.4.02)
28th April
Victims await compensation (7)
Ahmedabad, April 27: The patience of the riot-hit people in Gujarat's relief camps is running but. Forget
about rehabilitation, several relatives of those who have been killed have been waiting almost two months
for the Rs 1 lakh compensation announced by the state government. Munawar Ali, a refugee at Vatva
dargah, claims his wife Farzana Bano was killed during the violence. "I have not received compensation
despite lodging an FIR," he says, alleging that he has not been getting a proper response from the
authorities concerned.
While the authorities ask for necessary certificates to provide compensation, the victims don't know where
to get the documents from. (Asian Age 28.4.02)
29 th April
TDP to wait for PM’s reply on censure motion? (7)
HYDERABAD, APRIL 28. The Telugu Desam president and the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N.
Chandrababu Naidu, has chosen not to spell out the party stand on the censure motion against the
Vajpayee Government at the Centre. According to party sources, he may not reveal his cards until the
debate on the motion on Tuesday and the Prime Minister's response to it. Mr. Naidu addressed a meeting
of the Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party (TDPP) here today and followed it up with a one-to-one
interface with the MPs. Another round of meeting with senior MPs and other leaders is scheduled for
Monday. He was reportedly assured by the MPs today that there was no difference among them on the