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Opposition blasts govt for failure to protect minorities

The Opposition in the Lok Sabha today attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government for its alleged failure to give protection to the minorities.

Enlisting various 'incidents' of harassment -- including the closure of the Aligarh Muslim University, the Uttar Pradesh government's recent order to make compulsory the singing of Saraswati Vandana in schools and raids on the house of renowned Islamic scholar Ali Mian -- leaders of Opposition parties charged that atrocities against the minorities were increasing day by day.

Noisy scenes were witnessed in the House when Bahujan Samaj Party member Arif Mohammed Khan displayed a copy of the Bible allegedly burnt by the Sangh Parivar in Rajkot. He said three hundred copies of the Bible were burnt in the Gujarat town recently and the state government failed to initiate action against the culprits.

The BJP members protested when Janata Dal member Ram Vilas Paswan held the RSS and Bajrang Dal responsible for the midnight raids conducted at the residence of Ali Mian. They demanded the reference to the RSS be expunged. Speaker Ganti Mohana Chandra Balayogi who was in the chair did not oblige them.

The discussion was sparked off during the zero hour when Rashtriya Janata Dal member M A Fatmi raised the issue of closure of the Aligarh Muslim University and demanded central intervention to come to the rescue of students, who were losing out academically.

Paswan charged the prime minister with misleading the people on the Saraswati Vandanaissue and said despite his assurance that its singing has not been made compulsory, media reports say that such an order has been issued by the Uttar Pradesh government.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana said both Vajpayee and Human Resource Development Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi were trying to get the university reopened. He, however, took strong exception to the Opposition's attitude of communalising each and every issue.

On reports that raids were conducted at the residence of Ali Mian, Khurana maintained that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh had flatly denied that any such incident took place.

UNI

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