Nobody should feel scared in secular India,says Rahul Gandhi

The participants at the meet emphasised the need to see that “around one lakh Muslims living in relief camps” are sent back to their homes.

Recalling the fears of a young boy he had met at a relief camp in Shamli near Muzaffarnagar,Rahul said,”No person of any community or caste should ever be scared in India. This is a secular country.” The boy had told him that he was afraid to return to his village following the riots,Rahul said.

After his visit to relief camps and a Jat village yesterday,the Congress Vice-President had insisted that “mediation” was necessary to ensure that both communities could coexist again.

Riots in September in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar left over 60 people dead and rendered 40,000 homeless.

The meet also saw some plain speaking by the participants who told Rahul that issues concerning the minority community should be decided by talking to representatives on the ground and not just to some Muslim leaders at the top,sources said.

Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan faced some tough questions with participants wondering as to when the government would be implementing schemes for minorities when only three or four months are left on its term.

Meanwhile,stating that the key issue was leadership,Rahul said,”Until we open up processes,until we encourage leadership,problems will not be solved. The problem at all levels is of developing leadership.”

Raising the issue of Muzaffarngar riots,former National Commission for Minorities member Harcharan Singh Josh raised questions over the role of Samajwadi Party,alleging that the party had played a similar role in the Aligarh riots of 2006.

He suggested that Congress should concentrate on the Lok Sabha seats in 90 minority-dominated districts.

Representatives from the Muslim community,meanwhile,made a strong pitch for the passage of the communal violence Bill,while there was also a demand for reservation for minorities.

Responding to the demand for reservation,Rahul said that while such a move could be a solution,it alone would not be enough to raise the economic and social status of the minority community.

At the meet,while members from Jain community,too,demanded minority status for themselves,Christian members raised the issue of Kandhmal riots. Further,some members from the Jain and Sikh communities made allegations of persecution in the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat.

Later,at a press conference,External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said that members of the Sikh community in Gujarat were looking for legal options to ensure that no community was forced to migrate from any state.

Khurshid said that the issues of security,peace,education and job opportunities dominated the meeting.

The Congress manifesto would contain some proposition on the issue of justice for minority youths languishing in jail on terror charges,Khurshid added.

On the issue of reservation for Dalit Christians and 4.5 per cent quota for backward minorities in OBC categories,the meeting saw pleas urging that courts be requested to expedite decisions in such matters.

Today’s was the second meeting as part of the manifesto consultation process,which is being spearheaded by Rahul.

When concerns were raised over the non-implementation of Sachar committee recommendations,Minority Affairs Minister Khan said that 69 of those recommendations had been accepted.