'Persecution' of minorities: Reports not true, says Rajagopal

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 30. The Union Minister of State for Law and Justice, Mr. O. Rajagopal, has said that the reports about violence against minorities in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi are not true to facts.

The Union Minister told a press conference here today that the Minorities Commission, which had inquired into the incidents, had found that the incidents had no communal overtones. The attack on Fr. Thomas and a school maid, the Commission had found, was a case of robbery. The attackers had decamped with Rs. 1 lakh, a camera and two tape recorders. Another case reported from Uttar Pradesh was purely a law and order problem and the Vicar General of Agra had said that he was satisfied with the security cover provided after the incident. Yet another incident reported from Riwadi was a case of road accident.

Mr. Rajagopal said the resolution adopted by the CPI(M) Central committee last week criticising the attack was aimed at creating anxiety among the minorities. Several quarters were trying to create a wedge between the Hindus and the minorities through propaganda.

He said the Central Committee should be leaving the decision on the `grand alliance' to the Congress(I). It was warning the Congress(I) that the CPI(M) would not consider it a secular party if it formed the grand alliance. One wondered who authorised the CPI(M) to determine whether a party was communal. Instead of making such declarations, the party should be saying when the Muslim League would cease to be a communal party, he teased. While some Congressmen think that protection of the interests of Ms. Sonia Gandhi was their prime duty, Congressmen in West Bengal and Kerala thought that protection of democracy and freeing the people from the misrule by the CPI(M)-led Governments were important.

He said the propaganda that the targeted public distribution system harmed the poor was contrary to facts. It would bring down the money the poor was paying in the past for 20 kg of rice in a month from Rs. 155 to Rs. 118.

However, the new system would affect merchants and politicians engaged in diverting subsidised rice from ration shops. The Central Government could not subsidise rice for all as it was burdened by heavy debt accumulated during the Congress(I) rule.

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Section  : Regional
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