The Hindu : We are now on the backfoot: Omar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 02, 2002

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We are now on the backfoot: Omar

By Our Special Correspondent

Omar Abdullah

NEW DELHI MAY 1. Two of the Vajpayee Government's former Ministers — Omar Abdullah and Ram Vilas Paswan — also attracted national attention with their speeches in Parliament early today.

Delivered well past midnight, Mr. Abdullah's speech stood out both for its clarity and earnestness. Having resigned from the Council of Ministers earlier in the day, Mr. Abdullah was heard in rapt attention.

He spoke of the ``great damage'' the carnage in Gujarat has done to India's image abroad.

``We have lost the moral high ground that we occupied because of our track record of democracy and secularism, we are now on the backfoot, having to explain and defend ourselves all the time", Mr. Abdullah said.

It was possible that a ``foreign hand'' was behind the carnage in Godhra, but the aftermath was worse.

``By creating a vicious communal divide, we had played directly into the hands of such people, the General must be laughing,'' he added.

Ram Vilas Paswan

He pointed out that the nation's enemies had realised that the country was susceptible to a communal divide and that they wanted to exploit it by attacks like the one that happened at the Raghunath temple in Jammu.

In his impassioned speech, Mr. Paswan explained that he found it difficult to continue in the Government after the developments in Gujarat and because of its "ambivalent attitude" on the issue.

He rejected the theory of minority versus majority harped upon by some BJP members.

He warned them that Hindus were the majority in India, but everywhere else in the world they were in a minority, "those living abroad are ashamed of what is happening, please think of what will be their position if the other countries also mete out the same treatment to the minorities''.

He urged the Government, especially Mr. Vajpayee, not to stand on prestige and accept the Opposition resolution as, in his view, all that it was asking for is that the Centre should direct the State Government to take steps for the protection of the minorities.

He demanded the removal of Narendra Modi as Chief Minister and called for a massive effort to rebuild confidence among the people.

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