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Minorities panel launches peace moves

By Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR MAY 2. For the first time since the communal riots broke out in Gujarat in the aftermath of the Godhra carnage on February 27, the National Minority Commission has initiated efforts to bring the leaders of the Hindu and Muslim communities together across the table for the restoration of peace in the State.

An NMC delegation, led by the deputy chairman, Tarlochan Singh, which arrived here today held separate meetings with the leaders and representatives of the two communities and succeeded in convincing them to meet again some time next week to thrash out their differences.

The team also called on the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, who also agreed to meet a delegation of Muslim leaders to hear their grievances. Mr. Singh later told newspersons that the date and venue for both the meetings would be finalised soon and the NMC would play the role of catalyst at the meetings.

Mr. Singh said since the Muslims had no definite representative organisations, about 100 Muslim leaders, the Imams of various mosques and others from all over the State were invited for the meeting today where they finalised a 16-member committee led by Shabir Ahmed, Imam of Ahmedabad, to carry on negotiations with the Chief Minister and the Hindu delegations.

The team also met the leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and the Bajrang Dal and a 15-member delegation, including the State VHP general secretary, Dillip Trivedi, and the RSS `pracharak', Mukundrao Deobhankar, to represent the Hindus during the negotiations was finalised.

Mr. Singh said the meetings provided an opportunity for both sides to pour out their grievances against the rival community and to settle for negotiations. He said the commission made it clear to the Muslim leaders that the entire Hindu community could not be blamed for what happened in the aftermath of the Godhra carnage. He claimed that the Muslim leaders appreciated the stand and also agreed that many of their community members had been saved by their Hindu neighbours or had been helped by them. To the allegations raised by the Hindu delegation that Muslims were creating disturbances to keep the communal fire burning, the RSS-VHP leaders were told to act as the "big brother'' and to accept the responsibility of keeping the society together. "Both the sides are now ready to meet each other to sort out the problems across the table,'' he said.

It is not the first time that the NMC is playing the role of peacemaker. It has helped to sort out the differences between the Sangh Parivar and the Christian community for which a series of meetings had been conducted and has also solved the problems between the Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab.

"Even this time, till the last moment, the people told us in Delhi that our peace initiative will go in vain, but we decided to give a try to the mission and we were successful in our efforts,'' Mr. Singh said.

Mr. Modi, he said, appreciated the NMC's new approach to the problem, instead of its usual practice of sending fact-finding missions, and promised to help in its efforts.

He also agreed that nothing could be gained by levelling allegations against each other and, instead, durable peace could take the State back on the path of progress.

Meanwhile, the Union Human Resources Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, along with Mr. Modi and the Union Sports Minister, Uma Bharti, led a huge peace march in Vadodara today to send the message of peace in the second most-troubled city in the state.

People from all walks of life joined the march organised by the collector, Bhagyesh Jha, and supported by the Central Gujarat Chamber of Commerce

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