The Hindu : Hindu bodies' plea to Govt.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 30, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Hindu bodies' plea to Govt.

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM May 29. Hindu organisations have urged the Government to change its "partial and anti-Hindu" stand.

In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister here today, the Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sangham, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Hindu Aikya Vedi said there was no point in discussing the Marad issue till the Government changed this attitude.

The memorandum pointed out that four weeks had elapsed after the Marad massacre took place. The Government was yet to accept any of the demands put forward by the Hindus who had to bear all the losses and sufferings. Some 28 Hindus who had been taken into custody as a preventive measure on May 2 were still in jail. It was only two days ago that five persons were arrested for showing a videocassette on the incident. They wanted to know how they could hold discussions with a Government which did not provide protection for the life and properties of the Hindus and denied their civil rights. At the same time, even the Ministers strongly argued for returning the mosque and rehabilitating the Muslim families.

It was the Industries Minister, P.K. Kunhalikutty, whom the Government had deputed for restoring peace in Marad after the previous riots which took places 16 months ago. The Hindus believed his words and took to the path of peace. But the recent incident which resulted in the death of eight Hindus showed that they had been betrayed and insulted. They asked the Minister to accept the moral responsibility for it, resign and apologise to the people.

They believed that the latest incident was not isolated, sudden or an act of vendetta. Conspiracy and preparations took place. There was reason to suspect inter-State connections. The Kerala connection of terrorists questioned in places like Mumbai and Jammu and Kashmir had already come out. It was in these circumstances that they had demanded a CBI probe into the carnage and the use of POTA against the accused.

They demanded payment of higher compensation to all the victims including the injured and those who lost their houses, steps to rehabilitate the 300 and odd persons who had left the place during the last 30 years, retention of the Marad mosque in the administration's custody and the inclusion of the role of prominent persons and political parties in the terms of reference of the Commission to be set up to probe the incident.

The signatories of the memorandum were N. Paramasivan Nair, Kummanam Rajasekharan and J. Sisupalan.

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Hindu bodies' plea to Govt.