Southern States - Kerala   

No complaints received: NCM chief

By Our Special Correspondent

KOZHIKODE JUNE 10. The Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), Tarlochan Singh, today expressed the hope that leaders of minority communities would help track down the culprits involved in the Marad massacre.

Speaking at a press conference here, Mr. Singh said it was the responsibility of the leaders of the minority communities to bring to book the culprits in the Marad case. He added that the most effective weapon to tackle the spread of religious extremism was to treat an ordinary crime as a crime and not to link it to any religion.

The Minorities Commission Chairman said the response of the people to the Marad massacre, particularly the absence of a backlash to the carnage, had reinforced his belief that the people of Kerala were secular and an enlightened lot.

He said the Commission had not yet received any complaints relating to the Marad incident. It had not been informed either of the demand to hand over the Marad mosque, taken over by the Government, to the Wakf Board.

He said Kerala had always been a model for other States. At its base was the high level of literacy that had been achieved here. His own State of Punjab had a much higher per capita income than Kerala, but it lagged behind the latter in vital social sectors like family welfare.

"Literacy can solve many social problems," he remarked.

Emphasising the need for minorities to raise their literacy level, the Commission Chairman said in a village in Haryana, it was as low as five per cent among Muslim women. In answer to questions, he said the situation in Gujarat had improved significantly but a fear psychosis generated by the riots had not disappeared. The Commission found, during its recent visit, that the Gujarat Government had spent Rs. 131 crores on rehabilitation programmes for the victims of the riots. Compensation had been paid for the death of almost all the riots victims.

But a serious problem the minorities in Gujarat faced was a feeling that they had no role in the administration. There was reason to feel so because there were no members of the minority communities in the Gujarat Assembly. This fact had been brought to the attention of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narender Modi, he said.

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