at the center to intervene in the matter to end harassment and inhuman treatment of Bengali –speaking minority in the name of detecting doubtful ‘D’ voters in the state.
At a national convention organized by the Citizens Rights Preservation Committee (CRPC) here on Tuesday, speakers after speaker deplored the inhuman treatment meted out to minority population of Assam. Lok Janshakti party leader and former union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the issue was being kept alive for playing ‘Hindu card’.
Muslims have been living in constant threat all over the country as the Muslims are being framed in terror cases, he added. Equating the situation in Assam with of Israel, Jamait-e- Ulema Hind (A) president Maulana Arshad Madni said it was a conspiracy to debar whole linguistic minority of the state.
Insisting that it is not a Hindu- Muslim problem, he said Jamiat has set up legal cells in each districts of the state to fight D-voter cases. Declaring that Jamiat will continue its efforts at political and administrative level, he said the problem was the offshoot of communal mindset.
Former MP Syed Shabuddin said he had first-hand experience what is happening in Assam. ‘If you question someone’s citizenship, you put him double jeopardy, but in Assam the linguistic and religious minority is being put in multiple jeopardy, he said. Urging the CRPC not to trust state government, he said the issue has international dimension and no one can be deported under the international laws unless there is an agreement with the concerned country.
Congress MP Maulana Israrul Haq Qasmi recalled the incident of his own constituency kishanganj when some 87,000 persons were served notices to prove their citizenship in 1983. He said he took up the matter with then Prime Minister Indra Gandhi who ordered the withdrawal of notices. In his hard hitting speech, former Delhi state minority commission chairman Kamal Farooqui accused Congress and BJP of hand in glove for keeping the minorities under fear.
He suggested that ‘someone from the CRPC should question the citizenship of PM’ that may serve as a wake up call to the Congress which is behind all this. CPM leader and MP Basu Dev Bhattachariya said his party always raised the issue in parliament and said the issue should be resolved once for all. On the occasion, Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, Assam MLA, Maulna Attaur Rehman, Welfare party general secretary Dr SQR Ilyas, Mehgalya MLA Manas Chaudhry and others also spoke.
Convention urged both the centre and Assam government to resolve the ‘D’ voter issue on priority and called for increasing the number of tribunals in the State and augmentation of the verification process.