A Press Release from the Indian
Muslim Federation-UK for your attention.
August 28, 2001
Indian Muslims Tell the UN Conference
Discrimination against Muslims and
denial of constitutional and human rights to them is commonplace in India,
United Nation's World Conference on Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
related Intolerance has been told in Durban today.
"In spite of constitutional guarantee
of the right to equality and non-discrimination, there is no institutional
mechanism for the study and monitoring of discrimination which is endemic
in caste-based hierarchical Indian society." Claims a report presented
by the London based Indian Muslim Federation (IMF), a non-governmental
organisation.
According to the report even, "The
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has not assigned any priority to
right to equality and non- discrimination becoming a reality...It is symptomatic
that in the NHRC...the Muslim presence is almost nil."
The report on "Intolerance And Discrimination
Against Muslims as A Religious Minority in India" claims that even the
basic right provided by the Indian constitution to minorities to conserve
and promote their language is discretionary and not mandatory. As
a result the enjoyment of this right remains, "a teasing illusion" for
the speakers of Urdu language, predominantly Muslims in the north and western
and certain parts of south India.
The 20 page report, prepared on
behalf of the IMF by an Indian human rights activist Professor lqbal Ahmed
Ansari, provides a catalogue of a perpetual unwritten policy of discrimination
and suppression of Muslims adopted by the Indian government under almost
all prime ministers since 1947.
"The constitutional safeguards for
political and economic rights of minorities which were provided in the
Draft Constitution (1947-49) were dropped with the assurance that majority
would be fair and generous to minorities. These promises remain unfulfilled
as the representation of Muslims from the first to the present elected
House of People (Lok Sabha) is about half of what their population (12%+)
requires. In public services Muslim representation is 2-4%..."
It adds.
"While the figures on marginally
higher rate of growth of Muslims are officially published by the Registrar
General of India, under its series on Religion and discussed with great
fanfare, their rate of illiteracy and poverty etc. is hidden from public
glare. Strangely such a policy is supposedly based on the principle
of secularism."
