Arrest of Muslim youths without evidence illegal: NCM Chief

By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,

Gauging and confirming to the mood of Muslims in India on India’s misdirected war on terror and illegal arrest and witch hunting of the community, Wajahat Habibullah, the newly appointed chief of National Commission for Minorities questioned the arrest of Muslim youth in Malegaon blast case, “Few Muslim youths were arrested in the Malegaon blast case and it seems that there was no evidence against them. So I think that these arrests were illegal.”

Talking to the press on Tuesday, first time after joining office on February 3, Mr. Habibullah talked on a variety of issues as diverse as reservation to Muslims, recommendations of Sacchar Committee and Ranganath Mishra Commission, constitutional powers of the Minority panel, establishment of minority commission in states and the constitutional mandate of his office and its limitations.

Wajahat Habibullah [Photo: GulfNews]

Citing the fact that, he “is studying cases and issues about the commissions,” the stand of the first former Central Information Commissioner of India was more or less diplomatic and non committal on most of the issues.

When asked about the legal initiatives which the Commission can take particularly after Aseemanand’s confession for several terror blasts in the country, Mr. Habibullah said, “People have asked me to take initiative in the case of false and illegal arrest of Muslim youths in Malegaon blast case. Before doing any thing I would like to study the case.”

Strategically, Mr. Habibullah didn’t say any thing substantial on the controversial issue of reservation to Muslims, “I can’t say that reservation is the only way to alleviate socio-economic backwardness of the community; yes, its one of the ways of doing that.”

“But the government needs to provide lots of facilities other than reservation,” added the 1968 batch IAS officer

“I am studying these days, the recommendations and suggestions made by the Sacchar Committee and Ranganath Mishra Commission Reports and will do any thing only after going through them minutely,” said the NCM chief when asked about the much hyped suggestions made by the two commissions.

When asked about making the Commission a constitutional body, the NCM chief said that he will first of all study the positives and negatives of being a constitutional body and then he will recommend to the government any thing like this about the commission.

It’s important to mention hare that the National Commission for Minorities is not a constitutional body. It was formed by an Act of parliament. One of the drawbacks of the Commission, for instance is that like National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the NCM doesn’t have investigative powers.

“Every state should have a minority commission. We are going to talk to the concerned states which don’t have the commission at present,” added the NCM chief. There are many states which don’t have the minority commission, Gujarat for instance.

“But we are very clear when it comes to the roles and responsibility of the commission. The government will be informed about the problems faced by the minorities and it will have to take action on our recommendations,” replied the former diplomat when asked about the scope of power of the minority panel.