Book of Integration Council New - Ministry of Home Affairs

Home Minister : May I request Mr Omar Abdullah to make his statement.
Shri Omar Abdullah
Thank you Sir, Hon’ble Prime Minister Sir, Members of the National Integration
Council.
I will, because the agenda is too wide to cover in one day, I will restrict myself to
brief two brief points and I hope to finish before the bell rings.
First, Sir, is an observation that I have been making for some time now and I thought this
was an appropriate forum at which to flag this observation of mine and that is that over
time my belief, people are losing faith in the institutions that have been setup either to
govern or to protect them. They have either completely lost faith in as in certain part
of my State, or are rapidly losing faith. Whether its allegations of Human Rights violations,
whether it is encounters in Delhi, whether it is incidents of Communal Violence in various
parts of the Country, either the instigator of this violence have no faith that the institutions
will either find them guilty and punish them, or the victims of this violence have no faith
that the institutions set up for their protection will punish the guilty and ensure that they
are protected. Whether it is the police forces, that are in place to protect them. Whether
it is the investigative agencies that are in place to investigate allegations of incidents.
Even unfortunately in some cases, the Media, not so much the national media, but
definitely my own experience with local media has been that often times they play a
harmful role rather than a supportive role in our being able to take control of the
situation. Recent incidents in Jammu and Kashmir over the Amarnath land controversy
and the role that the local media played in that, would perhaps be a case in point. For a
long time we had faith in the institution of Judicial inquiries. We believed that a judicial
inquiry would arrive at the truth. Of late, Sir, we find even that is now on institutions
that is not immune to interference and influence. The same incident, the same evidence,
the same victims, the same circumstances, but two different Judicial Commissions
arrive at two different findings and yet we as citizens of this country, as individuals, are
expected to believe that Judicial inquiries are the final words in what is correct and what
is not. Sir, I believe that as members of this National Integration Council, as people in
positions of responsibility, whether in the media, whether in politics, whether in
Governments, whether in the various fields that we are a part of, we have a duty to
rebuild faith in these institutions. People must believe that the guilty will be found and
the guilty will be punished. Unless we can rebuild this faith. I am sorry, Sir, but
meetings like this, they will be good photo opportunities, they will be good opportunities
for us to meet friends that we have not met for a long time and they will be an opportunity
to lunch with you, but beyond that, Sir, these meetings will not serve the purpose that
you have
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