Book of Integration Council New - Ministry of Home Affairs

Home Minister : Mr Syed Shahabuddinji.
Shri Syed Shahabuddin
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Prime Minister, Madam Sonia and distinguished members of
the Council,
Sir, I first of all endorse the suggestions made here repeatedly that the council should
meet more frequently and I would like to add that the suggestions and proposals that
are made on the floor of the council, which are definitely examined by the Ministry and
the Government later, on that basis there should be a report placed before the council
on the action taken on the various proposals and suggestions made in the previous
meeting. Sir, I would like to felicitate you on a great action you have taken. You put
three State governments on notice under Article 355 of the Constitution. When communal
fires were raging in those States. But sir, something more is required. There should be
a legislation to operationalize Article 355 in phases, if the fires of communal, or sectarian
or caste violence are not extinguished within two weeks and the state government is
unable to restore normalcy and to control its spread to othere districts, then certain
action should become due under the Law. Therefore, I seek, I make a suggestion that
an act should be passed to operationalize the article 355 of the Constitution. Sir, the
main point that has been made here is that because of the feeling in the Muslim
Community that justice is being denied to them, that justice has double standards, that
leads which come before the Government which implead other communities are not
followed up at all and while on the basis of no evidence Muslim mohallas are put under
scrutiny and muslim youth are arrested indiscriminately. So this discrimination, this is
what is hurting. Nobody can say that everybody who has been arrested is innocent, but
surely a lot of them are innocent, which is proved by the fact, that when prosecution
finally comes to an end, you will find that so many of them, nearly 80%, of them are
released. In this connection sir, I would like to make a suggestion to you, for your
consideration. These young man sometimes spend 5 years, 10 years in prison, without
trial, some times they are tried and trial fails and then they have lost their life. They are
disgraced in the society. Their families have been destituted. There should be some
way to compensate these people. These young people, these innocent people, who have
lost part of their valuable life. Sir, the police force needs a new mind-set but this is
possible only if it is composite in its character. If its training is more secular and if it acts
under direct supervision of the political masters. So that they investigate every stage of
investigation. They should be posted in a composite manner in districts and thanas
which are sensitive and there should be guidelines given to them for surveillance of areas
and detention of persons on suspicion. Sir, I suggest that all militant organizations, all
militant organizations, without any exception, which train people in the use of arms
should be banned. We are a democracy, we are used to dialogue. We want to resolve our
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