PM: Minorities’ protection must
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said that linguistic minorities should be protected but declined to take any stand on the vexed issue of Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary dispute on the ground that it is sub judice.
An all-party delegation led by Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan met Dr Singh in New Delhi in the evening and urged the Centre to intervene immediately in Karnataka as the linguistic minorities in the disputed areas there have been facing “atrocities”, violating their human rights.
Later, Mr Chavan said the National Human Rights Commission should visit the disputed areas, including Belgaum, and see whether the rights of linguistic minorities are protected. He said the delegation gave a copy of the resolution to Dr Singh passed unanimously by the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly the other day. The PM told the delegation that he would forward the memorandum to the home minister. He would respond to it, he said.
Asked whether he was satisfied with the PM’s response, Mr Chavan said, “Whatever the PM said is meaningful, we are awaiting the home minister’s response.”
Answering a volley of questions on his suggestion that the disputed areas in Karnataka be turn into a Union Territory until the issue is resolved and whether this was part of the memorandum given to the PM, Mr Chavan said whatever he said on it was part of the record (Assembly proceeding) and he was not backtracking.
But this was not taken up with the Centre as it was not part of the resolution moved by the state Assembly Speaker.
Deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who too addressed a press conference jointly with the CM, viewed the Centre must intervene in this issue (protect Marathi-speaking linguistic minorities) because of the unrest in Maharashtra.
The delegation demanded that the Centre should protect the rights and dignity of Marathi-speaking people of the disputed areas.
Besides the CM and the DCM, Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Prithviraj Chavan joined the delegation.
Post new comment