MUSHAWARAT CONDEMNS PROFILING OF CHRISTIANS IN MP, WPI SEEKS CBI PROBE

The reports saying that Madhya Pradesh police was conducting a profiling of the Christian community collecting details about institutions, assets and sources of income, etc., is very disturbing, said Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, Working President of All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations. He added that though the state government has claimed to have withdrawn these orders and a low level probe is also said to have been ordered, the issue should not be allowed to die down as it is a clear indication that the Hindutva forces continue their sinister plans to hit communities and groups they do not like. A proper high level investigation is needed to uncover this particular malicious project whose results, no doubt, were to be used by Hindutva elements against the target community just as they did earlier in Gujarat during the 2002 pogroms when the Muslim community was meticulously targeted using lists prepared in advance.

The newly launched Welfare Party of India (WPI) strongly condemned the profiling of Christian community in Madhya Pradesh and demanded high level probe and punishment of the politicians and officers who took the decision to profile a particular community. “The decision was a very serious and alarming matter. We condemn the communal mindset which ordered such profiling of communities and ethnic or religious groups in any part of the country because the results will invariably be misused against the target community,” said Mujtaba Farooq, the national president of WPI.

He said that such selective data gathering about the assets and sources of income of members of a particular community only means that the BJP has learned no lessons from the Gujarat and Kandhamal pogroms which were let loose by its cadres and allied outfits. He urged the Central government that in case M.P. Government fails to order a fair probe into the matter, the Centre should step in and ask the CBI to conduct an investigation.