R-L: Dr Manzoor Alam, Chairman, IOS, Justice A M Ahmadi, Justice V N Khare, Syed Shahabuddin, Z M Khan, Secretary General, IOS
By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: For fifty years after Independence, Muslims had not demanded reservation. But after 1980 India’s largest minority community started slipping from the level of other minorities. Now that they have realized it, they are demanding reservation to come at least to the level of 1980 status, and so their demand is genuine, said former Chief Justice of India and presently Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, Justice A M Ahmadi.
He was delivering presidential speech at the book launch program for “Readings on Minorities: Perspectives and Documents, Vol. IV (Freedom of Religion), edited by late M Iqbal Ansari. The book and its earlier three volumes have been brought out by Institute of Objective Studies. The program that featured stalwarts of the legal fraternity – besides Ahmadi, Justice V N Khare, former CJI, Justice Rajendra Sachar, former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court, and others – was organized by IOS at Constitution Club in New Delhi on January 6. The book was released by Justice V N Khare.
Justice A M Ahmadi urged the government to go beyond the measures of tokenism and take some affirmative action to uplift the minority community.
Earlier, K Rahman Khan, Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha, in his speech called upon the society to seriously think about remove misgivings and misconceptions about freedom of religion – the theme of Ansari’s book.
“Minorities are suffering discrimination in India. When minorities are discriminated on the basis of religion, we should find its resolution not only in the Constitution but also outside through dialogues. Society, human rights activists and social activists should come to remove misgivings and misconceptions about freedom of religion,” Khan said.
While negating that there is any big clash between majority and minority, Justice Rajendra Sachar, former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court, said a civilized society is where the rights of minorities are safe.
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