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PM administers national harmony pledge to religious leaders

Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today led a solemn gathering here in pledging to promote the composite fabric and secular character of the country and to abjure violence to settle differences.

Administering the ''national harmony pledge'' at a meeting of religious leaders organised on the occasion of martyrdom day, the prime minister affirmed, "I solemnly pledge to work with dedication for the preservation and strengthening of the freedom, unity and integrity of the nation. I also solemnly pledge for the promotion of the composite fabric of our society and its secular character.

"I further affirm I shall not resort to violence for resolution of differences relating to religion, language, caste and community. I will strive for the promotion of tolerance for all religions, maintenance of communal harmony and work for the establishment of sarva pantha sambhava,'' the pledge said.

Among others who took the pledge at the function at Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (GSDS) lawns were Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and leaders of various faiths.

Meanwhile, former prime ministers Vishwanath Pratap Singh and Inder Kumar Gujral today joined hundreds of politicians, religious leaders, historians, teachers, artistes, writers, social and legal activists, and students in a citizens' march for communal harmony and to protest against the recent attacks on the minorities.

The marchers, including Communist Party of India general secretary A B Bardhan and CPI leader E Balanandan, former speaker Rabi Ray, former Union minister Madhu Dandavate, and Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member Prakash Karat, pledged to prevent communal forces from subverting the nation.

Among the participants were journalist and diplomat Kuldip Nayar, historians Sumit Sarkar and Mushirul Hasan, author Githa Hariharan, artists Vivan Sunderam and Arpita Singh, and Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande.

The citizens marched from Rajghat to Ferozeshah Kotla where a meeting was held to pay tributes to the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Christian missionary Graham Stewart Stains, and all those killed in communal clashes.

The meeting also adopted a resolution condemning the recent attacks on Christians in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, and flayed the government for not ensuring the safety and security of the community.

Deshpande said, "The attacks on minority communities today were yet another attack on Mahatma Gandhi."

The resolution, read out by former Delhi high court chief justice Rajinder Sachar, rejected Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's call for a national debate on conversions saying that "the prime minister has sought to legitimise the attacks by talking of a national debate on conversions and by refusing to hold the RSS, the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, the Shiv Sena, the Hindu Jagaran Manch and allied organisations responsible."

Many students from various schools and colleges of the Delhi university, Jamia Milia Islamia and Jawaharlal Nehru University, nuns, and representatives of various trade unions of left parties also participated in the march. Miranda House Girls College announced that it would be organising a meeting to condemn the attacks.

"Clearly, his (Vajpayee's) own ideological position is no different from these organisations. We reject this call for a debate, in which the terms and agenda have already been set by the aggressive actions and rhetoric of the Sangh combine," it said.

Saying that such a debate will legitimise the assault on fundamental rights, including the rights of minorities, which are basic to the Constitution and our democracy, the meeting felt that it wanted a debate on real issues such as untouchability, poverty and unemployment and not on manufactured issues.

The covert support of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition at the Centre has emboldened the 'Hindutva' brigade to launch a "systematic attack on the secular and democratic foundations on which independent India stands.

''The hate campaign, which began before the demolition of the Babri masjid, is now aimed at terrorising the minorities of the country and consolidating a Hindu vote bank," the resolution said. It said Home Minister L K Advani's instant exoneration of the Bajrang Dal in the Stains killing followed by the whitewash by Defence Minister George Fernandes-led team of central ministers, exposed the complicity of the Centre in the activities of these communal gangs."

The Hindu brigade has decided to create an atmosphere of terror in the country, but the people would not remain silent in the face of sustained attacks on minorities and the destruction of places of worship, the meeting pledged.

UNI

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