In an apparent reference to the recent sting operation over the Gujarat riots, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday spoke about the need to fight against anti-social forces, failing which there could be 'dangerous consequences' for secular and democratic India.
'The truth that has come to light recently' makes it incumbent upon all Congressmen to struggle against such 'inhuman cruelty,' Sonia said, giving away the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration in New Delhi.
The reference apparently was to the recent sting operation by Tehelka that allegedly exposed the role of leaders belonging to Sangh Parivar, including Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in the Gujarat riots in 2002.
"If we do not fight against such anti-social forces with unity and strength, some day it could prove dangerous for our secular and democratic country," Sonia said.
The award for the year 2006 was given to Dr J S Bandukwalla and Ram Puniyani for 'furthering the cause of communal harmony by personal example.'
Addressing the function that was characterised by a strong accent on the Gujarat riots, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said communal harmony and the co-existence of all the great religions of the world are the building blocks of civilisation.
Both Puniyani and Bandukwalla gave up the security of their academic careers to devote themselves to public action and advocacy in the cause of national integration.
While Puniyani was influenced by the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the subsequent Mumbai riots, Bandukwalla suffered greatly during the Gujarat riots in 2002, losing everything in the violence and saved from a worse fate by his Hindu friends.
Puniyani, who took early retirement from IIT, Mumbai, has been running EKTA, a communal harmony group based in the western metropolis, and the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.
Bandukwalla, a brilliant professor of Physics at M S University in Vadodara and a Gandhian by belief, is president of the Gujarat unit of the People's Union of Civil Liberties, the Gujarat Muslim Education Society and the Zidni Ilma Charitable Trust.
The award is given annually to distinguished persons or institutions for promoting national integration and understanding and fellowship among religious groups, communities, ethnic groups, cultures, languages and traditions of India.
It is given annually which was started in the Congress Centenary Year 1985.
