Press Trust of India Posted online: Thursday, March 08, 2007 at 1837 hours IST Updated: Friday, March 09, 2007 at 0916 hours IST
New Delhi, March 8: Rejecting outright the Opposition charge that the UPA government was appeasing Muslims, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was not apologetic about designing programmes for minorities.
"We are designing targeted programmes for minority concentration districts and we make no apology about it," he said in Rajya Sabha winding up a marathon debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address.
Singh said the Sachar Committee Report has brought out the stark reality about conditions of Muslim minority community in the country.
"The new 15-point programme is, therefore, focused on ensuring an equitable sharing of benefits of crucial development programme in health and education," he said.
The Prime Minister said in the long run and when all communities catch up in social indicators, there would be no need for such programmes.
But given the current disparities, it was imperative that the Government carried all sections along.
Singh said the government was determined to ensure benefits for deprived sections of society like minorities, SCs and STs and added effort was being made to reduce regional disparities.
Sending a tough message in the run-up to UP assembly polls, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said "communalism" and "sectarianism" would be fought in all its forms and manifestations.
Against the backdrop of Congress' debacle in Punjab and Uttarakhand for which price rise was one of the factors blamed, Singh affirmed the Government's commitment to contain inflation and tackle problems of unemployment and poverty while pursuing "inclusive" growth process.
He said, "We will not allow anyone to weaken our democratic tradition. We are committed to Constitutional values.... we will fight communalism and sectarianism in all its forms and manifestations".
The Motion was later approved by a voice vote.
In an apparent reference to the unofficial ban in BJP-ruled Gujarat on screening of Perzania, a film based on violence in Godhra aftermath, he said "there is no space for such intolerance." "India is an open society but not with a closed mind," he said.
The Prime Minister candidly acknowledged the constraints coming in the wake of rising prices of oil and food grains in the international market. "It becomes difficult to control the domestic prices when international prices of both petroleum products and food grains are experiencing a rising trend".
Hitting back at Leader of Opposition L K Advani, who headed the Home Ministry during the NDA rule, Singh said the UPA Government had a better track record on the issue of internal security.
"Let me assure him (Advani) that in terms of real hard work on the ground, our Government and our Home Ministry have a better track record to show than that of the previous Government," he said.
Singh said "even when we have had terrorist incidents like the ones we saw during the NDA rule, we have not had a breakdown of law and order and upsurge of communal violence of the type we saw in Gujarat. Compare the violence after the Godhra incident in Gujarat to the situation in Maharashtra after last year's Mumbai blasts".
In his exhaustive replies, Singh dwelt on the issue of water-sharing, problems confronting agriculture, Indo-Pak relations and other aspects of foreign policy.
He announced that a meeting of the National Development Council is being called specifically to discuss the problems of revitalising the agricultural sector.
In an apparent reference to the Cauvery row between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, he asked all political parties to treat water as a national resource and not an issue which should divide the people. "We should all work together in a spirit of national unity and harmony to resolve these issues".
Singh said India was looking forward to hosting the SAARC Summit early next month. "India seeks a neighbourhood of peace, prosperity and mutually beneficial economic and social development in our sub-continent," he stressed.
"We have not slackened in our efforts to promote peace and stability in the region despite obvious difficulties", he said but did not elaborate on what these were.
The Prime Minister hoped the SAARC Summit will be "purposeful and productive", and contribute to the progress and welfare of all people of South Asia.
Observing that India has been working purposefully for all round improvement of its relations with Pakistan, he made a mention of "difficulties that arise".
"But I believe that the efforts that we have made are beginning to bring positive results. We need to establish long-lasting peace, friendship and amity between our two nations. We will work resolutely in this direction."
Singh said he was sure that through the dialogue process, "we will be able to resolve all outstanding issues".
Noting that India's ties with Russia, the US, the European Union, China, Japan and the ASEAN nations have all grown in the last two years, he said "there is a growing realisation of the importance of India in world affairs".
"We are now seen as important credible partners in managing the evolving global, economic and political order," he said.
New Delhi, March 8: Rejecting outright the Opposition charge that the UPA government was appeasing Muslims, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was not apologetic about designing programmes for minorities.
