People's Democracy

Terrorism is a grave threat to lives and livelihoods of the people, whether the terrorists profess to belong to this community or that. No responsible government can conceivably try and skirt the issue. The people have nothing to be afraid about. All communities are safe and secure in Bengal where a Left Front government is in office. We all of us remain on high alert: the Left Front, the administration, especially the police, and the politically conscious people of Bengal.

We believe that the police could be a little more active and responsive to

the danger of terrorism. We need to put in organised efforts in identifying the criminal nexus and apprehending the wrongdoers. The union government, too, needs to be more adept and enterprising in coming to grips with the terrorist menace. This is especially important in view of the terrorist rings getting to operate all-over India and even abroad. The police force must be further modernised and not merely in terms of equipping them with state-of-the-art weapons.

We iterate that we never equate common criminals with foreign-trained

elements engaged in acts of terrorism. A deep-seated conspiracy is eing

hatched to try and divide the country further. The acts of commission being engaged in by the various terrorist outfits across the country are never the handiwork of common criminals. The acts squarely fall into the category of subversion against the state. The state governments and the union governments must brook no compromise in tackling the danger.

The problem of infiltration across the border is getting complicated. Thetask of ensuring that the border does not really remain porous, the union government must initiate all necessary steps and in view of the length of the border Bengal has, we have kept asking the union government to do the needful in this regard. The harmony that exists along the Bengal border between the two communities must be maintained and further developed. At the same time, there should not be any compromise struck with the danger of terrorism.

We believe that nothing should be done or spoken about that would get to implicate the members of a particular community with terrorism. These sorts of acts and propaganda must be dealt with very firmly indeed before they can do much harm. The administration and the people need to work hand-in-hand to try and pre-empt all such nefarious endeavours. We do believe that the

extremists and the terrorists are not community-specific in this country or

anywhere else. For every Jaish-e Muhammad militant we have a Vajrang Dal

activist. The people in general are very patriotic regardless of which communities they belong to.

The Left Front government has always prioritised the developmental perspectives of the minority communities, emphasising, in particular, on their educational progress. As we have already said many a time, the system of Madrassa education in Bengal under the LF government is a great improvement on that in the rest of India. The budget for the year 2001-2002, has earmarked no fewer than Rs 120 crore on Madrassa education. We want to further improve the Madrassa system. Some Madrassas continue to include only theology, and languages like Arabic and Persian, in their curricula. We believe that the curricula and the syllabus must be modernised that the students are better equipped to get jobs as well as to launch their careers in higher education. When we spoke about the importance of getting absorbed into the mainstream, we never meant to imply that the Hindus remain the custodian of the mainstream. What we actually meant had to do with the mainstream education system. The recognised and approved Madrassas do form a part of this mainstream and the khariji (i.e., unapproved) Madrassas do not. And unless the leaders of the Muslim community themselves are willing, there is little one can do to try and introduce modern, balanced curricula in the latter category of Madrassas.

We await the report of the committee set up under the stewardship of A R Kidwai where recommendations have been made on improving the system of Madrassa education further in Bengal.

Historical reasons have left the minority communities in a state ofcomparative backwardness and which it has been the effort of the Left Front government to do away with. The same applies for members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. We strive all the while to deepen the imperatives of justice, equity and development among the backward communities. In the rural areas of Bengal, the undoubted success of the land reform programme has resulted in the common people standing tall with dignity. By contrast, the people continue to lag behind in the cities and townships in terms of higher education and shelter, in particular. The aim should be not communal disharmony but consolidated economic and social progress. We have been engaged in a many-faceted struggle to achieve that goal.

We would like to state once more that irrespective of the community they belong to, the vast bulk of the majority of the people of India are intensely patriotic. They love their religion and they love their country. Of late a thin segment of fundamentalists in both the two main religious

groups the country has had, have been seeking to emphasise their obnoxious presence through acts of terrorism. The aim should be to be level-headed and in control of one's senses while going about tackling the menace.