Indian vice president asks Muslims to develop strategies to address issues

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Tuesday 01 Sep 2015 - 20:46 Makkah mean time-17-11-1436 New Delhi (IINA) - India’s Vice President Hamid Ansari on Monday made a strong pitch to develop strategies to address problems of identity and security confronting Muslims in the country and sought an "affirmative action" from the government, which espouses the policy of 'growth for all'. He said that exclusion and discrimination including failure to provide security has to be corrected by the State at the earliest and appropriate instruments developed for it, the Press Trust of India reported. The vice president was speaking at the golden jubilee celebration of the All India Majlis-E-Mushawarat, an apex forum of Muslim organizations. "The default by the State or its agents in terms of deprivation, exclusion and discrimination (including failure to provide security) is to be corrected by the State. "This needs to be done at the earliest and appropriate instruments developed for it," he said Ansari said the challenge before the nation is also to develop strategies and methodologies to address the issues confronting the Muslims such as empowerment, getting equitable share in states wealth and fair share in decision making process. Observing that the imperative of social peace is political sagacity, Ansari said the Indian experience of a large Muslim minority living in secular polity should even be a model for others to emulate. The 180 million community comprises 14 per cent of the country's 1.2 billion population. Ansari also reminded of the Kundu report of September 2014 which had asserted that "development for the Muslim minority must be built on a bed-rock of a sense of security".The Kundu Committee was set up to review the implementation of the Sachar Committee report. HA/IINA