7 May 2002

ADVANI DENIES AND ADMITS CLOSURE OF RELIEF CAMPS IN GUJARAT

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI; Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Tuesday denied any Gujarat Government orders to close down the relief camps of the communal carnage victims but in the same breath said "I found out that people have returned to villages and such camps are being closed."

"Government is conscious of its duties under Article 355 of the Constitution and we will discharge them thoroughly," he affirmed in the Lok Sabha while pointing out that irrespective of whatever the Government is doing, the Centre admits its own responsibility to ensure return of peace and relief and rehabilitation of the victims.

His stout assertion that the government has "no information that camps are being closed" however angered the Opposition to stage a walk-out expressing dissatisfaction over the government's attitude towards the attempt to force closure of the relief camps in Gujarat. Only AIADMK of Jayalalitha did not join the walk-out.

The walk-out was also to register protest at the ruling members continuously obstructing the Opposition members from raising the Gujarat issue and even going to the extent of questioning their morality in remaining silent over three-and-a-half lakh Hindus of Jammu and Kashmir being forced to live in refugee camps for nearly 15 years.

The Gujarat issue was brought into focus during the Zero Hour by CPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee, pointing out that he learnt about the state government's notice for immediate closure of the relief camps on Monday from Anjali Ila Menon, a painter of repute, and he had also personally got it confirmed that the district magistrates have been directed to serve notices on NGOs to close down the relief camps.

The Opposition also flared up at Advani asserting that many baseless stories keep appearing in newspapers and his government has always tried to verify their veracity. He dubbed the camps' closure as one such story, and in a way he endorsed a number of the BJP and other ruling members protesting that the House time was being wasted by raising issues on the basis of the Media reports without verifying them.

Referring to appeals of both the Prime Minister and the Home Minister for unitedly fight out the scourage of communalism torching Gujarat, Chatterjee pleaded: "Let us jointly rise above party lines to ensure that these camps are not not closed."

He was supported by Congress member Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Muslim Leauge's G M Banatwala, all expressing concern that on one hand people trying to return home were assaulted and killed and on the other hand the government was trying to force closure of the relief camps leaving the victims nowhere to go. Camps must continue until normalcy is restored and the climate of insecurity ends, they pleaded.

The Opposition members also pointed out that the victims were already suffering in the relief camps on account of lack of sanitation, drinking water and medicines and cannot even return to their homes because of the fear of attack.

Somnath Chatterjee pointed out that only on Monday, two persons were stoned to death when they were trying to go to their work place. Repeted interruptions by the BJP members brought a retort from him that "they are the only champions of Hindus in the country -- disgusting people."

All the same, BJP's safron-clad Yogi Adityanath did not resist from ridiculing all those human right champions keeping quite about the Hindus of Kashmir valley forced to live as refugees in various parts of the country. Nowhere in the world, citizens have been turned into refugees in their own country, he said, while lambasting the Opposition shutting eyes to their sufferings for so many years.

Congress chief whip Priya Ranjan Das Munshi was, however, quick in supporting Anant Gite who also raised the issue of the Kashmiri Hindu Pandits driven out of the valley and forced to live like refugees. END