New Delhi, October 6: Senior Journalist and renowned social activist Amresh Mishra has called for dialogues and joint meetings between Muslim leaders and Shankaracharyas to establish peace and communal harmony in the country. He also said that followers of Sanatan Dharma should also be involved in the dialogues to combat the menace of communalism being spread by right-wing Hindutva forces. He was speaking at the weekly Special Program entitled “Growing Communalism in the Country and our Responsibilities” held at the headquarters of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind here on Saturday.

Elaborating on the Muzaffarnagar riots, Mr. Mishra said Muzaffarnagar riots mirror the conspiracy to exploit both minorities for political purposes. Mr. Mishra who is also a historian said it was the first time in Uttar Pradesh that so many relief camps have been erected after the communal violence. He was pointing to the large-scale violence that occurred in Muzaffarnagar.

He also said that Sangh Parivar has experimented Gujarat 2002 in Muzaffarnagar. Such more clashes between Muslims and non Brahmins or OBCs could take place till 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he apprehended. He also criticized central government of Congress for little action in the Muzaffarnagar case. The Centre also failed to act and it did not announce any rehabilitation package for the victims.

He pointed to the desperate attempts of BJP to come to power in the next Lok Sabha elections and added that if BJP failed this time it will be pushed behind. “If BJP with the face of Modi does not come to power it will be a historic setback for the party, and it will be pushed behind for 25 years. That’s why they are trying to polarize the society on communal lines, raising Babri issue and 370 and projecting India as a Hindu Rashtra,” he said.

Speaking on the responsibilities of the concerned people to combat communalism, Mr. Mishra made some suggestions regarding peace and communal harmony. He categorically said that Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and its Ameer should take initiative for dialogues between Hindus and Muslims.

“Muslim groups, social organizations and Hindu religious leaders should sit together and formulate measures to check communal violence. Some joint programs of Muslims and Sanatan Hindus should be held. Ameer-e Jamaat and Shankaracharya should sit to discuss measures for establishing peace and communal harmony in the country,” advised Mr. Mishra.

In his opening remarks earlier, Mohammad Salim Engineer, National Secretary, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind said that since Independence communal riots have occurred in planned manners. Around 35000 riots have taken place since Independence. These riots were aimed to damage Muslims both economically and politically. He further said that these riots and the recent communal riots in Muzaffarnagar were executed with a sinister design to force the Muslim community to leave their identity or at least make compromises on their identity.

Jamaat secretary, who was anchoring the program, also pointed out the lethargic attitude, rather failure of the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh to nib the communal tension in the bud in Muzaffarnagar and other districts of Western Uttar Pradesh.

He also stressed on the immediate passage of the long pending Communal Violence Bill, but he demanded that the law should be made more stringent particularly to make the officials accountable and in the case of failures they should be prosecuted.

While concluding the program, he said that Jamaat may not agree with all the views and analyses of Mr. Mishra but most of his suggestions are welcome and would be considered by the Jamaat.

Mr. Mohammad Ahmed, Secretary, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and Mr. Hasan Raza, Member, Central Advisory Council of Jamaat were also present at the stage.