Madam
Speaker, with a heavy heart, I rise today once again to remind this House of
one of the darkest days in the history of this country where 26 years
ago, a genocide took place and was carried on for three full days. The same
Ruling Party, with six years today in office, was the party in power at that
time 26 years ago. Members of a certain community were targeted, hunted,
butchered, massacred and killed mercilessly for having committed no crime, for
not having committed a murder and for not having looted. They were not
asked and they were not saved and nobody came to their rescue and the
people who were supposed to protect them just watched while the law-makers of
the country turned a blind eye and took no steps to stop the genocide of
7,000 innocent140 Sikhs, which
took place in the capital of our country and throughout the nation. Madam, the
entire country had witnessed160
it for three days. I would like to ask if there is any Member in
this House who does not know who was behind this genocide, who will
put his hand on his heart and swear on the heads of his children that he does
not know which Ruling Party was responsible for this. I would like to ask if
there is one Member in this House who says that even a single person has been
brought to book, who had encouraged and abetted this genocide.
Madam,
I was submitting that the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 were not only the most
tragic incident in the country after 1947 but one of the most
shameful ones. Madam, the mayhem that was280
perpetrated was because the man turned monster. Every right-thinking person in
the country really felt sad at that. This is a matter on which there is no
difference of opinion in any party. People share the same view cutting
across320 the party lines.
With utmost humility, I would like to remind the honourable Member that she was
not here when the Prime Minister had said that this madness must stop. This is exactly
what was said by him. This matter has been discussed a number of times
here. The honourable Prime Minister, in a debate sometime back when he
ordered re-inquiry into the matter, apologized in this House itself. I happened
to participate in the discussion then. It was a discussion at that time which
aimed not to whip up passions in the country. Today, we have to really have420 a sort of self-restraint. Madam, my
concern today is that when we refer to the black deeds of the past, we must in
fact ensure that no word uttered by us leads to any sort of a schism in the
society again. It was in fact the darkest period of our time. But we
have overcome that with the passage480
of time. Today if we try to bake the political cake on the funeral pyre
of the victims, the country is heading for a bad day. Madam, what followed
those dark days was ten years of terrorism in the country. Terrorism stalked
the country. Punjab suffered during that period and these people did not
have the courage to come out. Finally, I want to make a point and assure this
House and the country that this Government would never misuse560 any official machinery. That was
precisely the reason why the Prime Minister ordered that cases be reopened
against some people. That is not fair on the part of any honourable
Member. Judiciary is independent in this country. Everybody knows about
it. If there is an order by a country, there are remedies available. What the
Prime Minister did was that he directed that cases be reopened. That
demonstrates amply and loudly the intention and the bona fides of this
Government. 640
The
recent unexpected and unprecedented hailstorm in my constituency has
resulted in very heavy damage to crops in this drought-prone region. The sudden
hailstorm in the last week with high velocity gale has seriously
affected the crops of mango, banana, oranges and sapota in my area. Due to
shortage of water, the farmers in this district tend towards growing of700 fruits which need less water. The banana
and orange crops were almost ready for harvesting when the nature turned its
fury on them. Before the farmers could recover from this, unexpectedly there
was very heavy gale at very high velocity last week because of which banana
crops and mango trees have been uprooted. In succession, within a period of a
fortnight, there have been three incidents of heavy hailstorm and gale
in my district alone and the banana crop in more than 3,000 acres in the
district has been completely destroyed. This has resulted in a loss of more800 than Rs. Fifteen crore to the farmers in
my district. The investment by the farmers in these banana, mango and orange
crops is heavy and the compensation being offered by the State Government is
much less and does not meet840
even a small percentage of the investment made. The Central Government should
consider giving insurance coverage to these crops. There should be
a national policy for providing insurance coverage in cases of such
natural calamities for horticulture products. The Government may also consider
including the work of clearing the debris caused by such natural fury under the
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act so that there could
be some solace to the farmers. The Government should provide immediate financial
assistance to the farmers who have lost their banana, orange, sapota and
paddy crops in this unexpected hailstorm in my constituency.
For
long, India has been evolving poverty alleviation policies and
programmes using questionable parameters for determining poverty levels
in960 the country, thereby
implementing the programmes and projects targeted for families living below
poverty line. Mostly our Public Distribution System980 and delivery of social welfare
measures revolve around concept of poverty levels. The dividing line
between the privileged and the under-privileged has become blurred beyond
recognition as pointed out in the latest United Nations Social
Development Index. The incidence of poverty is common to all strata of society
irrespective of the income levels, as has been proved by the recent
global recession. Globally, there are diverse and varied benchmarks to
determine the levels of poverty, wherein arise the contradictions. According
to the World Bank benchmark, those with daily incomes of below one dollar
are identified as the poor. However, while there has been a decline in
the poverty level globally, over the past two and half decades, the incidence
of hunger among the vulnerable has only increased, as per a study conducted by Food
and Agriculture Organization. The report also1120 reveals that mere economic
development need not translate into poverty alleviation. Though the Government’s
efforts in the area of poverty alleviation are laudable, the targeting of
the beneficiaries has been faulty, as has been mentioned in the report
of the United Nations. Since the United Nations and the World Bank have been
funding India’s poverty alleviation programmes in a major way, we should
consider mid-course corrections of our assessments on poverty levels, hitherto
based on wrong assumptions. I would, therefore, urge the Government to
redefine the concept of determining the poverty levels across all strata of
society for equitable and meaningful allocation of funds for the poverty
alleviation programmes.
There
are 175 Taluks in the State of Karnataka out of which 144 Taluks are backward.
Most of these Taluks are in Northern Karnataka. Gulbarga is one of the most
backward1400 districts in
Karnataka. Crops failure is rampant in Northern Karnataka. Water is scarce.
Farmers are burdened with debt. In this1280
background, the State Government of Karnataka constituted a Committee to
make recommendations for removing the regional imbalances in Karnataka
especially in Northern Karnataka. The Committee found that the areas in the
Northern Karnataka were the most backward and made several recommendations to
remove backwardness and regional imbalance. The State is doing its best to
address the problems of backwardness and regional imbalances, but the resources
of the State alone cannot solve this gigantic problem and needs the assistance
from the Central Government. There has been long-pending demand of the
State of Karnataka for amending Article 371 of the Constitution and providing
special status to Northern Karnataka region. Hence, I urge upon the Central
Government to take necessary steps to provide special status to Northern
Karnataka region by amending Article 371 of the Constitution as has been done
in cases of States like Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland.
There
are discussions and debates going on in the country about reservation. 1440 If certain minority communities come
under the OBC category in any State, those are automatically covered.
There are different models at present in process in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil
Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The honourable Member would be pleased to know that
we have special scholarships for pre-matric and post-matric students. We
are giving almost Rs. 30 lakh as scholarship to minority students out of
which more than 40 per cent every year are given to only girl students. In
addition to that, the Ministry of Human Resource Development now has
extensive programmes both at the primary level and at the middle-class level
where special effort is being made to improve infrastructure in minority
institutions to provide special educational assistance particularly
in terms of teachers and also in terms of modern educational equipment like
computers. Indeed, the entire profile of the minority students which
includes all the minorities not Muslims alone, is gradually improving. 1593
