CM reassures protection to minorities

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JULY 8. Even the faintest of distress signals from the minorities will do for the State Government to take remedial action, the Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, declared today.

``You do not even need to make a noise, just a whimper will do for us to respond,'' Mr. Karunanidhi told a Christian congregation here this evening while reassuring complete protection to the minorities in the State at all times.

Speaking at the valedictory of the second State-level conference of the ``Tamil Nadu Catholic Bishops Council Youth Commission'', he regretted that over-cautious officials taking ``too legalistic a view'' of violation of building rules concerning a Christian prayer hall that had come up at the ``DMS Office Complex'' here, had resulted in its being pulled down recently.

The prayer hall was rebuilt ``within 24 hours'' and ``I deeply regret'' the incident for the `small distress' that it would have caused to a section of the Christian community, Mr. Karunanidhi said.

Adverting to Rev. Wilson Chinnadurai earlier thanking the Chief Minister for the Government restoring the prayer hall with such speed, Mr. Karunanidhi said he would like to make it absolutely clear that the structure was not pulled down by ``some others'' from outside.

Officials grappling with how to respond to the violation of rules in building that structure, ``clung to the law too tightly'' in this instance, Mr. Karunanidhi explained.

Mr. Karunanidhi, who had to wind up his speech in five minutes as it threatened to rain, also rejected as ``erroneous'' the contention that the attacks on the minorities ``here and there'' were a fallout of the changed political circumstances, in an allusion to the DMK's alliance with the BJP.

Even earlier, there had been communal clashes in Tamil Nadu, as it happened at Mandaikadu in Kanyakumari district in the early 1980s, when police firing had claimed six lives and seriously injured nine others, he pointed out.

However, his Government will show greater care and concern to ensure peace when there was any conflict between the majority and minority communities, than it did in responding to intra-majority community clashes, Mr. Karunanidhi said, adding, ``we will always be your protective shield''.

Tracing the genealogy of the word `Catholic' to its Greek roots, signifying a broad vision among other things, Mr. Karunanidhi appreciated the gesture of the large gathering of Christian youths who did not budge an inch when the drizzle was getting heavy. He himself turned away an umbrella that was sought to be given to him at the open-air stage in St. Bedes School.

In a key resolution adopted at the end of the conference, the Tamil Nadu Catholic Bishops Council Youth Commission urged both the Centre and State Governments to stop the ``planned violent attacks by communal forces'' on the minorities, their places of worship and Christian nuns in particular.

Condemning the violation of the ``economic, cultural and social rights'', which were individual rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution and Human Rights Charters, the conference also came down heavily on the ``atrocities'' on the Dalits and tribals as a result of caste hatred and untouchability. It urged that Dalit Christians be soon included in the list of Scheduled Castes.

The Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, releasing the souvenir on the occasion of the State conference of Tamil Nadu Catholic Bishops Council Youth Commission in Chennai on Saturday. Receiving it is Rev. Belarmine.

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