The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Wednesday petitioned Goa Governor Mridula Sinha requesting her to direct the Goa Government to expedite the constitution of a Minority Commission for the State.
Addressing a press conference at the NCP city office after submitting the petition to the Governor at the Raj Bhavan near here, NCP Goa president Nilkant Halankar and vice-president and chief spokesperson Trajano D’Mello attacked the BJP government in Goa saying "minorities have been under stress and fear like never before following polarizing of votes done by the BJP in recent elections, and they have nowhere to go for addressing their anxieties".
Mr. D’Mello argued that minorities never felt so anxious and under stress during the previous regimes of Congress and NCP and as such, the need was not felt to press for setting up the Commission.
He said the BJP had a hidden agenda ahead of the elections, before coming to power. But after coming to power in the State and then at the national level, communal polarization has become an open agenda creating a situation of threat, fear and anxiety among minorities.
The NCP has pointed out to the Governor that the BJP election manifesto promised constitution of a Minority Commission ahead of 2012 State Legislative Assembly polls, but there is no sign of it in the last two-and-a-half-years of its rule.
A minority Commission is an important forum for minorities to put forth their grienvances and seek justice to protect their fundamental rights, said the NCP spokesperson, in reply to a question.
